thing, and wilt not call, beshrew thy heart.-Welcome, my little tiny thief; [to the Page.] and welcome, indeed, too. I'll drink to master Bardolph, and to all the cavaleroes about London. Davy. I hope to see London once ere I die. Shal. By the mass, you'll crack a quart together. Ha will you not, master Bardolph ? Bard. Yes, sir, in a pottle pot. Shal. I thank thee :-The knave will stick by thee, I can assure thee that he will not out, he is true bred. Bar. And I'll stick by him, sir. Shal. Why, there spoke a king. Lack nothing: be merry.-[Knocking heard.] Look, who's at door there : Ho! who knocks? [Exit DAVY. Fal. Why, now you have done me right. [To SILENCE, who drinks a bumper. Sil. [Singing.] Do me right, And dub me knight : Is't not so? Samingo. Sil. Is't so? Why, then say, an old man can do somewhat. Re-enter DAVY. Davy. An it please your worship, there's one Pistol come from the court with news. Fal. From the court, let him come in.-How now, Pistol? Enter PISTOL. Pist. God save you, Sir John! Fal. What wind blew you hither, Pistol? Pis.Not the ill wind which blows no man to good. Sweet knight, thou art now one of the greatest men in the realm. Sil. By'r lady, I think 'a be, but goodman Puff of Barson. Pist. Puff? Puff in thy teeth, most recreant coward base !— And helter-skelter have I rode to thee; And tidings do I bring, and lucky joys, And golden times, and happy news of price. Fal. I pr'ythee now,deliver them like a man of this world. Pist. A foutra for the world, and worldlings base! I speak of Africa, and golden joys. [6] This was the term by which an airy splendid, irregular fellow was dis tinguished. The soldiers of king Charles were called Cavaliers from the gai ety which they affected in opposition to the sour faction of the parliament.JÕH Fal. O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news? [Sings. Pist. Shall dunghill curs confront the Helicons? And shall good news be baffled ? Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Furies' lap. Shal. Honest gentleman, I know not your breeding. Pist. Why then, lament therefore. Shal. Give me pardon, sir.-If, sir, you come with news from the court, I take it, there is but two ways; either to utter them, or to conceal them. I am, sir, under the king, in some authority. Pist. Under which king, Bezonian? speak, or die. Pist. Harry the Fourth? or Fifth? Shal. Harry the Fourth. Pist. A foutra for thine office !— Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is king; 8 Fal. What is the old king dead? Pist. As nail in door :9 the things I speak are just. Fal. Away, Bardolph; saddle my horse.-Master Robert Shallow, choose what office thou wilt in the land, 'tis thine.-Pistol, I will double-charge thee with dignities.. Bard. O joyful day !-I would not take a knight-hood for my fortune. Pist. What? I do bring good news? 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.-O, sweet Pistol:Away, Bardolph. [Exit BARD.]-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 to my lord chief justice ! [8] To fig, in Spanish, higas dar, is to insult by putting the thumb between the fore and middle finge. From this Spanish custom we yet say in con tempt, a fig for you." JOHNS. [9] This proverbial expression is oftener used than understood. The door nail is the nail on which, in ancient doors the knocker strikes It is the re for used as a comparison to any one irrecoverahly dead, one who has fallen (as Virgil says) multa morte, that is with abundant death, such as reiteration of strokes on the head would produce. STEEV. 30* VOL. IV. 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. [Exe. SCENE IV. London. A street. Enter 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. 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-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on; I'll tell thee what, thou damned tripe-visaged rascal; an the child I 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 ! 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 3 you filthy famish'd correctioner! if you be not swinged, I'll forswear half-kirtles.4 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 !5 Dol. Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal ! [1] Words of an old ballad. WARB. [Exeunt. [2] A nut hook was, I believe,a person who stole linen, &c. out at windows, by means of a pole with a hook at the end of it. Hence perhaps the phrase By hook or by crook, which is as old as the time of Tusser and Spenser STEE. [3] A nanie, given to the beadle, from the colour of his livery. JOHNS. Dr. Johnson is right with respect to the livery, but the llusion seems to be to the great flesh fly, commonly called a blue-bottle. FARMER. [4] Probably the dress of the prostitutes of that time. JOHN. 151, Atomy for anatomy. STEEV. SCENE V. A public Place near Westminster Abbey. strewing Rushes. 1 Groom. More rushes, more rushes. Enter two Grooms, 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 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. 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 borrowed of you. [To SHALLOW.] But 'tis no matter; this poor show doth better this doth infer the zeal I had to see him. 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. Shal. 'Tis so, indeed. Pist. My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver, Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts, By most mechanical and dirty hand : Rouze 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 trumpet-clangor sounds. Enter the King and his Train, the Chief 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! 7 Fal. God save thee, my sweet boy ! King. My lord chief justice, speak to that vain man. For heaven doth know, so shall the world perceive, [7] The word imp is perpetually used by ancient writers, for progeny. Imp-yn is a Welch word,and primitively signifies a sprout,a sucker. STEEV. [8] Nature is highly touched in this passage. The King having shaken off his vanities, schools his old companion for his follies with great severity: he assumes the air of a preacher, bids him fall to his prayers, seek grace, ind leave gormandizing. But that word unluckily presenting him with pleasant idea. he cannot forbeat pursuing it: Know, the grave doth gape for thee thrice wider &c. and is just falling back into Hal, by an humorous allusion to Fistaff's bulk; but he perceives it immediately, and fearing Sir John should take the advantage of it, checks both himself and the knight, withReply not to me with a foal-born jest; and so resumes the thread of his discourse, and goes moralizing along to the end of the chapter Thus the poet copies nature with great skill,and shows us how apt men are to fall back into their old customs, when the change is not made by degrees, and brought into habit, but determined of at once,on the motives of honour,interest or reason. WAR. [9] Mr Rowe observes, that many readers lament to ser Falstaff so hardly used by his old friend. But if it be considered, that the fat knight has never uttered one sentiment of generosity,and with all his power of exciting mirth, has nothing in him that can be esteemed, no great pain will be suffered f om the reflection that he is compelled to live honestly and maintained by the King, with a promise of advancement when he shall deserve it I think the poet is more blameable for Poins, who is always represented as joining some virtues with his vices, and is therefore treated by the Prince with apparent distinction, yet he does nothing in the time of action; and though after the bustle is over he is again favourite, at last vanishes without notice Shakspeare certainly lost him by heedlessness, in the multiplicity of his characters, the variety of his action, and his eagerness to end the play. JOHNS. |