Rend'ring faint quittance', wearied and out[down breath'd, To stormy passion, must perforce decay. Of wounds, and scars; and that his forward spirit 10 Would lift him where most trade of danger rang'd; Yet did you say,-Go forth; and none of this, Though strongly apprehended, could restrain The stiff-born action: What hath then befallen, Or what hath this bold enterprize brought forth 15 More than that being which was like to be? To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs, 20 35 Bard. We all, that are engaged to this loss, 251 hear for certain, and do speak the truth,- 45 A scaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel, North. I knew of this before; but, to speak This present grief had wip'd it from my mind. II. [Exe. A street in London. his sword and buckler. Ful. Sirrah, you giant! what says the doctor Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er to my water? 1 Quittance is return. By faint quittance is meant a faint return of blows. 2 i. e. reduced to a Jower temper, or, as it is usually called, let down. 'i. e. began to fall his courage, to let his spirits sink under his fortune. i. e. bend, yield to pressure. The dole of blows is the distribution of blows; dole originally signifying the portion of alms (consisting either of meat or money) given away at the door of a nobleman. That is, stands over his country to defend her as she lies bleeding on the ground. 11. c. greater and less. Page Page. He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy water: but, for the party that owed it, he might have more diseases than he knew for. Fal. Men of all sorts take a pride to gird' at me: The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, 5 man, is not able to invent any thing that tends to laughter, more than I invent, or is invented on me: I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee, like a sow, that hath overwhelmed all her litter 16 but one. If the prince put thee into my service for any other reason then to set me off, why then i have no judgment. Thou whoreson mandrake, thou art fitter to be worn in my cap, than to wait at my heels. I was never mann'd' with an agate 15 'till now: but I will neither set you in gold nor silver, but in vile apparel, and send you back again to your master, for a jewel; the juvenal, the prince your master, whose chin is not yet fiedg'd. I will sooner have a beard grow in the palm of my hand, than he shall get one on his cheek; yet lie will not stick to say, his face is a face-royal. Heaven may finish it when he will, it is not a hair amiss yet: he may keep it still as a face-royal, for a barber shall never earn sixpence out of it'; and 25 yet he will be crowing, as if he had writ man ever since his father was a batchelor. He may keep his own grace, but he is almost out of mine, I can assure him. -What said master Dombledon about the sattin for my short cloak, and slops? Page. He said, sir, you should procure him better assurance than Bardolph: he would not take his bond and yours; he lik'd not the security. 20 30 ja horse in Smithfield: If I could get me but a wife Fal. Wait close, I will not see him. Serv. He, my lord: but he hath since done good service at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is now going with some charge to the lord John of Lancaster. Ch. Just. What, to York? Call him back again. Fal. What a young knave, and beg! Is there not wars? is there not employment? Doth not the king lack subjects? do not the rebels want soldiers? Though it be a shame to be on any side but one, it is a worse shame to beg than to be on the worst side, were it worse than the name of rebellion can tell how to make it. Serv. You mistake me, sir. Fal. Why, sir, did I say you were an honest 35 man? Setting my knighthood and my soldiership aside, I had lied in my throat if I had said so. Fal. Let him be damn'd like the glutton: may his tongue be hotter!--A whoreson Achitophel a rascally yea-forsooth knave! to bear a gentlenian in hand, and then stand upon security!-The whoreson smooth-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes, and bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is thorough with them' in honest 40 taking up, then they must stand upon-security. I had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth, as offer to stop it with security. Hook'd he should have sent me two-and-twenty yards of sattin, as I am a true knight, and he sends me security. Well, he may sleep in security; for he hath the horn of abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it: and yet cannot he see, though he have s own lanthorn to light him.- Where's 2sardolph? Page. He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship a horse. Fal. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me Sere. I pray you, sir, then set your knighthood and your soldiership aside; and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man. Fal. I give thee leave to tell me so! Ilay aside that which grows to me! If thou get'st any leave of me, hang me; if thou tak'st leave, thou wert better be hang'd: You hunt-counter', hence! 45avaunt! Serv. Sir, my lord would speak with you. Ch. Just. Sir John Falstail, a word with you. Ful. My good lord!-God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to see your lordship 50 abroad: I heard say your lordship was sick: I hope, your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet some smack of age in you, some relish of the 3 1i. e. to gibe. 2 Mandrake is a root supposed to have the shape of a man. * That is, I never before had an agate for my man. Our author alludes to the little figures cut in agales and other hard stones, for seals; and therefore Falstaff says, Iwill set you neither in gold nor silver. i. e. the young man. Mr. Steevens thinks, "this quibbling allusion is to the English real, riál, or royal; and that the poet seems to mean, that a barber can no more earn sixpence by his face-royal, than by the face stamped on the coin called a royal; the one requiring as little shaving as the other." That is, to keep a gentleman in expectation. To be thorough seems to be the same with the present phrase to be in with (in debt) a tradesman. At that time the resort of idle people, cheats, and knights of the post. This judge was Sir William Gascoigne, chief justice of the king's-bench. He died December, 17, 1413, and was buried in Harwood church, in Yorkshire. 10 That is, blunderer. saltness 7 your saltness of time; and I most humbly beseech your] lordship, to have a reverent care of your health. before you Ch. Just. Sir John, I sent for expedition to Shrewsbury. Fal. If it please your lordship, I hear his majesty is return'd with some discomfort from Wales. -You Ch. Just. I talk not of his majesty :-would not come when I sent for you. Fal. And I hear moreover, his highness is fallen into this same whoreson apoplexy. Ch. Just. Well, heaven mend him! I pray, let me speak with you. Fal. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy, an't please your lordship; a kind of sleeping in the blood, a whoreson tingling. Ch. Just. What tell you me of it? be it as it is. Fal. It hath its original from much grief; from study, and pertubation of the brain: I have read the cause of his effects in Galen; it is a kind of deafness. Ch. Just. I think you are fallen into the disease; for you hear not what I say to you. 5 10 15 20 Fal. Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an't please you, it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal. 25 Ch. Just. To punish you by the heels, would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not if I do become your physician. Ful. I am as poor as Job, my lord; but not so patient: your lordship may minister the potion of 30 imprisonment to me, in respect of poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or, indeed, a scruple itself. Ch. Just. I sent for you, when there were mat-35 ters against you for your life, to come speak with me. Fal. As I was then advised by my learned counsel in the laws of this land-service, I did not come. Ch. Just. Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live 40 in great infumy. Fal. He that buckles him in my belt, cannot live in less. Ch. Just. Your means are very slender, and your waste great. Fal. I would it were otherwise; I would my means were greater, and my waist slenderer. Fal. To wake a wolf, is as bad as to smell a fox. Ch. Just. What! you are as a candle, the better part burnt out. Fat. A wassel candle, my lord; all tallow: but it I did say of wax, my growth would approve the truth. Ch. Just. There is not a white hair on your face, but should have his effect of gravity. Fal. His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy. Ch. Just. You follow the young prince up and down, like his ill angel. Ful. Not so, my lord; your ill angel is light; but, I hope, he that looks upon me, will take me without weighing: and yet, in some respects, I grant, I cannot go, I cannot tell3: Virtue is of so little regard in these coster-monger times, that true valour is turn'd bear-herd: Pregnancy is made a tapster, and hath his quick wit wasted in giving reckonings: all the other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this age shapes them, are not worth a gooseberry. You, that are old, consider not the capacities of us that are young; you measure the heat of our livers with the bitterness of your galls: and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confess, are wags too. Ch. Just. Do you set down your name in the scrowl of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age? Have you not a moist eye? a dry hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a decreasing leg? an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken? your wind short? your chin double?your wit single? and every part about you blasted with antiquity? and will you Fie, fie, fie, Sir yet call yourself young? John! Ful. My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the afternoon, with a white head, and something a round belly. For my voice,-I have lost it with hallowing and singing of anthems. To approve my youth further, I will not: the truth is, I am only old in judgment and understanding; and he that will caper with me for thousand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him. For the box o' the ear that the prince gave took it like a rude prince, and you 45 you,-he gave it like a sensible lord. I have check'd him for it; and the young lion repents: marry, not in ashes, and sack-cloth; but in new silk, and old sack. Ch. Just. You have mis-led the youthful prince. Fal. The young prince hath mis-led me: I am the fellow with the great belly, and he my dog'. 50 Ch. Just. Well, I am loth to gall a new-heal'd wound; your day's service at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your night's exploit on Gads-hill: you may thank the unquiet time for your quiet o'er-posting that action. Fal. My lord? Ch. Just. But since all is well, keep it so: wake not a sleeping wolf. Ch. Just. Well, heaven send the prince a better companion! Ful. Heaven send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my hands of him. you and Ch. Just. Well, the king hath sever'd prince Harry: I hear, you are going with lord 55 John of Lancaster, against the archbishop, and the earl of Northumberland, it. Fal. Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for But look you, pray, all you that kiss my lady 1 Dr. Johnson says, he does not understand this joke; that dogs lead the blind, but why does a dog lead the fat? To which Dr. Farmerrjeplies, "If the Fellow's great Belly prevented him from seeing his A wassel candle is a large candle lighted up at way, he would want a dog, as well as a blind man." 4 That is, in these times, when the prevalence of a feast. trade has produced that meanness that rates the merit of every thing by money. A coster monger is a costard-monger, a dealer in apples, called by that name, because they are shaped like a costard, i. e. a man's head. cannot pass current. ' Meaning, Pregnancy is readiness. i. e. old age. peace peace at home, that our armies join not in a hot Ch. Just. Well, be honest, be honest; And heaven bless your expedition! Fal. Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound to furnish me forth? [Upon the power and puissance of the king, Bard. The question then, lord Hastings, stand- Whether our present five and twenty thousand Bard. Ay, marry, there's the point; Ch. Just. Not a penny, not a penny; you are 20 too impatient to bear crosses'. Fare you well: Commend me to my cousin Westmoreland. [Exit. Fal. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle'.-A man can no more separate age and covetousness, than he can part young limbs and le-25 chery: but the gout galls the one, and the pos pinches the other; and so both the degrees prevent my curses.-Boy! Page. Sir? Fal. What money is in my purse? Fal. I can get no remedy against this consump- SCENE III. our means; And, my most noble friends, I pray you all, Mowb. I well allow the occasion of our arms; How, in our means, we should advance ourselves Eating the air on promise of supply, Hust. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt, 'i. e. May I never have my stomach inflamed again with liquor; to spit white, being the consequence of inward heat. 2 A quibble was probably here intended on the word cross, which meant a coin so called, because stamped with a cross, as well as a disappointment or trouble. A beetle wielded by three men. i. e. anticipate my curses. i. e. profit, self-interest. 3 I think, I think, we are a body strong enough, Hast. If he should do so, He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh| Baying him at the heels: never fear that. [ther? Their over-greedy love hath surfeited :An habitation giddy and unsure Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart. O thou fond many! with what loud applause 5Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke, Before he was what thou would'st have him be? And being now trimm'd up in thine own desires, Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him, That thou provok'st thyself to cast him up. 10 So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard; And now thou would'st eat thy dead vomit up, And howl'st to find it. What trust is in these times? They that, when Richardliv'd, would have him die, 15 Are now become enamour'd on his grave: Thou, that threw'st dust upon his goodly head, When through proud London he came sighing on After the admired heels of Bolingbroke, Cry'st now, O earth, give us that king again, And take thou this! O thoughts of men accurst! Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst. Moub. Shall we go draw our numbers, and set Bard. Who, is it like, should lead his forces hi- York. Let us on; And publish the occasion of our arms. The commonwealth is sick of their own choice, on? Hast. We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone. [Exeunt. SCENE I. A Street in London. ACT II. Enter Hostess; Phang, and his boy, with her; and Snare following. Host. MASTER Phang, have you enter'd the action? Phang. It is enter’d. master Phang, hold him sure;-good master Snare, let him not 'scape. He comes continually to Pye35 corner, (saving your manhoods) to buy a saddle; and he's indited to dinner to the lubbar's head in Lumbart-street, to master Smooth's the silkman: I pray ye, since my exion is enter'd, and my case so openly known to the world, let him be brought Host. Where is your yeoman? Is it a lusty yeo 40 in to his answer. A hundred mark is a long loan Host. Alas the day! take heed of him: he stabb'd 50 me in mine own house, and that most beastly: he cares not what mischief he doth, if his weapon be out: he will foin like any devil; he will spare neither man, woman, nor child. Phang. If I can close with him, I care not for 55 his thrust. Host. No, nor I neither; I'll be at your elbow. Phung. An I but fist him once; an he come but within my vice'; for a poor lone woman' to bear: and I have borne, and borne, and borne; and have been fub'd off, and fub'd 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, to bear every knave's wrong. Enter Sir John Falstaff, Bardolph, and the Page, Yonder he comes; and that arrant malmsey-nose* knave, Bardolph, with him. Do your offices, do your offices, master Phang, and master Snare; do me, do me, do me your offices. Fal. How now? who's mare's dead? what's the matter? Phang. Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of mistress Quickly. Ful. Away, varlets!-Draw, Bardolph; cut me off the villain's head; throw the quean in the kennel. Host. I am undone by his going; I warrant you, 60 Host. Throw me in the kennel? I'll throw thee he's an infinitive thing upon my score:-Good in the kennel. Wilt thou? wilt thou? thou baş 2 'Vice or grasp; a metaphor taken from a smith's vice. Perhaps a corruption of the Libbard'sbead. A lone woman is a desolate unfriended woman. That is, red nose, from the effect of Malmsey wine. tardly |