Bard. O joyful day!-I would not take a knight- I warrant her. There hath been a man or two hood for my fortune. lately killed about her. Pist. What! I do bring good news? Dol. Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on: I'll tell thee what, thou damned tripe-visaged rascal, an the child I now go with do miscarry, thou hadst better thou hadst struck thy mother, thou 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! Fal. Carry master Silence to bed.-Master Shallow, my lord Shallow, be what thou wilt, I am fortune's steward. Get on thy boots: we'll ride all night.-0, sweet Pistol!-Away, Bar-paper-faced villain. dolph.-[Exit BARDDOLPH.]-Come, Pistol, utter more to me; and, withal, devise something, to do thyself good.-Boot, boot, master Shallow: I know, the young king is sick for me. Let us take any man's horses; the laws of England are at my commandment. Happy are they which have been my friends, and woe unto my lord chief justice! Pist. Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also! "Where is the life that late I led," say they; Why, here it is: welcome these pleasant days! SCENE IV.-London. A Street. [Exeunt. 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 God, that right should thus overcome Enter Beadles, dragging in Hostess QUICKLY, might! Well, of sufferance comes ease. and DOLL TEAR-SHEET. Host. No, thou arrant knave; I would to God 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, 46 Dol. Come, you rogue, come: bring me to a justice. Host. Ay; come, you starved blood-hound. Dol. Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal! [Exeunt. 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! Set on. To see perform'd the tenour of our word.[Exeunt KING, and his Train. Fal. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound. Shal. Ay, marry, sir John; which 1 beseech you to let me have home with me. Fal. That can hardly be, master Shallow. Do 48 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 should 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.-I shall be sent for soon at night. Re-enter Prince JOHN, the Chief Justice, Officers, Sr. 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 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 own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the venture. Be it known to you, (as it is very well,) I was lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your patience 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 gentlewomen here have forgiven me; if the gentlemen 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 shall 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. 49 NOTES ON KING HENRY THE FOURTH.-PART II. INDUCTION. "INDUCTION"-So called in the folio, (1623,) where it is treated as the first scene of the play. The word is used in the same way by Ben Jonson, Marston, and other dramatists of the time. The quarto is not divided into acts and scenes; and Rumour enters as if to deliver a prologue. "Enter RUMOUR, painted full of Tongues." "Rumour," or Fame, was often thus represented, in the masques of Shakespeare's day. In a masque by Thomas Campion, presented on St. Stephen's night, (1614,) Rumour comes on " in a skin-coat, full of winged tongues." Many similar instances are cited by the commentators. Some epithets in Chaucer's "House of Fame" might have supplied Shakespeare with hints for this description. But, whether directly or indirectly through scholar-poets, the thought comes from a celebrated passage in Virgil's "Eneid:" Millions of opening mouths to Fame belong; And round with listening ears the flying plague is hung. She fills the peaceful universe with cries; No slumbers ever close her wakeful eyes. By day from lofty towers her head she shews; And spreads, through trembling crowds, disastrous news: With court-informers' haunts, and royal spies, This done relates, nor done she feigns, and mingles truth with lies. [DRYDEN'S Translation.] ACT I.-SCENE I. "-almost FORSPENT with speed"-For, as a prefix to a verb, is used to give it intensity. Forwearied, in KING JOHN, and "forspent," here, mean wearied out, 66 - knolling a DEPARTING friend"-Malone thought that "departing" was here used for departed. In Shakespeare's seventy-first "Sonnet," we have No longer mourn for me when I am dead, Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell Give warning to the world that I am fled. But the ancient custom was for the bell to ring for the "departing" soul-not for the soul that had fled. Hence it was called the passing bell. "Rendering faint QUITTANCE"-Stevens truly explains "faint quittance" to be faint return of blows. "Gan VAIL his stomach"-" Vail," as to lower, and "stomach," is used, as often of old, for pride, haughtiness, confidence. We have the same use of the phrase |