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70

Presume not that I am the thing I was;
For God doth know, so shall the world perceive,
That I have turn'd away my former self;
So will I those that kept me company.
When thou dost hear I am as I have been,
Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast,
The tutor and the feeder of my riots:
Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death,
As I have done the rest of my misleaders,
Not to come near our person by ten mile.
For competence of life I will allow you,
That lack of means enforce you not to evil:
And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,
We will, according to your strengths and quali-
ties,

Give you advancement. Be it your charge, my
lord,

To see perform'd the tenor of our word.

Set on. [Exeunt King, etc. Fal. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand 80 pound.

Shal. Yea, marry, Sir John; which I beseech you to let me have home with me.

Fal. That can hardly be, Master Shallow. Do 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 advancements; I will be the man yet that shall make you great.

Shal. I cannot well perceive how, unless you 90 should give me your doublet, and stuff me out with straw. I beseech you, good Sir

XVI-11

161

John, let me have five hundred of my thou-
sand.

Fal. Sir, I will be as good as my word: this that
you heard was but a color.

Shal. A color that I fear you will die in, Sir
John.

Fal. Fear no colors: go with me to dinner: come, Lieutenant Pistol; come, Bardolph: 100 I shall be sent for soon at night.

Re-enter Prince John, and the Lord Chief Justice; Officers with them.

Ch. Just. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet:

Take all his company along with him.

Fal. My lord, my lord,—

Ch. Just. I cannot now speak: I will hear you

soon.

Take them away.

Pist. Si fortuna me tormenta, spero contenta.
[Exeunt all but Prince John and the
Chief-Justice.
Lan. I like this fair proceeding of the king's:

He hath intent his wonted followers

101. "soon at night"; this very night.-C. H. H.

107. "si fortuna," etc., so in Q. Pistol had quoted his motto before (2 ii. 4. 201) in an equally incorrect but indifferent form according to the old texts; he is not intended to be either correct or consistent. His use of it in his present situation may be suggested by the tale of Hannibal Gonzaga (as pointed out by Farmer), "who vaunted on yielding himself a prisoner, as you may read in an old collection of tales called Wits Fits and Fancies:

Si Fortuna me tormenta

Il Speranza me contenta."-C. H. H

Shall all be very well provided for;

But all are banish'd till their conversations Appear more wise and modest to the world. Ch. Just. And so they are.

110

Lan. The king hath call'd his parliament, my lord.

Ch. Just. He hath.

Lan. I will lay odds that, ere this year expire,

We bear our civil swords and native fire
As far as France: I heard a bird so sing,
Whose music, to my thinking, pleased the
king.

Come, will you hence?

[Exeunt, 120

113. "I heard a bird so sing”; a proverbial expression still extant. -I. G.

EPILOGUE

Spoken by a Dancer.

First my fear; then my courtesy; last my speech. My fear is, your displeasure; my courtesy, 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 mine

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EPILOGUE. Shakespeare's authorship of this epilogue has been doubted, and it has been described as "a manifest and poor imitation of the epilogue to As You Like It." It is noteworthy that it occurs already in the Q. (1600), though with one important difference; the words "and so kneel down queen" (11. 36, 37) are printed there at the end of the first paragraph, after "infinitely.” It seems probable, therefore, that the epilogue originally ended there, and that the remaining lines were added somewhat later. One is strongly tempted to infer that the additions to the epilogue were called forth by the success of the first and second parts of the play of Sir John Oldcastle, written evidently to vindicate the character of Falstaff's original, and put on the stage as a counterattraction to Henry IV, hence the words, added in a spirit of playful defiance, "for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man" (1. 33). The first part of Sir John Oldcastle was performed for the first time about November 1, 1599, the second part, dealing with the Lollard's death, was evidently written by the end of the year. The First Part of the true and honourable history of the Life of Sir John Oldcastle, the good Lord Cobham, appeared in two editions in 1600; Shakespeare's name had been impudently printed on the title-page of the former and less correct edition; the authors were Munday, Drayton, Wilson, and Chettle. The "Second Part" is not known to exist.-I. G.

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