SCENE III. Eastcheap. A room in the Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH. Fal. Bardolph, am I not fall'n away vilely since this last action? do I not bate?" do I not dwindle? Why, my skin hangs about me like an old lady's loose gown; I am withered like an old apple-john." Well, I'll repent, and that suddenly, while I am in some liking;7 I shall be out of heart shortly, and then I shall have no strength to repent. An I have not forgotten what the inside of a church is made of, I am a peppercorn, a brewer's horse. The inside of a church! Company, villanous company, hath been the spoil of me. 12 Fal. No, I'll be sworn; I make as good use of it as many a man doth of a Death's-head or a memento mori. I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire and Dives that liv'd in purple; for there he is in his robes, burning, burning. If thou wert any way given to virtue, I would swear by thy face; my oath should be "By this fire that 's God's angel:" but thou art altogether given over, and wert indeed,} but for the light in thy face, the son of utter) darkness. When thou rann'st up Gadshill in the night to catch my horse, if I did not think thou hadst been an ignis-fatuus or a ball of wildfire, there's no purchase in money. thou art a perpetual triumph, an everlasting? bonfire-light! Thou hast sav'd me a thousand) marks in links 10 and torches, walking with thee? in the night betwixt tavern and tavern; but the sack that thou hast drunk me would have bought me lights as good cheap" at the dearest chandler's in Europe. I have maintain'd that salamander of yours with fire any time this two and thirty years; God reward me for it! Bard. 'Sblood, I would my face were in your belly! 57 Fal. Ye lie, hostess: Bardolph was shav'd and lost many a hair; and I'll be sworn my pocket was pick'd. Go to, you are a woman, go. Host. Who, I? no; I defy thee. God's light! I was never call'd so in mine own house before. Fal. Go to, I know you well enough. Host. No, Sir John; you do not know me, Sir John. I know you, Sir John; you owe me money, Sir John, and now you pick a quarrel to beguile me of it. I bought you a dozen of shirts to your back. 73 Host. Now, as I am a true woman, holland of eight shillings an ell. You owe money here besides, Sir John, for your diet and by-drinkings, and money lent you, four and twenty pound. Fal. He had his part of it; let him pay. Host. He alas, he is poor; he hath nothing. Fal. How! poor? look upon his face; what call you rich? let them coin his nose, let them coin his cheeks. I'll not pay a denier. What, will you make a younker of me? shall I not take mine ease in mine inn but I shall have my pocket pick'd? I have lost a seal-ring of my grandfather's worth forty mark. Host. Jesu, I have heard the prince tell him, I know not how oft, that that ring was copper! Fal. How the prince is a Jack, a sneakcup; 's blood! an he were here, I would cudgel him like a dog, if he would say so. 101 Fal. The other night I fell asleep here behind the arras and had my pocket pick'd: [this house is turn'd bawdy-house; they pick pockets.] Prince. What didst thou lose, Jack? Fal. Wilt thou believe me, Hal? three or four bonds of forty pound a-piece, and a sealring of my grandfather's. Prince. A trifle, some eight-penny matter. Host. So I told him, my lord; and I said I heard your grace say so: and, my lord, he speaks most vilely of you, like a foul-mouth'd man as he is, and said he would cudgel you. Prince. What! he did not? Host. There's neither faith, truth, nor womanhood in me else. 124 Host. Who, I? no; I defy thee. God's light! I was never call'd so in mine own house before.-(Act iii. 3. 71, 72.) Fal. Hostess, I forgive thee: go, make ready breakfast; love thy husband, look to thy servants, cherish thy guests: thou shalt find me tractable to any honest reason; thou seest I am pacified.-Still? Nay, prithee, be gone.[Exit Hostess.] Now, Hal, to the news at court; for the robbery, lad, how is that answered? Prince. O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee; the money is paid back again. 200 Prince. Go bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster, to my brother John; this to my Lord of Westmoreland.-[Exit Bardolph.] Go, Poins, to horse, to horse; for thou and I have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time.-[Exit Poins.] Jack, meet me to-morrow in the Temple Hall at two o'clock in the after ACT IV. SCENE I. The rebel camp near Shrewsbury. In this fine age were not thought flattery, By God, I cannot flatter; 'I defy The tongues of soothers; but a braver place 10 5 Defy, abjure. 7 Task, test. 8 Approve, prove. 20 Wor. Your father's sickness is a maim to us 5 His... want, our want of him. 50 |