pleafe you, it is the difeafe of not lift'ning, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal, Ch. Juft. To punish you by the heels, would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not if I do become your phyfician. bot) phyfician. Fal. I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not fo patient. Your lordship may minifter the potion of imprisonment to me, in refpect of poverty; but how I fhould be your Patient to follow your prefcriptions, the wife may make fome dram of a fcruple, or, indeed, a fcruple itself.io Ch. Juft. I fent for you, when there were matters against you for your life, to come fpeak with me. Fal. As I was then advis'd by my Counfel learned in the laws of this land-fervice, I did not come. Ch. Juft. Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy. Fal. He that buckles him in my belt, cannot live in lefs. . Ch. Just. Your means are very flender, and your wafte is great. Fal. I would it were otherwife; I would, my means were greater, and my wafte flenderer. Ch. Juft. You have mif-led the youthful Prince. Fal. The young Prince hath mif-led me. I am the fellow with the great belly, and he my dog". Ch. Juft. Well, I'm loth to gall a new-heal'd wound; your day's fervice at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your night's exploit on Gads-hill. You may thank the unquiet time, for your quiet o'er-pofting that action. of Henry IV, concerning the Tradition of Falstaff's Character having been firft called Oldcastle. This almost amounts to a felf-evident Proof, of the Thing being fo: and that the Play being printed from the State-Manufcript, Oldcastle had been all along altered into Falstaff, except in this fingle Flace by an Overfight of which the Printers, not being aware, continued these initial Traces of the Original Name. THEOBALD. 6 I do not understand this joke. Dogs lead the blind, but why does a dog lead the fat? Fal. Fal. My lord Ch. Juft. But fince all is well, keep it fo: wake not a fleeping Wolf. bago), big 975 Fal. To wake a Wolf, is as bad as to fmell a Fox. Ch. Juft. What? you are as a candle, the better part burnt out, Fal. A waffel candle, my lord; all tallow; but if I did fay of wax, my growth would approve the truth. Ch. Juft. There is not a white hair on your face, but fhould have his effect of gravity. Fal. His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy. Ch. Juft. You follow the young Prince up and down, like his ill angel. 8 Fal. Not fo, my lord, your angel is light but I hope, he that looks upon me, will take me without weighing; and yet, in fome refpects, I grant, I cannot go; I cannot tell. Virtue is of fo little regard in thefe cofter-mongers' days, that true valour is turned bear-herd; pregnancy is made a tapfter, and hath his quick wit wafted in giving reckonings; all the other 7 A waffel candle, &c.] A waffel candle is a large candle lighted up at a feast. There is a poor quibble upon the word wax, which fignifies encreafe as well as the matter of the honeycomb. 8 You follow the young Prince up and down like his evil Angel.] What a precious Collator has Mr. Pope approved himfelf in this Paffage! Befides, if this were the true Reading, Falflaff could not have made the witty and humorous Evafion he has done in his Reply. I have reftor'd the Reading of the oldeft Quarto. The Lord Chief Juftice calls Falfaff the Prince's ill Angel or Genius: which Falstaff turns off by faying, an ill Angel (meaning the Coin call'd an Angel) is light; but, furely, it can't be faid that he wants Weight: ergo, the Inference is obvious. Now Money may be call'd ill, or bad; but it is never call'd evil, with Regard to its being under Weight. This Mr. Pope will facetioufly call reftoring laft Puns: But if the Author wrote a Pun, and it happens to be loft. in an Editor's Indolence, I fhall, in fpite of his Grimace, venture at bringing it back to Light. THEOBALD. * I cannot tell ] I cannot be taken in a reckoning: I cannot país current. 9 In these cofter-mongers' days,] In thefe times when the prevalence of trade has produced that meanness that rates the merit of every thing by money. 160 101. gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this age fhapes them, are not worth a goofe-berry. You, that are old, confider not the capacities of us that are young; you meafure the heat of our Livers, with the bitterness of your Galls; end we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confefs, are wags too. Ch. Juft. Do you fet down your name in the fcrowl of youth, that are written down old, with all the characters of age? Have you not a moift eye? a dry hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a decreasing leg? an increafing belly? Is not your voice broken? your wind fhort? your chin double? 'your wit fingle? and every part about you blafted with antiquity? and will you yer call yourself young? fie, fie, fie, Sir John. Fal. My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the afternoon, with a white head, and fomething a round belly. For my voice, I have loft it with hallowing and finging of Anthems. To approve my youth further, I will not. The truth is, I am only old in judgment 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 o'th' ear that the Prince gave you, he gave it like a rude Prince, and you took it like a fenfible lord. I have checkt him for it; and the young Lion repents: marry, not in aflies and fack-cloth, but in new filk and old fack. Ch. Juft. Well, heav'n fend the Prince a better Companion. Fal. Heav'n fend the companion a better Prince. I cannot rid my hands of him. 31 Ch. Juft. Well, the King hath fever'd you and Prince • your wit fingle?] We call a man fingle-witted who attains but one fpecies of knowledge. This fenfe I know not how to apply to Falstaff, and Father think that the Chief Juftice hints at a calamity always in cident to a gray-haired wit, whofe misfortune is, that his merriment is unfashionable. His allufions are to forgotten facts; his illuf trations are drawn from notions obfcured by time; his wit is therefore fingle, fuch as none has any part in but himself. Harry. Harry. Thear, you are going with lord John of Lancafter, against the Archbishop and the Earl of Northum berland. Fal. Yes, I thank your pretty fweet wit for it; but look you, pray, all you that kifs my lady Peace at home, that our armies join not in a hot day; for, by the Lord, I take but two fhirts out with me, and I mean not to fweat extraordinarily; if it be a hot day, if I brandifh any thing but a bottle, would I might never fpit white again. There is not a dangerous action, can peep out his head, but I am thruft upon it. Well, I cannot laft ever. But it was always yet the trick of our English Nation, if they have a good thing, to make it too common. If ye will needs fay, I am an old man, you should give me Reft: I would to God, my name were not fo terrible to the enemy as it is! I were better to be eaten to death with a ruft, than to be scour'd to nothing with perpetual motion. Ch. Juft. Well, be honeft, be honest, and heav'n bless your expedition! Fal. Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound, to furnish me forth? င် Ch. Juft. Not a penny, not a penny; you are too impatient to bear croffes. Fare you well. Commend me to my cousin Westmoreland. [Exit. Fal. If I do, fillip me with a three man beetle -A man can no more feparate age and covetoufness, than he can part young limbs and letchery; but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the other, and fo both the degrees prevent my curfes. Boy, Page. Sir? Fal. What money is in my purfe? Page. Seven groats and two pence. Fal. I can get no remedy against this confumption of the purfe. Borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable. Go bear this letter to my lord of Lancaster, this to the Prince, this ta 8 --- a three-man beetle---A beetle wielded by three men. POPE. the the Earl of Westmorland, and this to old Mrs. Urfula, whom I have weekly fworn to marry fince I perceived the firft white hair on my chin. About it; you know where to find me. A pox of this gout! or, a gout of this pox!, for the one, or t'other, plays the rogue with my great toe; it is no matter, if I do halt, I have the wars for my colour, and my penfion fhall feem the more reafonable.. A good wit will make ufe of any thing; I will turn difeafes to commodity. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. T Changes to the Archbishop of York's Palace. Enter Archbishop of York, Haftings, Thomas Mowbray (Earl Marshal) and Lord Bardolph. York. HUS have you heard our cause, and know T our means; Now, my moft noble friends, I pray you all, Mowb. I well allow th' occafion of our arms, How in our means we fhould advance our felves Bard. The queftion then, lord Haftings, ftandeth thus; Whether our prefent five and twenty thoufand Bard.. Ay, marry, there's the point: But if without him we be thought too feeble, My |