his weapon be out: he will foin like any devil; he | belly of his :-but I will have some of it out again, will spare neither man, woman, nor child. or I'll ride thee o'nights, like the mare. Fang. If I can close with him, I care not for his thrust. Fal. I think, I am as like to ride the mare, if I have any vantage of ground to get up. Host. No, nor I neither: I'll be at your elbow. Fang. An I but fist him once; an a' come but within my vice; — Ch. Just. How comes this sir John? Fye! what man of good temper would endure this tempest of exclamation? Are you not ashamed, to enforce a poor widow to so rough a course to come by her own? Høst. Í am undone by his going; I warrant you, he's an infinitive thing upon my score: Good master Fang, hold him sure;-good master Snare, let him not 'scape. He comes continuantly to Piecorner, (saving your manhoods,) to buy a saddle; and he's indited to dinner to the lubbar's head in Lumbert-street, to master Smooth's the silkman: I pray ye, since my exion is entered, and my case so openly known to the world, let him be brought in to his answer. A hundred mark is a long loan for a poor lone woman to bear: and I have borne, and borne, and borne; and have been fubbed off, and fubbed off, and fubbed off, from this day to that day, that it is a shame to be thought on. There is no honesty in such dealing; unless a woman should be made an ass, and a beast, bear every knave's wrong. Enter Sir JOHN FALSTAFF, Page, and BARDOLPH. Yonder he comes; and that arrant malmsey-nose knave, Bardolph, with him. Do your offices, do your offices, master Fang, and master Snare; do me, do me, do me your offices. Fal. How now? whose mare's dead? what's the matter? Fang. Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of mistress Quickly. Fal. Away, varlets! Draw, Bardolph; cut me off the villain's head; throw the quean in the channel. Host. Throw me in the channel? I'll throw thee in the channel. Wilt thou? wilt thou? thou bastardly rogue! - Murder, murder! O thou honeysuckle villain! wilt thou kill God's officers, and the king's? O thou honey-seed rogue! thou art a honey-seed; a man queller, and a woman queller. Fal. Keep them off, Bardolph. Fang A rescue! a rescue! Host. Good people, bring a rescue or two. Thou wo't, wo't thou? thou wo't, wo't thou? do, do, thou rogue! do, thou hemp-seed! Host. Yea, in troth, my lord. - Pay her the debt you owe her, and unpay the villainy you have done Fal. Away, you scullion! you rampallian! you with her; the one you may do with sterling money, fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe. and the other with current repentance. Enter the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE, attended. Ch. Just. What's the matter? keep the peace here, ho! | Fal. What is the gross sum that I owe thee? Host. Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself, and the money too. Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphinchamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upon Wednesday in Whitsun-week, when the prince broke thy head for liking his father to a singingman of Windsor; thou didst swear to me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me, and make me my lady thy wife. Canst thou deny it? Did not goodwife Keech, the butcher's wife, come in then, and call me gossip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of vinegar; telling us, she had a good dish of prawns; whereby thou didst desire to eat some; whereby I told thee, they were ill for a wound? green And didst thou not, when she was gone down stairs, desire me to be no more so familiarity with such poor people; saying, that ere long they should call me madam? And didst thou not kiss me, and bid me fetch thee thirty shillings? I put thee now to thy book-oath; deny it, if thou canst. Fal. My lord, this is a poor mad soul: and she says, up and down the town, that her eldest son is like you: she hath been in good case, and, the truth is, poverty hath distracted her. But for these foolish officers, I beseech you, I may have redress against them. Ch. Just. Sir John, sir John, I am well acquainted with your manner of wrenching the true cause the false way. It is not a confident brow, nor the throng of words that come with such more than impudent sauciness from you, can thrust me from a level consideration; you have, as it appears to me, practised upon the easy-yielding spirit of this woman, and made her serve your uses both in purse and person. Host. O, my mot worshipful lord, an't please your grace, I am a poor widow of Eas.cheap, and he is arrested at my suit. Ch. Just. For what sum? Host. It is more than for some, my lord; it is for all, all I have be hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my substance into that fat Fal. My lord, I will not undergo this sneap without reply. You call honourable boldness, impudent sauciness: if a man will make court'sy, and say nothing, he is virtuous: No, my lord, my humble duty remembered, I will not be your suitor ; I say to you, I do desire deliverance from these officers, being upon hasty employment in the king's affairs. Ch. Just. You speak as having power to do wrong but answer in the effect of your reputation, and satisfy the poor woman, Fal. Come hither, hostess. [Taking her aside. Enter Gower. 2 Ch. Just. Now, master Gower: What news Are near at hand: the rest the paper tells. Fal. As I am a gentleman; words of it. Host. By this heavenly ground I tread on, I must be fain to pawn both my plate, and the tapestry of my dining chambers. Fal. Glasses, glasses, is the only drinking; and for thy walls, -a pretty slight drollery, or the story of the prodigal, or the German hunting in waterwork, is worth a thousand of these bed-hangings, and these fly-bitten tapestries. Let it be ten pound if thou canst. Come, an it were not for thy humours, there is not a better wench in England. Go, wash thy face, and draw thy action: Come, thou must not be in this humour with me; dost not know me? Come, come, I know thou wast set on to this. Host. Pray thee, sir John, let it be but twenty nobles; i'faith I am loath to pawn my plate, in good earnest, la. Come, no more Fal. Let it alone; I'll make other shift: you'll be a fool still. Host. Well, you shall have it, though I pawn my gown. I hope, you'll come to supper: You'll pay me all together? Fal. Will I live? Go, with her, with her; [to Poins. How ill it follows, after you have laboured so hard, you should talk so idly? Tell me, how many good young princes would do so, their Fal. No more words, let's have her. [Exeunt Hostess, Bardolph, Officers, fathers being so sick as yours at this time is ? and Page. Ch. Just. I have heard better news. Fal. What's the news, my good lord? Ch. Just. Where lay the king last night? P. Hen. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins? Poins. Yes; and let it be an excellent good thing. Gow. At Basingstoke, my lord. Fal. I hope, my lord, all's news, my lord? P. Hen. It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine. Poins. Go to; I stand the push of your one thing that you will tell. : What's the Are march'd up to my lord of Lancaster, Fal. Comes the king back from Wales, my noble lord? P. Hen. Why, I tell thee, ―――― Ch. Just. Come all his forces back? - it not meet that Gow. No; fifteen hundred foot, five hundred I should be sad, now my father is sick albeit I horse,. could tell to thee, (as to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend,) I could be sad, and sad indeed too. Ch. Just. You shall have letters of me presently: Ch. Just. What's the matter? Fal. Master Gower, shall I entreat you with me to dinner? Gow. I must wait upon my good lord here: I thank you, good sir John. Ch. Just. Sir John, you loiter here too long, be- | ing you are to take soldiers up in counties as you go. Fal. Will you sup with me, master Gower? Ch. Just. What foolish master taught you these manners, sir John? Fal. Master Gower, if they become me not, he was a fool that taught them me. — - This is the right fencing grace, my lord; tap for tap, and so part fair. SCENE II. P. Hen. 'Faith it does me; though it discolours the complexion of my greatness to acknowledge it. Doth it not show vilely in me, to desire small beer? Ch. Just. Now the Lord lighten thee! thou art a great fool. [Exeunt. The same. Another Street. Enter PRINCE HENRY and Poins. P. Hen. Trust me, I am exceeding weary. Poins. Is it come to that? I had thought, weariaess durst not have attached one of so high blood. Poins. Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied, as to remember so weak a composition. P. Hen. Belike then, my appetite was not princely got; for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature, small beer. But, indeed, these humble considerations make me out of love with my greatness. What a disgrace is it to me, to remember thy name? or to know thy face to-morrow? or to take note how many pair of silk stockings thou hast; viz. these, and those that were the peachcolour'd ones? or to bear the inventory of thy shirts; as, one for superfluity, and one other for use?—but that, the tennis court-keeper knows better than I; for it is a low ebb of linen with thee, when thou keepest not racket there; as thou hast not done a great while, because the rest of thy lowcountries have made a shift to eat up thy holland: and God knows, whether those that bawl out the ruins of thy linen, shall inherit his kingdom: but the midwives say, the children are not in the fault; whereupon the world increases, and kindreds are mightily strengthened. P. Hen. And the boy that I gave Falstaff: he had him from me christian: and look, if the fat villain have not transformed him ape. Bard. 'Save your grace! P. Hen. And yours, most noble Bardolph! Bard. Come, you virtuous ass, [to the Page.] you bashful fool, must you be blushing? wherefore blush you now? What a maidenly man at arms are you become? Is it such a matter, to get a pottlepot's maidenhead? Enter BARDOLPH and Page. Page. He called me even now, my lord, through a red lattice, and I could discern no part of his face from the window: at last, I spied his eyes; and, methought, he had made two holes in the ale-wife's new petticoat, and peeped through. P. Hen. Hath not the boy profited? Bard. Away, you whoreson upright rabbit, away! Page. Away, you rascally Althea's dream, away! P. Hen. Instruct us, boy: What dream, boy? Page. Marry, my lord, Althea dreamed she was delivered of a fire-brand; and therefore I call him her dream. Bard. An you do not make him be hanged among you, the gallows shall have wrong. P. Hen. And how doth thy master, Bardolph? Bard. Well, my lord. He heard of your grace's coming to town; there's a letter for you. Poins. Delivered with good respect. And how doth the martlemas, your master? Bard. In bodily health, sir. Poins. Marry, the immortal part needs a physician: but that moves not him; though that be sick,it dies not. P. Hen. I do allow this wen to be as familiar with me as my dog: and he holds his place; for, look you, how he writes. - Poins. [Reads.] John Falstaff, knight, Every man must know that, as oft as he has occasion to name himself. Even like those that are kin to the king; for they never prick their finger, but they say, There is some of the king's blood spilt: How comes that? says he, that takes upon him not to conceive: the answer is as ready as a borrower's cap; I am the king's poor cousin, sir. P. Hen. Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it from Japhet. But the letter: Poins. brevity: winded. Poins. Sir John Falstaff, knight, to the son of the king, nearest his father, Harry prince of Wales, greeting. Why, this is a certificate. P. Hen. Peace! I will imitate the honourable Roman in he sure means brevity in breath; short- I commend me to thee, I commend thee, and I leave thee. Be not too familiar with Poins; for he misuses thy favours so much, that he swears, thou art to marry his sister Nell. Repent at idle times as you may'st, and so farewell. Thine, by yea and no, (which is as much as to say, as thou usest him,) Jack Falstaff, with my familiars ; John, with my brothers and sisters ; and sir John with all Europe. My lord, I will steep this letter in sack, and make him eat it. Poins. I am your shadow, my lord; I'll follow you P. Hen. Sirrah, you boy,-and Bardolph;—ne word to your master, that I am yet come to town. There's for your silence. Bard. I have no tongue, sir. Page. And for mine, sir, I will govern it. P. Hen. Fare ye well; go. [Exeunt BARDOLPH and Page.]-This Doll Tear-sheet should be some road. Poins. I warrant you, as common as the way between Saint Alban's and London. North. I pray thee, loving wife, and gentle daughter, Give even way unto my rough affairs: Lady N. I have given over, I will speak no more: Do what you will; your wisdom be your guide. North. Alas, sweet wife, my honour is at pawn; And, but my going, nothing can redeem it. Lady P. O, yet, for God's sake, go not to these wars! The time was, father, that you broke your word, -- Did all the chivalry of England move For those that could speak low, and tardily, To seem like him: So that, in speech, in gait, In military rules, humours of blood, He was the mark and glass, copy and book, Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur's name North. Beshrew your heart, Fair daughter! you do draw my spirits from me, With new lamenting ancient oversights. But I must go, and meet with danger there; Or it will seek me in another place, And find me worse provided. Lady N. O, fly to Scotland, Till that the nobles, and the armed commons, Have of their puissance made a little taste. Lady P. If they get ground and vantage of the king, Then join you with them, like a rib of steel, North. Come, come, go in with me: 'tis with my mind, As with the tide swell'd up unto its height, Despatch: - The room where they supped, is too hot; they'll come in straight. 2 Draw. Sirrah, here will be the prince, and master Poins anon: and they will put on two of our jerkins, and aprons; and sir John must not know of it: Bardolph hath brought word. 1 Draw. By the mass, here will be old utis: It will be an excellent stratagem. 2 Draw. I'll see, if I can find out Sneak. [Erit. Enter Hostess and DOLL TEar-sheet. Fal. You make fat rascals, mistress Doll. Doll. I make them! gluttony and diseases make them; I make them not. Fal. If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help to make the diseases, Doll: we catch of you, Doll, we catch of you; grant that, my poor virtue, grant that, Doll. Ay, marry; our chains, and our jewels. Fal. Your brooches, pearls, and owches; — for to serve bravely, is to come halting off, you know: To come off the breech with his pike bent bravely, and to surgery bravely; to venture upon the charged chambers bravely: : Doll. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang yourself! Host. By my troth, this is the old fashion; you two never meet, but you fall to some discord: you are both, in good troth, as rheumatick as two dry toasts; you cannot one bear with another's confirmities. What the good-year! one must bear, and that must be you: [to DoLL.] you are the weaker vessel, as they say, the emptier vessel. Doll. Can a weak empty vessel bear such a huge full hogshead? there's a whole merchant's venture of Bourdeaux stuff in him; you have not seen a hulk better stuffed in the hold. - Come, I'll be friends with thee, Jack: thou art going to the wars; and whether I shall ever see thee again, or no, there is nobody cares. Re-enter Drawer. Draw. Sir, ancient Pistol's below, and would speak with you. Doll. Hang him, swaggering rascal! let him not come hither: it is the foul mouth'dst rogue in England. Host. If he swagger, let him not come here: no, by my faith; I must live amongst my neigh bours; I'll ne swaggerers: I am in good name and | fame with the very best: - Shut the door ; — there comes no swaggerers here; I have not lived all this while, to have swaggering now: -shut the door, I pray you. tains were of my mind, they would truncheon you out, for taking their names upon you before you have earned them. You a captain, you slave! for what? for tearing a poor whore's ruff in a bawdyhouse? He a captain! Hang him, rogue! He lives upon mouldy stewed prunes, and dried cakes. Fal. Dost thou hear, hostess? Host. Pray you, pacify yourself, sir John; there A captain! these villains will make the word captain comes no swaggerers here. Fal. Dost thou hear? it is mine ancient. as odious as the word occupy; which was an excel- Host. Tilly-fally, sir John, never tell me; your ancient swaggerer comes not in my doors. I was before master Tisick, the deputy, the other day; and, as he said to me, - it was no longer ago than Wednesday last, Neighbour Quickly, says he;. master Dumb, our minister, was by then ;- - Neigh bour Quickly, says he, receive those that are civil; for, saith he, you are in an ill name; now he said so, I can tell whereupon; for, says he, you are an honest woman, and well thought on; therefore take heed what guests you receive: Receive, says he, no swaggering companions. There comes none here; - you would bless you to hear what he said: -no, I'll no swaggerers. Fal. He's no swaggerer, hostess; a tame cheater, he; you may stroke him as gently as a puppy greyhound: he will not swagger with a Barbary hen, if her feathers turn back in any show of resistance. Call him up, drawer. Enter PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and Page. Host. Cheater, call you him? I will bar no honest man my house, nor no cheater: But I do not love swaggering; by my troth, I am the worse, when one says swagger: feel, masters, how I shake look you, I warrant you. Doll. So you do, hostess. Host. Do I? yea, in very truth, do I, an 'twere an aspen leaf: I cannot abide swaggerers. Host. O' my word, captain; there's none such here. What the good-year! do you think, I would deny her? for God's sake, be quiet. Pist. Then, feed and be fat, my fair Calipolis: Come, give's some sack. Si fortuna me tormenta, sperato me contenta. Fear we broadsides? no, let the fiend give fire: Give me some sack; and, sweetheart, lie thou there. [Laying down his sword. Come we to full points here; and are et cetera's nothing? Fal. Pistol, I would be quiet. Pist. Sweet knight, I kiss thy neif: What! we have seen the seven stars. Doll. Thrust him down stairs; I cannot endure such a fustian rascal. Pist. Thrust him down stairs! know we not Galloway nags? Fal. Quoit him down, Bardolph, like a shovegroat shilling: nay, if he do nothing but speak nothing, he shall be nothing here. |
