Edward "Ned" Poins, generally referred to as "Poins" /ˈpɔɪnz/, is a fictional character who appears in two plays by William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2. He is also mentioned in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Poins is Prince Hal's closest friend during his wild youth. He devises various schemes to ridicule Falstaff, his rival for Hal's affections.

Unlike Hal's other principal low-life associates, who all either reappear or are mentioned in Henry V, Poins disappears from the narrative with no explanation.

Poins appears early in Henry IV, Part I to inform Falstaff that at Gads Hill there will be unprotected "pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses". He suggests that they organise a robbery. When Falstaff and the others agree, Poins says to Hal that the pair of them should play trick on Falstaff by letting them rob the travellers, but then in disguise robbing the robbers of their haul. The point of the jest will be to hear the "incomprensible [i.e. enormous] lies" Falstaff will later tell to excuse himself. When Poins and Hal attack Falstaff after the robbing the travellers, he and his followers instantly run away.

Poins is with Hal when Hal plays a joke on Francis, a drawer (waiter) at the Boar's Head. He also listens to Falstaff's increasingly ridiculous lies.

In Part 2 Poins discusses the illness of Hal's father the king, expecting Hal to be pleased at the prospect of his father's death. Hal gets a letter from Falstaff, in which Falstaff tells him not to trust Poins because he has been telling people that Hal will be marrying Poins' sister Nell. Poins denies it. Bardolph and a boy arrive with news that Falstaff is meeting Doll Tearsheet at the tavern. Poins suggests that they disguise themselves again, this time as waiters, to overhear the conversation. At the tavern, Doll asks why Hal likes Poins, Falstaff says that they are both similar in size and shape, and equally empty headed: "His wit’s as thick as Tewkesbury mustard. There's no more conceit in him than is in a mallet [i.e. he's got no more brains than a hammer]."

Poins' principal role is to act as Hal's confidant. In Part 2 especially he is little more than a sounding board for Hal's views. In Part 1 he is presented as the more assertive of the two, being the "mastermind" of both the Gads Hill robbery and its comeuppance. In this respect Poins is an ambiguous figure, who is both part of the criminal underworld and also of the superior social world that looks down on it and undermines it. He is "of uncertain social standing", but his comment that his only problem is that he is a "second brother" implies that he is "a gentleman with no inheritance, his gentility making him an appropriate companion for Hal". He represents wayward tendencies within the upper class, closely linked to Hal's own behaviour.

The fact that Poins disappears from the narrative after the end of Henry IV, Part 2 suggests that his identity cannot be incorporated into the continuing story; he is neither a "low life" character, nor a participant in the high politics of the new regime. He is effectively a "shadow" side of Hal himself. In Part 2 in particular, Hal appears to become visibly embittered by his association with the world of Falstaff and Poins, using increasingly open derogatory language about both of them, but Poins is never explicitly rejected, unlike Falstaff.

Throughout both plays the tension between Poins and Falstaff beneath the apparent bonhomie represents their competition for Hal's favour and each one's willingness to undermine the other. However, while Poins' accusations against Falstaff are proven correct, it is never clear whether Falstaff's accusation about Poins' sister is true or a lie.