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 fuch a kind of man,
So furfeit-fwell'd, fo old, and fo profane;
But, being awake, I do defpife my dream,
Make lefs 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 jeft,
Prefume not, that I am the thing I was,

For heav'n doth know, fo fhall the world perceive,
That I have turn'd away my former self,
So will I thofe that kept me company.
When thou doft hear I am as. I have been,
Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou waft,
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 mif-leaders,
Not to come near our perfon by ten miles.
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 qualities,
Give you advancement. Be't[your charge, my lord,
To fee perform'd the tenour of our word.

Set on.

SCENE IX.

[Exit king, &c.

FAL. Mafter Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound. SHAL. Ay, marry, fir John, which I beseech you to let me have home with me.

FAL. That can hardly be, Mr. Shallow. Do not you grieve at this; I fhall be fent 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 befeech you, good fir 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, fir John. FAL. Fear no colours. Go with me to dinner. Come. lieutenant Pistol; come, Bardolph. I fhall be fent for foon

at night.

Enter chief justice and prince John.

C. Jus. Go, carry fir John Falftaff to the Fleet. Take all his company along with him.

FAL. My lord, my lord,

C. Jus. I cannot now fpeak. I will hear you foon.
Take them away.

PIST. "Si fortuna me tormento, fpera me contento."
Manent Lancaster and chief juftice.

LAN. I like this fair proceeding of the king's.

He hath intent, his wonted followers

Shall all be very well provided for;

But they are banish'd, 'till their converfations

Appear more wife and modeft to the world.

C. Jus. And fo they are.

LAN. The king hath call'd his parliament, my lord.
C. Jus. He hath.

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

We bear our civil fwords and native fire

As far as France. I heard a bird fo fing,
Whose musick, to my thinking, pleas'd the king.
Come, will you hence,

[Exeunt.

EPILOGUE. Spoken by a DANCER.

FIRST my fear, then, my court'sy, last, my speech. My fear is your displeasure; my court'fy my duty; and my speech, to beg your pardons. If you look for a good fpeech now, you undo me; for what I have to fay is of mine own making, and what, indeed, I fhould fay, will, I doubt, prove mine own marring. But to the purpose, and fo 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, lofe. Here, I promifed you I would be, and here I commit my body to your mercies: bate me some, and I will pay you fome, and, as most debtors do, promise you infinitely.

If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you command me to ufe my legs? and yet that were but light payment, to dance out of your debt. But a good confcience will make any poffible fatisfaction, and fo 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 fuch an affembly.

One word more, I beseech you; if you be not too much cloy'd with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story with fir John in it, and make you merry with fair Catharine of France; where, for any thing I know, Falstaff fhall die of a fweat, unless already he be kill'd 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 fo kneel down before you: but indeed, to pray for the queen.

END O F THE THIRD VOLUME.

NOTE S

ON THE

LIFE AND DEATH OF K. RICHARD II.

The reader to find the Line referred to, muft reckon the Lines of the Text only, beginning at the Top of the Page, and omitting all Lines relating to the Entry of Characters. &c,

The Notes not in Dr. JOHNSON's Edition are marked with an Afterifk [*] thus.

T

HF Life and Death of King Richard II.] But this Hiftory comprizes little more than the Two laft Years of this prince. The action of the Drama begins with Bolingbroke's appealing the Duke of Norfolk, on an accufation of high Treason, which fell out in the Year 1398; and it clofes with the murder of King Richard at Pomfret-Castle towards the end of the year 1400, or the beginning of the enfuing year.

THEOB.

P. 283. 1. 9. If he appeal the Duke ;] Appeal, i. e. call, demand, challenge, from appello. W.ARB. P. 284. 1. 28. Right-drawn.] Drawn in a right or just Cause. JOHNS. P. 285. 1. 15. Or any other ground inhabitable.] I don't know that this word, (like the French word, inhabitable,) will admit the two different acceptations of a place to be dwelt in, and not to be deelt in: (or that it may be taken in the latter fenfe, as inhabitabilis (among the Latines) fignifies uninbabitable; tho' inhabitare fignifies only to inbabit :) and therefore I have ventur'd to read,

Or any other ground unbabitable;

VOL. III, PART II.

A

So in the old quarto, or first rough draught of our author's Taming of the Shew."

Unhabitable as the burning Zone.

P. 286. l. 3.

inhabit.

THEOB.*

WARB.

that can inherit us.] We fhould read,

L. 31. 'Till I have told this Sland'rer of his blood.] All the authentic copies read, Slander, as I have restor❜d to the text; this Mr. Pope has thought fit to throw out, as an absurdity; and fubftituted Slanderer in its place. But why not, Slander? 'Tis our author's mode of expreffion in other paffages;

But you must learn to know fuch Slanders of the age, or elfe you may be marvelously mistook. K. Hen. V. Thou Slander of thy heavy mother's womb! Rich. III. THEOB.*

P. 287. 1. 4. My Scepter's awe.] The reverence done to my Scepter. JOHNS. P. 288. 1. 8. This we prefcribe, though no phyfician, &c.] I must make one remark, in general, on the Rhymes throughout this whole play; they are fo much inferior to the rest of the writing, that they appear to me of a different hand. What confirms this, is, that the context does every where exactly (and frequently much better) connect without the inferted rhymes, except in a very few places; and just there too, the rhyming verfes are of a much better tafte than all the others, which rather ftrengthens my conjecРОРЕ.

ture.

Ibid.] This obfervation of Mr. Pope's happens to be very unluckily placed here; becaufe the context, without the inferted rhymes, will not connect at all. CANONS.*

L. 19. No boot.] That is, no advantage, no ufe, in delay or refufal.

JOHNS. L. 22. My fair Name, &c.] That is, My name that lives on my grave in defpight of death. This eafy paffage moft of the editors feem to have mistaken.

JOHNS. P. 289. 1. 13, Or with pale beggar face] i. e. with a face of fupplication. But this will not fatisfy the Oxford Editor, he turns it to baggard fear. L. 17. The flavish motive

-] Motive for

WARB. inftrument.

WARB.

Ibid.] Rather that which fear puts in motion. JOHNS.