SCENE V.

Enter Falftaff.

Shal. It is very juft.-Look, here comes good Sir John. Giye me your good hand: give me your Worhip's good hand. Trust me, you look well, and bear your years very well. Welcome, good Sir John.

Fal. I am glad to fee you well, good master Robert Shallow.-Mafter Sure-card, as I think,

Shal. No, Sir John, it is my coufin Silence; in Commiffion with me."

Fal. Good mafter Silence, it well befits, you should be of the peace.

Sil. Your good Worship is welcome. [Embraces him. Fal. Fie, this is hot weather-Gentlemen; have you provided me here half a dozen of fufficient men? Shal. Marry, have we, Sir. Will you fit? Fal. Let me fee them, I befeech you.

Shal. Where's the roll? where's the roll? where's the roll? Let me fee, let me fee, let me fee. So, fo, fo, fo. Yea, marry, Sir. Ralph Mouldy:-let them appear as I call. Let them do fo, let them do fo. Let me fee, where is Mouldy?

Moul. Here, if it please you.

Shal. What think you, Sir John? a good-limb'd fellow: young, ftrong, and of good friends.

Fal. Is thy name Mouldy?

Moul. Yea, if it please you.

Fal. 'Tis the more time thou wert us'd.

Shal. Ha, ha, ha, moft excellent, i'faith. Things, that are mouldy, lack use. Very fingular good. Well faid, Sir John, very well faid.

Fal. Prick him.

Moul. I was prickt well enough before, if you could have let me alone. My old dame will be undone now for one to do her husbandry, and her drudgery; you

U 4

need

need not to have prickt me, there are other men fitter

to go out than I.

Fal. Go to: peace, Mouldy, you fhall

it is time you were spent.

Moul. Spent?

go. Mouldy,

Shal. Peace, fellow, peace. Stand afide. Know you where you are? For the other, Sir John.-Let me fec-Simon Shadow.

Fal. Ay, marry, let me have him to fit under: he's like to be a cold foldier.

Shal. Where's Shadow?

Shad. Here, Sir.

Fal. Shadow, whofe fon art thou?
Shad. My mother's fon, Sir.

Fal. Thy mother's fon! like enough; and thy fa ther's fhadow; fo the fon of the female is the fhadow of the male; it is often fo, indeed, but not of the father's fubftance.

Shal. Do you like him, Sir John?

Fal. Shadow will ferve for fummer; prick him; for we have a number of fhadows do fill up the musterbook 3.

Shal. Thomas Wart.

Fal. Where's he?

Wart. Here, Sir.

Fal. Is thy name Wart?

Wart. Yea, Sir.

Fal. Thou art a very ragged wart.

Shal. Shall I prick him down, Sir John?

Fal. It were fuperfluous; for his apparel is built upon his back, and the whole frame stands upon pins; prick him no more.

Shal. Ha, ha, ha.-You can do it, Sir; you can do it: I commend you well. Francis Feeble.

3 we have a number of shadores do fill up the mufter-book.] That is, we have in the mutter

book many names for which we receive pay, though we have not the men.

Feeble

Feeble. Here, Sir.

Fal. What trade art thou, Feeble?
Feeble. A woman's tailor, Sir.
Shal. Shall I prick him, Sir?

Fal. You may: but if he had been a man's tailor, he would have prick'd you. Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy's battel, as thou haft done in a woman's petticoat?

Feeble. I will do my good will, Sir; you can have

no more.

Fal. Well faid, good woman's tailor; well faid, courageous Feeble. Thou wilt be as valiant as the wrathful Dove, or moft magnanimous moufe. Prick the woman's tailor well, mafter Shallow, deep, master Shallow.

Feeble. I would, Wart might have gone, Sir.

Fal. I would, thou wert a man's tailor, that thou might'ft mend him, and make him fit to go. I can not put him to be a private foldier, that is the leader of fo many thoufands. Let that fuffice, moft forcible Feeble.

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 Bull-calf, till he roar again.

Bul. Oh, good my lord captain,

Fal. What, dost thou roar before th'art prickt? Bul. Oh, Sir, I am a difeafed man.

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 shalt 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,

go

in with me to dinner.

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. Q, 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 mafter Shallow, no more of that.

Shal. Ha! it was a merry night. And is Jane Night-work alive?

Fal. She lives, mafter Shallow.

Shal. She never could away with me.

Fal. Never, never. She would always fay, she could not abide mafter Shallow.

Shal. By the mafs, I could anger her to the heart. She was then a Bona-roba. Doth fhe hold her own

well?

4

Fal. Old, old, master Shallow.

Shal. Nay, fhe must be old, fhe cannot chufe but be old; certain, fhe's old, and had Robin Night 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 feen!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.

4 Bona-Roba.] A fine fhowy wanton.

Bul.

Bul. [afide to Bardolph] 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 becaufe I am unwilling, and for my own part, have a defire to stay with my friends; elfe, Sir, I did not care for mine own part fo much.

Bard. Go to; stand aside.

Moul. And good mafter corporal captain, for my old Dame's fake ftand my friend; fhe 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 destiny, 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. Feeble. Faith, I will bear no bafe mind. Fal. Come, Sir, which men fhall I have? Shal. Four of which you please.

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 chufe for me.

Shal. Marry then, Mouldy, Bull-calf, Feeble, and Shallow.

Fal. Mouldy, and Bull-calf

stay at home till you are paft fervice; and for your part, Bull-calf, grow till you come

none of you.

For you, Mouldy,

unto it. I will