Feeble. It fhall fuffice. Fal. I am bound to thee, reverend Feeble. Who is the next? Shal. Peter Bull-calf of the Green. Fal. Yea, marry, let us fee Bull-calf. Bul. Here, Sir. Fal. Trust me, a likely fellow. Come, prick me Bullcalf, till he roar again. Bul. Oh, good my lord captain, Fal. What, doft thou roar before th'art prickt? Fal. What disease haft thou? Bul. A whorfon Cold, Sir; a cough, Sir, which I caught with ringing in the King's affairs, upon his Coronation-day, Sir. Fal. Come, thou fhalt go to the wars in a gown: we will have away thy Cold, and I will take fuch order that thy friends fhall ring for thee. Is here all? Shal. There is two more called than your number, you must have but four here, Sir; and fo, I pray you, in with me to dinner. go Fal. Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot tarry dinner. I am glad to fee you, in good troth, mafter Shallow. Shal. O, Sir John, do you remember fince we lay all night in the wind-mill in Saint George's fields? Fal. No more of that, good master Shallow, no more of that. Shal. Ha! it was a merry night. And is Jane Nightwork alive? Fal. She lives, mafter Shallow. Shal. She never could away with me. Fal. Never, never: fhe would always fay, fhe could not abide mafter Shallow. Shal. By the mafs, I could anger her to the heart : fhe was then a Bona-roba. Doth fhe hold her own well? Fal. Old, old, mafter Shallow. Shal. Nay, the must be old, fhe cannot chufe but be old certain, fhe's old, and had Robin Night work work by old Night-work, before I came to Clement's Inn. Sil. That's fifty-five years ago. Shal. Ha, coufin Silence, that thou hadft feen That, that this knight and I have seen! -hah, Sir John, faid I well? Fal. We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow. Shal. That we have, that we have, in faith, Sir John, we have: our watch-word was, hem, boys.- -Come, let's to dinner; Oh, the days that we have feen! come, come. Bul. Good mafter corporate Bardolph, ftand my friend, and here is four Harry ten fhillings in French Crowns for you in very truth, Sir, I had as lief be hang'd, Sir, as go; and yet for my own part, Sir, I do not care, but rather because I am unwilling, and for mine own part, have a defire to stay with my friends; else, Sir, I did not care for mine own part so much. Bard. Go to; ftand afide. Moul. And good mafter corporal captain, for my old Dame's fake ftand my friend: The hath no body to do any thing about her when I am gone, and fhe's old and cannot help her felf: you fhall have forty, Sir. Bard. Go to; ftand afide. Feeble. I care not, a man can die but once; we owe God a death, I will never bear a base mind: if it be my deftiny, fo: if it be not, fo. No man is too good to ferve his Prince; and let it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next. Bard. Well faid, thou art a good fellow. 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. Fal. Mouldy, and Bull-calf: - for you, Mouldy ftay at home till you are paft fervice: 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 ferv'd with the beft. Fal. Will you tell me, mafter Shallow, how to chuse a man? care I for the limb, the thewes, the stature, bulk and big femblance of a man? give me the spirit, mafter Shallow. Here's Wart; you fee, what a ragged appearance it is he shall charge you and discharge you with the motion of a pewterer's hammer; come off and on, fwifter than he that gibbets on the brewer's bucket. And this fame half-fac'd fellow Shadow, give me this man, he prefents no mark to the enemy; the fo-man may with as great aim level at the edge of a penknife: and, for a retreat, how fwiftly will this Feeble, the woman's tailor, run off? O give me the spare men, and fpare me the great ones. Put me a caliver into Wart's hand, Bardolph. Bard. Hold, Wart, traverse; thus, thus, thus. Fal. Come, manage me your caliver: fo, very well, go to, very good, exceeding good. O, give me always a little, lean, old, chopt, bald fhot. Well faid, Wart, thou art a good fcab: hold, there's a tester for thee. Shal. He is not his craft-mafter, he doth not do it right. I remember at Mile-End Green, when I lay at Clement's Inn, (13) I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's Show; there was a little quiver fellow, and he would (13) I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's Show.] The only Intelligence. I have glean'd of this worthy Wight, Sir Dagozet, is from Beaumont and Fletcher in their Knight of the burning Pestle. Boy. Befides, it will fhew ill favouredly to have a Grocer's Prentice to court a King's Daughter. Cit. Will it fo, Sir? Tou are well read in Hiftories! I pray you, what was Sir Dagonet? Was not he Prentice to a Grocer in London? Read the Play of The Four Prentices of London, where they tofs their Pikes fo: &c. ma 7 manage you his piece thus; and he would about, and about, and come you in, and come you in: rah, tah, tah, would he fay; bounce, would he fay, and away again would he go, and again would he come: I fhall never fee fuch a fellow. Fal. These fellows will do well. Mafter Shallow, God keep you; farewel, mafter Silence. I will not use many words with you, fare you well, gentlemen both. I thank you, I muft a dozen mile to night. Bardolph, give the foldiers coats. Shal. Sir John, heaven blefs you, and profper your affairs, and fend us peace. As you return, vifit my houfe. Let our old acquaintance be renewed: peradventure, I will with you to the Court. Fal. I would you would, mafter Shallow. Shal. Go to: I have spoke at a word. Fare you well. [Exit. Fal. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. On, Bardolph, lead the men away. As I return, I will fetch off thefe Juftices: I do fee the bottom of Justice ShalZow. How fubject we old men are to this Vice of lying! this fame ftarv'd Juftice hath done nothing but prated to me of the wildness of his youth, and the feats he hath done about Turnbal-ftreet; and every third word a lie, more duly paid to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. I do remember him at Clement's Inn, like a man made after fupper of a cheese-paring. When he was naked, he was for all the world like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carv'd upon it with a knife. He was fo forlorn, that his dimenfions to any thick fight were invincible. He was the very Genius of famine, yet leacherous as a Monkey, and the whores call'd him Mandrake: he came ever in the rere-ward of the fafhion; and fung thofe tunes to the over-fcutcht hufwives that he heard the carmen whiftle, and fware they were his Fancies, or his Good-nights. (14) And now is . this (14) And now is this Vice's Dagger.] By Vice here the Poet means that drole Character in the old Plays, (which I have feveral this Vice's dagger become a Squire, and talks as familiarly of John of Gaunt as if he had been fworn brother to him and I'll be fworn, he never faw him but once in the Tilt-yard, and then he broke his head for crouding among the Marshal's men. I faw it, and told John of Gaunt he beat his own name; for you might have trufs'd him and all his apparel into an Eel-skin : the case of a treble hoboy was a Manfion for him, a Court; and now hath he land and beeves. Well, I will be acquainted with him, if I return; and it shall go hard but I will make him a philofopher's two ftones to me. If the young Dace be a bait for the old Pike, I fee no reason in the law of nature but I may fnap at him, Let time shape, and there's an end. [Exeunt. SCENE changes to a Forest in Yorkshire, Enter the Archbishop of York, Mowbray, Haftings, and Colevile. YORK. HAT is this foreft call'd? WH Haft. 'Tis Gaultree foreft. York. Here ftand, my lords, and fend dif coverers forth, To know the numbers of our enemies. Haft. We have fent forth already. My friends and brethren in these great affairs, feveral times mention'd in the course of these Notes,) equipp'd with Affes Ears and a Wooden Dagger. It is very fatirical in Falstaff to compare Shallow's Activity and Impertinence to fuch a Machine as a wooden Dagger in the Hands and Management of a Buffoon. New |