in which they used the king's press, which would naturally be intrusted to qualified vacant hands in cases of emergency. All England was at this time divided into what were called knights' fees (above 60,000 in number), and each fee or tenure was bound to certain supplies of men and arms, which were furnished at the call of authorised persons; and it is worthy of remark, that, just about the time now before us (5 Hen. IV.), was settled in Parliament the form of the king's commission of array; which was a power delegated to certain officers to muster and array the inhabitants of every district. These, in ordinary times, could not be taken out of their county; but in the case of rebellion or invasion, a portion at least of them could be led to any part of the country where they were needed. In the sixth year of the king's reign (1405), two years after the battle of Shrewsbury, the earl of Nottingham (Mowbray, son of the duke of Norfolk), and Scroop, the Archbishop of York, being at Shipton, near York, with a larger army than Westmorland, the king's general, then had in those parts, were subdued and taken through their own simplicity, which led them, on promises that all they asked should be granted, to dismiss their army. They were both of them executed. Other persons of condition, as Lord Falconberg, Sir Ralph Hastings, and Sir John Colvile, were likewise taken; but they do not seem to have met with the same fate.

We are to imagine one of the streets in old London. Sir John Falstaff is moving along it, followed by a boy dressed as a page, and carrying his master's sword and buckler: Falstaff turns round to see that the boy keeps up with him, and speaks:

[Falstaff] I do here walk before thee like a sow that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one. If the prince have put thee into my service for any other reason than to set me off, why, then I have no judgement. Thou mandrake! thou art fitter to be worn in my cap than to wait at my heels. What said master Dommelton about the satin for my short cloak, and my slops?

[Page.] He said, sir, you should procure him better assurance than Bardolph: he would not take his bond and yours; he liked not the security.

[Falstaff] Let him be hanged for a glutton! a rascally yea-forsooth knave, to keep a gentleman in expectation and then stand upon security! I had as lief they

would put ratsbane in my mouth as offer to stop it with security where 's Bardolph ?

[Page.] He's gone to Smithfield to buy your worship a horse: Oh, sir, and here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for striking him about Bardolph.

[Falstaff] Keep close, boy, keep close; I'll not see him.

The Lord Chief Justice, with two of his apparitors, here passes along the street; he turns to one of them, and speaks:

[Ch. Just.] What's he that goes there?

[Apparitor.] Falstaff, an 't please your lordship.

[Ch. Justice.] He that was in question for the robbery? Call him back.

[Apparitor.] Sir John Falstaff! Sir John! Sir John!

[Falstaff.] Boy, tell him I am deaf.

[Page.] You must speak louder, sir; my master's deaf. [Apparitor.] Sir John Falstaff! Sir John Falstaff!

[Ch. Justice.] Go, pluck him by the sleeve; I must speak with him.

[Apparitor.] Sir John, my lord would speak with you.

[Falstaff] What, a young knave and beg! Are there not wars? Is there not employment?

[Apparitor.] You mistake me, Sir.

[Falstaff] Mistake you! Why, did I say you were an honest man?

[Apparitor.] Sir, here is my lord, who would speak with you. [Ch. Justice.] Sir John Falstaff, a word with

you.

[Falstaff] My good lord! heaven give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to see your lordship 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 saltness of time; and I humbly beseech your lordship to have a reverend care of your health.

[Ch. Justice.] Sir John, I sent for you before your last expedition to Shrewsbury.

[Falstaff] An't please your lordship, I hear his majesty is returned with some discomfort from Wales.

[Ch. Justice.] I talk not of his majesty :-you would not come when I sent for you.

[Falstaff] And I hear, moreover, that his highness is fallen into that same abominable apoplexy

[Ch. Justice.] Well, heaven mend him! but

[Falstaff] Which, as I take it, is a kind of lethargy, an 't please your lordship—

[Ch. Justice.] Sir John, I would

[Falstaff] A sort of sleeping in the blood,—a tingling— [Ch. Justice.] I say I would speak with you; and[Falstaff] It hath its origin from grief, from study, and perturbation of the brain; I have read the cause of the effects in Galen.

[Ch. Justice.] Sir John, Sir John, I would speak with you. I sent for you when there were matters against you for your life.

[Falstaff] Ay, my lord; and as I was then advised by my learned counsel in the law, I did not come.

[Ch. Justice] Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy.

[Falstaff] He that buckles him in my belt cannot live in less.

[Ch. Justice.] Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.

[Falstaff] I would it were otherwise, my lord; I would my means were greater, and my waist slenderer.

[Ch. Justice.] You have misled the youthful prince. [Falstaff] Misled the prince! the young prince has misled me. You that are old, my lord, consider not the capacities of us that are young; you do measure the heat of our livers by the bitterness of your galls. And we are not the less wags, my lord, because we are a little advanced in youth.

[Ch. Justice.] Do you set your name in the scroll 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 yet call yourself young? fie, fie, fie, Sir John!

[Falstaff] My lord, I was born about three o'clock in the afternoon, with a white head, and something a round belly. For my voice, I have lost it with hollaing and singing of anthems. To prove my youth further, I will not: the truth is, I am old only in judgement and understanding; and he that will caper with me for a thousand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him! For the box of the ear that the prince gave you, he gave it like a rude prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. I have checked him for it, and the young lion repents: marry, not in ashes and sackcloth, but in new silk and old sack.

[Ch. Justice.] Well, heaven send the prince a better companion!

[Falstaff] Heaven send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my hands of him.

[Ch. Justice.] Well, the king severs you and prince Harry. I hear you are going with Lord John of Lancaster, against the archbishop and the earl of Northumberland: be honest, be honest; and heaven bless your expedition!

[Falstaff] Will your lordship lend me a thousand pounds to furnish me forth?

[Ch. Justice.] Not a penny-not a penny fare you well: commend me to my cousin Westmorland. [a pause.] [Falstaff] Not a penny? a man can no more separate age and covetousness, than young limbs and luxury.

Boy!

[Page.] Sir.

[Falstaff] What money is in my purse, boy? [Page.] Seven groats and two pence.

[Falstaff] I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers, but the disease is incurable.-Go, bear this letter to my lord of Lancaster; this, to the prince; and this, to old mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly sworn to marry since I perceived the first white hair on my chin ;about it! you know where to find me. 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 reasonable: a good wit will make use of anything; and I will turn diseases to commodity.

It will be understood, from what precedes, that Falstaff has his commission to proceed to the north; but he is not yet "furnished forth," and he wants money for the purpose: it is in search of this that he is still in London. If we imagine the preceding scene to have occurred early in the morning while the judge was on the way to his court, we may imagine the following to take place toward dinner-time of the same day:-we have still before us a