Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

SCENE IV.-London.-A Street.

Encer BEADLES, dragging in Hostess QUICKLY, and 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.

Dol. Nut-book, nut-hook, you lie. Come; on; I'll tell thee what, thou damned tripevisaged rascal; an the child I now go with, do miscarry, thou hadst better thou hadst struck thy mother, thou paper-faced 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.

Dol. 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. Dol. Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a justice.

Host. Ay; come, you starved blood-hound. Dol. Goodman death! goodman bones! Host. Thou atomy, thou!

Dol. Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal! 1 Bead. Very well.

[Exeunt.

Shal. 'Tis so, indeed.

And make thee rage.
Pist. My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver,

Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts,
Is in base durance, and contagious prison;
Haul'd thither

By most mechanical and dirty hand:
Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell
Alecto's snake,

For Doll is in; Pistol speaks nought but truth.
Fal. I will deliver her.

[Shouts within, and the Trumpets sound. Pist. There roar'd the sea, and trumpetclangor sounds.

Enter the KING and his Train, the CHIEP 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 !
I have long dream'd of such a kind of man,
So surfeit-swell'd, so old, and so profane;
But, being awake, I do despise my dream.
Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace;
Leave gormandizing; know, the grave doth gape
For thee thrice wider than for other men:-
Reply not to me with a fool-born jest ;
Presume not that I am the thing I was:
For heaven doth know, so shall the world per-
ceive,

SCENE V.—A public Place near West-That I have turn'd away my former self;

minster 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 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.

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 strength, and quali-
ties,
(lord,

Give you advancement.-Be it your charge, my
To see perform'd the tenor of our word.
[Exeunt KING, and his Train.
Fal. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand
pound.

Set on.

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 bor-you to let me have home with me. rowed of you. [To SHALLOW.] But 'tis no matter; this poor show doth better: this doth infer the zeal I had to see him.

Shal. Ay, marry, Sir John; which I beseech

Shal. It doth so.

Fal. It shows my earnestness of affection. Shal. It doth so.

Fal. My devotion.

Shal. It doth, it doth, it doth.

Fal. As it were, to ride day and night; and not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to shift me.

Shal. It is most certain.

Fal. But to stand stained with travel, and sweating with desire to see him thinking of nothing else; putting all affairs else in oblivion; as if there were nothing else to be done, but to

see him.

Pist. 'Tis semper idem, for absque hoc nihil est: 'Tis all in every part.

A term of reproach for a catchpoll. To counterfeit pregnancy.

1 Beadles usually wore a blue livery

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 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, lieutenant Pistol ;-come, Bardolph:-1 shall be sent for soon at night.

Re-enter Prince JoHN, the CHIEF JUSTICE, Officers, &c.

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

Take all bis company along with him.

[blocks in formation]

Fal. My lord, my lord,—

Ch. Just. I cannot now speak: I will hear you Take them away. [soon. Pist. Si fortuna me tormenta, spero me contenta.

[Exeunt FAL. SHAL. PIST. BARD. PAGE, and Officers.

P. John. I like this fair proceeding of the
king's:

He hath intent, his wonted followers
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.

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

Ch. Just. He hath.

I will, I doubt, prove mine own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the venture.-Be it knowu to you, (as it is very well,) I was lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your pati. ence 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 gen.

P. John. I will lay odds, that, ere this year tlewomen here have forgiven me; if the gentle

expire,

We bear our civil swords, and native fire,
As far as France: I heard a bird so sing,
Whose music, to my thinking, pleas'd the king.
Come, will you hence ?

EPILOGUE

SPOKEN BY A DANCER

[Exeunt.

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; aud what, indeed, I should say,

men 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 shal' 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.

Most of the ancient interludes conclude with a

prayer for the King or Queen. Hence, perhaps, the Virant Rex et Regina, at the bottom of our modern play bills.

KING HENRY V.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

THE transactions comprized in this historical play commence about the latter end of the first, and terminate in the eighth, year of King Henry's reign; or with the marriage between him and Katharine, princess of Francs, which reconciled the differences of the two crowns. It was written in the year 1599, at the time when Elizabeth's forces in Ireland were commanded by the Earl of Essex. Shakspeare, who had shewn the boundless foibles and dissipation of Henry, whilst a prince, was under the necessity of pourtraying the dignity and lustre of his character s a monarch. In this, with one exception (the scene of his courtship) he has fully succeeded. The old woman's account of Falstaff's death is admirably written it is simply pathetic, and naturally circumstantial: every reader must regret bidding adieu to the facetious old knight, whose jokes so invariably produced a smile. Of Pistol, Dr Johnson says, "his character has perhaps been the model of all the bullies that have yet appeared on the English stage."

[blocks in formation]

The CONSTABLE of France.

EARLS OF SALISBURY, WESTMORELAND, and RAMBURES, and GRANDPREE, French Lords.

[blocks in formation]

The SCENE, at the beginning of the play, lies in England; but afterwards wholly in France.

[blocks in formation]

Attest, in little place, a million;

And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work:
Suppose, within the girdle of these walls
Are now confin'd two mighty monarchics,
Whose high up-reared and abuiting fronts
The perilous, narrow ocean parts asunder.
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
Into a thousand parts divide one man,
And make imaginary puissance:
Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i'the receiving earth:
For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our
kings,

Carry them here and there: jumping o'er times;
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour glass; For the which supply,
Admit me chorus to this history;
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.
Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray,

• Powers of fancy.

[merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][graphic][merged small][merged small][graphic][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIRKARY

R LENY

« AnteriorContinuar »