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Phang. Snare, we must arreft Sir John Falstaff. Hoft. Ay, good Mr. Snare, I have enter'd him

and all.

Snare. It may chance coft fome of us our lives: for he will ftab.

Hoft. Alas-the-day! take heed of him; he ftab'd me in mine own houfe, and that most beaftly; he cares not what mischief he doth, if his weapon be out. He will foin like any devil; he will spare neither man, woman, nor child.

Phang. If I can clofe with him, I care not for his thruft.

Hoft. No, nor I neither - I'll be at your elbow. Phang. If I but fift him once; if he come but within my vice.

Hoft. I am undone by his going; I warrant you, he is an infinitive thing upon my fcore. Good Mr. Phang, hold him fure; good Mr. Snare, let him not 'scape. He comes continually to Pie-corner, faving your manhoods, to buy a faddle: and he is indited to dinner to the Lubbar's-head in Lombard-street, to Mr. Smooth's the Silkman. I pray ye, fince my action is enter'd, and my cafe fo openly known to the world, let him be brought in to his anfwer. 2 A hundred mark is a long Lone, for a poor lone woman to bear; and I have borne, and borne, and borne, and have been fub'd off, and fub'd off, from this day to that day, that it is a fhame to be thought on. There is no honefty in fuch dealing, unless a woman fhould be made an Ass and a beaft, to bear every knave's wrong.

If he come but within my vice.] Vice or grafp. A metaphor taken from a fmith's vice: There is another reading in the old Edition, view, which I think not fo good.

2 Another quibble restored by Mr. Theobald.

VOL. IV.

Mr. Pope.

Enter

Enter Falstaff, Bardolph, and the boy.

Yonder he comes, and that arrant malmsey - nofe knave Bardolph with him. Do your offices, do your offices: Mr. Phang and Mr. Snare, do me, do me, do me your offices.

Fal. How now? whofe mare's dead? what's the matter?

Phang. Sir John, I arrest you at the fuit of Mrs. Quickly.

Fal Away, varlets; draw, Bardolph: cut me off the villain's head: throw the quean in the kennel.

Hoft. Throw me in the kennel? I'll throw thee in the kennel. Wilt thou wilt thou? thou baftardly rogue. Murder, murder! O thou hony-fuckle villain, wilt thou kill God's officers and the King's? O thou hony-feed rogue! thou art a hony-feed, a man-queller, and a woman-queller.

Fal. Keep them off, Bardolph.
Phang. A refcue, a refcue!

Hoft. Good people, bring a refcue or two; thou wo't, wo't thou? thou wo't, wo't thou? do, do, thou rogue, do, thou hemp-feed!

Fal. Away, you fcullion, you rampallian, you fustilarian I'll tickle your catastrophe.

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Enter Chief Justice attended.

Ch. Juft. What's the matter? keep the

hoa!

II.

peace here,

Hoft. Good my lord, be good to me. I beseech you, stand to me.

Ch. Juft. How now, Sir John? what, are you brawling here?

Doth this become your place, your time, and business? You should have been well on your way to York.

Stand

Stand from him, fellow; wherefore hang'ft thou on

him?

Hoft. O my moft worshipful lord, an't please your Grace, I am a poor widow of Eaft-cheap, and he is arrested at my fuit.

Ch. Juft. For what fum?

Hoft. It is more than for fome, my lord, it is for all; all I have; he hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my fubftance into that fat belly of his; but I will have fome of it out again, or I'll ride thee o'nights, like the mare.

Fal. I think, I am as like to ride the mare, If I have any 'vantage of ground to get up.

Ch. Fuft. How comes this, Sir John? fie, what man of good temper would endure this tempeft of exclamation? are you not afham'd to inforce a poor widow to fo rough a course to come by her own?

Fal. What is the grofs fum that I owe thee?

Hoft. Marry, if thou wert an honeft man, thy felf, and the mony too. Thou didft fwear to me on a parcel-gilt goblet, fitting in my Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, on Wednesday in Whitfun-week, when the Prince broke thy head for likening him to a finging-man of Windfor; thou didft fwear to me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me, and make me my lady thy wife. Canft thou deny it? did not good-wife Keech, the butcher's wife, come in then, and call me goffip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of vinegar; telling us, fhe had a good dish of prawns; whereby thou did defire to eat fome; whereby I told thee, they were ill for a green wound; and didft not thou, when he was gone down stairs, defire me to be no more fo familiarity with fuch poor people, faying, that ere long they fhould call me Madam? and didft thou not kifs me, and bid me fetch

Q 2

thee

thee thirty fhillings? I put thee now to thy bookoath; deny it, if thou canst.

Fal. My lord, this is a poor mad foul; and the fays up and down the town, that her eldest son is like you. She hath been in good cafe, and the truth is, poverty hath distracted her; but for thefe foolish Officers, I beseech you, I may have redress against

them.

Ch. Juft. Sir John, Sir John, I am well acquainted with your manner of wrenching the true cause the falfe way. It is not a confident brow, nor the throng of words that come with fuch more than impudent fawcinefs from you, can thrust me from a level confideration. I know, you have practis'd upon the easieyielding fpirit of this woman.

Hoft. Yes, in troth, my lord.

Ch. Juft. Pry'thee, peace; pay her the debt you owe her, and unpay the villany you have done her; the one you may do with fterling mony, and the other with currant repentance.

3

Fal. My lord, I will not undergo 3 this fheap without reply. You call honourable boldness impudent fawcinefs: If a man will court'fie and fay nothing, he is virtuous. No, my lord, my humble duty remember'd, I will not be your fuitor: I fay to you, I defire deliverance from thefe officers, being upon hafty em ployment in the King's affairs.

Ch. Juft. You fpeak, as having power to do wrong: but anfwer in the effect your reputation, and fatisfie the poor woman.

Fal. Come hither, hostess.

3 This fneap] A Yorkshire word for rebuke.

[Afide.

Mr. Pope.

SCENE

S CE NE

Enter Mr. Gower.

Ch. Juft. Mafter Gower, what news?

III.

Gower. The King, my lord, and Henry Prince of Wales

Are near at hand: the reft the paper tells.

Fal. As I am a gentleman

Hoft. Nay, you faid fo before.

Fal. As I am a gentleman; come, no more words of it.

Hoft. By this heav'nly ground I tread on, I must be fain to pawn both my plate, and the tapestry of my dining chambers.

Fal. "Glaffes, glaffes, is the only drinking; and "for thy walls, a pretty flight drollery, or the ftory "of the Prodigal, or the German Hunting in water"work, is worth a thousand of thefe dead-hangings, " and these fly-bitten tapestries: let it be ten pound, "if thou canft. Come, if it were not for thy humours, there is not a better wench in England. Go, wash thy face, and draw thy action: come, thou muft not be in this humour with me; do'ft not know me? Come, come, I know, thou wafst set on

to this.

Hoft. Pry'thee, Sir John, let it be but twenty nobles, I am loth to pawn my plate, in good carneft, la. Fal. Let it alone, I'll make other fhift; you'll be a fool ftill

Hoft. Well, you fhall have it, though I pawn my gown. I hope, you'll come to fupper: you'll pay me all together?

Fal. Will I live? go with her, with her: hook on, hook on.

4 German Hunting in water-work, ] i. e. in water-colours. 5 Thefe BED hangings,] We fhould read D E A D - hangings. i. e. faded.

Q3

Hoft.

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