Shal. Ha, it was a merry night. And is Jane Night-work 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 bona-roba. 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 years ago. Shal. Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen 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 watch-word was, Hem, boys!-Come, let's to dinner; come, let's to dinner.0, the days that we have seen!-Come, come. 1 [Exeunt FAL., SHAL., 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. 1 There were no coins of ten shillings value in Henry the Fourth's time, Shakspeare's Harry ten shillings were those of Henry VII. or VIII. 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? 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 choose for me. Shal. Marry then, Mouldy, Bull-calf, Feeble, and Shadow. Fal. Mouldy, and Bull-calf;-For you, Mouldy, stay at home till you are past service;—and, for your part, Bull-calf, 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,1 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-faced fellow, Shadow,-give me this man; he presents no mark to the enemy; the foeman may with as great aim 1 Shakspeare uses thewes in a sense almost peculiar to himself, for mus cular strength or sinews. 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. Bard. Hold, Wart, traverse1 thus, thus, thus. Fal. Come, manage me your caliver. So ;-very well;-go to;-very good:-exceeding good.-0, give me always a little, lean, old, chapped, bald shot. -Well said, i' faith, Wart; thou art 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,3 (when I lay at Clement's Inn,-I was then sir Dagonet in Arthur's show,*) there was a little quiver 5 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 1 Traverse was an ancient military term for march! 2 Shot, for shooter. 3 Mile-end Green was the place for public sports and exercises. 4 Arthur's show was an exhibition of Toxopholites, styling themselves "The Auncient Order, Society, and Unitie laudable of Prince Arthure and his Knightly Armory of the Round Table." The associates were fifty-eight in number. According to their historian and poet, Richard Robinson, this society was established by charter under king Henry the Eighth, who, "when he sawe a good archer indeede, he chose him and ordained such a one for a knight of this order." Robinson's book was printed in 1583. Sir Dagonet, though one of the knights, is also represented in the romance as king Arthur's fool. This society is also noticed by Richard Mulcaster (who was a member) in his book Concerning the Training up of Children, 1581, in a passage communicated to Malone by the Rev. Mr. Bowle. 5 Quiver is nimble, active. house; let our old acquaintance be renewed; peradventure, I will with you to the court. well. Fal. I would you would, master Shallow. Shal. Go to; I have spoke, at a word. Fare you [Exeunt SHALLOW and SILENCE. Fal. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. On, Bardolph; lead the men away. [Exeunt BARDOlph, Recruits, &c.] As I return, I will fetch off these justices; I do see the bottom of justice Shallow. Lord, Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying! This same starved justice hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his youth, and the feats he had done about Turnbull-street! and every third word a lie, duer paid to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. I do remember him at Clement's Inn, like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring; when he was naked, he was, for all the world, like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife; he was so forlorn, that his dimensions to any thick sight were invincible; he was the very Genius of famine; [yet lecherous as a monkey, and the whores called him mandrake.] He came ever in the rear-ward of the fashion; [and sung those tunes to the overscutched huswives that he heard the carmen whistle, and sware they were his fancies, or his good-nights.'] And now is this Vice's dagger 5 become a squire; and talks as familiarly of John of Gaunt, as if he had been sworn brother to him; and I'll be sworn he never saw him but once in the Tilt-yard; and then he burst his head, for crowding among the marshal's men. I saw 3 2 1 Turnbull-street, or Turnball-street, is a corruption of Turnmill-street, near Clerkenwell; anciently the resort of bullies, rogues, and other dissolute persons. 2 Steevens has adopted Rowe's alteration of this word invincible to invisible. The word may be metaphorically used for not to be mastered or taken in. 3 i. e. whipped, carted. A scutcher was a whip, according to Cotgrave. 4 Titles of little poems. The sentences in brackets are not in the folio of 1623. 5 For some account of the Vice and his dagger of lath, the reader may see Twelfth Night, Act iv. Sc. 2. 6 Burst, brast and broken, were formerly synonymous; as may be seen under the words break and broken in Baret. it, and told John of Gaunt, he beat his own name; for you might have trussed him, and all his apparel, into an eel-skin; the case of a treble hautboy was a mansion for him, a court: and now has he land and beeves. Well; I will be acquainted with him, if I return; and it shall go hard, but I will make him a philosopher's two stones to me: If the young dace be a bait for the old pike, I see no reason, in the law of nature, but I may snap at him. Let time shape, and [Exit. there an end. ACT IV. SCENE I. A Forest in Yorkshire. Enter the Archbishop of York, MoWBRAY, HASTINGS, and others. Arch. What is this forest called? Hast. 'Tis Gualtree forest, an't shall please your grace. Arch. Here stand, my lords; and send discoverers forth, To know the numbers of our enemies. 'Tis well done. Hast. We have sent forth already. Their cold intent, tenor, and substance, thus:— |