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 shew of resistance.-Call him up, drawer.

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 't were an aspen leaf: I cannot abide swaggerers.

Enter PISTOL, BARDOLPHI, and Page.

Pist. Save you, sir John!

Fal. Welcome, ancient Pistol. Here, Pistol, I charge you with a cup of sack: do you discharge upon mine hostess.

Pist. I will discharge upon her, sir John, with two bullets.

Fal. She is pistol-proof, sir; you shall hardly offend her.

Host. Come, I'll drink no proofs, nor no bullets I'll drink no more than will do me good, for no man's pleasure, I.

:

Pist. Then to you, mistress Dorothy; I will charge you.

Doll. Charge me? I scorn you, scurvy companion. What! you poor, base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen mate! Away, you mouldy rogue, away! I am meat for your master.

Pist. I know you, mistress Dorothy.

Doll. Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away! by this wine, I'll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps, if you play the saucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rascal! you basket-hilt stale juggler, you!-Since when, I pray you, sir?-What, with two points on your shoulder? much! b

Pist. I will murder your ruff for this. [Fal. No more, Pistol; I would not have you go off here: discharge yourself of our company, Pistol.]

Host. No, good captain Pistol; not here, sweet captain.

Cheater. The singular origin of this word is indicated in a passage of the Merry Wives of Windsor: "I will be cheaters to them both, and they shall be exchequers to me." The officers that manage the escheats of the crown were escheators; and from the oppression and extortion which they too commonly exercised in the discharge of their offices, came the word to cheat. The hostess, in her reply, understands the name cheater in its official meaning: "I will br no honest man iny house, nor no cheater." b Much. An expression of contempt.

Doll. Captain! thou abominable damned cheater, art thou not ashamed to be called captain? If captains 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 bawdy-house ?-He a captain! Hang him, rogue! He lives upon mouldy stewed prunes and dried cakes. A captain! these villains will make the word captain as odious as the word occupy; which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted: therefore captains had need look to it.

Bard. Pray thee, go down, good ancient. Fal. Hark thee hither, mistress Doll. Pist. Not I: tell thee what, corporal Bardolph; -I could tear her :-I'll be revenged on her. Page. Pray thee, go down.

Pist. I'll see her damned first;-to Pluto's damned lake, to the infernal deep, with Erebus and tortures vile also. Hold hook and line, say I. Down! down, dogs! down faitors! Have we not Hiren here?

Host. Good captain Peesel, be quict; it is very late. I beseek you now, aggravate your choler.

Pist. These be good humours, indeed! Shall packhorses,

And hollow pamper'd jades of Asia,
Which cannot go but thirty miles a day,
Compare with Cæsars and with Cannibals,
And Trojan Greeks? nay, rather damn them with
King Cerberus; and let the welkin roar.
Shall we fall foul for toys?

Host. By my troth, captain, these are very bitter words.

Bard. Be gone, good ancient; this will grow to a brawl anon.

Pist. Die men, like dogs; give crowns like pins; Have we not Hiren here?

Host. On my word, captain; there's none such here. What the good-year! do you think I would deny her? I pray be quiet.

Pist. Then, feed and be fat, my fair Calipolis : Come, give me some sack.

Si fortuna me tormenta, sperato me contenta.— Fear we broadsides? no, let the fiend give fire :

b

a The folio merely has-"A captain! these villains will make the word odious." We give the text of the quarto. Hollow pamper'd jades, &c. Pistol's fustian speeches are made up from scraps of old plays. The following lines are in Marlow's Tamburlaine (1590):—

"Holla, you pamper'd jades of Asia,. What! can you draw but twenty miles a day?" c Cannibals. Pistol, whose learning is upon a par with dame Quickly's, means Hannibals. It is curious enough that the Italian of this worthy, a few lines farther on, was corrected, in sober earnest, by Sir Thomas Hanmer

ACT II.]

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

Bard. Come, get you down stairs.

Pist. What! shall we have incision? shall we imbrue ?- [Snatching up his sword. Then death rock me asleep, abridge my doleful

days!

Why then, let grievous, ghastly, gaping wounds Untwine the sisters three! Come, Atropos, 1

say!

you.

Re-enter BARDOLPH.

Doll. Do, if thou darest for thy heart: if thou dost, I'll canvas thee between a pair of sheets. Enter Music.

Page. The music is come, sir.

Fal. Let them play ;-Play, sirs.--Sit on my knee, Doll. A rascal bragging slave! the rogue fled from me like quicksilver.

Doll. And thou followedst him like a church. Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig,7 when wilt thou leave fighting o' days, and foining o' nights, and begin to patch up thine old body for heaven?

Enter behind, PRINCE HENRY and POINS, disguised like Drawers.

Fal. Peace, good Doll! do not speak like a death's head: do not bid me remember mine eud.

Doll. Sirrah, what humour is the prince of? Fal. A good shallow young fellow he would have made a good pantler, he would have chipped bread well.

Doll. They say Poins hath a good wit.

Fal. He a good wit? hang him, baboon! his wit is as thick as Tewksbury mustard; there is no more conceit in him than is in a mallet.a

Doll. Why doth the prince love him so then? Fal. Because their legs are both of a bigness: and eats conger and and he plays at quoits well; fennel; and drinks off candles' ends for flapdragons; and rides the wild mare with the boys; and jumps upon joint-stools; and swears with a good grace; and wears his boot very smooth, like unto the sign of the leg; and breeds no bate with telling of discreet stories; and such other gambol faculties he hath, that shew a weak mind and an able body, for the which the prince admits him for the prince himself is such another; the weight of a hair will turn the scales between their avoirdupois.

P. Hen. Would not this nave of a wheel have his ears cut off?

Poins. Let us beat him before his whore. P. Hen. Look, if the withered elder hath not his poll clawed like a parrot.

Poins. Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance? Fal. Kiss me, Doll.

P. Hen. Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction; what says the almanac to that? Poins. And, look, whether the fiery Trigon,

his man, be not lisping to his master's old tables ; his note-book, his counsel-keeper.

Fal. Thou dost give me flattering busses. Doll. Nay, truly; I kiss thee with a most constant heart.

Fal. I am old, I am old.

Doll. I love thee better than I love e'er a scurvy young boy of them all.

Fal. What stuff wilt thou have a kirtle of? I shall receive money on Thursday; thou shalt have a cap to-morrow. A merry song, come : it grows late, we will to bed. Thou wilt forget me, when I am gone.

Doll. By my troth thou 'lt set me a weeping, if thou sayest so: prove that I ever dress myself handsome till thy return. Well, hearken the end.

Fal. Some sack, Francis.

P. Hen. Poins. Anon, anon, sir. [Advancing. Fal. Ha! a bastard son of the king's ?—And art not thou Poins his brother?

P. Hen. Why, thou globe of sinful continents, what a life dost thou lead?

Fal. A better than thou; I am a gentleman, thou art a drawer.

P. Hen. Very true, sir: and I come to draw you out by the ears.

Host. O, the lord preserve thy good grace! by my troth, welcome to London -Now Heaven bless that sweet face of thine! What, are you come from Wales?

Fal. Thou whoreson mad compound of majesty, by this light flesh and corrupt blood, thou art welcome. [Leaning his hand upon DOLL.

Doll. How! you fat fool, I scorn you. Poins. My lord, he will drive you out of your revenge, and turn all to a merriment, if you take not the heat.

P. Hen. You whoreson candle-mine, you, how vilely did you speak of me even now, before this honest, virtuous, civil gentlewoman!

Host. Blessing on your good heart! and so she is, by my troth.

Fal. Didst thou hear me?

P. Hen. Yes; and you knew me, as you did when you ran away by Gadshill: you knew I was at your back; and spoke it on purpose, to try my patience.

Fal. No, no, no, not so; I did not think thou wast within bearing.

P. Hen. I shall drive you then to confess the wilful abuse; and then I know how to handle you.

Fal. No abuse, Ial, on mine honour; no abuse.

P. Hen. Not to dispraise me; and call me pantler, and bread-chipper, and I know not what? Fal. No abuse, Hal.

Poins. No abuse!

none.

Fal. No abuse, Ned, in the world; honest Ned, I dispraised him before the wicked, that the wicked might not fall in love with him:in which doing, I have done the part of a careful friend, and a true subject, and thy father is to give me thanks for it. No abuse, Hal;-none, Ned, none;—no, boys, none.

P. Hen. See now, whether pure fear, and entire cowardice, doth not make thee wrong this virtuous gentlewoman to close with us? Is she of the wicked? Is thine hostess here of the wicked? or is the boy of the wicked? Or honest Bardolph, whose zeal burns in his nose, of the wicked?

Poins. Answer, thou dead elm, answer.

Fal. The fiend hath pricked down Bardolph, irrecoverable; and his face is Lucifer's privykitchen, where he doth nothing but roast maltworms. For the boy, there is a good angel about him; but the devil outbids him too. P. Hen. For the women,

Fal. For one of them,-she is in hell already, and burns, poor soul! For the other, I owe her money; and whether she be damned for that, I know not.

Host. No, I warrant you.

Fal. No, I think thou art not; I think, thou art quit for that: Marry, there is another indictment upon thee, for suffering flesh to be eaten in thy house, contrary to the law; for the which, I think, thou wilt howl.

Host. All victuallers do so: what is a joint of mutton or two in a whole Lent? P. Hen. You, gentlewoman,Doll. What says your grace? Fal. His grace says that which his flesh rebels against.

Host. Who knocks so loud at door? look to the door, there, Francis.

Enter PETO.

P. Hen. Peto, how now ? what news?

Peto. The king your father is at Westminster; And there are twenty weak and wearied posts Come from the north: and, as I came along, I met, and overtook, a dozen captains, Bare-headed, sweating, knocking at the taverns, And asking every one for sir John Falstaff.

P. Hen. By heaven, Poins, I feel me much to

blame,

ACT II.]

So idly to profane the precious time;
When tempest of commotion, like the south,
Borne with black vapour, doth begin to melt,
And drop upon our bare unarmed heads.
Give me my sword, and cloak :-Falstaff, good
night.

[Ereunt PRINCE HENRY, POINS, PETO,
and BARDOLPH.

Fal. Now comes in the sweetest morsel of the night, and we must hence, and leave it unpicked. [Knocking heard.] More knocking at the door!

Re-enter BARDOLPH.

How now? what's the matter?

Bard. You must away to court, sir, presently; A dozen captains stay at door for you.

Fal. Pay the musicians, sirrah. [To the Page.] -Farewell, hostess ;-farewell, Doll.-You see, my good wenches, how men of merit are sought

after the undeserver may sleep, when the man of action is called on. Farewell, good wenches: If I be not sent away post I will see you again ere I go.

Doll. I cannot speak ;-If my heart be not ready to burst-well, sweet Jack, have a care of thyself.

Fal. Farewell, farewell.

[Exeunt FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH. Host. Well, fare thee well: I have known thee these twenty-nine years, come peascod time; but an honester and truer-hearted man,Well, fare thee well.

Bard. [Within.] Mistress Tear-sheet.
Host. What's the matter?

Bard. [Within.] Bid mistress Tear-sheet come to my master.

Host. O run, Doll, run; run, good Doll.

[Exeunt.

HISTORIES-VOL. I. S

1SCENE I.-"Marry, if thou wert an honest man," &c. Coleridge, in his celebrated Essay on Method, has given this speech of the Hostess,

"Fermenting o'er with frothy circumstance,"

as an example of "the absence of method, which characterizes the uneducated, occasioned by an habitual submission of the understanding to mere events and images as such, and independent of any power in the mind to classify or appropriate them. The general accompaniments of time and place are the only relations which persons of this class appear to regard in their statements." Our great philosophical critic, however, most truly adds, "the poor that in this speech of Mrs. Quickly, soul's thoughts and sentences are more closely interlinked than the truth of nature would have required, but that the connexions and sequence, which the habit of method can alone give, have in this instance a substitute in the fusion of passion."

2 SCENE I.-"I do desire deliverance," &c. Falstaff claimed the protection legally called quià profecturus. (See Coke upon Littleton, 130 a.) This is one of the many examples of Shakspere's somewhat intimate acquaintance with legal forms and phrases.

3 SCENE I.-" Glasses, glasses."

In Lodge's Illustrations of British History (vol. ii. page 251, edition 1791) there is a letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury to Thomas Bawdewyn, which the editor inserts on account of the following curious postcript: "I wold have you bye me glasses to drink in: Send me word what olde

plat yeldes the ounce, for I wyll nott leve me a cuppe of sylvare to drink in butt I wyll see the next terme my creditors payde." Whether the earl sold his plate, and by his example made "glasses" fashionable-"the only drinking "-we are not informed.

4 SCENE I." The German hunting in water-work."

66

In the Gentleman's Magazine, 1833, page 393, is a paper which throws considerable light upon the mode of decorating houses in Shakspere's time. Steevens speaks of "the German hunting" as a painted cloth brought from Holland, considering it to be the same mode of hanging rooms with drapery as that alluded to in this play, Act III.as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth." But it appears that the German hunting in water-work was a fresco painting. Upon Woodford Common, in Essex, there stood, as late as the autumn of 1832, an old house called Grove House, traditionally believed to have been a hunting lodge of Robert Devereux Earl of Essex. This, however, may be doubted. One of the apartments in this old house was called the ball-room, and in this room were twelve fresco paintings, exhibiting as many subjects of rural life. Six of these paintings were tolerably perfect, but the others were in great part obliterated by a coat of white-wash. The only memorials that have been preserved of these very curious representations have been kindly exhibited to us. They are a series of very faithful drawings, by the accomplished lady to whom we are also indebted for the copy of the Boar's Head in Henry IV. Part I. The following is a fac-simile of one of the most elaborate of these frescoes, which bears the initials D. M. C., and the date 1617.