Page. He's gone into Smithfield to buy your Wor fhip a horfe. Fal. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horfe in Smithfield. If I could get me but a wife in the Stews, I were mann'd, hors'd, and wiv'd. Enter Chief Justice, and Servants. Page. Sir,here comes the Nobleman that committed the Prince for ftriking him, about Bardolph. Fal. Wait clofe, I will not fee him. Cb. Juft. He that was in queftion for the robbery? Fal. Boy, tell him I am deaf. Page. You muft fpeak louder, my mafter is deaf. Ch. Fuft. I am fure, he is, to the hearing of any thing good. Go pluck him by the elbow. I must fpeak with him. Serv. Sir John Fal. What! a young knave and beg! are there not wars? is there not employment? doth not the King feems evidently to have been taken from that of Plautus: Quò ambulas tu, qui Vulcanum in cornu conclufum geris. Ampb. A&t 1. Scene 1. and much improved. We need not doubt that a joke was here intended by Plautus, for the proverbial term of horns, for cuckoldom, is very ancient, as appears by Artemidorus, who fays, Προειπῶν αὐτῷ ὅτι ἡ γυνή σου περιούσια καὶ τὸ λεγόμενον, κέρατα αυτῷ ποιήσει, καὶ οὕτως ἀπ 30, "Overpor. lib. 2. cap. 12. And he copied from thofe before him. I bought him in Paul's,] At that time the refort of ide people, cheats, and knights of the pot. 4 P 4 lack lack Subjects? do not the Rebels need foldiers? though it be a fhame to be on any fide but one, it is worfe fhame to beg, than to be on the worst fide, were it worse than the name of Rebellion can tell how to make it. Serv. You mistake me, Sir. Fal. Why, Sir, did I fay you were an honeft man? fetting my knight-hood and my foldiership afide, I had lied in my throat, if I had faid fo. Serv. I pray you, Sir, then fet your knight-hood and your foldierfhip afide, and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man. Fal. I give thee leave to tell me fo? I lay afide That, which grows to me? if thou gett'ft any leave of me, hang me; if thou tak'ft leave, thou wert better be hang'd: you hunt-counter, hence; avaunt. Serv. Sir, my lord would speak with you. Ch. Juft. Sir John Falstaff, a word with you. Fal. My good lord! God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to see your lordship abroad; I heard fay, your lordship was fick. I hope, your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not clean paft your youth, hath yet fome fmack age in you: fome relish of the faltnefs of time; and I most humbly befeech your lordship, to have a reverend care of your health. of Ch. Juft. Sir John, I fent for you before your expedition to Shrewsbury,- Fal. If it please your lordship, I hear, his Majefty is return'd with fome difcomfort from Wales. Ch. Juft. I talk not of his Majefty: you would not come when I fent for you; Fal. And I hear moreover, his Highness is fallen into this fame whorfon apoplexy. Ch. Juft. Well, heav'n mend him! I pray, let me fpeak with you. Fal. Fal. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy, an't please your lordship, a kind of sleeping in the blood, a whorfon tingling. Ch. Juft. What tell you me of it? be it, as it is. Fal. It hath its original from much grief; from study and perturbation of the brain. I have read the caufe of it in Galen. It is a kind of deafnefs. Ch. Juft. I think, you are fallen into that disease: for you hear not what I fay to you. Fal. Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an't please you, it is the disease of not lift'ning, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal. Ch. Juft. To punish you by the heels, would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not if I do become your phyfician. : Fal. I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not fo patient your lordship may minifter the potion of imprifonment to me, in refpect of poverty; but how I fhould be your Patient to follow your prefcriptions, the wile may make fome dram of a fcruple, or, indeed, a fcruple it felf. Ch. Juft. I fent for you, when there were matters against you for your life, to come fpeak with me. Fal. As I was then advis'd by my Counsel learned in the laws of this land-service, I did not come. Ch. Fuft. Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy. Fal. He that buckles him in my belt, cannot live in lefs. Ch. Juft. Your means are very flender, and your wafte is great. Fal. I would it were otherwife: I would, my means were greater, and my wafte flenderer. Ch. Juft. You have mif-led the youthful Prince. Fal. The young Prince hath mif-led me. I am the fellow with the great belly, and he my dog. Ch. Juft, Ch. Juft. Well, I'm loth to gall a new-heal'd wound; your day's fervice at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your night's exploit on Gads-bill. You may thank the unquiet time, for your quiet o'er-pofting that action. Fal. My lord Ch. Juft. But fince all is well, keep it fo: wake not a fleeping Wolf. Fal. To wake a Wolf, is as bad as to smell a Fox. Ch. Juft. What? you are as a candle, the better part burnt out. Fal. A waffel candle, my lord; all tallow but if I did fay of wax, my growth would approve the truth. Ch. Juft. There is not a white hair on your face, but should have his effect of gravity. Fal. His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy. Ch. Juft. You follow the young Prince up and down, like his ill angel. Fal. Not fo, my lord, your angel is light: but I hope, he that looks upon me, will take me without weighing; and yet, in some respects, I grant, I cannot go;- I cannot tell; Virtue is of fo little regard in these cofter-mongers' days, that true valour is turned bear-herd. Pregnancy is made a tapfter, and hath his quick wit wasted in giving reckonings; all the other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this age fhapes them, are not worth a goofe-berry. You, that are old, confider not the capacities of us that are young; you meafure the heat of our Livers, with the bitterness of your Galls; and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confefs, are wags too. 6 Ch. Juft. Do you fet down your name in the fcrowl of youth, that are written down old, with all the cha 5 A pun, in an ill angel, which Mr. Theobald here tells us, he has restored and brought to light. 6 Fa-ward] i. e. van-guard. Mr. Pope. racters racters of age? have you not a moift eye? a dry hand ? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a decreasing leg? an increafing belly? is not your voice broken? your wind fhort? your chin double? your wit fingle? and every part about you blafted with antiquity? and will you yet call yourself young? fie, fie, fie, Sir John. Fal. "My lord, I was born about three of the clock "in the afternoon, with a white head, and fomething "a round belly. For my voice, I have loft it with hallowing and finging of Anthems. To approve my youth further, I will not. The truth is, I am only old in judgment and understanding, and he, that will caper with me for a thousand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him. For the box o' th' ear that the Prince gave you, he gave it like a rude Prince, and you took it like a fenfible lord. I have checkt him for it; and the young Lion repents: marry, not in ashes and fack-cloth, but in new filk and old fack. Ch. Juft. Well, heav'n fend the Prince a better Companion! Fal. Heav'n fend the companion a better Prince! I cannot rid my hands of him. Ch. Juft. Well, the King hath fever'd you and Prince Harry. I hear, you are going with lord John of Lancafter, against the Archbishop and the Earl of Northumberland. Fal. Yes, I thank your pretty fweet wit for it; but look you, pray, all you that kiss my lady Peace at home, that our armies join not in a hot day: for, by the Lord, I take but two fhirts out with me, and ĭ mean not to sweat extraordinarily if it be a hot day, if I brandifh any thing but a bottle, would I might never fpit white again. There is not a dangerous action can peep out his head, but I am thruft upon it. Well, I cannot laft ever." but it was always yet the "trick of our English Nation, if they have a good "thing, |