jesty, by this light flesh and corrupt blood, thou
art welcome.
upon
[Leaning his hand Doll
Dol. How! you fat fool, I scorn you.
Poins. My lord, he will drive you out of your
revenge, and turn all to a merrinient, if you take
not the heat.

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

5

Host. Blessing o' your good heart! and so she 10 is, by my troth.

Fal. Didst thou hear me?

P. Henry. Yes; and your knew me, as you did when you ran away by Gads-hill: you knew, I was at your back: and spoke it on purpose, to try 15 my patience.

Fut No, no, no; not so: I did not think thou wast within hearing.

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

Fal. No abuse, Hal, on mine honour; no abuse.
P. Henry. No! to dispraise me; and call me--
pantler, and bread-chipper, and I know not what?
Ful. No abuse, Hal.
Poins. No abuse!

20

25

Ful. Noabuse, Ned, in the world; honest Ned, none. I disprais'd him before the wicked, that the wicked might not fall in love with him:-in which doing, I have done the part of a carefu friend, and a true subject, and thy father is to give 30 me thanks for it. No abuse, fial;--none, Ned, none;-no, boys, none.

P. Henry. See now, whether pure fear, and entire cowardice, doth not make thee wrong this virtuous gentlewoman to close with us? Is she of the 35 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 prick'd down Bardolph irre-40] coverable; and his face is Lucifer's privy kitchen, where he doth nothing but roast malt-worms. For the boy, there is a good angel about him; but the devil out-bids him too.

P. Henry. 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 damn'd 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 indict

ment 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's a joint of mutton or two, in a whole Lent?

P. Henry. You, gentlewoman,—
Dol. 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. Henry. 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. Henry. By heaven, l'oins, I feel me much
to blame,

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

Fal. Now comes in the sweetest morsel of the night, and we must hence, and leave it unpick'd, More knocking at the door?-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.]Farewel, hostess;-farewel, Doll.-You see, my good wenches, how men of merit are sought after: the undeserver may sleep, when the man of action is call'd on.-Farewel, good wenches:-If I be not sent away post, I will see you again ere I go.

Dol. I cannot speak;-if my heart be not ready o burst:-Well, sweet Jack, have a care of thyelf.

Fal. Farewel, farewel. [Exeunt Fal. and Bard. Host. Well, fare thee well: I have known thee 45 these twenty-nine years, come pescod-time; but in honester and truer-hearted man,—Well, fare hee well.

Bard. [within.] Mistress Tear-sheet,—
Host. What's the matter?

[ter.

501

Bard. Bid mistress Tear-sheet come to my mas-
Host. O run, Doll, run; run, good Doll.[Exeunt.

SCENE

The Palace.

I.

ACT

Enter King Henry, in his night-gown, with a Page.
K. Henry.GO, call the earls of Surrey, and of

Warwick;

[ters,

But, ere they come, bid them o'er-read these let

III.

And well consider of them: Make good speed.→→
[Exit Page.

60 How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep!-O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eye-lids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

Meaning, thou inexhaustible magazine of tallow,

Why

Why, rather, sleep, ly'st thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,

And hush'd with buzzing night flies to thy slumber;
Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state,
And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody?
O thou dull god, why ly'st thou with the vile,
In loathsome beds; and leav'st the kingly couch
'A watch-case, or a common larum bell?
Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge;
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
With deaf'ning clamours in the slippery clouds,
Tha', with the hurly', death itself awakes?
Can'st thou, partial sleep! give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude;
And, in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down3!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
Enter Warwick and Surrey.

War. Many good-morrows to your majesty!
K. Henry. Is it good-morrow, lords?

War. 'Tis one o'clock, and past.

K. Henry. Why then, good morrow to you.
Well, my lords,

Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you?
Wor. We have, my liege.
[kingdom
K. Henry. Then you perceive, the body of our
How foul it is; what rank diseases grow,
And with what danger, near the heart of it.
War. It is but as a body, yet distemper'd*;
Which to its former strength may be restor❜d,
With good advice, and little medicine :-

My lord Northumberland will soon be cool'd.
K, Henry. O heaven! that one might read the
book of fate;

And see the revolution of the times

Make mountains level, and the continent
(Weary of solid firmness) melt itself
Into the sea! and, other times, to see

The beachy girdle of the ocean

Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock,
And changes fill the cup of alteration
With divers liquors! O, if this were seen,

The happiest youth,viewing his progress through
What perils past, what crosses to ensue,-

Would shut the book, and sit him down and die,
'Tis not ten years gone,

Since Richard and Northumberland, great friends,
Did feast together, and, in two years after,

5 Were they at wars: It is but eight years, since
This Percy was the man nearest my soul;
Who like a brother toil'd in my affairs,
And laid his love and life under my foot;
Yea, for my sake, even to the eyes of Richard,
10 Gave him defiance. But which of you was by,
(You, cousin Nevil', as I may remember)

[To Warwick.
When Richard,with his eye brim-full of tears,
Then check'd and rated by Northumberland,-
15 Did speak these words, now prov'd a prophecy?
Northumberland, thou ladder, by the which
My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my thrane;
Though then, heaven knows, I had no such intent;
But that necessity so bow'd the state,

20 That I and greatness were compli'd to kiss:-
The time shall come, thus did he follow it,
The time will come, that foul sin, gathering head,
Shall break into corruption :--so went on,
Foretelling this same time's condition,

25 And the division of our amity.

War. There is a history in all men's lives,
Figuring the nature of the times deceas'd:
The which observ'd, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
30 As yet not come to life; which in their seeds,
And weak beginnings, lie entreasured."

Such things become the hatch and brood of time;
And, by the necessary form of this,

King Richard might create a perfect guess,
35 That great Northumberland, then false to him,
Would, of that seed, grow to a greater falseness;
Which should not find a ground to root upon,
Unless on you.

K. Henry. Are these things then necessities?→
40 Then let us meet them like necessities:-
And that same word' even now cries out on us;
They say, the bishop and Northumberland
Are fifty thousand strong.

War. It cannot be, my lord;

45 Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo, The numbers of the fear'd:-Please it your grace, To go to bed; upon my life, my lord,

The powers that you already have sent forth, Shall bring this prize in very easily. 50To comfort you the more, l'have receiv'd

2

This alludes to the watchman set in garrison-towns upon some eminence attending upon an alarum. bell, which he was to ring out in case of fire, or any approaching danger. He had a case or box to shelter him from the weather, but at his utmost peril he was not to sleep whilst he was upon duty. These alarum-bells are mentioned in several other places of Shakspeare. Hurly means noise, from the French harler, to howl. 3 Warburton thinks this passage to be evidently corrupted from happy lowly clown; these two lines making the just conclusion from what preceded: "If sleep will fly a king and consort itself with beggars, then happy the lowly clown, and uneasy the crown'd head." "Dr. Johnson observes, that distemper (which, according to the old physic, is a disproportionate mixture of humours, or inequality of innate heat and radical humidity) is less than actual disease, being only the state which foreruns or produces diseases; and that the difference between distemper and disease seems to be much the same as between disposition and habit. 'Mr. Steevens observes, that Shakspeare has mistak in the name of this nobleman. The earldom of Warwick was at this time in the family of Beauchump, and did not come into that of the Nevils till the latter end of the reign of king Henry VI. when it descended to Anne Beauchamp, (the daughter of the earl here introduced), who was married to Richard Nevil, earl of Salisbury. He refers to King Richard, Act V. Scene II.; but Warwick was not present at that conversation. Meaning, necessity. . A cer

7

5

10

Justice Shallow's Seat in Gloucestershire. En er Shallow meeting Silence. Mouldy, Shadow, Wart, Feeble, and Bull-calf, Servants, &c.behind. Shal. Come on, come on, come on; give me your hand, sir, give me your hand, sir: an early stirrer, by the rood'. And how doth my good 15 cousin Silence?

Sit. Good-morrow, good cousin Shallow.
Shal. And how doth my cousin, your bed-fel-
low? and your fairest daughter, and mine, my god-
daughter Elien?

Sil. Alas, a black ouzel, cousin Shallow,
Shal. By yea and nay, sir, I dare say, my cousin
William is become a good scholar: He is at Ox-
ford still, is he not?

Sil. Indeed, sir; to my cost.
Shal. He must then to the inns of court shortly:
I was once of Clement's-inn; where, I think, they
will talk of mad Shallow yet.

Sil. Dead, sir.

Shal. Dead-See, see!-he drew a good bow; -And dead!-he shot a fine shoot:-John of Gaunt lov'd him well, and betted much money on his head. Dead!--he would have clapp'd i' the clout' at twelve score; and carry'd you a fore-hand shaft a fourteen and fourteen and a half, that it would have done a man's heart good to see.How a score of ewes now?

Sil. Thereafter as they be: a score of good ewes may be worth ten pounds. Shal. And is old Double dead?

Enter Bardolph and his Boy. Sil. Here come two of Sir John Falstaff's men, as I think.

Bard. Good-morrow, honest gentlemen: I beseech you, which is Justice Shallow?

Shal. I am Robert Shallow, sir; a poor esquire of this county, and one of the king's justices of the 20 peace: What is your good pleasure with me?

25

Sil. You were call'd-lusty Shallow, then, cousin. Shal. I was call'd any thing; and I would have 30 done any thing, indeed, and roundly too. There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordshire, and black George Bare, and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele, a Cotswold man,-you had not four such swinge-bucklers' in all the inns of court again:35 and, I may say to you, we knew where the bonarobas were; and had the best of them all at commandment. Then was Jack Faistafl, now Sir John, a boy; and page to Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk,

Sil. This Sir John, cousin, that comes hither anon about soldiers?

I

Bard. My captain, sir, commends him to you; my captain, Sir John Falstaff: a tall gentleman, by heaven, and a most gallant leader.

Shal. He greets me well, sir: I knew him a good back-sword man: How doth the good knight? may I ask, how my lady his wife doth?

Bard. Sir, pardon; a soldier is better accommodated, than with a wife.

Shal. It is well said, sir; and it is well said indeed, too. Better accommodated!-it is good; yea, indeed, is it: good phrases are surely, and ever were, very commendable. Accommodated! -it comes of accommodo: very good; a good phrase".

Bard. Pardon, sir; I have heard the word. Phrase, call you it! By this day, I know not the phrase: but I will maintain the word with my sword, to be a soldier-like word, and a word of exceeding good command. Accommodated; that 40s, when a man is, as they say, accommodated: or, when a man is,--being,--whereby,—he may be thought to be accommodated; which is an excellent thing.

Shal. The same Sir John, the very same. saw him break Skogau's' head at the court gate, when he was a crack, not thus high: and the 45| very same day I did fight with one Sampson Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's-ion. O, the mad days that I have spent! and to see how many of mine old acquaintances are dead!

Sil. We shall all follow, cousin.

Shal. Certain, 'tis certain; very sure, very sure: death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all; all shall die.. How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair?

Sil. Truly, cousin, I was not there.

Shal. Death is certain.-Is old Double of your town living yet?

3

50

Enter Falstaff.

Shal. It is very just:-Look, here comes good SirJohn.-Give me your good hand, give me your worship's good hand: By my troth, you look well, and bear your years very well: welcome, good Sir John.

Fal. I am glad to see you well, good master Robert Shallow;--Master Sure-card, as I think. Shul. No, Sir John; it is my cousin Silence, in commission with me.

Fal. Good master Silence, it well befits you 155 should be of the peace.

Sil. Your good worship is welcome.
Fal. Fie! this is hot weather.-Gentlemen,

1i. e. the cross. For an account of the Cotswold games, so famous in Shakspeare's time, s e note 2, p. 46. Swinge-bucklers and swash-bucklers were words implying rakes or rioters, in the time of Shakspeare. i. e. ladies of pleasure, or harlots. "We learn from a masque of Ben Jonson's, that Scogan was "a fine gentleman, and a master of arts of Henry the fourth's times, that made dis guises for the king's sons, and writ in ballad royal daintily well." This is an old Islandic word signiying a boy or child. i. e. hit the white mark. i. e. fourteen score of yards. Accommodate was a modish term of that time, as Ben Jonson informs us.

6

have

10

Moul. I was prick'd well enough before, an 20 you could have let me alone: my old dame will be undone now, for one to do her husbandry, and her drudgery: you need not to have prick'd me; there are other men fitter to go out than I.

Fal. Go to; peace, Mouldy, you shall go 25 Mouldy, it is time you were spent.

Fal. Thou art a very ragged wart.

Shal. Shall I prick him, Sir John?

Fal. It were superfluous; for his apparel is built upon his back, and the whole frame stands

upon pins: prick him no more.

Shal. Ha, ha, ha!-you can do it, sir: you can 55 Shal. Nay, she must be old; she cannot chuse

That is, we have in the muster-book many names for which we receive pay, though we have not

Fal. We have heard the chimes at midnight,] master Shallow.

Shal. That we have, that we have, that we have; in faith, Sir John, we have; our watchword was, Hem, boys !---Come, let's to dinner; come, let's to dinner :-0, the days that we have seen!-Come,come. [Exeunt Falstaff,and Justices.

5

And this same half-fac'd fellow Shadow,-give me this man; he presents no mark to the enemy; the fore-man may with as great aim level at the edge of a pen-knife: And, for a retreat,-how swiftly will this Feeble, the woman's taylor, run off? Ổ, give me the spare men, and spare me the great jones.-Put me a' caliver into Wart's hand, Bardolph.

Bull. Good master corporate Bardolph, stand my friend; and here is four Harry ten shillings in Bard. Hold, Wart, traverse; thus, thus, thus. French crowns for you. In very truth, sir, I had 10 Fal. Come, manage me your caliver. So:as lief be hang'd, sir, as go: and yet for mine own very well:-goto:-very good:-exceeding good: part, sir, I do not care: but, rather, because I am, give me always a little, lean, old, chopp'd, unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my friends; else, sir, I did not care, for mine own part, so much.

Bard. Go to; stand aside.

Moul. And, good master corporal captain, for my old dame's sake, stand my friend: she has nobody to do any thing about her, when I am gone; and she is old, and cannot help herself: you shall have forty, sir.

Bard. Go to; stand aside.

15

bald shot'.- -Well said, Wart; thou'rt a good scab: hold, there's a tester for thee.

Shal. He is not his craft's master, he doth not do it right. I remember at Mile-end green, when I lay at Clement's-inn, (I was then Sir Dagonet' in Arthur's show) there was a little quiver fellow, and a would manage you his piece thus: and 'a 20,would about, and about, and come you in, and come you in: rah, tah, tah, would 'a say; bounce, would 'a say; and away again would 'a go, and again would 'a come; shall never see such a fellow.

Feeble. I care not;-a man can die but once;-
we owe God a death;--I'll ne'er bear a basel
mind:-an't be my destiny, so: an't be not, 50:25|
No man's too good to serve his prince: and let it
go which way it will, he that dies this year, is
quit for the next.

Bard. Well said; thou'rt a good fellow.
Feeble. 'Faith, I'll bear no base mind.

[Re-enter Falstaff, and Justices.

Fal. Come, sir, which men shall I have?

Fal. Mouldy, and Bull-calf: For you, Mouldy, stay at home till you are past service:—and, for your part, Bull-calf,-grow 'till you come unto it; I will none of you.

Fal. These fellows will do well, master Shallow.-God keep you, master Silence; I will not use many words with you:-Fare you well, gentlemen both: I thank you: I must a dozen mile to-night.Bardolph, give the soldiers

30 coats.

35

Shal. Sir John, heaven bless you, and prosper your affairs, and send us peace! As you return, visit my house; let our old acquaintance be renew'd: peradventure I will with you to the court. Fal. I would you would, master Shallow. Shal. Go to; I have spoke, at a word. Fare you well. [Exeunt Shallow and Silence. Fal. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen.—On, Bardolph; leadthe men away.-[Exeunt Bardolph, 40 Recruits, &c.]-As I return, I will fetch off these justices; I do see the bottom of justice Shallow. [Lord, lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying! This same starved justice hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his youth, and the feats he hath done about Turnbull-street'; 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

Shat. Sir John, Sir John, do not yourself wrong; 45 they are your likeliest men, and I would have you serv'd with the best.

Fal. Will you tell me, master Shallow, how to chuse a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes', the stature, bulk, and big assemblance of a man: 50 all the world, like a fork'd radish, with a head fangiveme the spirit, master Shallow.-Here's Wart; you see what a ragged appearance it is: he shall charge you, and discharge you, with the motion of a pewterer's hammer; come off, and on, swifter than he that gibbets on the brewer's bucket'.

tastically carv'd upon it with a knife: he was so forlorn, that his dimensions to any thick sight were invisible; he was the very Genius of famine; yet lecherous as a monkey, and the whores call'd him 55,-mandrake: he came ever in the rear-ward of

1i. e. the muscular strength or appearance of manhood. 2 That is, swifter than he who carries beer from the vat to the barrel, in buckets hung upon a gibbet or beam crossing his shoulders. 3 A hand-gun. *Shot is used for shooter, one who is to fight by shooting. 'Dr. Johnson observes, that the story of Sir Dagonet is to be found in La Mort d' Arthure, an old romance much celebrated in our author's time, or a little before it. In this romance Sir Dagonet is king Arthur's fool (Dr. Warburton says, his squire). Shakspeare would not have shewn his Justice capable of representing any higher character. Turnbull or Turnmill-street is near Cow-Cross, West Simithiield, which was formerly called Ruthan's Hall, where turbulent fellows met to try their skill at sword and buckler, and was notorious for the number of its houses of ill-fame.

the