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. 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:8 But I do not love swaggering; by my troth, I am the worse, when 6 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 honest 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, 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. Pist. Not I: tell thee what, corporal Bardolph ;- 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. 2 3 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, 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." 6 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. Dol. Thrust him down stairs; I cannot endure such a fustian rascal. Pist. Thrust him down stairs! know we not Galloway nags?" Fal. Quoit him down, Bardolph, like a shovegroat shilling: nay, if he do nothing but speak nothing, he shall be nothing here. Bard. Come, get you down stairs. brue? Pist. What! shall we have incision? shall we im[Snatching up his sword. Then death rock me asleep, abridge my doleful days! Why then, let grievous, ghastly, gaping wounds Untwine the sisters three! Come, Atropos, I say! Host. Here's goodly stuff toward! Fal. Give me my rapier, boy. Dol. I pray thee, Jack, I pray thee, do not draw. Fal. Get you down stairs. [Drawing, and driving PISTOL out. Host. Here's a goodly tumult! I'll forswear keeping house, afore I'll be in these tirrits and frights. So; murder, I warrant now.--Alas, alas! put up your naked weapons, put up your naked [Exeunt PISTOL and BARDOLPH. Dol. I pray thee, Jack, be quiet; the rascal is gone. Ah, you whoreson little valiant villain, you. Host. Are you not hurt i'the groin? methought, he made a shrewd thrust at your belly. weapons. Re-enter BARDOLPH. Fal. Have you turned him out of doors? Bard. Yes, sir. The rascal's drunk: you have hurt him, sir, in the shoulder. 8 9 Galloway nags?] like a shove-groat metal made use of in the shore-groat, is one of the VIII. c. 9. That is, common hacknies. |