But it is no matter; this poor show doth better: this doth infer the zeal I had to see him.

SHAL. It doth so.

FAL. It shows my earnestness in affection.

SHAL. It doth so.

FAL. My devotion.

SHAL. It doth, it doth, it doth.

FAL. As it were, to ride day and night; and not to deli berate, not to remember, not to have patience to shift me. SHAL. It is most certain.

FAL. But to stand stained with travel, and sweating with desire to see him: thinking of nothing else; putting all affairs else in oblivion; as if there were nothing else to be done but to see him.

PIST. 'T is semper idem, for absque hoc nihil est: "T is all in every part.

SHAL. T is so, indeed.

PIST. My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver

And make thee rage.

Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts,
Is in base durance, and contagious prison;
Haul'd thither

By most mechanical and dirty hand:-
:-

Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell Alecto's snake,
For Doll is in; Pistol speaks nought but truth.

FAL. I will deliver her.

[Shouts within, and the trumpets sound. PIST. There roar'd the sea, and trumpet-clangor sounds.

Enter the KING and his Train, the CHIEF JUSTICE among thém.

FAL. Save thy grace, king Hal! my royal Hal!

PIST. The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame!

FAL. Save thee, my sweet boy!

KING. My lord chief justice, speak to that vain man.

CH. JUST. Have you your wits? know you what 't is you
speak?

FAL. My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart!
KING. I know thee not, old man: Fall to thy prayers;

How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!
I have long dream'd of such a kind of man,
So surfeit-swell'd, so old, and so profane;
But, being awake, I do despise my dream.
Make less thy body, hence, and more thy grace;
Leave gormandizing; know, the grave doth gape
For thee thrice wider than for other men:
Reply not to me with a fool-born jest;
Presume not that I am the thing I was:

For heaven doth know, so shall the world perceive,
That I have turn'd away my former self;

So will I those that kept me company.
When thou dost hear I am as I have been,
Approach me; and thou shalt be as thou wast,
The tutor and the feeder of my riots:
Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death,-
As I have done the rest of my misleaders,-
Not to come near our person by ten mile.
For competence of life I will allow you,
That lack of means enforce you not to evil;
And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,
We will, according to your strength and qualities,
Give you advancement. Be it your charge, my lord,
To see perform'd the tenor of our word.

Set on.

[Exeunt KING and his Train FAL. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound. SHAL. Ay, marry, sir John; which I beseech you to let me have home with me.

FAL. That can hardly be, master Shallow. Do not you grieve at this; I shall be sent for in private to him: look you, he must seem thus to the world. Fear not your advancement; I will be the man yet that shall make you great.

SHAL. I cannot well perceive how; unless you should give me your doublet, and stuff me out with straw. I beseech you, good sir John, let me have five hundred of my thousand.

FAL. Sir, I will be as good as my word: this that you heard was but a colour.

SHAL. A colour, I fear, that you will die in, sir John.

FAL. Fear no colours; go with me to dinner. Come, lieutenant Pistol;-come, Bardolph:-I shall be sent for soon at night.

Re-enter PRINCE JOHN, the CHIEF JUSTICE, Officers, &c.

CH. JUST. Go, carry sir John Falstaff to the Fleet; Take all his company along with him.

FAL. My lord, my lord,

CH. JUST. I cannot now speak: I will hear you soon.
Take them away.
PIST.

"Si fortuna me tormenta, spero me contenta."
[Exeunt FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, PISTOL,
BARDOLPH, Page, and Officers.

P. JOHN. I like this fair proceeding of the king's: He hath intent, his wonted followers

Shall all be very well provided for;

But all are banish'd, till their conversations
Appear more wise and modest to the world.

CH. JUST. And so they are.

P. JOHN. The king hath call'd his parliament, my lord.
CH. JUST. He hath.

P. JOHN. I will lay odds,—that, ere this year expire,
We bear our civil swords, and native fire,

As far as France: I heard a bird so sing,

Whose music, to my thinking, pleas'd the king.
Come, will you hence?

[Exeunt.

EPILOGUE.

[Spoken by a Dancer.]

First, my fear; then, my court'sy; last, my speech. My fear is, your displeasure; my court'sy, my duty; and my speech, to beg your pardons. If you look for a good speech now, you undo me: for what I have to say is of mine own making; and what, indeed, I should say, will, I doubt, prove

mine own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the venture. Be it known to you, (as it is very well,) I was lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your patience for it, and to promise you a better. I did mean, indeed, to pay you with this; which, if, like an ill venture, it come unluckily home, I break, and you, nty gentle creditors, lose. Here, I promised you, I would be, and here I commit my body to your mercies: bate me some, and I will pay you some, and, as most debtors do, promise you infinitely.

If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you command me to use my legs? and yet that were but light payment, to dance out of your debt. But a good conscience will make any possible satisfaction, and so will I. All the gentlewomen here have forgiven me; if the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never seen before in such an assembly.

One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story, with sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Katharine of France: where, for anything I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already he be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I will bid you good night: and so kneel down before you :--but, indeed, to pray for the queen.

VARIOUS READINGS.

"The rugged'st hour that time and spite dare bring."

Theobald introduced rugged'st, instead of ragged'st of the old copies. Mr. Collier's MS. corrections have the same reading.

(ACT I., Sc. 1.)

We find the epithet "ragged

several times in Shakspere.

this play we have

In

"A ragged and forestall'd remission."

It means something brokenwanting consistency and cohesion.

(ACT I., Sc. 3.)

"A careful leader sums what force he brings To weigh against his opposite." The line in italic is introduced for the first time in Mr. Collier's MS. corrections. We must give the whole passage of the original, to test the value of this addition: "When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then

draw the model;

And, when we see the figure of

the house,

Then must we rate the cost of the

erection:

Which if we find outweighs ability,

What do we then, but draw anew

the model

In fewer offices; or, at least, desist
To build at all?

Much more, in this great work, (Which is, almost to pluck a king

dom down,

And set another up), should we

survey

The plot of situation, and the model;

Consent upon a sure foundation;

This is a long speech. But is there a point dropped? Is there not the most perfect carrying out of one idea, the comparison of building a house and building a kingdom? What would an actor do with this speech, who had no great reverence for his author? He would break the long sentence into two sentences, without much care, so that he got a new start. And so has our "Corrector" done. He puts a full stop after "undergo," and thrusts in this line,"A careful leader sums what force he brings

To weigh against his opposite."