Davy. Your worship! I'll be with you straight [to Bardolph). A cup of wine, sir? Sil. A cup of wine that's brisk and fine, Fal. [Singing. And drink unto the leman mine; 50 And a merry heart lives long-a. Well said, Master Silence. Sil. An we shall be merry, now comes in the sweet o' the night. Fal. Health and long life to you, Master Silence. Sil. Fill the cup, and let it come; [Singing. I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom. Shal Honest Bardolph, welcome: if thou wantest any thing, and wilt not call, beshrew thy heart. Welcome, my little tiny thief [to the Page), and welcome indeed too. I'll drink to Master Bardolph, and to all the cavaleros about London. Davy I hope to see London once ere I die. Bard. An I might see you there, Davy,Shal. By the mass, you'll crack a quart together, ha! will you not, Master Bardolph? Bard. Yea, sir, in a pottle-pot. Shal. By God's liggens, I thank thee: the knave will stick by thee, I can assure thee that. A' will not out; he is true bred. Bard. And I'll stick by him, sir. 71 Sil. 80 And shall good news be baffled? Sil. Honest gentleman, I know not your breeding. Pist. Why then, lament therefore. Shal Give me pardon, sir: if, sir, you come with news from the court, I take it there's but two ways, either to utter them, or to conceal them. I am, sir, under the king, in some authority. Pist. Under which king, Besonian? speak, or die. Shal Under King Harry. Harry the Fourth? or Fifth? A foutre for thine office! 120 Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is king; Harry the Fifth's the man. I speak the truth: When Pistol lies, do this; and fig me, like The bragging Spaniard. Fal. What, is the old king dead? Pist. As nail in door: the things I speak are just. Fal. Away, Bardolph! saddle my horse. Master Robert Shallow, choose what office thou wilt in the land, 'tis thine. Pistol, I will doublecharge thee with dignities. Bard. O joyful day! 130 Master I would not take a knighthood for my fortune. Is't so? Why then, say an old man can [Exit Bard.] Come, Pistol, utter more to me; do somewhat. and withal devise something to do thyself good. Boot, boot, Master Shallow: I know the young king is sick for me. Let us take any man's horses; the laws of England are at my commandment. Blessed are they that have been my friends; and woe to my lord chief-justice! Pist. Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also! 'Where is the life that late I led?' say they: Why, here it is; welcome these pleasant days! [Exeunt. SCENE IV. London. A street. Enter Beadles, dragging in HOSTESS QUICKLY and DOLL TEARSHEET. Host. No, thou arrant knave; I would to God that I might die, that I might have thee hanged: thou hast drawn my shoulder out of joint. First Bead. The constables have delivered her over to me; and she shall have whippingcheer enough, I warrant her: there hath been a man or two lately killed about her. Dol. Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on: I'll tell thee what, thou damned tripe-visaged rascal, an the child I now go with do miscarry. thou wert better thou hadst struck thy mother, I speak of Africa and golden joys. news? Host. O the Lord, that Sir John were come he would make this a bloody day to somebody. But I pray God the fruit of her womb miscarry! First Bead. If it do, you shall have a dozen of cushions again; you have but eleven now. Come, I charge you both go with me; for the man is dead that you and Pistol beat amongst you. Dol. I'll tell you what, you thin man in a censer, I will have you as soundly swinged for this,-you blue-bottle rogue, you filthy famished correctioner, if you be not swinged, I'll forswear half-kirtles. First Bead. Come, come, you she knight errant, come. Host. O God, that right should thus overcome might! Well, of sufferance comes ease. Dol. Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a ¡justice. Host. Ay, come, you starved blood-hound. 30 Del. Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal. First Bead. Very well. [Exeunt. SCENE V. A public place near Westminster Abbey. Enter two Grooms, strewing rushes. First Groom. More rushes, more rushes. Sec. Groom. The trumpets have sounded twice. First Groom. Twill be two o'clock ere they cone from the coronation: dispatch, dispatch. [Exeunt. Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and Page. Fal. Stand here by me, Master Robert Shallow; I will make the king do you grace: I will leer upon him as a' comes by; and do but mark the countenance that he will give me. 9 Pist. God bless thy lungs, good knight. Fal. Come here, Pistol; stand behind me. O, if I had had time to have made new liveries, I would have bestowed the thousand pound I borrowed of you. But 'tis no matter; this poor show doth better: this doth infer the zeal I had to see him. Shal. It doth so. Fal. It shows my earnestness of affection,Shal. It doth so. Fal. My devotion. 437 King. I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers; 60 How ill white hairs become a fool and jester! 70 To see perform'd the tenour of our word. Set on. [Exeunt King, &c. Fal. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound. Shal. Yea, marry, Sir John; which I beseech you to let me have home with me. 80 Fal. That can hardly be, Master Shallow. Do not you grieve at this; I shall be sent for in private to him: look you, he must seem thus to the world: fear not your advancements; I will be the man yet that shall make you great. Shal I cannot well perceive how, unless you should give me your doublet and stuff me out with straw. I beseech you, good Sir John, let me have five hundred of my thousand. Fal. Sir, I will be as good as my word: this that you heard was but a colour. ΟΙ Shal. A colour that I fear you will die in, Sir John. Fal. Fear no colours: go with me to dinner: come, Lieutenant Pistol; come, Bardolph: I shall be sent for soon at night. Re-enter PRINCE JOHN, the LORD CHIEF-JUSTICE; Ch. Just. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Take all his company along with him. undo me: for what I have to say is of mine own pardons. If you look for a good speech now, you making; and what indeed I should say will, I doubt, prove mine own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the venture. Be it known to you, as it is very well, I was lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your patience for it Ch. Just. I cannot now speak: I will hear and to promise you a better. I meant indeed to you soon. Take them away. Pist. Lan. 100 Si fortuna me tormenta, spero contenta. Lan. The king hath call'd his parliament, my pay you with this; which, if like an ill venture it come unluckily home, I break, and you, my gentle creditors, lose. Here I promised you I would be and here I commit my body to your mercies: bate me some and I will pay you some and, as most debtors do, promise you infinitely. If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you command me to use my legs? and yet that were but light payment, to dance out of your debt. But a good conscience will make any possible satisfaction, and so would I. All the gentlewomen here have forgiven me: if the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never seen before in such an assembly. One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Katharine of France: where, for any thing I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already a' be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I will bid you good night: and so kneel down before you; but, indeed, to pray for the queen. Into an hour-glass: for the which supply, Who prologue-like your humble patience pray. Chor. O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. [Exit. The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act ΙΟ Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, We lose the better half of our possession: For all the temporal lands which men devout 20 By testament have given to the church Suppose within the girdle of these walls Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times, Turning the accomplishment of many years 30 10 Would they strip from us; being valued thus: A thousand pounds by the year: thus runs the bill. "Twould drink the cup and all. 20 Ely. But what prevention? Cant. The king is full of grace and fair regard. And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him, To envelope and contain celestial spirits. With such a heady currance, scouring faults; So soon did lose his seat and all at once 30 Ely. We are blessed in the change. Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity, And all-admiring with an inward wish You would desire the king were made a prelate: 40 Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs, You would say it hath been all in all his study: List his discourse of war, and you shall hear A fearful battle render'd you in music: Turn him to any cause of policy, The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, Familiar as his garter: that, when he speaks, The air, a charter'd libertine, is still, And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences; So that the art and practic part of life Must be the mistress to this theoric: 50 Cant. Then go we in, to know his embassy; Which I could with a ready guess declare, Before the Frenchman speak a word of it. Ely. I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The same. The Presence chamber. Enter KING HENRY, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants. K. Hen. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury? Exe. Not here in presence. Send for him, good uncle. West. Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege? K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolved, Before we hear him, of some things of weight That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it, Enter the ARCHBISHOP Of Canterbury, and Since his addiction was to courses vain, His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow, Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best 60 the BISHOP OF ELY. K. Hen. Sure, we thank you. My learned lord, we pray you to proceed And justly and religiously unfold Why the law Salique that they have in France Or should, or should not, bar us in our clain: And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord, That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading, 20 Or nicely charge your understanding soul 'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the swords 80 Ely. How did this offer seem received, my lord? Cant. With good acceptance of his majesty: Save that there was not time enough to hear, |