here's corporal Nym's now shall we have wilful adultery and murder committed. Good lieutenant Bardolph,good corporal, offer nothing here, Nym. Pish! Pist. Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-eared cur of Iceland. Quick, Good corporal Nym, show the valour of a man, and put up thy sword. Nym. Will you shog off? I would have you solus. And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy; For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up, Nym. I am not Barbason, you cannot conjure me, I have an humour to knock you indifferently well: If you grow foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my rapier, as I may, in fair terms: if you would walk off, I would prick your guts a little, in good terms, as I may; and that's the humour of it, Pist. O braggard vile, and damned furious wight! The grave doth gape, and doting death is near; 6 I am not Barbason ;] Barbason is the name of a dæmon mention in The Merry Wives of Windsor. The unmeaning tumour of Pistol's speech very naturally reminds Nym of the sounding nonsense uttered by conjurors. Therefore exhale.] Exhale, perhaps here signifies draw, or, in Pistol's language, hale, or lug out: but more probably it meanstherefore breathe your last, or die, a threat common enough among dramatick heroes of a higher rank than Pistol, who only expresses this idea in the fantastick language peculiar to his character, strikes the first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier. [Draws. Pist. An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate. Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give; Nym. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair terms; that is the humour of it. Pist. Coupe le gorge, that's the word?-I thee defy again. O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get? No; to the spital go, And from the powdering tub of infamy Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind, Enter the Boy. Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and you, hostess; he is very sick, and would to bed. Good Bardolph, put thy nose between his sheets, and do the office of a warmingpan: 'faith, he's very ill. Bard. Away, you rogue. Quick. By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of these days; the king has killed his heart.Good husband, come home presently. [Exeunt Mrs. QUICKLY and Boy. Bard. Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to France together; Why, the devil, should we keep knives to cut one another's throats? Pist. Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on! Nym. You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting? Pist. Base is the slave that pays. Nym. That now I will have; that's the humour of it. Pist. As manhood shall compound; Push home. Bard. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll kill him; by this sword, I will. Pist. Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course. Bard. Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends an thou wilt not, why then be enemies with me too. Pr'ythee, put up. Nym. I shall have my eight shillings, I won of you at betting? Pist. A noble shalt thou have, and present pay; And liquor likewise will I give to thee, And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood; Unto the camp, and profits will accrue. Nym. I shall have my noble? Pist. In cash most justly paid. Nym. Well then, that's the humour of it. Re-enter Mrs. QUICKLY. Quick. As ever you came of women, come in quickly to sir John: Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him. Nym. The king hath run bad humours on the knight, that's the even of it. Pist. Nym, thou hast spoke the right; His heart is fracted and corroborate. Nym. The king is a good king: but it must be as it may; he passes some humours, and careers, Pist. Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins, we will live. SCENE II. [Exeunt. Southampton. A Council-Chamber. Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND. Bed. 'Fore God, his grace is bold, to trust these traitors. Ere. They shall be apprehended by and by. West. How smooth and even they do bear themselves! As if allegiance in their bosoms sat, Bed. The king hath note of all that they intend, By interception which they dream not of. Ere. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow, Whom he hath cloy'd and grac'd with princely favours, That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell Trumpet sounds. Enter King HENRY, SCROOP, CAMBRIDGE, GREY, Lords and Attendants. K. Hen. Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard. My lord of Cambridge,-and my kind lord of Masham, And you, my gentle knight,give me your thoughts: Think you not, that the powers we bear with us, Will cut their passage through the force of France; Doing the execution, and the act, For which we have in head assembled them ?8 Scroop. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his bést. K. Hen. I doubt not that: since we are well suaded, We carry not a heart with us from hence, per Cam. Never was monarch better fear'd, and lov'd, Than is your majesty; there's not, I think, a subject, That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness Under the sweet shade of your government. Grey. Even those, that were your father's enemies, Have steep'd their galls in honey; and do serve you With hearts create of duty and of zeal. 9 K. Hen. We therefore have great cause of thank fulness: And shall forget the office of our hand, Scroop. So service shall with steeled sinews toil; K. Hen. We judge no less.-Uncle of Exeter, Enlarge the man committed yesterday, That rail'd against our person: we consider, It was excess of wine that set him on; And, on his more advice,' we pardon him. Scroop. That's mercy, but too much security: Let him be punish'd, sovereign; lest example 8 For which we have in head assembled them?] In head seems synonymous with the modern military term in force. 9 hearts create-] Hearts compounded or made up of duty and zeal. I more advice,] On his return to more coolness of mind. |