13Bull [afide to Bardolph] Good mafter corporate Bardolph, Itand 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 becaufe I am unwilling, cand for my own part, have a defire to ftay with my friends; elfe, Sir, I did not care for mine own part so much,

Bard. Go to ftand afide.

ག

Y

Maul. 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 the'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 bafe mind; if it be my destiny, fo; if it be not, fo. No man is too good to ferye 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.
Feeble. 'Faith, I will bear no bafe mind.
Fal. Come, Sir, which men fhall I have? A
Shal. Four of which you pleafe.

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? Fal. Do you chuse for me.

Shal. Marry then, Mouldy, Bull-calf, Feeble, and Shallow.dafari Oulad Aaland!!

Fal. Mouldy, and Bull-calf

A

-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, bred but

Shal. Sir John, Sir John, do not yourself wrong; they are your likelieft men, and I would have you ferv'd with the beft.

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Fal. Will you tell me, mafter Shallow, how to chufe a man? care I for the limb, the thewes, the ftature, bulk and big femblance of a man? give me the fpirit, mafter Shallow. Here's Wart; you fee what a ragged appearance it is, he fhall 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 pen-knife. And, for a retreat, how fwiftly will this Feeble, the woman's tailor, run off? O give me the fpare men, and fpare me the great ones. caliver into Wart's hand, Bardolph.

7

Put me a

Bard. Hold, Wart, traverfe; thus, thus, thus.

Fal. Come, manage me your caliver. So, 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 is a tefter for thee.

Shal. He is not his craft-master, he doth not do it right. I remember at Mile-End Green, when I lay at Clement's Inn, I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's Show,

Show, there was a little quiver fellow, and he would 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. Thefe 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 must 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. [Exeunt Shal. and Sil. 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 Juftice Shallow. How fubject we old men are to this Vice .of lying! this fame ftarv'd Justice hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildnefs of his youth, and the feats he hath done about Turnball-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 cheefe-paring. When he was naked, he was for all the world like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carv'd upon

be found in La Mort d'Arthure, an old romance much celebrated in our authour's time, or a little before it. When papiry, fays Afcham in his Schoolmafter, as a anding pool overflowed ali England, few books were read in our tongue faving certain books of chi alry, as they faid. for paflime

and pleasure; which books, as fome fay, were made in monafteries by idle monks. As one, for example, La Mort d'Arthure. In this romance Sir Dagonet is King Arthur's fool. Shakespeare would not have shown his juice capable of reprefenting any higher character.

it

2

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 whistle, and fware they were his Fancies, or his Goodnights. And now is 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 Marthal's men. I faw it, and told John of Gaunt he 3 beat his own name; for you might have trufs'd him and all his apparel into an Eel-fkin; the cafe 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 fhall go hard but I will make him a philofopher's two ftones to "If the young Dace be a bait for the old Pike, I

me.

РОРБ.

fee

Over fcutcht] i. e. whipt, I and Management of a Buffoon. I carted. THEOBALD beat his own name;} That is, beat gaunt, a fellow fo flender that his name might have been gaunt.

I rather think that the word means dirty, or grimed, the word bufwives agrees better with this fenfe. Shallow crept into mean houses, and boafted his accomplishments to the dirty women. 2 And now is this Vice's Dagger.] By Vice here the Poet means that drell Character in the old Plays (which I have several times mentioned in the courfe of thefe Notes) equipped with Affes Fars and a Wooden Dagger. It is very fatirical in Falstaff to compare Shallou's Activity and Impertinence to fuch a Machine as a wooden Dagger in the Hands

4

philofopher's two flones] One of which was an univerfal medicine, and the other a tranf muter of bafer metals into gold.]` WARBURTON.

I believe the commentator has refined this paffage too much. A philofopher's taco fones, is only more than the philofopher's Stone. The univerfal medicine was never, fo far as I know, conceived to be a stone, before the time of Butler's ftone.

"If the young Dace] That is,

fee no reafon in the law of nature but I may fnap at him. Let time fhape, and there's an end.

[Exeunt.

nomAC Tod IV.S CE NE I. - aid 1095

Changes to a Foreft in Yorkshire.

Enter the Archbishop of York, Mowbray, Haftings, ula quoms gribi and Colevile.

YORK.

HAT is this foreft, call'd?

W Haff. "Tis Gaultree foreft.

York. Here ftand, my lords, and fend difcoverers
looforth bus jewter I a

To know the numbers of our enemies. A
Haft. We have fent forth already.

York. "Tis well done.

My friends and brethren in these great affairs,
I must acquaint you, that I have receiv'd
New-dated letters from Northumberland,

བས་

1)

Their cold intent, tenour and fubftance thus.
Here doth he with his perfon, with fuch Powers
As might hold fortance with his quality,
The which he could not levy; whereupon
He is retir'd, to ripe his growing fortunes,
To Scotland; and concludes in hearty prayers!
That your attempts may over-live the hazard
And fearful meeting of their oppofite. d)
Mowb. Thus do the hopes we have in him touch

ground,

And dash themselves to pieces.

If the pike may prey upon the dace, if it be the law of nature that the fronger may seize upon the

A

weaker, Falstaff may with great propriety devour Shallow.

Enter