FAL. 'Fore God,* you have here a goodly dwelling, and a rich. SHAL. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all, sir John: -marry, good air.-Spread, Davy; spread, Davy: well said, Davy. FAL. This Davy serves you for good uses; he is your serving-man, and your husband. SHAL. A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet, sir John.— By the mass,† I have drunk too much sack at supper :-a good varlet. Now sit down, now sit down:-come, cousin. SIL. Ah, sirrah! quoth-a,-we shall Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer, And ever among so merrily. [Singing. FAL. There's a merry heart!-Good master Silence, I'll give you a health for that anon. SHAL. Give master Bardolph some wine, Davy. DAVY. Sweet sir, sit; [Seating BARDOLPH and the Page at another table.] I'll be with you anon:-most sweet sir, sit.—Master page, good master page, sit: proface! What you want in meat we'll have in drink. But you must § bear; the heart's all. [Exit. SHAL. Be merry, Master Bardolph;-and my little soldier there, be merry. SIL. Be merry, be merry, my wife has all;b And welcome merry shrove-tide. Be merry, be merry, &c. [Singing. FAL. I did not think, master Silence had been a man of this mettle. SIL. Who I? I have been merry twice and once, ere now. Re-enter DAVY. DAVY. There is a dish of leather-coats for you.d [Setting them before BARDOLPH. SHAL. Davy, First folio, omits 'Fore God. (+) First folio omits, By the mass. Proface!] An Italian phrase, signifying much good may it do you, and equivalent to our "welcome." It is found in Florio's Dictionary, "Buon pro vi faccia, much good may it do you," and in many of the early writers. My wife has all;] So the old copy. Farmer suggested we should read, “My wife's as all.' e 'Tis merry in hall, &c.] This rhyme is of great antiquity. Warton found it in a poem by Adam Davie, called "The Life of Alexander: "Merrie swithe it is in hall When the berdes waveth all." Leather-coats.] Apples usually known as russetines. SIL. An* we shall be merry, now comes in the sweet of the night. FAL. Health and long life to you, master Silence! SIL. Fill the cup, and let it come; I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom. SHAL. Honest Bardolph, welcome: if thou want'st any thing, and wilt not call, beshrew thy heart.-Welcome, my little tiny thief; [To the Page.] and welcome, indeed, too. I'll drink to master Bardolph, and to all the cavaleroes about London. DAVY. I hope to see London once ere I die. BARD. An* I might see you there, Davy,— SHAL. By the mass,† you'll crack a quart together. Ha! will you not, master Bardolph ? BARD. Yes, sir, in a pottle pot. SHAL. I thank thee:-the knave will stick by thee, I can assure thee that he will not out;a he is true bred. BARD. And I'll stick by him, sir. SHAL. Why, there spoke a king. [Knocking heard.] Look, who's at door there, ho! who knocks? Lack nothing: be merry. [Exit DAVY. FAL. Why, now you have done me right. He will not out; he is true bred.] A sportsman's saying applied to hounds, and which serves to expound Gadshill's expression: "Such as can hold in."—Henry IV. Part I. Act. II. Sc. 1. "If they run it endways orderly and make it good, then when they hold in together merrily, we say, They are in crie."-TURBERVILE'S "Booke of Hunting." b Samingo.] Silence is in his cups, or he would probably have sung San Domingo. Domingo, for some unexplained reason, was an old burden to topers' songs and catches. Thus in "Summer's Last Will and Testament," 1600: : "Monsieur Mingo for quaffing doth surpass In cup, in can, or glass; God Bacchus, do me right, And dub me knight, Domingo." Re-enter DAVY. DAVY. An* it please your worship, there's one Pistol come from the court with news. FAL. From the court? let him come in.— How now, Pistol? Enter PISTOL. PIST. Sir John, God save you!† FAL. What wind blew you hither, Pistol? PIST. Not the ill wind which blows no mant to good.-Sweet knight, thou art now one of the greatest men in the realm. SIL. By 'r lady,§ I think 'a be; but goodman Puff of Barson, Puff in thy teeth, most recreant coward base!— Sir John, I am thy Pistol, and thy friend, And helter-skelter have I rode to thee; And golden times, and happy news of price. FAL. I pr'ythee now, deliver them like a man of this world. I speak of Africa, and golden joys. FAL. O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news? Let king Cophetua know the truth thereof. SIL. And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John. [Sings. PIST. Shall dunghill curs confront the Helicons? And shall good news be baffled? Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Furies' lap. SHAL. Honest gentleman, I know not your breeding. SHAL. Give me pardon, sir;-if, sir, you come with news from the court, I take it, there is but two ways; either to utter them, or to conceal them. I am, sir, under the king, in some authority. PIST. Under which king, Bezonian? speak, or die. SHAL. Under king Harry. PIST. SHAL. Harry the fourth. Harry the fourth? or fifth? A foutra for thine office! Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is king; FAL. What! is the old king dead? C PIST. As nail in door: the things I speak are just. First folio, none. (II) First folio omits, And. (*) First folio, If. + First folio, Save you, sir. But goodman Puff-] This is, except goodman, &c. b Bezonian?] A term of contempt derived, it is thought, from the Italian bisogno, which Cotgrave explains, "a filthie knave, or clowne, a raskall, a bisonian, base humoured scoundrel." And fig me,-] This odious gesture, the Spanish higas dar, was performed by thrusting out the thumb between the fore and middle finger. See note (c), Vol. I. p. 214. FAL. Away, Bardolph; saddle my horse.-Master Robert Shallow, choose what office thou wilt in the land, 't is thine.-Pistol, I will double charge thee with dignities. BARD. O joyful day!—I would not take a knighthood for my fortune. PIST. What! I do bring good news? FAL. Carry master Silence to bed.-Master Shallow, my lord Shallow, be what thou wilt, I am fortune's steward. Get on thy boots; we'll ride all night:-0, sweet Pistol:-Away, Bardolph. [Exit. BARD.]-Come, Pistol, utter more to me; and, withal, devise something to do thyself good.-Boot, boot, master Shallow; I know the young king is sick for me. Let us take any man's horses; the laws of England are at my commandment. Happy are they which have been my friends; and woe unto my lord chief justice! PIST. Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also! Where is the life that late I led,a say they : Why, here it is; welcome these* pleasant days. SCENE IV.-London. A Street. [Exeunt. Enter Beadles, dragging along HOSTESS QUICKLY, and HOST. No, thou arrant knave; I would I might die, that I might have thee hanged: thou hast drawn my shoulder out of joint. 1 BEAD. The constables have delivered her over to me; and she • shall have whipping-cheer enough, I warrant her: there hath been a man or two lately killed about her. c DOLL. Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on; I'll tell thee what, thou damned tripe-visaged rascal; ant the child I now go with, do miscarry, thou hadst better thou hadst struck thy mother, thou paperfaced villain! HOST. O the lord,‡ that sir John were come! he would make this a bloody day to somebody. But I pray God,§ the fruit of her womb || miscarry! 1 BEAD. If it do, you shall have a dozen of cushions again; you have but eleven now. Come, I charge you both go with me; for the man is dead, that you and Pistol beat among you. DOLL. I'll tell thee what, thou thin man in a censer! I will have you as soundly swinged for this, you blue-bottled rogue; you filthy famished correctioner! if you be not swinged, I'll forswear halfkirtles. 1 BEAD. Come, come, you she knight-errant, come. (*) First folio, those. (+) First folio, if. (+) First folio omits, the lord. a Where is the life that late I led,-] This scrap from some old ballad is sung also by Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew," Act IV. Sc. 1. b Enter Beadles, &c.] The stage direction in the quarto, is "Enter Sincklo and three or foure officers;" and the name of Sincklo is prefixed to the speeches of the Beadle, or as the folio calls him, officer. Sincklo was an actor of Shakespeare's company, Nut-hook,-] This appears to have been a cant title formerly for a beadle or catchpoll. HOST. O, that right should thus overcome might! Well; of sufferance comes ease. DOLL. Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a justice. HOST. Yes; come, you starved blood-hound! DOLL. Goodman death! goodman bones! HOST. Thou atomy* thou! DOLL. Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal! 1 BEAD. Very well. [Exeunt. SCENE V-A public Place near Westminster Abbey. Enter two Grooms, strewing rushes. 1 GROOM. More rushes, more rushes. 2 GROOM. The trumpets have sounded twice. 1 GROOM. It will be two o'clock ere they come from the coronation: despatch, despatch.† [Exeunt Grooms. Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and the Page. FAL. Stand here by me, master Robert Shallow; I will make the king do you grace: I will leer upon him, as he comes by; and do but mark the countenance that he will give me. PIST. God bless thy lungs, good knight! FAL. Come here, Pistol; stand behind me,-O, if I had had time to have made new liveries, I would have bestowed the thousand pound I borrowed of you. [To SHALLOW.] But 't is no matter; this poor show doth better; this doth infer the zeal I had to see him. SHAL. It doth so. FAL. It shows my earnestness in affection. SHAL. It doth so. FAL. My devotion. SHAL. It doth, it doth, it doth. FAL. As it were, to ride day and night; and not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to shift me. SHAL. It is most certain. FAL. But to stand stained with travel, and sweating with desire to see him thinking of nothing else; putting all affairs else in oblivion; as if there were nothing else § to be done, but to see him. PIST. 'Tis semper idem, for absque hoc nihil est: 'Tis all in every part. SHAL. 'Tis so, indeed. PIST. My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver, And make thee rage. Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts, Is in base durance, and contagious prison; Hal'd thither by most mechanical and dirty hand :— Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell Alecto's snake, For Doll is in; Pistol speaks nought but truth. (*) First folio, anatomy. (+) First folio omits these two words. (3) First folio omits, else. |