Enter DAVY, BARDOLPH, and Page. Bard. Good morrow, honest gentlemen : seech you, which is justice Shallow ? I be Shal. I am Robert Shallow, sir; a poor esquire of this county, and one of the king's justices of the peace: what is your good pleasure with me? Bard. My captain, sir, commends him to you; my captain, sir John Falstaff: a tall gentleman, 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, i' faith, 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! comes of accommodo : very good; a good phrase. it 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 is, 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. It is very just :-Look, here comes good sir John. Enter FALSTAFF, 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. Shal. No, sir John; it is my cousin Silence, in commission with me. e Fal. Good master Silence, it well befits you should e of the peace. Sil. Your good worship is welcome. Fal. Fie! this is hot weather.-Gentlemen, have ou provided me here half a dozen sufficient men? Shal. Marry, have we, sir. Will you sit? Fal. Let me see them, I beseech you. [They sit. Shal. Where's the roll? where's the roll? where's ne roll? - Let me see, let me see, let me see. So, o, so, so: Yea, marry, sir :-Ralph Mouldy!-let nem appear as I call ; et them do so, let them do so. Let me see ;Where is Mouldy? Enter MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, and BULL-CALF. Moul. Here, an 't please you. Shal. What think you, sir John? a good-limb'd ellow: young, strong, and of good friends. Fal. Is thy name Mouldy? Moul. Yea, an''t please you. Fal. 'T is the more time thou wert us'd. Shal. Ha, ha, ha! most excellent, i' faith! things hat are mouldy, lack use: very singular good!Well said, sir John; very well said. Moul. 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. Shal. Peace, fellow, peace; stand aside; know you where you are? - For the other, sir John:-let me see; Simon Shadow ! Fal. Ay marry, let me have him to sit under: he's like to be a cold soldier. Shal. Where's Shadow ? Shad. Here, sir. Fal. Thy mother's son! like enough; and thy father's shadow: so the son of the female is the shadow of the male: it is often so, indeed; but not much of the father's substance. Shal. Do you like him, sir John? Fal. Shadow will serve for summer,-prick him; -for we have a number of shadows to fill up the muster-book. Shal. Thomas Wart! Fal. Where's he? Wart. Here, sir. Fal. Is thy name Wart? Wart. Yea, sir. 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 do it: I commend you well.-Francis Feeble! Feeble. Here, sir. Fal. What trade art thou, Feeble? Feeble. A taylor, sir. Fal. Well said, taylor! well said, most forcible Feeble! Thou wilt be as valiant as the wrathful dove, or most magnanimous mouse.-Prick him, master Shallow.Who is next? Shal. Peter Bull-calf of the green! Fal. Yea, marry, let us see Bull-calf. Bull. Here, sir. Fal. Trust me, a likely fellow!-Come, prick me Bull-calf, till he roar again, Bull. O lord!-good my lord captain, Fal. What, dost thou roar before thou art prick'd? Bull. O lord, sir! I am a diseas'd man. Fal. What disease hast thou? Bull. A whoreson cold, sir; a cough, sir; which I caught with ringing in the king's affairs, upon his coronation day, sir. Fal. Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown; A e will have away thy cold; and I will take such orr, that thy friends shall ring for thee. Is here all ? Shal. There is one more call'd than your number, u must have but four here, sir; and so, I pray u, go in with me to dinner. [They rise. Fal. Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot rry dinner. I am glad to see you, in good troth, aster Shallow. Shal. O, sir John, do you remember since we lay I night in the windmill in saint George's Fields ? Fal. No more of that, good master Shallow, no ore of that. Shal. Ha, it was a merry night. And is Jane ight-work alive ? Fal. She lives, master Shallow. Shal. She could never away with me. Fal. Never, never: she would always say, she uld not abide master Shallow. Shal. By the mass, I could anger her to the heart. ne was then a bona-roba. Doth she hold her own ell ? Fal. Old, old, master Shallow. Shal. Nay, she must be old: she cannot choose but e old; certain, she's old; and had Robin Nightwork by old Night-work, before I came to Clement's an. Sil. That's fifty-five years ago. Shal. Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen that at this knight and I have seen! - Ha, sir John, id I well? Fal. We have heard the chimes at midnight, masShallow. Shal. That we have, that we have, that we have; faith, sir John, we have; our watch-word was, em, boys! Come, let's to dinner; come, let's to nner:-0, the days that we have seen!-Come, ome. Exeunt SHALLOW, FALSTAFF, SILENCE, and Page. Bull. Good master corporate Bardolph, stand my end; and here is four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you. In very truth, sir, I had as lief be hang'd, sir, as go: and yet for mine own part, sir, E do not care; but, rather, because I am unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay withhr my friends; else, sir, I did not care, for mine own part, so much. Bard. Go to; (Takes the money.) 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; (Takes the money.) Stand aside. Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, SILENCE, and Page. Shal. Four, of which you please. Bard. Sir, a word with you:-I have three pound, to free Mouldy and Bull-calf. Fal. Go to; well. Shal. Come, sir John, which four will you have? Shal. Marry then, -Mouldy, Bull-calf, Feeble, and Shadow. Fal. Mouldy, and Bull-calf!-For you, Mouldy, stay at home still; you are past service :-and, for - your part, Bull-calf,-grow till you come unto it; I will none of you. Shal. Sir John, sir John, do not yourself wrong; they are your likeliest men, and I would have you serv'd with the best. Fal. Will you tell me, master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes, the 4 1 |