farthest thing in the
world from his thoughts. He has no qualms of conscience, and therefore
would as soon talk of them as of anything else when the humour takes him.

"_Falstaff._ But Hal, I pr'ythee trouble me no more with vanity. I
would to God thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to
be bought: an old lord of council rated me the other day in the
street about you, sir; but I mark'd him not, and yet he talked very
wisely, and in the street too.

_P. Henry._ Thou didst well, for wisdom cries out in the street, and
no man regards it.

_Falsfaff._ O, thou hast damnable iteration, and art indeed able to
corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm unto me, Hal; God forgive
thee for it. Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing, and now I am,
if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. I
must give over this life, and I will give it over, by the Lord; an I
do not, I am a villain. I'll be damned for never a king's son in
Christendom.

_P. Henry._ Where shall we take a purse to-morrow, Jack?

_Falstaff._ Where thou wilt, lad, I'll make one; an I do not, call me
villain, and baffle me.

_P. Henry._ I see good amendment of life in thee, from praying to
purse-taking.

_Falstaff._ Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal. 'Tis no sin for a man to
labour in his vocation."

Of the other prominent passages, his account of his pretended resistance
to the robbers, "who grew from four men in buckram into eleven" as the
imagination of his own valour increased with his relating it, his getting
off when the truth is discovered by pretending he knew the Prince, the
scene in which in the person of the old king he lectures the prince and
gives himself a good character, the soliloquy on honour, and description
of his new-raised recruits, his meeting with the chief justice, his abuse
of the Prince and Poins, who overhear him, to Doll Tearsheet, his
reconciliation with Mrs. Quickly who has arrested him for an old debt, and
whom he persuades to pawn her plate to lend him ten pounds more, and the
scenes with Shallow and Silence, are all inimitable. Of all of them, the
scene in which Falstaff plays the part, first, of the King, and then of
Prince Henry, is the one that has been the most often quoted. We must
quote it once more in illustration of our remarks.

"_Falstaff._ Harry, I do not only marvel whe