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A plague of this gout! it plays the rogue with my great toe. It is no matter, if I do halt; I have the wars for my colour, and my pension shall seem the more reasonable: A good wit will make use of any thing; I will turn diseases to commodity.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

The Archbishop of York's Palace in Yorkshire.

The Archbishop of YORK, Lord HASTINGS, Thomas MOWBRAY (Earl Marshal), and two other Gentlemen, discovered, seated.

They rise.

Archb. Thus have you heard our cause, and known

our means;

And, my most noble friends, I pray you all,
Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes.

Hast. Our present musters grow upon the file
To five and twenty thousand men of choice;
And our supplies live largely in the hope
Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns
With an incensed fire of injuries.

Mow. The question then, lord Hastings, standeth

thus;-
Whether our present five and twenty thousand
May hold up head without Northumberland.
Hast. With him, we may.

Mow. Ay, marry, there's the point :-
But if without him we be thought too feeble?-
My judgement is, we should not step too far
Till we had his assistance by the hand;
For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this,
Conjecture, expectation, and surmise
Of aids uncertain, should not be admitted.

Archb. "T is very true, lord marshal; for, indeed,
It was young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury.
Mow. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with
hope,

5

Eating the air on promise of supply,
Flattering himself in project of a power
Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts;

And so, with great imagination,

Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,

And, winking, leap'd into destruction.

Hast. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt, Co lay down likelihoods, and forms of hope. Mow. Yes, in this present quality of war, Indeed of instant action: A cause on foot Lives so in hope, as in an early spring Ve see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit, Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair, Chat frosts will bite them.

Hast. I think, we are a body strong enough, Even as we are, to equal with the king.

Archb. What! is the king but five and twenty

Hast. To us, no more; nay, not so much, my lord;

Tor his divisions, as the times do brawl,

re in three heads: one power against the French, and one against Glendower; perforce, a third Must take up us.

Archb. Who, is it like, should lead his forces hither?

Hast. Prince John of Lancaster, and Westmoreland: gainst the Welsh, himself, and Harry Monmouth: But who is substituted 'gainst the French, have no certain notice.

Archb. Let us on;

nd publish the occasion of our arms.

The commonwealth is sick of their own choice,
Their over-greedy love hath surfeited:-
- habitation giddy and unsure

Iath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.

thou fond many, with what loud applause

idst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke, efore he was what thou wouldst have him be,

And being now trimm'd in thine own desires,
Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him,
That thou provok'st thyself to cast him up!
What trust is in these times ?

They that, when Richard liv'd, would have him die,
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.

SCENE III.

A Street in London.

Enter Hostess, FANG, and SNARE.

[Exeunt.

Host. Master Fang, have you enter'd the action ? Fang. It is enter'd.-Snare, we must arrest sir John Falstaff.

- Snare. It may chance cost some of us our lives, for he will stab.

Fang. An I but fist him once; an a' come but within my vice;

Host. I am undone by his going; I warrant you, he's an infinitive thing upon my score:---Good master Fang, hold him sure:-good master Snare, let him not "scape. He comes continuantly to Pye-corner, (saving your manhoods,) to buy a saddle; and he's in. dited to dinner to the Lubbar's-head in Lumbartstreet, 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 in to his answer. A hundred mark is a long loan for a poor lone woman to bear; and I have borne, and borne, and borne; and have been fubb'd off, and fubb'd off, from this day to that day, that it is a shame to be

hought on. There is no honesty in such dealing: nless a woman should be made an ass, and a beast, › bear every knave's wrong.--Yonder he comes; and iat arrant malmsey-nose knave, Bardolph, with him. Do your offices, do your offices, master Fang, and master Snare; do me, do me, do me your offices.

Enter Sir JOHN FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, and the Page.

Fal. How now! whose mare's dead? what's the matter?

Fang. Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of mistress Quickly.

Fal. Away, varlets!-Draw, Bardolph; cut me off he villain's head; throw the quean in the channel. Host. Throw me in the channel ?-Murder, murer! O thou honey-suckle villain! wilt thou kill eaven's officers, and the king's ? Fal. Keep them off, Bardolph.

Fang. A rescue! a rescue !

Host. Good people, bring a rescue or two.---Thou vo't, wo't thou ? thou wo't, wo't thou? do, do, thou ogue! do, thou hemp-seed!

Fal. Away, you scullion! you rampallian! you Fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe.

Enter the Lord Chief Justice, and two Apparitors.

Ch. Just. What's the matter? keep the peace here,

you.

Ch. Just. How now, sir John? what are you brawling here?

Doth this become your place, your time, and business?

You should have been well on your way to York.Stand from him, fellow; Wherefore hang'st thou on him?

Host. O my most worshipful lord, an't please your grace, I am a poor widow of Eastcheap, and he is arrested at my suit.

Ch. Just. For what sum?

Host. It is more than for some, my lord; it is for all, all I have; he hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his.

Ch. Just. How comes this, sir John? Fie! what man of good temper would endure this tempest of exclamation? Are you not asham'd, to enforce a poor widow to so rough a course to come by her own? Fal. What is the gross sum that I owe thee? Host. Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself, and the money too. Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, on Wednesday, in Whitsun-weck, when the prince broke thy head for liking his father to a singing-man of Windsor; thou didst swear to me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me, and make me my lady thy wife. Canst thou deny it? Did not goodwife Keech, the butcher's wife, come in then, and call me gossip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of vinegar; telling us, she had a good dish of prawns; whereby thou didst desire to eat some; whereby I told thee, they were ill for a green wound: And didst thou not, when she was gone down stairs, desire me to be no more so familiarity with such poor people; saying, that ere long they should call me madam? And didst thou not kiss me, and bid me fetch thee thirty shillings? I put thee now to thy book oath; deny it, if thou canst.

Fal. My lord, this is a poor mad soul; and she says, up and down the town, that her eldest son is like you; she hath been in good case, and, the truth is, poverty hath distracted her. But for these foolish officers, I beseech you, I may have redress against them.

Ch. Just. Sir John, sir John, I am well acquainted with your manner of wrenching the true cause the