Act 1, Scene 2

The same. An Apartment of Prince Henry's.

[Enter Prince Henry and Falstaff.]
Sir John Falstaff
107 Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?
Prince Hal
108 Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack, and
109 unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches
110 after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which
111 thou wouldst truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the
112 time of the day? unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes
113 capons, and the blessed Sun himself a fair hot wench in
114 flame-coloured taffeta, I see no reason why thou shouldst be
115 so superfluous to demand the time of the day.
Sir John Falstaff
116 Indeed, you come near me now, Hal; for we that take purses go
117 by the Moon and the seven stars, and not by Phoebus,—he, that
118 wandering knight so fair. And I pr'ythee, sweet wag, when thou
119 art king,—as, God save thy Grace—Majesty I should say, for
120 grace
121 thou wilt have none,—
Prince Hal
122 What, none?
Sir John Falstaff
123 No, by my troth; not so much as will serve to be prologue
124 to an egg and butter.
Prince Hal
125 Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly.
Sir John Falstaff
126 Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that
127 are squires of the night's body be called thieves of the day's
128 beauty: let us be Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the shade,
129 minions of the Moon; and let men say we be men of good
130 government, being governed, as the sea is, by our noble and
131 chaste mistress the Moon, under whose countenance we steal.
Prince Hal
132 Thou say'st well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of
133 us that are the Moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea,
134 being governed, as the sea is, by the Moon. As, for proof, now: A
135 purse of gold most resolutely snatch'd on Monday night, and most
136 dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with swearing Lay by,
137 and spent with crying Bring in; now ill as low an ebb as the foot
138 of the ladder, and by-and-by in as high a flow as the ridge of the
139 gallows.
Sir John Falstaff
140 By the Lord, thou say'st true, lad. And is not my hostess of the
141 tavern a most sweet wench?
Prince Hal
142 As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle. And is not a
143 buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?
Sir John Falstaff
144 How now, how now, mad wag! what, in thy quips and thy
145 quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin?
Prince Hal
146 Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern?
Sir John Falstaff
147 Well, thou hast call'd her to a reckoning many a time and oft.
Prince Hal
148 Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?
Sir John Falstaff
149 No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.
Prince Hal
150 Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch;
151 and where it would not, I have used my credit.
Sir John Falstaff
152 Yea, and so used it, that, were it not here apparent that
153 thou art heir-apparent—But I pr'ythee, sweet wag, shall there be
154 gallows standing in England when thou art king? and
155 resolution thus fobb'd as it is with the rusty curb of old father
156 antic the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.
Prince Hal
157 No; thou shalt.
Sir John Falstaff
158 Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge.
Prince Hal
159 Thou judgest false already: I mean, thou shalt have the
160 hanging of the thieves, and so become a rare hangman.
Sir John Falstaff
161 Well, Hal, well; and in some sort it jumps with my humour;
162 as well as waiting in the Court, I can tell you.
Prince Hal
163 For obtaining of suits?
Sir John Falstaff
164 Yea, for obtaining of suits, whereof the hangman hath no
165 lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy as a gib-cat or a
166 lugg'd bear.
Prince Hal
167 Or an old lion, or a lover's lute.
Sir John Falstaff
168 Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe.
Prince Hal
169 What say'st thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch?
Sir John Falstaff
170 Thou hast the most unsavoury similes, and art, indeed, the
171 most comparative, rascalliest, sweet young prince,—But, Hal, I
172 pr'ythee trouble me no more with vanity. I would to God thou and
173 I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought. An old
174 lord of the Council rated me the other day in the street about you,
175 sir,—but I mark'd him not; and yet he talk'd very wisely,—but I
176 regarded him not; and yet he talk'd wisely, and in the street too.
Prince Hal
177 Thou didst well; for wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man
178 regards it.
Sir John Falstaff
179 O, thou hast damnable iteration, and art, indeed, able to corrupt
180 a saint.
181 Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal; God forgive thee for it!
182 Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now am I, if a man
183 should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. I must
184 give over this life, and I will give it over; by the Lord, an I do
185 not, I am a villain: I'll be damn'd for never a king's son in
186 Christendom.
Prince Hal
187 Where shall we take a purse to-morrow, Jack?
Sir John Falstaff
188 Zounds, where thou wilt, lad; I'll make one: an I do not, call
189 me villain, and baffle me.
Prince Hal
190 I see a good amendment of life in thee,—from praying to
191 purse-taking.
Sir John Falstaff
192 Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a man to labour
193 in his vocation.
[Enter Pointz.]
Sir John Falstaff
194 —Pointz!—Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a match. O, if
195 men were to be saved by merit, what hole in Hell were hot enough
196 for him? This is the most omnipotent villain that ever cried
197 Stand! to a true man.
Prince Hal
198 Good morrow, Ned.
Poins
199 Good morrow, sweet Hal.—What says Monsieur Remorse? what
200 says Sir John Sack-and-sugar? Jack, how agrees the Devil and
201 thee about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Good-Friday last
202 for a cup of Madeira and a cold capon's leg?
Prince Hal
203 Sir John stands to his word,—the Devil shall have his bargain;
204 for he was never yet a breaker of proverbs,—he will give the
205 Devil his due.
Poins
206 Then art thou damn'd for keeping thy word with the Devil.
Prince Hal
207 Else he had been damn'd for cozening the Devil.
Poins
208 But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o'clock,
209 early at Gads-hill! there are pilgrims gong to Canterbury
210 with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat
211 purses: I have visards for you all; you have horses for
212 yourselves: Gadshill lies to-night in Rochester: I have bespoke
213 supper to-morrow night in Eastcheap: we may do it as secure as
214 sleep. If you will go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns;
215 if you will not, tarry at home and be hang'd.
Sir John Falstaff
216 Hear ye, Yedward; if I tarry at home and go not, I'll hang you
217 for going.
Poins
218 You will, chops?
Sir John Falstaff
219 Hal, wilt thou make one?
Prince Hal
220 Who, I rob? I a thief? not I, by my faith.
Sir John Falstaff
221 There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee,
222 nor thou camest not of the blood royal, if thou darest not stand
223 for ten shillings.
Prince Hal
224 Well, then, once in my days I'll be a madcap.
Sir John Falstaff
225 Why, that's well said.
Prince Hal
226 Well, come what will, I'll tarry at home.
Sir John Falstaff
227 By the Lord, I'll be a traitor, then, when thou art king.
Prince Hal
228 I care not.
Poins
229 Sir John, I pr'ythee, leave the Prince and me alone: I will
230 lay him down such reasons for this adventure, that he shall go.
Sir John Falstaff
231 Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion, and him the ears
232 of profiting, that what thou speakest may move, and what he
233 hears may be believed, that the true Prince may, for recreation-
234 sake, prove a false thief; for the poor abuses of the time want
235 countenance. Farewell; you shall find me in Eastcheap.
Prince Hal
236 Farewell, thou latter Spring! farewell, All-hallown Summer!
[Exit Falstaff.]
Poins
237 Now, my good sweet honey-lord, ride with us to-morrow: I
238 have a jest to execute that I cannot manage alone. Falstaff,
239 Bardolph, Peto, and Gadshill, shall rob those men that we have
240 already waylaid: yourself and I will not be there; and when they
241 have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this head off
242 from my shoulders.
Prince Hal
243 But how shall we part with them in setting forth?
Poins
244 Why, we will set forth before or after them, and appoint them
245 a place of meeting, wherein it is at our pleasure to fail; and
246 then will they adventure upon the exploit themselves; which they
247 shall have no sooner achieved but we'll set upon them.
Prince Hal
248 Ay, but 'tis like that they will know us by our horses, by our
249 habits, and by every other appointment, to be ourselves.
Poins
250 Tut! our horses they shall not see,—I'll tie them in the wood;
251 our visards we will change, after we leave them; and, sirrah, I
252 have cases of buckram for the nonce, to immask our noted
253 outward garments.
Prince Hal
254 But I doubt they will be too hard for us.
Poins
255 Well, for two of them, I know them to be as true-bred
256 cowards as ever turn'd back; and for the third, if he fight
257 longer than he sees reason, I'll forswear arms. The virtue of
258 this jest will be, the incomprehensible lies that this same fat
259 rogue will tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least,
260 he fought with; what wards, what blows, what extremities he
261 endured; and in the reproof of this lies the jest.
Prince Hal
262 Well, I'll go with thee: provide us all things necessary and
263 meet me to-night in Eastcheap; there I'll sup. Farewell.
Poins
264 Farewell, my lord.
[Exit.]
Prince Hal
265 I know you all, and will awhile uphold
266 The unyok'd humour of your idleness:
267 Yet herein will I imitate the Sun,
268 Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
269 To smother-up his beauty from the world,
270 That, when he please again to be himself,
271 Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
272 By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
273 Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
274 If all the year were playing holidays,
275 To sport would be as tedious as to work;
276 But, when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come,
277 And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
278 So, when this loose behaviour I throw off,
279 And pay the debt I never promised,
280 By how much better than my word I am,
281 By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;
282 And, like bright metal on a sullen ground,
283 My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
284 Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
285 Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
286 I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;
287 Redeeming time, when men think least I will.
[Exit.]

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Notes

TLN 108archaic vocab
“drinking of old sack”
'Sack' was a sweet, fortified white wine imported from Spain or the Canaries — the Elizabethan equivalent of sherry. 'Old sack' simply means well-aged, well-drunk stock: Hal uses it to paint a picture of Falstaff as a man who does nothing but eat, drink, and sleep.
TLN 113historical topical
“fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta”
Taffeta was a shiny silk fabric; 'flame-coloured' (orange-red) was associated with London prostitutes in the period, making the phrase a coded insult. Hal is saying the only sun Falstaff cares about would be a sexually available woman dressed in a prostitute's colours.
TLN 115archaic vocab
“so superfluous to demand the time”
'Superfluous' here means 'going beyond what is appropriate or useful' — it is pointless or impertinent of you. Hal is saying there is no reason for Falstaff to care about the hour of day given how he spends his time.
TLN 117classical allusion
“not by Phoebus,—he, that wandering knight so fair”
Phoebus (literally 'the bright one') is an epithet for Apollo, the Greek and Roman god of the sun. Falstaff means that thieves operate by night and moonlight, not by the sun. The parenthetical 'wandering knight so fair' seems to quote or parody a ballad about the sun-god, as if Falstaff half-remembers a line of romantic verse.
TLN 119wordplay
“God save thy Grace—Majesty I should say, for grace thou wilt have none”
Falstaff puns on two meanings of 'grace': the formal royal title ('Your Grace') and spiritual grace, the divine favour that makes a person virtuous. He corrects himself from 'Grace' to 'Majesty' because once Hal is king, 'Majesty' is the right form of address — but the slip lets him deliver the real joke: the future king will have no spiritual grace at all.
TLN 123archaic vocab
“not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg and butter”
'Egg and butter' was a simple, cheap dish eaten on fast days when meat was prohibited (eggs and butter were permitted on Lenten or fish-days). Falstaff says he will have so little grace that he cannot even produce enough for a short table-grace before a meagre meatless meal — the most minimal religious performance imaginable.
TLN 128classical allusion
“Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the Moon”
Diana was the Roman goddess of the moon and the hunt — a patron of night-roving and of everything that operates outside the sun's order. By calling thieves 'Diana's foresters' Falstaff gives their crimes a mock-heroic dignity: they are not lawbreakers but servants of the moon-goddess, men of the woodland shade who live by her rhythms. 'Minions' means favoured attendants, not weaklings.
classical Diana, virgin goddess of the moon
TLN 136archaic vocab
“swearing Lay by, and spent with crying Bring in”
'Lay by' was the highwayman's command to travellers to put down their weapons and surrender — the Elizabethan equivalent of 'hands up.' 'Bring in' was the tavern call for more food and drink. Hal is tracing the arc of a stolen purse: seized on the road with violence, gone by the next morning over a feast.
TLN 138wordplay
“in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows”
Hal extends the tide metaphor with a grim pun: just as the stolen money was at its lowest ebb ('the foot of the ladder,' where condemned men stood), so the life of a thief reaches its highest point on the gallows-ridge — at the moment of hanging. The 'flow' that follows the ebb brings the robber not to prosperity but to the top of the scaffold.
TLN 142classical allusion
“honey of Hybla”
Hybla was a town in Sicily proverbial in classical literature for producing the finest honey in the ancient world. Hal uses it sarcastically: he is pretending to praise the tavern hostess with a grand classical compliment, then immediately undercuts it with the insult about the 'buff jerkin' in the next line.
TLN 143wordplay
“buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance”
A 'buff jerkin' was the leather jacket worn by officers who arrested people — constables and serjeants. 'Durance' means imprisonment, but 'buff of durance' also puns on 'buff' as durable (long-lasting) leather: a robe that lasts, and a robe that means lasting confinement. Hal is mocking the tavern hostess by linking her to the law officers who would arrest Falstaff for his debts.
TLN 152wordplay
“were it not here apparent that thou art heir-apparent”
Falstaff puns on 'apparent' (clearly visible, obvious) and 'heir apparent' (the prince who is next in line to the throne by right of birth). He starts a sentence about Hal's credit being over-used, then pulls up short to make the pun, and pivots to his real topic: whether there will be gallows when Hal becomes king.
TLN 155historical topical
“rusty curb of old father antic the law”
An 'antic' was a clown or grotesque figure from the theatre — the word also meant an absurd, decrepit old fool. Falstaff pictures the law as a senile jester: 'old father Antic,' rusty and stiff ('rusty curb' means a worn-out bit or check). He is complaining that the law blocks his free exercise of robbery as if it were some creaking old buffoon no one should take seriously.
TLN 161archaic vocab
“in some sort it jumps with my humour”
'Jumps with' means 'agrees with' or 'fits exactly.' 'Humour' is the Elizabethan term for a person's dominant temperament or disposition (derived from the theory of four bodily fluids — blood, phlegm, choler, melancholy — that were thought to control personality). Falstaff is saying the idea of being a hangman suits his mood or nature.
TLN 164wordplay
“For obtaining of suits, whereof the hangman hath no lean wardrobe”
'Suits' means both (a) petitions presented to the court, and (b) items of clothing. Hal asks whether waiting at court might be good 'for obtaining of suits' — meaning for getting grants or favours from the king. Falstaff turns the word: a hangman who inherits the clothes of the condemned has no shortage of suits (clothing), so his 'wardrobe' is well stocked. The pun turns court preferment into execution-day perks.
TLN 165historical topical
“melancholy as a gib-cat or a lugg'd bear”
A 'gib-cat' is a castrated tom-cat, proverbially surly and discontented. A 'lugged bear' is a bear with its ears ('lugs') torn in a bear-baiting pit — a sport in which a chained bear was attacked by dogs while crowds watched. Both images mean morose and irritable: Falstaff says he is as bad-tempered as an animal that has been mutilated or tormented.
TLN 177biblical allusion
“wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it”
Hal is quoting Proverbs, in which Wisdom is personified as a woman crying aloud in the streets and public squares and finding no one who will listen. The passage was among the most familiar Old Testament texts in Elizabethan England. Hal applies it to Falstaff's ignoring the old lord's lecture — God's own Wisdom is similarly ignored.
TLN 179archaic vocab
“thou hast damnable iteration, and art, indeed, able to corrupt a saint”
'Iteration' means repetition — particularly the habit of citing Scripture repeatedly or applying biblical texts to any occasion. Falstaff is accusing Hal of being able to twist holy words into an argument for anything, a talent so potent it could corrupt even a saint. It is a complaint about Hal's wit, not genuine outrage.
TLN 192biblical allusion
“'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation”
Falstaff is parodying the Protestant doctrine of vocation — the Reformation teaching (drawn from 1 Corinthians) that every person has a God-given calling or occupation, and that honest labour in that calling is holy. By claiming theft as his 'vocation,' Falstaff inverts the theology entirely: if robbery is the work God called him to, then refusing to rob would be the sin.
TLN 200historical topical
“Sir John Sack-and-sugar? Jack, how agrees the Devil and thee about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Good-Friday”
Adding sugar to sack was a common but expensive Elizabethan habit that Falstaff apparently indulges; Poins' nickname mocks his self-indulgence. Good Friday is the holiest fast-day in the Christian year — the day Christ was crucified — making it the worst possible day to sell one's soul. The joke is that even on the day set aside for repentance and fasting, Falstaff was striking bargains with the Devil over a drink and a cold capon's leg.
TLN 204archaic vocab
“never yet a breaker of proverbs,—he will give the Devil his due”
'Give the devil his due' was a common Elizabethan proverb meaning to acknowledge the virtues even of someone evil or disliked. Hal uses it sardonically: if Falstaff sold his soul to the Devil, he is not a man who breaks agreements -- so he will honour the bargain and hand over his soul as promised. The joke makes Falstaff's one virtue (keeping a deal) into the guarantee of his damnation.
TLN 209historical topical
“pilgrims gong to Canterbury with rich offerings”
The road from London to Canterbury via Gad's Hill was the main pilgrimage route to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral — the most celebrated English pilgrimage destination, made famous by Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (c. 1387). Pilgrims would carry money offerings for the shrine, making them attractive targets for highwaymen.
historical Gad's Hill and highway robbery
TLN 236archaic vocab
“thou latter Spring! farewell, All-hallown Summer”
'All-hallown Summer' is a spell of warm weather in late October or early November — what we call an Indian summer, occurring around All Hallows' Day (November 1). Hal uses both phrases ('latter spring,' 'All-hallown summer') to mock Falstaff as a man who is past his proper season: an old man behaving with the energy of youth, warm weather arriving too late in the year to be wholesome.
TLN 252archaic vocab
“cases of buckram for the nonce, to immask our noted outward garments”
Buckram is a stiff, coarse linen cloth used to make outer cases or coverings. 'For the nonce' means 'for this particular purpose' or 'for the occasion.' Poins plans to cover their recognisable ('noted') outer clothing with plain buckram capes so that Falstaff's gang will not identify them when Hal and Poins rob them in turn.
TLN 265syntax grammar
“I know you all, and will awhile uphold The unyok'd humour of your idleness”
'Unyoked' means unrestrained, like an ox removed from the yoke — free of the discipline that would make it useful. 'Humour' here means habitual disposition or behaviour. Hal says he will for a time maintain or put up with ('uphold') his companions' uncontrolled, idle way of life. This soliloquy is the first clear signal that Hal's tavern life is a conscious performance, not a loss of self.
TLN 267rhetorical device
“herein will I imitate the Sun, Who doth permit the base contagious clouds To smother-up his beauty from the world”
Hal develops a sustained metaphor comparing himself to the sun hidden by clouds: just as the sun seems to disappear behind clouds only to break through more brilliantly, so Hal conceals his true royal nature behind his tavern companions, so that when he finally reveals himself his reformation will seem more glorious by contrast. The image also links him to the idea of the king as the sun -- a standard emblem of royal majesty.
TLN 279rhetorical device
“pay the debt I never promised, By how much better than my word I am”
Hal says he will 'pay a debt he never promised' — he will exceed what anyone expected of him precisely because no one expected anything. The logic is paradoxical: because he has given everyone reason to think poorly of him, his eventual reformation will look more impressive than if he had been a model prince all along. It is a cold-blooded calculation dressed as honour.
TLN 282rhetorical device
“like bright metal on a sullen ground, My reformation, glittering o'er my fault, Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes Than that which hath no foil to set it off”
A 'foil' is a thin sheet of shiny metal placed under a gemstone to make it sparkle more brightly; a 'sullen ground' is a dull, dark background. Hal says his future good behaviour will shine all the more vividly because it is set against the dark background of his present conduct. The conceit is from jewellery: a gem shows best when contrasted with something dull.
TLN 287biblical allusion
“Redeeming time, when men think least I will”
'Redeeming the time' echoes a phrase from Ephesians and Colossians, meaning to make the best use of time, to rescue it from waste. Hal closes his soliloquy on a scriptural note: he will 'redeem' both himself and the wasted time, turning his apparent idleness into the material of future glory. The word carries its full theological weight -- redemption as a rescue from sin.
biblical The Prodigal Son