Act 5, Scene 3

Plain between the Camps.

[Excursions, and Parties fighting. Alarum to the battle. Then enter Douglas and Sir Walter Blunt, meeting.]
Sir Walter Blunt
2561 What is thy name, that in the battle thus
2562 Thou crossest me? what honour dost thou seek
2563 Upon my head?
Earl of Douglas
2564 Know, then, my name is Douglas,
2565 And I do haunt thee in the battle thus
2566 Because some tell me that thou art a king.
Sir Walter Blunt
2567 They tell thee true.
Earl of Douglas
2568 The Lord of Stafford dear to-day hath bought
2569 Thy likeness; for, instead of thee, King Harry,
2570 This sword hath ended him: so shall it thee,
2571 Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner.
Sir Walter Blunt
2572 I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot;
2573 And thou shalt find a king that will revenge
2574 Lord Stafford's death.
[They fight, and Blunt is slain. Enter Hotspur.]
Hotspur
2575 O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon thus,
2576 I never had triumphed o'er a Scot.
Earl of Douglas
2577 All's done, all's won; here breathless lies the King.
Hotspur
2578 Where?
Earl of Douglas
2579 Here.
Hotspur
2580 This, Douglas? no; I know this face full well:
2581 A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt;
2582 Semblably furnish'd like the King himself.
Earl of Douglas
2583 A fool go with thy soul, where're it goes!
2584 A borrow'd title hast thou bought too dear:
2585 Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king?
Hotspur
2586 The King hath many marching in his coats.
Earl of Douglas
2587 Now, by my sword, I will kill all his coats;
2588 I'll murder all his wardrobe piece by piece,
2589 Until I meet the King.
Hotspur
2590 Up, and away!
2591 Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day.
[Exeunt.]
[Alarums. Enter Falstaff.]
Sir John Falstaff
2592 Though I could 'scape shot-free at London, I fear the shot
2593 here; here's no scoring but upon the pate.—Soft! who are you?
2594 Sir Walter Blunt: there's honour for you! here's no vanity! I am
2595 as hot as molten lead, and as heavy too: God keep lead out of me!
2596 I need no more weight than mine own bowels. I have led my
2597 ragamuffins where they are peppered: there's not three of my
2598 hundred and fifty left alive; and they are for the town's end, to
2599 beg during life. But who comes here?
[Enter Prince Henry.]
Prince Hal
2600 What, stand'st thou idle here? lend me thy sword:
2601 Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff
2602 Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies,
2603 Whose deaths are yet unrevenged: I pr'ythee,
2604 Lend me thy sword.
Sir John Falstaff
2605 O Hal, I pr'ythee give me leave to breathe awhile. Turk
2606 Gregory never did such deeds in arms as I have done this
2607 day. I have paid Percy, I have made him sure.
Prince Hal
2608 He is indeed; and living to kill thee.
2609 I pr'ythee, lend me thy sword.
Sir John Falstaff
2610 Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou gett'st not
2611 my sword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt.
Prince Hal
2612 Give it me: what, is it in the case?
Sir John Falstaff
2613 Ay, Hal. 'Tis hot, 'tis hot: there's that will sack a city.
[The Prince draws out a bottle of sack.]
Sir John Falstaff
2614 What, is't a time to jest and dally now?
[Throws it at him, and exit.]
Sir John Falstaff
2615 Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him. If he do come in my
2616 way, so; if he do not, if I come in his willingly, let him make
2617 a carbonado of me. I like not such grinning honour as Sir
2618 Walter hath: give me life; which if I can save, so; if not,
2619 honour comes unlooked for, and there's an end.
[Exit.]

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Notes

TLN 2568historical topical
“Lord of Stafford dear to-day hath bought”
'Dear' means 'at great cost' — the Earl of Stafford paid with his life. Before this scene, Douglas has already killed Stafford, who was dressed in the King's battle-coat as a decoy. Holinshed records that Henry IV sent several knights into the field wearing his royal livery at Shrewsbury (1403) to divide Douglas's lethal attention away from the real king.
historical The Battle of Shrewsbury (1403)
TLN 2582archaic vocab
“Semblably furnish'd like the King himself”
'Semblably' means 'in a similar way' or 'with the same appearance' — an archaic adverb from the French 'semblable' (resembling). Hotspur identifies Blunt as one of King Henry's deliberately equipped decoys: dressed in the full royal battle-armour and insignia to draw enemy attacks away from the actual king.
TLN 2584wordplay
“A borrow'd title hast thou bought too dear”
Douglas puns bitterly on 'bought' and 'dear': Blunt paid with his life ('bought' = purchased at the cost of death; 'dear' = at great price) for masquerading under a 'borrow'd title' — a royal identity that was not his own. The line also reverses the earlier phrase (TLN 2568): Stafford 'bought' the king's likeness; now Blunt is accused of having 'bought' the same counterfeit title.
TLN 2586wordplay
“The King hath many marching in his coats”
Hotspur's 'coats' means the heraldic surcoats (the decorated outer garments bearing the king's arms) worn by soldiers dressed as the king. Douglas then extends this into a grim joke: he will 'murder all his wardrobe piece by piece' — i.e., kill every man dressed as Henry until he reaches the real one. The exchange turns the military tactic into a dark pun on clothing.
historical The Battle of Shrewsbury (1403)
TLN 2592wordplay
“I could 'scape shot-free at London, I fear the shot here; here's no scoring but upon the pate”
Falstaff runs a triple pun on 'shot' and 'scoring.' In a London tavern, 'shot-free' means escaping without paying your bill — a 'shot' is a reckoning (a tab); to 'score' is to record a debt by notching a tally-stick. On the battlefield, 'shot' means arrows or bullets, and 'scoring' means striking someone on the head. Falstaff jokes that the only accounting done here is cracking skulls — no way to avoid the bill.
TLN 2596archaic vocab
“led my ragamuffins where they are peppered”
Falstaff here confesses with cheerful callousness that he deliberately led his 'ragamuffins' -- a ragged, disreputable bunch -- into the hottest fighting until they were 'peppered,' meaning killed or shot full of wounds (as food is peppered). Only a handful of his hundred and fifty men survive. Earlier we learned that Falstaff recruited the most miserable men he could find precisely because their lives were expendable; this line is the outcome.
TLN 2613wordplay
“'Tis hot, 'tis hot: there's that will sack a city”
Falstaff tells Prince Hal his pistol is loaded and hot — 'there's that will sack a city' — playing on the double meaning of 'sack': (1) to plunder and burn a city, and (2) sack, the dry white wine that is Falstaff's perpetual drink. When Hal draws out a bottle of sack instead of a pistol, the punch-line lands: what was in Falstaff's holster all along was his beloved wine, not a weapon.
TLN 2615wordplay
“if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him”
Falstaff puns on 'Percy' and 'pierce': Hotspur's surname 'Percy' sounds like the verb 'to pierce' (to stab through). The joke undercuts his supposed martial courage — faced with the terrifying Hotspur, Falstaff's bravado expresses itself as a pun rather than a plan. It also signals that he will not seek the fight unless Percy comes to him.
TLN 2617archaic vocab
“a carbonado of me. I like not such grinning honour as Sir Walter hath”
A 'carbonado' is a piece of meat scored (cut across) with a knife before grilling over coals. Falstaff says that if he walks into Hotspur's way, Hotspur will score him like a piece of meat ready for the fire. 'Grinning honour' is the death's-head grimace on Blunt's corpse — Blunt died for honour, and his reward is a skull grinning in the dust. Falstaff prefers life without honour to the fine-sounding but fatal alternative.