Make lefs thy body, (hence!) and more thy grace; Set on. S CE N. E [Ex. King, &c. IX. Fal. Mafter Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound. let me have home with me. you to Fal That can hardly be, Mr. Shallow. Do not you grieve at this; I fhall be fent 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 fhall make you great. Shal. I cannot perceive how, unless you give me your doublet, and stuff me out with straw. I befeech you, good Sir John, let me have five hundred of my thou fand. 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, Lieutenant Fiftol; come, Bardolph. I fhall be fent for foon at night. 1 Enter Enter Chief Juftice and Prince John. Ch. Juft. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet. Take all his company along with him, Fal. My Lord, my Lord Gh. Juft. I cannot now speak, I will hear you foon. Take them away. Pift. Si fortuna me tormenta, il sperare me contenta. Manent Lancaster and Chief Justice. [Exeunt. Lan. I like this fair proceeding of the King's. He hath intent his wonted followers Shall all be very well provided for; But they are banish'd till their converfations Appear more wife and modeft to the world, Lan. The King hath call'd his parliament, my Lord. Lan. I will lay odds, that ere this year expire, We bear our civil fwords and native fire As far as France. I heard a bird so fing, Whofe mufic, to my thinking, pleas d the King. EPILOGU E. Spoken by a DANCER. [Exeunt. Fr, my fear, then, my court fy; laft, my speech. My fear is your difpleafure; my court'fy, my duty; and my fpeech, to beg your pardons. If you look for a good fpeech now, you undo me; for what I have to fay is of mine own making, and what, indeed, I should jay. will, I doubt, prove mine own marring. But to the purpofe, and fo to the venture. Be it known to you, (as it is very well), I was lately here in the end of a displeafing play, to pray your patience for it, and to promife 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, lofe. Here I promifed you I would be, and here I commit my body to your mercies: bate bate me fome, and I will pay you fome, and, as most debtors do, promife you infinitely. If my tongue cannot intreat 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 poffible fatisfaction, and fo 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 feen before in fuch an affembly. One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too much cloy'd with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Catharine of France; where, for any thing I know, Falstaff fhall die of a fweat, unless already he be kill'd 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. *This alludes to the first play, in which Sir John Oldcaffle was put for Falstaff, Mr. Pope. The The SCENE, at the beginning of the play, lies in England; but afterwards, wholly in France. PROLOGU E. For a mufe of fire, that would afcend The brightest heaven of invention! "A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, This play was writ (as appears from a paffage in the chorus to the fifth act) at the time of the Earl of Effex's commanding the forces in Ireland in the reign of Q. Elifabeth, and not till after Henry VI. had been played; as may be feen by the conclufion of this play. Mr. Pope. "And "And monarchs to behold the fwelling fcene! "Then Should the warlike Harry, like himself, Aume the port of Mars; and, at his heels, દરે (Leafh'd in, like hounds), should famine, fword, and "Grouch for employment. Pardon, gentles all, [fire]}] The flat unraifed fpirit, that hath dar'd, On this unworthy Scaffold, to bring forth Suppofe within the girdle of thefe walls Perilous, the narrow ocean parts afunder. Think, when we talk of horses, that you fee them Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray, A C T I. SCENE I. An antechamber in the English court, at Kenilworth: Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely. Y Lord, I'll tell you; that felf bill is urge'd, Cant. M Which, in the eleventh year o' th la Μ King's reign, Was like, and had indeed against us pafs'd, |