Bard. Be gone, good ancient: this will grow to a brawl anon. Pist. Die men, like dogs; give crowns like pins; Have we not Hiren here? Host. O' my word, captain, there's none such here. What the good-year! do you think, I would deny her? for God's sake, be quiet. Pist. Then feed and be fat, my fair Calipolis:' Come, give's some sack. Si fortuna me tormenta, sperato me contenta.2— Fear we broadsides? no, let the fiend give fire: Give me some sack;-and, sweetheart, lie thou [Laying down his sword. Come we to full points here; and are et ceteras nothing ? there. Fal. Pistol, I would be quiet. Pist. Sweet knight, I kiss thy neif! What! we have seen the seven stars. Dol. Thrust him down stairs; I cannot endure such a fustian rascal. Pist. Thrust him down stairs! know we not Galloway nags 75 Fal. Quoit him down, Bardolph, like a shovegroat shilling: nay, if he do nothing but speak nothing, he shall be nothing here. Bard. Come, get you down stairs. days! Why, then, let grievous, ghastly, gaping wounds |i'faith, I love thee. Thou art as valorous as Hector of Troy, worth five of Agamemnon, and ten times better than the nine worthies. Ah, villain! Fal. A rascally slave! I will toss the rogue in a blanket. Dol. Do, if thou darest for thy heart: if thou dost, Page. The music is come, sir. Fal. Let them play;-Play, sirs;-Sit on my knee, Doll. A rascally bragging slave! the rogue fled from me like quicksilver. Dol. I'faith, and thou followedst him like a church. Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig, when wilt thou leave fighting o' days, and foining o' nights, and begin to patch up thine old body for heaven? Enter lehind PRINCE HENRY and POINs, disguised like Drawers. Fal. Peace, good Doll! do not speak like a death's head: do not bid me remember mine end. Dol. Sirrah, what humour is the prince of? Fal. A good shallow young fellow: he would have made a good pantler, he would have chipped bread well. is Dol. They say, Poins has a good wit. as thick as Tewksbury mustard; there is no more Fal. He a good wit? hang him, baboon! his wit conceit in him, than in a mallet. Dol. Why does the prince love him so then? Fal. Because their legs are both of a bigness! and he plays at quoits well; and eats conger and fennel; and drinks off candles' ends for flap-dragons and rides the wild mare with the boys;11 [Drawing, and driving PISTOL out. and jumps upon joint-stools; and swears with a Host. Here's a goodly tumult! I'll forswear good grace; and wears his boot very smooth, like keeping house, afore I'll be in these tirrits and unto the sign of the leg: and breeds no bate with frights. So; murder, I warrant you. Alas, telling of discreet stories ;12 and such other gambol alas! put up your naked weapons, put up your na-faculties he hath, that show a weak mind and an able body, for the which the prince admits him: for the prince himself is such another; the weight of a hair will turn the scales between their avoirdupois. ked weapons. gone. [Exeunt PISTOL and BARDOLPH. Dol. I pray thee, Jack, be quiet; the rascal is Ah, you whoreson little valiant villain, you. Host. Are you not hurt i'the groin? methought, he made a shrewd thrust at your belly. Re-enter BARDOLPH. Fal. Have you turned him out of doors? Bard. Yes, sir. The rascal's drunk: you have hurt him, sir, in the shoulder. Fal. A rascal! to brave me! Dǝl. Ah, you sweet little rogue, you! Alas, poor ape, how thou sweat'st! Come, let me wipe thy face; come on, you whoreson chops :-Ah, rogue! 1 This is again a burlesque upon a line in The Battle of Alcazar, in which Muley Mahomet enters to his wife with lion's flesh on his sword : his ears cut off? Poins. Let's beat him before his whore. P. Hen. Look, if the withered elder hath not his poll clawed like a parrot. Poins. Is it not strange, that desire should so many years outlive performance ? Fal. Kiss me, Doll. P. Hen. Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction !14 what says the almanack to that? Untwist the thread of mortall strife, 8 Doll says this in coaxing playful ridicule of Fal. staff's enormous bulk. Roasted pigs were formerly among the chief attractions of Bartholomew fair; they were sold, piping hot, in booths and on stalls, and were ostentatiously displayed to excite the appetite of passen. ragers. It was a common subject of allusion. Feed then and faint not, my faire Callypolis.' 2 Pistol is supposed to read this motto on his sword; by singular chance Mr. Douce picked up an old pier with the same motto in French : Si fortune me tourmente. l'esperance me contente. A representation is given of it in his Illustrations, vol. i. p. 433. 3 That is, Shall we stop here, and have no further entertainment? 4 Neif is used by Shakspeare for fist. It is a north tountry word, to be found in Ray's Collection. 4 Common hackneys. 5 i. e. pitch him down. The shove-groat shillings were such broad shillings of King Edward VI. as Slender calls Edward shovel-boards, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i. Sc. 1. 7 Pistol makes use of fragments of old ballads as well as old plays: O death, rock me on slepe, 9 Fennel was generally esteemed an inflammatory herb, and therefore to eat conger and fennel was to eat two high and hot things together. Fennel was also regarded as an emblem of flattery. 10 The flap-dragon was some small combustible material swallowed alight in a glass of liquor: a can. d'e's end formed a very formidable and disagreeable. flap-dragon, and to swallow it was consequently among the gallants considered an act of merit, or of gallantry, when done in honour of the toper's mistress. 11 Riding the wild mare is another name for the childish sport of see-saw, or what the French call bascule and bulançoire. 12 Mr. Douce thinks Falstaff's meaning to be that Poins excites no censure by telling his companions modest stories, or, in plain English, that he tells them nothing but immodest ones. 13 Falstaff is humourously called nare of a wheel, from his rotundity of figure. The equivoque between is an ancient song, attributed to Anne Boleyn. There I hate this loathsome life, O Atropos, draw nie, 14 This was indeed a prodigy. The astrologers, says Ficinus, remark that Saturn and Venus are never conjoined. Poins. And, look, whether the fiery Trigon,' his man, be not lisping to his master's old tables, his note-book, his counsel-keeper. Fal. Thou dost give me flattering busses. P. Hen. For the women,Fal. For one of them, she is in hell already, and burns, poor soul! For the other,-I owe her money; and whether she be damned for that, I Dol. Nay, truly: I kiss thee with a most con- know not. stant heart. Fal. I am old, I am old. Dol. I love thee better than I love e'er a scurvy young boy of them all. Fal. What stuff wilt have a kirtle? of? I shall receive money on Thursday: thou shalt have a cap to-morrow. A merry song, come: it grows late, we'll to bed. Thou'lt forget me, when I am gone. Dol. By my troth thou'lt set me a weeping, an thou savest so: prove that ever I dress myself handsome till thy return.-Well, hearken the end. Fal. Thou whoreson mad compound of majesty, -by this light flesh and corrupt blood, thou art [Leaning his hand upon DOLL. welcome. Dol. How! you fat fool, I scorn you. Poins. My lord, he will drive you out of your revenge, and turn all to a merriment, if you take not the heat. P. Hen. You whoreson candle-mine, you, how vilely did you speak of me even now, before this honest, virtuous, civil gentlewoman? Host. 'Blessing o' your good heart! and so she is, by my troth. Fal. Didst thou hear me? P. Hen. Yes; and vou knew me, as you did when you ran away by Gads-hill: you knew, I was at your back; and spoke it on purpose, to try my patience. Fal. No, no, no; not so; I did not think thou wast within hearing. P. Hen. I shall drive thee then to confess the wilful abuse; and then I know how to handle you. Fal. No abuse, Hal, on mine honour; no abuse. P. Hen. Not! to dispraise me; and call mepan'ler, and bread-chipper, and I know not what? Fal. No abuse, Hal. Poins. No abuse! Fal. No abuse, Ned, in the world; honest Ned, none. I dispraised him before the wicked, that the wicked might not fall in love with him:-in which doing, I have done the part of a careful friend, and a true subject, and thy father is to give me thanks for it. No abuse, Hal;-none, Ned, none;-no, boys, none. P. Hen. See now, whether pure fear, and entire cowardice, doth not make thee wrong this virtuous gentlewoman to close with us? Is she of the wicked? Is thine hostess here of the wicked? Or is the boy of the wicked? Or honest Bardolph, whose zeal burns in his nose, of the wicked? Poins. Answer, thou dead elm, answer. Fal. The fiend hath pricked down Bardolph irrecoverable; and his face is Lucifer's privy-kitchen, where he doth nothing but roast malt-worms. For the boy, there is a good angel about him; but the devil outbids him too." 1 Trigon or triangle, a term in the old judicial as trology. They called it a fiery trigon when the three upper planets met in a fiery sign; which was thought to denote rage and contention. 2 Few words, as Mr. Gifford observos, 'have occasioned such controversy among the commentators as Host. No, I warrant you. Fal. No, I think thou art not; I think, thou art quit for that: Marry, there is another indictment upon thee, for suffering flesh to be eaten in thy house, contrary to the law; for the which, I think, thou wilt howl. Host. All victuallers do so: What's a joint of mutton or two in a whole Lent? P. Hen. You, gentlewoman, Fal. His grace says that which his flesh rebels against. Host. Who knocks so loud at door? look to the door there, Francis. Enter Ρετο. P. Hen. Peto, how now? what news Peto. The king your father is at Westminster : Come from the north: and, as I came along, And there are twenty weak and wearied posts, I met, and overtook, a dozen captains, Bare-headed, sweating, knocking at the taverns, And asking every one for Sir John Falstaff. P. Hen. By heaven, Poins, I feel me much to blame, So idly to profane the precious time; Borne with black vapour, doth begin to melt, When tempest of commotion, like the south And drop upon our bare unarmed heads. Give me my sword, and cloak:-Falstaff, good night. [Exeunt PRINCE HENRY, POINS, PETO, and BARDOLPH. Fal. Now comes in the sweetest morsel of the night, and we must hence, and leave it unpick'd. [Knocking heard.] More knocking at the door? Re-enter BARDOLPH. How now? what's the matter? Bard. You must away to court, sir, presently; a dozen captains stay at door for you. Fal. Pay the musicians, sirrah. [To the Page.]Farewell, hostess;-farewell, Doll.-You see, my good wenches, how men of merit are sought after: the undeserver may sleep, when the man of action is called on. Farewell, good wenches: If I be not sent away post, I will see you again ere I go. Dol. I cannot speak ;-if my heart be not ready to burst;--Well, sweet Jack, have a care of thyself. Ful. Farewell, farewell. [Exeunt FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH. Host. Well, fare thee well: I have known thee these twenty-nine years, come peascod-time; but an honester, and truer-hearted man,-Well, fare thee well. Bard. [Within.] Mistress Tear-sheet,- Bard. [Within.] Bid mistress Tear-sheet come to my master. Host. O run, Doll, run; run, good Doll. ACT III. [Exeunt. SCENE I. A Room in the Palace. Enter Kiss HENRY in his Nightgown, with a Page. K. Hen. Go, call the earls of Surrey and of Warwick; But ere they come, bid them o'er-read these letters, kirtle. These familiar terms frequently are the most baffling to the antiquary, for being in general use they were clearly understood by our ancestors, and are t therefore accurately defined in the dictionaries. A kirtle was undoubtedly a petticoat, which sometimes had a body without sleeves attached to it. 3 The quarto reads and the devil blinds him too." 4 Baret defines, a victualling house, a tavern where And well consider of them: Make good speed.- And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber; And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody? 4 Enter WARWICK and SURREY. War. Many good morrows to your majesty! K. Hen. Why then, good morrows to you all, lords, Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you? War. We have, my liege. my K. Hen. Then you perceive, the body of our kingdom How foul it is; what rank diseases grow, War. It is but as a body, yet, distemper'd. K. Hen. O heaven! that one might read the book of fate; And see the revolution of the times Make mountains level, and the continent (Weary of solid firmness) melt itself Into the sea! and, other times, to see The beachy girdle of the ocean And changes fill the cup of alteration Since Richard, and Northumberland, great friends, [To WARWICK. That I and greatness were compell'd to kiss: War. There is a history in all men's lives, King Richard might create a perfect guess, K. Hen. Are these things then necessities? War. The powers that you already have sent forth, To comfort you the more, I have receiv'd Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock, A certain instance, that Glendower is dead.11 meate is eaten out of due season' By several statutes made in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. for the regulation and observance of fish days, victuallers were expressly forbidden to utter flesh in Lent. The brothels were formerly screened under the pretence of being victualling-houses and taverns. 1 A watch case here may mean the case of a watchlight; but the following article, cited by Strutt in his Manners and Customs. vol. iii. p. 70, from an old inventory, may throw some light upon it :- Item, a laume (larum) or watche of iron, in an iron case, with two leaden plumets,' 2 Some of the officious modern editors altered clouds to shrouds, meaning the rope ladders of a ship, thus marring the poet's noble image. Steevens judiciously opposed himself to this alteration, but was wrong in asserting that shroids had anciently the same meaning as clouds. Shrowdes were covertures, hiding places of any kind, aerial or otherwise. This will be found the meaning of the word in all the passages cited by Steevens. That clouds was the poet's word there can be no doubt. 3 Hurly is a noise or tumult. As hurly-burly in the first scene of Macbeth. See note there. 4 Warburton's conjecture, that this is a corrupt reading for happy lowly clown, deserves attention. 5 This mode of phraseology, where only two persons are addressed, is not very correct; but Shakspeare has used it again in King Henry VI. Part 2. where York addresses his two friends Salisbury and Warwick. Your majesty hath been this fortnight ill ; in 6 Distempered means disordered, sick; being only that state which foreruns or produces diseases. 7 When I have seen the hungry ocean gain Advantage on the kingdom of the shore, And the firm soil win of the wat'ry main, Increasing store with loss, and loss with store, When I have seen such interchange of state,' &c. Shakspeare's sixty-fourth Sonnet 8 This and the three following lines are from the quarto copy. Johnson having misunderstood the line:What perils past, what crosses to ensue ;' it may be necessary to remark that the perils are spoken of prospectively, as seen by the youth in the book of fate. The construction is, What perils having been past, what crosses are to ensue.' 9 The reference is to King Richard II. Act iv. Sc. 2: but neither Warwick nor the king were present at that conversation. Henry had then ascended the throne; either the king's or the poet's memory failed him. 10 The earldom of Warwick was at this time in the family of Beauchamp, and did not come into that of the Nerils till many years after when Anne, the daughter of this earl, married Richard Nevil, son of the earl of Salisbury, who makes a conspicuous figure in the Third Part of King Henry VI. under the title of Earl of War wick. 11 Glendower did not die till after King Henry IV. Shakspeare was led into this error by Holinshed. Vide note on the First Part of King Henry IV. Act iii. Sc. 1. And these unseason'd hours, perforce, must add K. Hen. [Exeunt. Sil. Alas, a black ouzel, cousin Shallow. Shal. By yea and nay, sir, I dare say, my cousin William is become a good scholar: He is at Oxford, still, is he not? Sil. Indeed, sir; to my cost. Shal. He must then to the inns of court shortly: I was once of Clement's inn, where, I think, they will talk of mad Shallow yet. Sil. You were called-lusty Shallow, then, cousin. Shal. By the mass, I was called any thing; and I would have done any thing, indeed, and roundly too. There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordshire, and black George Bare, and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele a Cotswold man,2-you had not four such swinge-bucklers in all the inns of court again: and, I may say to you, we knew where the bona-robas+ were; and had the best of them all at commandment. Then was Jack Falstaff, now Sir John, a boy: and page to Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk. Sil. This Sir John, cousin, that comes hither anon about soldiers? Shal. The same Sir John, the very same. I saw him break Skogan's' head at the court gate, when he was a crack, not thus high: and the very same day did I fight with one Sampson Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's Inn. O, the mad days that I have spent! and to see how many of mine old acquaintance are dead! Sil. We shall all follow, cousin. Shal. Certain, 'tis certain; very sure, very sure: death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all: all shall die. How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair? Sil. Truly, cousin, I was not there. Shal. Death is certain.-Is old Double of your town living yet? Sil. Dead, sir. Shal. Dead!-See, see!-he drew a good bow; And dead!-he shot a fine shoot:--John of Gaunt loved him well, and betted much money on his head. Dead!-he would have clapped i'the clout at twelve score; and carried you a forehand shaft a fourteen 1 The rood is the cross or crucifix. Rode, Sax. 2 The Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire were famous for rural sports of all kinds; by distinguishing Will Squele as a Cotswold man, Shallow meant to have it understood that he was well versed in manly exercises, and consequently of a daring spirit and athletic constitution. 3 Sioinge-bucklers and swash-bucklers were terms implying rakes and rioters in the time of Shakspeare. See a note on sword and buckler men in the First Part of King Henry IV. Act i. Sc. 3. 4 Buona-roba as we say, good stuff; a good wholesome plump-cheeked wench Florio. 5 There has been a doughty dispute between Messieurs Ritson and Malone whether there were two Scogans, Henry and John, or only one. Shakspeare probably got his idea of Scogan from his jests, which were Published by Andrew Borde in the reign of King Henry Vill. Holinshed, speaking of the distinguished persons of King Edward the Fourth's time, mentions Scogan, a learned gentleman, and student for a time in Oxford, of a pleasante witte, and bent to mery devises, in respecte whereof he was called into the courte, where giving himself to his natural inclination of mirthe and plea and fourteen and a half, that it would have done a man's heart good to see. How a score of ewes now? Sil. Thereafter as they be: a score of good ewes may be worth ten pounds. Shal. And is old Double dead! Enter BARDOLPH, and one with him. Sil. Here come two of Sir John Falstaff's men, as I think. Bard. Good morrow, honest gentlemen: I beseech you, which is Justice Shallow? Shal. I'am Robert Shallow, sir; a poor esquire of this county, and one of the king's justices of the peace: What is your good pleasure with me? Bard. My captain, sir, commends him to you; my captain, Sir John Falstaff; a tall gentleman, by heaven, and a most gallant leader. Shal. He greets me well, sir; I knew him a good backsword-man: How doth the good knight? may I ask, how my lady his wife doth? Bard. Sir, pardon; a soldier is better accommo dated, than with a wife. Shal. It is well said, in faith, sir; and it is well Better accommodated!—it is said indeed too. good: yea, indeed, it is: good phrases are surely, Accommoand ever were, very commendable. dated!-it comes from accommodo: very good; a good phrase." Bard. Pardon me, sir; I have heard the word. Phrase, call you it? By this good day, I know not the phrase; but I will maintain the word with my sword, to be a soldierlike word, and a word of exceeding good command. Accommodated: That is, when a man is, as they say, accommodated; or, when a man is,-being,-whereby, he may be thought to be accommodated; which is an exce lent thing. Enter FALSTAFF. Shal. It is very just:-Look, here comes good Sir John.-Give me your good hand, give me your worship's good hand: By my troth, you look well, and bear your years very well: welcome, good Sir John. Fal. I am glad to see you well, good master Robert Shallow-Master Sure-card, as I think. Shal. No, Sir John; it is my cousin Silence, in commission with me. Fal. Good master Silence, it well befits you should be of the peace. Sil. Your good worship is welcome. Fal. Fye! this is hot weather.-Gentlemen, have 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 ap pear as I call; let them do so, let them do so.-Let me see; Where is Mouldy? saunt pastime, he plaied many sporting parts, althoughe not in such uncivil manner as hath bene of hym re ported. The uncivil reports have relation to the above jests. Ben Jonson introduces Scogan with Skelton in his Masque of The Fortunate Isles, and describes hita thus: 6 A crack is a boy. 7 Hit the white mark at twelve score yards. By the statute 33 Hen. VIII. c. 9, every person turned of seventeen years of age, who shoots at a less distance than twelve score, is to forfeit six shillings and eight pecce. 8 It appears that it was fashionable in the poet's time to introduce this word accommodate upon all occasions Ben Jonson, in his Discoveries, calls it one of the perfumed terms of the time. The indefinite use of it is well ridiculed by Bardolph's vain attempt to define it. Fal. 'Fore God, a likely fellow!-Come, prick me Bull-calf till he roar again. Bull. O lord! good my lord captain, Fal. What, dost thou roar before thou art pricked? Fal. What disease hast thou? Shal. Ha, ha, ha! most excellent, i'faith! things, Bull. A whoreson cold, sir; a cough, sir; which that are mouldy, lack use: Very singular good! I caught with ringing in the king's affairs, upon his In faith, well said, Sir John; very well said. coronation-day, sir. Fal. Prick him. [To SHALLOW. Fal. Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown; Moul. I was pricked well enough before, an you we will have away thy cold; and I will take such could have let me alone: my old dame will be un-order, that thy friends shall ring for thee.-Is here done now, for one to do her husbandry, and her all? 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. Maul. 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. Here is two more called than your num ber; 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 Saint 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 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 Fal. Shadow will serve for summer,-prick him; her own well? -for we have a number of shadows to fill up the muster book. 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. 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 Fal. What trade art thou, Feeble? 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, courageous Feeble! Thou wilt be as valiant as the 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 Bull-calf of the green! Fal. Yea, marry, let us see Bull-calf. Bull. Here, sir. 1 There is in fact but one more called than Falstaff required, perhaps we might with Mr. Capel omit the word two. 2 This was a common expression of dislike; which is even used at a later period by Locke in his Conduct of the Understanding. It is of some antiquity also; for I find it frequently in Horman's Vulgaria, 1519:-He cannot away to marry Thetis, or to lie with her: The 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 that this knight and I have seen!-Ha, Sir John, said I well? Fal. We have heard the chimes at midnight, master Shallow. come. 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, [Ereunt 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. 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. tidis connubia vitat. I cannot away to be guilty of dis sembling: Non sustineo esse conscius mihi dissimu⚫ lanti. 3 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. He thought that those might do for any other Henry. |