Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth, King. You are right, justice, and you weigh this well; Therefore still bear the balance, and the sword: So snai I live to speak my father's words; Shall. 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 husbandman. 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. sit down, now sit down: come, cousin. Now Sil. Ah, sirrah! quoth-a.-we shall And ever among so merrily. 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's as all; [Singing. For women are shrews, both short and tall; 'Tis merry in hall, when beards wag all, And welcome merry skrove-tide. Be merry, be merry, &c. Fal. I did not think, master Silence had been a man of this mettle. Sil. Who I? I have been merry twice and once, And a merry heart lives long-a. Fal. Well said, master Silence. Sil. And we shall be merry; - now comes in the sweet of the night. Fat. 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. Shai. Honest Bardolph, welcome: If thou wantest any thing, and wilt not call, beshrew thy heart. Welcome, my little tiny thief; [to the Page.] and welcome, indeed, toc. I II 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; he is true bred. Bard. And I'll stick by him, sir. Shal. Why, there spoke a king. Lack nothing: be merry. [Knocking heard.] Look who's at door there: Ho! who knocks? [Exit DAVY. Fal. Why, now you have done me right. [To SILENCE, who drinks a bumper. Sil. Do me right, [Singing. And dub me knight: Puff in thy teeth, most recreant coward base! And helter-skelter have I rode to thee; Pist. A foutra for the world, and worldings base! 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. Pist. Why then, lament, therefore. 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. Harry the fourth? or fifth? 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: O, 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 to my lord chief justice! Pist. Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also! Where is the life that late I led, say they; Why, here it is; Welcome these pleasant days. [Exeunt SCENE IV. - London. A Street. Enter Beadles, dragging in Hostess QUICKLY, an DOLL TEAR-SHEET. 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. Doll. Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on; I'll tell thee what, thou damned tripe-visaged rascal; an 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-bottle rogue! you filthy famished correctioner: if you be not swinged, I'll forswear half-kirtles. 1 Bead. Come, come, you she knight-errant, come. Host. O, that right should thus overcome might! Well; of sufferance comes ease. Doll. Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a justice. Host. Ay; 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 publick 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! For thee thrice wider than for other men: 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 'a 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 'tis no matter; this poor show doth better: this doth infer the zeal I had to see him. Shal. It doth so. Reply not to me with a fool-born jest ; To see perform'd the tenor of our word. Shal. Ay, marry, sir John; which I beseech you to let me have home with me. Do Fal. That can hardly be, master Shallow. not you grieve at this; I shall be sent for in private to him: look you, he must seem thus to the world. Fear not your advancement; I will be the man yet, that shall make you great. Shal. I cannot perceive how; unless you give me your doublet, and stuff me out with straw. I beseech you, good sir John, let me have five hundred of my thousand. Fal. Sir, I will be as good as my word: this that you heard, was but a colour. Shal. A colour, I fear, that you will die in, sir John. Fal. Fear no colours; go with me to dinner. -come, Bardolph : — [ Rouze up revenge from ebon den with fell Alecto's Come, lieutenant Pistol; snake, For Doll is in; Pistol speaks nought but truth. [Shouts within, and the trumpets sound. Pist. There roar'd the sea, and trumpet-clangor sounds. Enter the KING and his Train, the CHIEF JUSTICE among them. Fal. God save thy grace, king Hal! my royal Hal! Pist. The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame! Fal. God save thee, my sweet boy! King. My lord chief justice, speak to that vain man. Ch. Just. Have you your wits? know you what 'tis you speak? Fal. My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart! King. I know thee not, old man: Fall to thy prayers; How ill white hairs become a fool, and jester! shall be sent for soon at night. Re-enter PRINCE JOHN, the CHIEF JUSTICE, Ch. Just. Go, carry sir John Falstaff to the Fleet; Fal. My lord, my lord, First, my fear; then my court'sy: last, my speech. My fear is, your displeasure; my court'sy, my duty; and my speech, to beg your pardons. If you look for a good speech now, you undo me: for what I have to say, is of mine own making; and what, indeed, I should say, will, I doubt, prove nine own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the venture.-Be it known to you, (as it is very well,) I was lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your patience for it, and to promise you a better. I did mean, indeed, to pay you with this; which, if, like an ill venture, it come unluckily home, I break, and you, my gentle creditors, lose. Here, I promised you, I would be, and here I commit my body to your mercies: bate me some, and I will pay you some, and, as most debtors do, promise you infinitely. If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you command me to use my legs? and yet that were but light payment,- - to dance out of your debt. But a good conscience will make any possible satisfaction, and so will I. All the gentlewomen here have forgiven me; if the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never seen before in such an assembly. One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Katharine of France. where, for any thing I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already he be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I will bid you good night: and so kneel down before you; but, indeed, to pray for the queen. Sir THOMAS ERPINGHAM, GOWER, FLUELLEN, MACMORRIS, JAMY, officers in King Henry's army. BATES, COURT, WILLIAMS, soldiers in the same. NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, formerly servants to Falstaff, now soldiers in the same. Boy, servant to them. A Herald. Chorus. CHARLES THE SIXTH, King of France. DUKES OF BURGUNDY, ORLEANS, and BOURBON. RAMBURES and GRANDPREE, French lords. Governor of Harfleur. MONTJOY, a French herald. Ambassadors to the King of England. ISABEL, Queen of France. KATHARINE, daughter of Charles and Isabel. ALICE, a lady attending on the Princess Katharine. QUICKLY, Pistol's wife, an hostess. Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldur The SCENE, at the beginning of the Play, lies in ENGLAND; but afterwards wholly in FRANCE. Enter Chorus. O, for a muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention ! A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars; and, at his heels, Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, Printing their proud hoofs i'the receiving earth: The flat unraised spirit, that hath dar'd, 446 For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times; Who, prologue-like, your humble patience prey, |