reless jollity and gay content,
"_You will find me in East-Cheap._" "_Farewell,_" says the Prince, "_thou
latter __ spring; farewell, all-hallown summer._" But though all this is
excellent for _Shakespeare_'s purposes, we find, as yet at least, no hint
of _Falstaff_'s Cowardice, no appearance of Braggadocio, or any
preparation whatever for laughter under this head.--The instant _Falstaff_
is withdrawn, _Poins_ opens to the Prince his meditated scheme of a double
robbery; and here then we may reasonably expect to be let into these parts
of _Falstaff_'s character.--We shall see.

Poins. "_Now my good sweet lord, ride with us tomorrow; I have a jest to
execute that I cannot manage alone. __FALSTAFF__, __BARDOLPH__, __PETO__,
and __GADSHILL__ shall rob those men that we have already waylaid;
yourself and I will not be there; and when they have the booty, if you and
I do not rob them, cut this head from off my shoulders._"

This is giving strong surety for his words; perhaps he thought the case
required it: "_But how_," says the Prince, "_shall we part with them in
setting forth?_" _Poins_ is ready with his answer; he had matured the
thought, and could solve every difficulty:--"_They could set out before, or
after; their horses might be tied in the wood; they could change their
visors; and he had already procured cases of __BUCKRAM__ to inmask their
outward garments._" This was going far; it was doing business in good
earnest. But if we look into the Play we shall be better able to account
for this activity; we shall find that there was at least as much malice as
jest in _Poins_'s intention. The rival situations of _Poins_ and
_Falstaff_ had produced on both sides much jealousy and ill will, which
occasionally appears, in _Shakespeare_'s manner, by side lights, without
confounding the main action; and by the little we see of this _Poins_, he
appears to be an unamiable, if not a very brutish and bad, character.--But
to pass this;--the Prince next says, with a deliberate and wholesome
caution, "_I doubt they will be too hard for us._" _Poins_'s reply is
remarkable; "_Well, for __TWO__ of them, I know them to be as true bred
Cowards as ever turned back; and for the __THIRD__, if he fights longer
than he sees cause, I will forswear arms._" There is in this reply a great
deal of management: There were _four_ persons in all, as _Poins_ well
knew, and he had himself, but a little before, named them,--_Falstaff_,
_Bardolph_, _Peto_,