To come off the breach with his pike bent bravely, and to surgery bravely; to venture upon the charged chambers bravely:

2

Dol. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang yourself!

Host. By my troth, this is the old fashion; you two never meet, but you fall to some discord: you are both, in good troth, as rheumatick' as two dry toasts;* you cannot one bear with another's confirmities. What the good-year! one must bear, and that must be you: [To DOLL.] you are the weaker vessel, as they say, the emptier vessel.

Dol. Can a weak empty vessel bear such a huge full hogshead? there's a whole merchant's venture of Bourdeaux stuff in him; you have not seen a hulk better stuffed in the hold.-Come, I'll be friends with thee, Jack: thou art going to the wars; and whether I shall ever see thee again, or no, there is nobody cares.

Re-enter Drawer.

Draw. Sir, ancient Pistol's below, and would speak with you.

Dol. Hang him, swaggering rascal! let him not come hither: it is the foul mouth'dst rogue in England.

Host. If he swagger, let him not come here: no, by my faith; I must live amongst my neigh

2

the charged chambers-] To understand this quibble, it is necessary to say, that a chamber signifies not only an apartment, but a piece of ordnance.

3

rheumatick-] Rheumatick, in the cant language of the times, signified capricious, humoursome. In this sense it appears to be used in many other old plays.

as two dry toasts;] Which cannot meet but they grate

one another.

5

ancient Pistol-] Is the same as ensign Pistol. Falstaff was captain, Peto lieutenant, and Pistol ensign, or ancient.

bours; I'll no swaggerers: I am in good name and fame with the very best :-Shut the door;-there comes no swaggerers here; I have not lived all this while, to have swaggering now:-shut the door, I pray you.

Fal. Dost thou hear, hostess ?—

Host. Pray you, pacify yourself, sir John; there comes no swaggerers here."

Fal. Dost thou hear? it is mine ancient. Host. Tilly-fally, sir John, never tell me; your ancient swaggerer comes not in my doors. doors. I was before master Tisick, the deputy, the other day; and, as he said to me,-it was no longer ago than Wednesday last,-Neighbour Quickly, says he;— master Dumb, our minister, was by then;-Neighbour Quickly, says he, receive those that are civil; for, saith he, you are in an ill name ;—now he said so, I can tell whereupon; for, says he, you are an honest woman, and well thought on; therefore take heed what guests you receive: Receive, says he, no swaggering companions.--There comes none here; -you would bless you to hear what he said:-no,

I'll no swaggerers.

Fal. He's no swaggerer, hostess; a tame cheater,' he; you may stroke him as gently as a puppy greyhound: he will not swagger with a Barbary hen, if her feathers turn back in any show of resistance.— Call him up, drawer.

Host. Cheater, call you him? I will bar no honest man my house, nor no cheater: But I do not love swaggering; by my troth, I am the worse, when

there comes no swaggerers here.] A swaggerer was a roaring, bullying, blustering, fighting fellow.

7 a tame cheater,] Gamester and cheater were, in Shakspeare's age, synonymous terms.

8

I will bar no homest man my house, nor no cheater:] The humour of this consists in the woman's mistaking the title of

one says swagger: feel, masters, how I shake; look you, I warrant you.

Dol. So you do, hostess.

Host. Do I? yea, in very truth, do I, an 'twere an aspen leaf: I cannot abide swaggerers.

Enter PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and Page.

Pist. 'Save you, sir John!

Fal. Welcome, ancient Pistol. Here, Pistol, I charge you with a cup of sack: do you discharge upon mine hostess.

Pist. I will discharge upon her, sir John, with two bullets.

Fal. She is pistol-proof, sir; you shall hardly offend her.

Host. Come, I'll drink no proofs, nor no bullets: I'll drink no more than will do me good, for no man's pleasure, I.

Pist. Then to you, mistress Dorothy; I will charge you.

Dol. Charge me? I scorn you, scurvy companion. What! you poor, you poor, base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen mate! Away, you mouldy rogue, away! I am meat for your master.

Pist. I know you, mistress Dorothy.

Dol. Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away! by this wine, I'll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps, an you play the saucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rascal ! you baskethilt stale juggler, you!-Since when, I pray you, sir?-What, with two points" on your shoulder? much!1

cheater, (which our ancestors gave to him whom we now, with better manners, call a gamester,) for that officer of the exchequer called an escheator, well known to the common people of that time; and named, either corruptly or satirically, a cheater.

with two points-] As a mark of his commission.

Pist. I will murder your ruff for this.

Fal. No more, Pistol; I would not have you go off here: discharge yourself of our company, Pistol.

Host. No, good captain Pistol; not here, sweet captain.

Dol. Captain! thou abominable damned cheater, art thou not ashamed to be called-captain? If captains were of my mind, they would truncheon you out, for taking their names upon you before you have earned them. You a captain, you slave! for what? for tearing a poor whore's ruff in a bawdyhouse? He a captain! Hang him, rogue! He lives upon mouldy stewed prunes, and dried cakes. A captain! these villains will make the word captain as odious as the word occupy; which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted: therefore captains had need look to it.

Bard. Pray thee, go down, good ancient.
Fal. Hark thee hither, mistress Doll.

Pist. Not I: tell thee what, corporal Bardolph;I could tear her :-I'll be revenged on her.

Page. Pray thee, go down.

Pist. I'll see her damned first; - to Pluto's damned lake, to the infernal deep, with Erebus and tortures vile also. Hold hook and line, say I. Down! down, dogs! down faitors! Have we not Hiren here?3

Host. Good captain Peesel, be quiet; it is very late, i'faith: I beseek you now, aggravate your choler.

much!] Much was a common expression of disdain at that time, of the same sense with that more modern one, Marry come up.

down faitors!] i. e. traitors, rascals.

Have we not Hiren-] A cant word for a harlot.

Pist. These be good humours, indeed! Shall packhorses,

And hollow pamper'd jades of Asia,

Which cannot go but thirty miles a day,
Compare with Cæsars, and with Cannibals,"
And Trojan Greeks? nay, rather damn them with
King Cerberus; and let the welkin roar.
Shall we fall foul for toys?

Host. By my troth, captain, these are very bitter words.

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 con

tenta.

Fear we broadsides? no, let the fiend give fire: Give me some sack ;-and, sweetheart, lie thou there. [Laying down his sword.

Come we to full points here; and are et cetera's

nothing?

Fal. Pistol, I would be quiet.

Pist. Sweet knight, I kiss thy neif: What! we have seen the seven stars.

Cannibals,] By a blunder for Hannibal.

-feed, and be fat, my fair Calipolis:] This is a burlesque on a line in an old play called The Battel of Alcazar, &c. printed in 1594, in which Muley Mahomet enters to his wife with lion's flesh on his sword:

"Feed then, and faint not, my faire Calypolis."

• Come we to full points here; &c.] That is, shall we stop here, shall we have no further entertainment? JOHNSON.

7 Sweet knight, I kiss thy neif:] i. e. kiss thy fist.