That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build, Beyond his power to build it; who, half through, Hast. Grant, that our hopes (yet likely of fair birth), Should be still-born, and that we now possess'd I think, we are a body strong enough, Even as we are, to equal with the king. Bard. What! is the king but five-and-twenty thou sand? Hast. To us, no more; nay, not so much, lord Bard dolph. For his divisions, as the times do brawl, Are in three heads: one power against the French, And one against Glendower; perforce, a third Must take up us: So is the unfirm king In three divided: and his coffers sound With hollow poverty and emptiness. Arch. That he should draw his several strengths together, And come against us in full puissance, Hast. If he should do so, He leaves his back unarım'd, the French and Welsh Bard. Who, is it like, should lead his forces hither? I have no certain notice. Arch. Let us on: And publish the occasion of our arms. Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart. SCENE 1. LONDON. A Street. Enter HOSTESS; FANG, and his Boy with her; and Host. Master Fang, have you entered the action? Host. Where is your yeoman? Is it a lusty yeoman? will a' stand to't? : Fang. Sirrah, where's Snare? Host. O lord, ay; good master Snare. Snare. Here, here. Fang. Snare, we must arrest sir John Falstaff. Host. Yea, good master Snare; I have entered him and all. Snare. It may chance cost some of us our lives, for he will stab. Host. Alas the day! take heed of him; he stabbed me in mine own house, and that most beastly: in good faith, a'cares not what mischief he doth, if his weapon be out: he will foin like any devil; he will spare neither man, woman, nor child. Fang. If I can close with him, I care not for his thrust. Host. No, nor I neither: I'll be at your elbow. Fang. An I but fist him once; an a'come but within my vice; Host. I am undone by his going; I warrant you, he's an infinitive thing upon my score:---Good master Fang, hold him sure; -good master Snare, let him not 'scape. He comes continually to Pie-corner (saving your manhoods), to buy a saddle; and he's indited to dinner to the Lubbar's head in Lumbert-street, to master Smooth's the silkman: I pray ye, since my exion is entered, and my case so openly known to the world, let him be brought in to his answer. A hundred mark is a long loan for a poor lone woman to bear: and I have borne, and borne, and borne; and have been fubbed off, and fubbed off, and fubbed off, from this day to that day, that it is a shame to be thought on. There is no honesty in such dealing; unless a woman should be made an ass, and a beast, to bear every knave's wrong. Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, Page, and BARDOLPH. Yonder he comes; and that arrant malmsey-nose knave, Bardolph, with him. Do your offices, do your offices, master Fang, and master Snare; do me, do me, do me your offices. Fal. How now? whose mare's dead? what's the matter? Fang. Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of mistress Quickly. Fal. Away, varlets!--Draw, Bardolph; cut me off the villain's head; throw the quean in the channel. Host. Throw me in the channel? I'll throw thee in the channel. Wilt thou? wilt thou? thou bastardly rogue!-Murder, murder! Othou honeysuckle villain! wilt thou kill God's officers, and the king's? O thon honey-seed rogue! thou art a honey-seed; a manqueller, and a woman-queller. Fal. Keep them off, Bardolph. Host. Good people, bring a rescue or two. Thou wo't, wo't thou? thou wo't, wo't thou? do, do, thou rogue! do, thou hemp-seed! Fal. Away, you seullion! you rampallian! you fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe. Enter the Lord Chief Justice, attended. Ch. Just. What's the matter? keep the peace here, ho! Host. Good, my lord, be good to me! I beseech you, stand to me! Ch. Just. How now, sir John! what, are you brawl- Doth this become your place, your time and business? Host. O my most worshipful lord, an't please your grace, I am a poor widow of Eastcheap, and he is arrested at my suit. Ch. Just. For what sum? Host. It is more than for some, my lord; it is for all, all I have: he hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his: -but I will have some of it out again, or I'll ride thee o'nights, like the mare. Fal. I think, I am as like to ride the mare, if I have any vantage of ground to get up. Ch. Just. How comes this, sir John? Fie! what man of good temper would endure this tempest of exclamation? Are you not ashamed, to enforce a poor widow to so rough a course to come by her own? Fal. What is the gross sum that I owe thee? Host. Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself, and the money too. Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upon Wednesday in Whitsun-week, when the prince broke thy head for liking his father to a singing-man of Windsor; thou didst swear to me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me, and make me my lady, thy wife. Canst thou deny it? Did not goodwife Keech, the butcher's wife, come in then, and call me gossip Quickly? coming 1 १ |