For, as he writes, there is no quailing now, Dowg. Faith, and fo we fhould; A comfort of retirement lives in this. Hot. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto, Wor. But yet I would your father had been here: Brooks no divifion: it will be thought By fome, that know not why he is away, Of our proceedings, kept the Earl from hence, And ftop all fight-holes, every loop, from whence Hot. I rather of his abfence make this ufe: It lends a luftre, and more great opinon, Than if the Earl were here: for men muft think, Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole. Dowg. As heart can think; there is not such a word Spoke of in Scotland, as this term of fear. Hot. My cousin Vernon, welcome, by my foul! Ver. Pray God, my news be worth a welcome, lord. The Earl of Westmorland, fev'n thousand ftrong, Is marching hither, with Prince John of Lancaster. Hot. No harm; what more? Ver. And further, I have learn'd, The King himself in perfon hath fet forth," Or hitherwards intended speedily, With strong and mighty preparation. Hot. He fhall be welcome too: where is his fon? The nimble-footed mad-cap Prince of Wales, And bid it pafs? Ver. All furnifht, all in arms, All plum'd like Eftridges, that with the wind 2 Baited like Eagles,] Baited, i. e. Autter'd the wings. Mr. Pepe. Wanton Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls, $ And witch the world with noble horfemanship: This praise doth nourish agues; let them come. They come like Sacrifices in their trim, And to the fire-ey'd maid of fmoaky war, All hot, and bleeding, will we offer them. And yet not ours. Come, let me take my horse, Harry to Harry shall (not horse to horse) Ver. There is more news: I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along, 3 I faw young Harry, with his beaver on,] We fhould read, beaver UP. It is an impropriety to fay on: For the beaver is only the vifiere of the Helmet, which, let down, covers the face.. When the foldier was not upon action he wore it up, fo that his face might be feen, (hence Vernon fays he saw young Harry) Bat when upon action, it was let down to cover and fecure the face. Hence in the fecond part of Henry IV. it is faid, Their armed faves in charge, their beavers down. 4 His cuiffes on his thighs,] Cuiffes, French, armour for the thighs. 5 And witch the world-] For bewitch, charm. Mr. Pope. Mr. Pope. Dowg. Dowg. That's the worft tidings that I hear of, yet. Wor. Ay, by my faith, that bears a frofty found. Hot. What may the King's whole Battle reach unto? Ver. To thirty thousand. Hot. Forty let it be; My father and Glendower being both away, Dowg. Talk not of dying, I am out of fear S C E N E III. [Exeunt. Changes to a publick Road, near Coventry. Enter Falstaff and Bardolph. Fal. Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me bottle of fack: our foldiers fhall march through: we'll to Sutton-cop-bill to night. Bard. Will you give me mony, captain? Fal. Lay out, lay out. Bard. This bottle makes an angel. Fal. And if it do, take it for thy labour; and if it make twenty, take them all, I'll answer the coynage. Bid my lieutenant Peto meet me at the town's end. 'Bar. I will, captain; farewel. [Exit. Fal. If I be not afham'd of my foldiers, I am a fowc'd gurnet: I have mif-us'd the King's Prefs damnably. I have got, in exchange of an hundred and fifty foldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I prefs me none but good houfholders, yeomens' fons; en'quire me out contracted batchelors, fuch as had been ask'd twice on the banes: fuch a commodity of warm flaves, as had as lieve hear the devil, as a drum; fuch as fear the report of a culverin, worse than a 6 • ftruck <ftruck (a) deer, or a hurt wild duck. I prefs me none but fuch toafts and butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins' heads, and they have bought out their fervices: and now my whole Charge • confifts of ancients, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of companies, flaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the Glutton's dogs licked his fores; and fuch as indeed were never foldiers, but difcarded unjuft fervingmen, younger fons to < younger brothers; revolted tapfters, and oftlers trade-fall'n, the cankers of a calm world and a long peace; ❝ ten times more difhonourably ragged, than an old-feaft ancient; and fuch have I to fill up the ' rooms of them that have bought out their fervices; that you would think, I had a hundred and fifty tatter'd Prodigals, lately come from fwine-keeping, 'from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me on the way, and told me, I had unloaded all the gibbets, and preft the dead bodies. No eye hath feen fuch skare-crows: I'll not march through Coventry with them, that's flat. Nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had • 7 gyves on; for, indeed, I had the most of them 6 ten times more dishonourably ragged, than an old FAC'D ancient ;] But how is an old fac'd ancient, or enfign, difhonourably Tagged? On the contrary, nothing is etteem'd more honourable than a ragged pair of colours. A very little alteration will give us the author's reading, which conveys a stroke of very just and fine-turn'd fatire in the comparifon. Ten times more dishonourably ragged, than an old FEAST ancient. i.e. the colours ufed by the city-companies in their feasts and proceffions. For each company had one with its peculiar device, which was ufually display'd and borne about on fuch occafions. Now as Falfaff's raggamuffins were reduc'd to their tatter'd condition thro' their riotous exceffes; fo this old feaft ancient became torn and shatter'd, not in any manly exercife of arms, but amidst the revels of drunken bacchanals. 7 gyves on;] i. e. fhackles. [(a) deer. Oxford Editor.-Vulg. forul.] Mr. Pope. out |