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The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare
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Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso
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08
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02_02
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1991-04-10
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169 lines
The Highway, near Gad's Hill.
Enter PRINCE, POINS, and PETO.
Poins Come, shelter, shelter! I have removed Falstaff's horse,
and he frets like a gummed velvet.
Prince Henry Stand close!
[They stand aside.
Enter FALSTAFF.
Falstaff Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!
Prince Henry [Advancing.] Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal! What a
brawling dost thou keep!
Falstaff Where's Poins, Hal?
Prince Henry He is walked up to the top of the hill; I'll go seek him.
[Stands aside.
Falstaff I am accursed to rob in that thief's company; the rascal
hath removed my horse and tied him I know not where. If I
travel but four foot by the square further afoot I shall
break my wind. Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death
for all this if I scape hanging for killing that rogue. I
have forsworn his company hourly any time this two-and-
twenty years, and yet I am bewitched with the rogue's
company. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make
me love him, I'll be hanged: it could not be else - I have
drunk medicines. Poins! Hal! A plague upon you both!
Bardolph! Peto! I'll starve ere I'll rob a foot further.
And 'twere not as good a deed as drink to turn true man
and to leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that
ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground is
threescore and ten miles afoot with me, and the stony-
hearted villains know it well enough. A plague upon it
when thieves cannot be true one to another!
[They whistle.
Whew! A plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you rogues.
Give me my horse and be hanged!
Prince Henry [Advancing.] Peace, ye fat guts! Lie down, lay thine ear
close to the ground and list if thou canst hear the tread
of travellers.
Falstaff Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down?
'Sblood, I'll not bear my own flesh so far afoot again for
all the coin in thy father's exchequer. What a plague mean
ye to colt me thus?
Prince Henry Thou liest, thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.
Falstaff I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse, good
king's son.
Prince Henry Out, ye rogue! Shall I be your ostler?
Falstaff Hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters! If I be
ta'en, I'll peach for this. And I have not ballads made on
you all, and sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be my
poison. When a jest is so forward, and afoot too, I hate
it.
Enter GADSHILL and BARDOLPH.
Gadshill Stand!
Falstaff So I do, against my will.
Poins O, 'tis our setter, I know his voice.
[Advancing with PETO.] Bardolph, what news?
Bardolph Case ye, case ye, on with your vizards! There's money of
the king's coming down the hill; 'tis going to the king's
exchequer.
Falstaff You lie, ye rogue, 'tis going to the king's tavern.
Gadshill There's enough to make us all.
Falstaff To be hanged.
Prince Henry Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane; Ned
Poins and I will walk lower. If they scape from your
encounter, then they light on us.
Peto How many be there of them?
Gadshill Some eight or ten.
Falstaff Zounds, will they not rob us?
Prince Henry What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?
Falstaff Indeed I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather; but yet
no coward, Hal.
Prince Henry Well, we leave that to the proof.
Poins Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge; when thou
need'st him there thou shalt find him. Farewell, and stand
fast.
Falstaff Now cannot I strike him if I should be hanged.
Prince Henry [Aside to POINS.] Ned, where are our disguises?
Poins [Aside to PRINCE.] Here, hard by. Stand close.
[Exeunt PRINCE and POINS.
Falstaff Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I. Every man
to his business.
Enter the TRAVELLERS.
1st Traveller Come, neighbour, the boy shall lead our horses down the
hill; we'll walk afoot awhile and ease our legs.
Thieves Stand!
2nd Traveller Jesus bless us!
Falstaff Strike! Down with them! Cut the villains' throats! Ah,
whoreson caterpillars, bacon-fed knaves! They hate us
youth. Down with them! Fleece them!
1st Traveller O, we are undone, both we and ours for ever!
Falstaff Hang ye, gorbellied knaves, are ye undone? No, ye fat
chuffs; I would your store were here! On, bacons, on!
What, ye knaves! - Young men must live. You are grand-
jurors, are ye? We'll jure ye, faith.
[Here they rob them and bind them.
[Exeunt.
Re-enter PRINCE and POINS, disguised.
Prince Henry The thieves have bound the true men; now could thou and I
rob the thieves and go merrily to London - it would be
argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest
for ever.
Poins Stand close, I hear them coming.
[They stand aside.
Enter the Thieves again (FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH and PETO).
Falstaff Come, my masters, let us share, and then to horse before
day. And the Prince and Poins be not two arrant cowards
there's no equity stirring. There's no more valour in that
Poins than in a wild duck.
[As they are sharing, the PRINCE
and POINS set upon them.
Prince Henry Your money!
Poins Villains!
[They all run away, and FALSTAFF, after a blow or two,
runs away too, leaving the booty behind them.
Prince Henry Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse.
The thieves are all scattered, and possessed with fear
So strongly that they dare not meet each other:
Each takes his fellow for an officer.
Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death,
And lards the lean earth as he walks along.
Were't not for laughing, I should pity him.
Poins How the fat rogue roared!
[Exeunt.