Fal. These fellows will do well, master Shal-As might hold sortance with his quality, low. God keep you, master Silence; I will not The which he could not levy; whereupon use many words with you:-Fare you well, gentle-He is retir'd, to ripe his growing fortunes, men both: I thank you: I must a dozen mile to-To Scotland: and concludes in hearty prayers, night.-Bardolph, give the soldiers coats. That your attempts may overlive the hazard, ground, Shal. Sir John, heaven bless you, and prosper And fearful meeting of their opposite. your affairs, and send us peace! As you return, Mowb. Thus do the hopes we have in him touch visit my house; let our old acquaintance be renewed: peradventure, I will with you to the court. And dash themselves to pieces. Fal. I would you would, master Shallow. Shal. Go to; I have spoke, at a word. Fare you Hast. well. [Exeunt Shallow and Silence. Enter a Messenger. Now, what news? Fal. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. On, Bar- In goodly form comes on the enemy: Mess. West of this forest, scarcely off a mile, dolph; lead the men away. [Exeunt Bardolph, Recruits, &c.] As I return, I will fetch off these And, by the ground they hide, I judge their number, justices: I do see the bottom of Justice Shallow. Upon, or near, the rate of thirty thousand. Mowb. The just proportion that we gave them Lord, lord, how subject we old men are to this out. Enter Westmoreland. vice of lying! This same starved justice hath done Let us sway on, and face them in the field. nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his youth, and the feats he hath done about Turnbullstreet; and every third word a lie, duer paid to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. I do remember him at Clement's-Inn, like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring: when he was naked, he was, for all the world, like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife: he was so forlorn, that his dimensions to any thick sight were invisible: he was the very genius of What doth concern your coming? famine; yet lecherous as a monkey, and the whores West. called him-mandrake: he came ever in the rear- Unto your grace do I in chief address ward of the fashion; and sung those tunes to the The substance of my speech. If that rebellion over-scutched huswives that he heard the carmen Came like itself, in base and abject routs, whistle, and sware-they were his fancies, or his Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rage, good-nights. And now is this Vice's dagger be- And countenanc'd by boys, and beggary; come a squire; and talks as familiarly of John of I say, if damn'd commotion so appear'd, Gaunt, as if he had been sworn brother to him: In his true, native, and most proper shape, and I'll be sworn he never saw him but once in the You, reverend father, and these noble lords, Tilt-yard; and then he burst his head, for crowd- Had not been here, to dress the ugly form ing among the marshal's men. I saw it; and told Of base and bloody insurrection Arch. What well-appointed leader fronts us Mowb. I think, it is my lord of Westmoreland. Then, my lord, John of Gaunt, he beat his own name: for you With your fair honours. You, lord archbishop,might have truss'd him, and all his apparel, into an Whose see is by a civil peace maintain'd; eel-skin; the case of a treble hautboy was a man- Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch'd; sion for him, a court; and now has he land and Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor❜d; beeves. Well; I will be acquainted with him, if Whose white investments figure innocence, I return: and it shall go hard, but I will make him The dove and very blessed spirit of peace,a philosopher's two stones to me: If the young dace Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself, be a bait for the old pike, I see no reason, in the Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace, law of nature, but I may snap at him. Let time Into the harsh and boist'rous tongue of war? shape, and there an end. ACT IV. [Exit. Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood, SCENE I-A forest in Yorkshire. Enter the Briefly to this end:-We are all diseas'd; others. Arch. What is this forest call'd? Hast. 'Tis Gualtree forest, an't shall please your grace. Arch. Here stand, my lords; and send disco- To know the numbers of our enemies. "Tis well done. (1) In Clerkenwell. (2) Titles of little poems. (3) A wooden dagger like that used by the modern harlequin. Have brought ourselves into a burning fever, We see which way the stream of time doth run, Arch. My brother general, the commonwealth, I make my quarrel in particular. West. There is no need of any such redress; West. Cried hate upon him; and all their prayers, and Were set on Hereford, whom they doted on, And it proceeds from policy, not love. West. Mowbray, you overween, to take it so ; The king, that lov'd him, as the state stood then, not what: The earl of Hereford was reputed then In England the most valiant gentleman; West. That argues but the shame of your offence: A rotten case abides no handling. Hast. Hath the prince John a full commission, In very ample virtue of his father, To hear, and absolutely to determine Of what conditions we shall stand upon? West. That is intended' in the general's name : 8 I muse, you make so slight a question. Arch. Then take, my lord of Westmoreland, this schedule; For this contains our general grievances:- All members of our cause, both here and hence, West. This will I show the general. Please you, Upon such large terms, and so absolute, Who knows, on whom fortune would then have We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind, smil'd? But, if your father had been victor there, For all the country, in a general voice, (1) Lances. (2) Helmets. (4) Truncheon. That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff, Arch. No, no, my lord; Note this,—the king is (7) Understood. (8) Wonder. (9) Inventory. (10) Proper limits of reverence. (11) Trival. (12) The faith due to a king. Of dainty and such picking' grievances: To new remembrance: For full well he knows, He doth unfasten so, and shake a friend. In deeds dishonourable? You have taken up, Arch. Good my lord of Lancaster, The which hath been with scorn shov'd from the Whereon this Hydra son of war is born: Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd asleep, Hast. Besides, the king hath wasted all his rods And true obedience of this madness cur'd, On late offenders, that he now doth lack The very instruments of chastisement: Arch. 'Tis very true; And therefore be assur'd, my good lord marshal, Our peace will, like a broken limb united, Mowb. Be it so. Here is return'd my lord of Westmoreland. Re-enter Westmoreland. West. The prince is here at hand: Pleaseth your lordship, To meet his grace just distance 'tween our armies? Mowb. Your grace of York, in god's name then set forward. Arch. Before, and greet his grace :-my lord, we come. Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty. Mowb. If not, we ready are to try our fortunes Hast. And though we here fall down : P. John. You are too shallow, Hastings, much To sound the bottom of the after-times. How far forth you do like their articles? And swear here by the honour of my blood, SCENE II. Another part of the forest. P. John. You are well encounter'd here, --- ties, As we will ours: and here, between the armies, Good day to you, gentle lord archbishop ;- (1) Piddling, insignificant. (4) Labours of thought. I Arch. I take your princely word for these redresses. P. John. I give it you, and will maintain my word: And thereupon I drink unto your grace. Hast. Go, captain, [To an officer.] and deliver This news of peace; let them have pay, and part; tain. Arch. To you, my noble lord of Westmoreland. what pains have bestow'd, to breed this present peace, You would drink freely: but my love to you Shall show itself more openly hereafter. Arch. I do not doubt you. West. son; For I am, on the sudden, something ill. Go, my lord, And, let our army be discharged too.Exit Westmoreland. And, good my lord, so please you, let our trains! March by us; that we may peruse the men We should have cop'd withal. Arch. Go, good lord Hastings, And, ere they be dismiss'd, let them march by. [Exit Hastings. P. John. I trust, my lords, we shall lie to-night together. Re-enter Westmoreland. Now, cousin, wherefore stands our army still? West. The leaders, having charge from you to stand, Will not go off until they hear you speak. Re-enter Hastings. Hast. My lord, our army is dispers'd already: Like youthful steers unyok'd, they take their courses East, west, north, south; or, like a school broke up, Each hurries toward his home, and sporting-place. West. Good tidings, my lord Hastings; for the which P. John. I do arrest thee, traitor, of high treason:- [Exeunt. SCENE III-Another part of the Forest.Alarums: Excursions. Enter Falstaff and Colevile, meeting. Fal. What's your name, sir? of what condition are you ; and of what place, I pray? Cole. Are not you sir John Falstaff? Fal. As good a man as he, sir, whoe'er I am. Do ye yield, sir? or shall I sweat for you? If I do sweat, they are drops of thy lovers, and they weep for thy death: therefore rouse up fear and trembling, and do observance to my mercy. Cole. I think, you are sir John Falstaff; and, in that thought, yield me. Fal. I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine; and not a tongue of them all speaks any other word but my name. An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were simply the most active fellow in Europe: My womb, my womb, my womb, undoes me.-Here comes our general. Enter Prince John of Lancaster, Westmoreland, and others. P. John. The heat is past, follow no further now ; Call in the powers, good cousin Westmoreland.- Fal. I would be sorry, my lord, but it should be thus; I never knew yet, but rebuke and check was the reward of valour. Do you think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bullet? have I, in my poor and old motion, the expedition of thought? I have speeded hither with the very extremest inch of possibility; I have foundered nine-score and odd posts: and here, travel-tainted as I am, have, in my pure and immaculate valour, taken sír John Colevile of the dale, a most furious knight, and valorous enemy: But what of that? he saw me, and yielded; that I may justly say with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome,-I came, saw, and overcame. P. John. It was more of his courtesy than your deserving. Fal. I know not; here he is, and here I yield him and I beseech your grace, let it be booked with the rest of this day's deeds; or, by the Lord, I will have it in a particular ballad else, with mine own picture on the top of it, Colevile kissing my foot: To the which course if I be enforced, if you do not all show like gilt two-pences to me; and I, in the clear sky of fame, o'ershine you as much as the full moon doth the cinders of the element, which show like pins' heads to her; believe not the word of the noble: therefore let me have right, and let desert mount. P. John. Thine's too heavy to mount. P. John. Thine's too thick to shine. Cole. I am a knight, sir; and my name is-thou, like a kind fellow, gavest thyself away; and Colevile of the dale. Fal. Well then, Colevile is your name; a knight is your degree; and your place, the dale: Colevile shall still be your name;-a traitor your degree; and the dungeon your place, a place deep enough; so shall you still be Colevile of the dale. (2) Young bullocks. (1) Each army. I thank thee for thee. Re-enter Westmoreland. P. John. Now, have you left pursuit? (3) Foolishly. To York, to present execution:- And now despatch we toward the court, my I hear, the king my father is sore sick: report. P. John. Fare you well, Falstaff: I in my condition,2 Shall better speak of you than you deserve. [Exit. Fal. I would you had but the wit; 'twere better than your dukedom.-Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh;-but that's no marvel, he drinks no wine. There's never any of these demure boys come to any proof: for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood, and making many fishmeals, that they fall into a kind of male green-sickness; and then, when they marry, they get wenches: they are generally fools and cowards;-which some of us should be too, but for inflammation. A good sherris-sack hath a two-fold operation in it: SCENE IV.-Westminster. A room in the palace. Enter King Henry, Clarence, Prince Humphrey, Warwick, and others. K. Hen. Now, lords, if heaven doth give suc- To this debate that bleedeth at our doors, K. Hen. Humphrey, my son of Gloster, K. Hen. And how accompanied? P. Humph. No, my good lord; he is in presence here. Cla. What would my lord and father? How chance, thou art not with the prince thy ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish, and dull, and crudy vapours which enveron it: makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes; which delivered o'er to the voice, (the tongue,) which is He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas; the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second pro- Thou hast a better place in his affection, perty of your excellent sherris is,-the warming of Than all thy brothers: cherish it, my boy; the blood; which, before cold and settled, left the And noble offices thou may'st effect liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusilla- Of mediation, after I am dead, nimity and cowardice: but the sherris warms it, Between his greatness and thy other brethren :and makes it course from the inwards to the parts Therefore, omit him not; blunt not his love: extreme. It illumineth the face; which, as a bea- Nor lose the good advantage of his grace, con, gives warning to all the rest of this little king- By seeming cold, or careless of his will. dom, man, to arm: and then the vital commoners, For he is gracious, if he be observ'd;" and inland petty spirits, muster me all to their cap- He hath a tear for pity, and a hand tain, the heart; who, great, and puffed up with Open as day for melting charity: this retinue, doth any deed of courage; and this Yet notwithstanding, being incens'd, he's flint ; valour comes of sherris: So that skill in the wea- As humorous as winter, and as sudden pon is nothing, without sack; for that sets it a-As flaws congealed in the spring of day. work and learning, a mere hoard of gold kept by His temper, therefore, must be well observ'd: a devil; till sack commences it, and sets it in act Chide him for faults, and do it reverently, and use. Hereof comes it, that prince Harry is When you perceive his blood inclin'd to mirth: valiant: for the cold blood he did naturally inherit But, being moody, give him line and scope; of his father, he hath, like lean, steril, and bare Till that his passions, like a whale on ground, land, manured, husbanded, and tilled, with excel- Confound themselves with working. Learn this, lent endeavour of drinking good, and good store of Thomas, fertile sherris, that he is become very hot, and va- And thou shalt prove a shelter to thy friends; liant. If I had a thousand sons, the first human A hoop of gold, to bind thy brothers in; principle I would teach them, should be,-to for- That the united vessels of their blood, swear thin potations, and addict themselves to Mingled with venom of suggestion, sack. (As, force perforce, the age will pour it in,) Shall never leak, though it do work as strong As aconitum, or rash gunpowder. 8 Cla. I shall observe him with all care and love. Cla. He is not there to-day; he dines in London. Cla. With Poins, and other his continual followers. K. Hen. Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds; (6) Ready, prepared. (7) Has an attention shown him. |