Henry IV Part 1: Act 2, Scene 2 Translation

A side-by-side translation of Act 2, Scene 2 of Henry IV Part 1 from the original Shakespeare into modern English.

  Original Text

 Translated Text

  Source: Folger Shakespeare Library

Enter Prince, Poins, Bardolph, and Peto.

POINS Come, shelter, shelter! I have removed Falstaff’s
horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.

PRINCE Stand close. Poins, Bardolph, and Peto exit.

Enter Falstaff.

FALSTAFF Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!

PRINCE Peace, you fat-kidneyed rascal. What a brawling 5
dost thou keep!

FALSTAFF Where’s Poins, Hal?

PRINCE He is walked up to the top of the hill. I’ll go
seek him. Prince exits.


FALSTAFF I am accursed to rob in that thief’s company. 10
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 15
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! 20
Hal! A plague upon you both.—Bardolph! Peto!—
I’ll starve ere I’ll rob a foot further. An ’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 25
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, within.) Whew! A plague upon you
all! 30

Enter the Prince, Poins, Peto, and Bardolph.
Give me my horse, you rogues. Give me my horse
and be hanged!

PRINCEPeace, you fat guts! Lie down, lay thine ear
close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the
tread of travelers. 35

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 you to colt me
thus? 40

PRINCE Thou liest. Thou art not colted; thou art
uncolted.

FALSTAFF I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my
horse, good king’s son.

PRINCEOut, you rogue! Shall I be your ostler? 45

FALSTAFF Hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent
garters! If I be ta’en, I’ll peach for this. An 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. 50

Hal, Falstaff, Poins, Peto, and Bardolph gather on a roadside at Gads Hill in anticipation of the robbery they've planned. Because Poins has hidden Falstaff's horse, Falstaff complains he's too fat to walk – he'll wheeze and fart if he has to waddle too far.

Falstaff jokes that Poins has bewitched him because, even though he's a rascal, Falstaff still loves him.

Enter Gadshill.

GADSHILL Stand.

FALSTAFF So I do, against my will.

POINS O, ’tis our setter. I know his voice.

BARDOLPH What news?

GADSHILL Case you, case you. On with your vizards. 55
There’s money of the King’s coming down the hill.
’Tis going to the King’s Exchequer.

Gadshill arrives (presumably, from the inn he visited in the last scene) and greets his cronies, who are hiding in wait. Bardolph (or Gadshill, depending on your edition of the play) says the king's exchequer (treasury) is coming down the road – everyone be quiet and get ready to pounce!

FALSTAFF You lie, you rogue. ’Tis going to the King’s
Tavern.

GADSHILL There’s enough to make us all. 60

FALSTAFF To be hanged.

PRINCE 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? 65

GADSHILL Some eight or ten.

FALSTAFF Zounds, will they not rob us?

PRINCE What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?

FALSTAFF Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather,
but yet no coward, Hal. 70

PRINCE 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 75
hanged.

Falstaff worries they'll all be hanged for stealing from the king, but the others are psyched about getting rich.

PRINCE, aside to Poins Ned, where are our disguises?

POINS, aside to Prince Here, hard by. Stand close.

The Prince and Poins exit.

FALSTAFF Now, my masters, happy man be his dole,
say I. Every man to his business. 80

They step aside.

Hal and Poins sneak off and disguise themselves while Falstaff, Gadshill, Bardolph, and Peto lie in wait for the exchequer.

Enter the Travelers.

FIRST TRAVELER Come, neighbor, the boy shall lead
our horses down the hill. We’ll walk afoot awhile
and ease our legs.

THIEVES, advancing Stand!

TRAVELERS Jesus bless us! 85

FALSTAFF Strike! Down with them! Cut the villains’
throats! Ah, whoreson caterpillars, bacon-fed
knaves, they hate us youth. Down with them!
Fleece them!

TRAVELERS O, we are undone, both we and ours 90
forever!

FALSTAFF Hang, you gorbellied knaves! Are you undone?
No, you fat chuffs. I would your store were
here. On, bacons, on! What, you knaves, young men
must live. You are grandjurors, are you? We’ll jure 95
you, faith.

Here they rob them and bind them. They all exit.

Enter the Prince and Poins, disguised.

PRINCE 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 forever. 100

POINS Stand close, I hear them coming.

They step aside.

Enter the Thieves again.

FALSTAFF Come, my masters, let us share, and then to
horse before day. An the Prince and Poins be not
two arrant cowards, there’s no equity stirring.
There’s no more valor in that Poins than in a wild 105
duck.

As they are sharing, the Prince
and Poins set upon them.

PRINCE Your money!

POINS Villains!

They all run away, and Falstaff, after a blow or two,
runs away too, leaving the booty behind them.

PRINCE
Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse.
The thieves are all scattered, and possessed with 110
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. 115
Were ’t not for laughing, I should pity him.

POINS How the fat rogue roared!

They exit.

After Falstaff and company rob the king's men, Hal and Poins jump out of the bushes and yell "stick 'em up!" They slap Falstaff around a bit and take away his stolen loot.

Falstaff runs off with his tail between his legs while Hal and Poins high-five.