Shal. Marry, have we, sir. Will you sit? Shal. Where's the roll? where's the roll? where's the roll?-Let me see, let me see. So, so, so, so: Yea, marry, sir:-Ralph Mouldy:-let them appear as I call; let them do so, let them do so.-Let me see; Where is Mouldy? Moul. Here, an't please you. Shal. What think you, sir John? a good-limbed fellow: young, strong, and of good friends. Fal. 'Tis the more time thou wert used. Shal. Ha, ha, ha! most excellent, i'faith! things, that are mouldy, lack use: Very singular good!-In faith, well said, sir John; very well said. Fal. Prick him. [To Shallow. Moul. I was pricked well enough before, an you could have let me alone: my old dame will be undone now, for one to do her husbandry, and her drudgery: you need not to have pricked me; there are other men fitter to go out than I. Fal. Go to; peace, Mouldy, you shall go. Mouldy, it is time you were spent. Moul. Spent! Shal. Peace, fellow, peace; stand aside; Know you where you are? - For the other, sir John:-let me see; -Simon Shadow! Fal. Ay, marry, let me have him to sit under: he's like to be a cold soldier. Shal. Where's Shadow? Shad. Here, sir. Fal. Shadow, whose son art thou? Shad. My mother's son, sir. Fal. Thy mother's son! like enough; and thy father's shadow: so the son of the female is the shadow of the male: It is often so, indeed; but not much of the father's substance. Shal. Do you like him, sir John? Fal, Shadow will serve for summer,-prick him;-for we have a number of shadows to fill up the muster-book. D 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, sir John? Fal. It were superfluous; 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! Fee. Here, sir. Fal. What trade art thou, Feeble? Fee. 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 pricked you.-Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy's battle, as thou hast done in a woman's petticoat? Fee. I will do my good will, sir; you can have no more. Fal. Well said, good woman's tailor! well said, Feeble! Thou wilt be as valiant as the courageous wrathful dove, or most magnanimous mouse.-Prick the woman's tailor well, master Shallow; deep, master Shallow. Fee. I would, Wart might have gone, sir. Fal. I would, thou wert a man's tailor; that thou might'st mend him, and make him fit to go. I cannot put him to a private soldier, that is the leader of so many thousands: Let that suffice, most forcible Feeble. Fee. It shall suffice, sir. Fal. I am bound to thee, reverend Feeble.-Who is next? Shal. Peter Bullcalf of the green! Fal. Yea, marry, let us see Bullcalf. Bull. Here, sir. Fal. 'Fore God, a likely fellow!-Come, prick me, Bullcalf, till he roar again. Bull. O lord! good, my lord captain.- Fal. What disease hast thou? Bull. A whoreson 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 such order, that thy friends shall ring for thee. Is here all? Shal. Here is two more called than your number; you must have but four here, sir; and so, 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 see you, in good troth, master Shallow. Shal. O, sir John, do you remember since we lay all night in the windmill in St. George's-fields? Fal. No more of that, good master Shallow, no more of that. Shal. Ha, it was a merry night. And is Jane Nightwork alive? Fal. She lives, master Shallow. Shal. She never could away with me. Fal. Never, never: she would always say, she could not abide master Shallow. Shal. By the mass, I could anger her to the heart. She was then a bonaroba. Doth she hold her own well? Fal. Old, old, master Shallow. Shal. Nay, she must be old; she cannot choose but be old; certain, she's old; and had Robin Night-work by old Night-work, before I came to Clement's-inn. Sil. That's fifty-five year ago. Shal. Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen that that this knight and I have seen!-Ha, sir John, said I well? Fal. We have heard the chimes at midnight, master Shallow. Shal. That we have, that we have, that we have; in faith, sir John, we have; our watchword was, Hem, boys! Come, let's to dinner; come, let's to dinner :-O, the days that we have seen! -Come, come. [Exeunt Falstaff, Shallow, and Silence. Bull. Good master corporate Bardolph, stand my friend; and here is four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you. In very truth, sir, I had as lief be hanged, sir, as go: and yet for mine own part, sir, I do not care; but, rather, because I am unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my friends; else, sir, I did not care, for mine own part, so much. Bard. Go to; stand aside. Moul. And, good master corporal captain, for my old dame's sake, stand my friend: she has nobody to do any thing about her, when I am gone: and she is old, and cannot help herself: you shall have forty, sir. Bard. Go to; stand aside. Fee. By my troth, I care not;-a man can die but once; we owe God a death;-I'll ne'er bear a base mind:-an't be my destiny, so; an't be not, so: No man's too good to serve his prince; and, let it go which way it will, he that dies this year, is quit for the next. Bard. Well said; thou'rt a good fellow. Re-enter FALSTAFF and Justices. Fal. Come, sir, which men shall I have? Shal. Four, of which you please. Bard. Sir, a word with you:-I have three pound to free Mouldy and Bullcalf. Fal. Go to; well. Shal. Come, sir John, which four will you have? Shal. Marry then,-Mouldy, Bullcalf, Feeble, and Shadow. Fal. Mouldy, and Bullcalf:-For you, Mouldy, stay at home still; you are past service; and, for your part, Bullcalf, grow till you come unto it; I will none of you. Shal. Sir John, sir John, do not yourself wrong; they are your likeliest men, and I would have you served with the best. Fal. Will you tell me, master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes, the stature, bulk, and big assemblance of a man! Give me the spirit, master Shallow. Here's Wart;-you see what a ragged appearance it is: he shall charge you, and discharge you, with the motion of a pewterer's hammer; come off, and on, swifter than he that gibbets-on the brewer's bucket. And this same half-fac'd fellow, Shadow, give me this man: he presents no mark to the enemy: the foe-man may with as great aim level at the edge of a penknife: And, for a retreat,-how swiftly will this Feeble, the woman's tailor run off! O, give me the spare men, and spare me the great ones. -Put me a caliver into Wart's hand, Bardolph. Bart. Hold, Wart, traverse; 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, chapped, bald shot.Well said, i'faith, Wart; thou'rt a good scab: hold, there's a tester for thee. Shal. He is not his craft's-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), there was a little quiver fellow, and 'a would manage you his piece thus: and 'a would about, and about, and come you in, and come you in: rah, tah, tah, would 'a say; bounce, would 'a say; and away again would 'a go, and again would 'a come :-I shall never see such a fellow. Fal. These fellows will do well, master Shallow.God keep you, master 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 soldiers coats. Shal. Sir John, heaven bless you, and prosper your affairs, and send us peace! As you return, visit my house; let our old acquaintance be renewed: peradventure, I will with you to the court. |