welcome, indeed, too. I ll drink to master Bardolph, and to all the cavalerces about London. Davy. I hope to see London once ere I die. Bard. An I might see you there, Davy, 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. Bard. 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. Do me right, [Singing. And dub me knight: Pist. Puff? Puff in thy teeth, most recreant coward base! Pist. A foutra for the world, and worldings base! I speak of Africa, and golden joys. Fal. O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news? Let king Cophetua know the truth thereof. Sil. And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John. [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. Shal. Under king Harry. Pist. Harry the fourth? or fifth? Shal. Harry the fourth. Pist. A foutra for thine office!Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is king; Harry the fifth's the man. I speak the truth: When Pistol lies, do this; and fig me, like The bragging Spaniard, Bard. O joyful day !—I would not take a knighthood 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! 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. - [Exeunt. 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. 1 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. Doll. 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 paperfaced 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! 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. Doll. 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, that right should thus overcome might! Well; of sufferance comes ease. Doll. Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a justice. Host. Ay; come, you starved blood-hound, Doll. Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal! 1 Bead. Very well. [Exeunt. A publick Place near Westminster Enter two Grooms, strewing rushes. 1 Groom. More rushes, more rushes. 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 FA STAFF, SHALLOW, PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and the 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. - 0, 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. For thee thrice wider than for other men : — ties, Give you advancement. lord, To see perform'd the tenor of our word. Shal. Ay, marry, sir John; which I beseech you to let me have home with me. Fal. That can hardly be, master Shallow. Do 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 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, Bardolph : — I Rouze up revenge from ebon den with fell Alecto's Come, lieutenant Pistol ; For Doll is in; Pistol speaks nought but truth. [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! 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! shall be sent for soon at night. Ch. Just. Go, carry sir John Falstaff to the Fleet; Ch. Just. I cannot now speak: I will hear you soon. Take them away. Pist. Si fortuna me tormenta, spero me contenta. P. John I like this fair proceeding of the king's: P. John. The king hath call'd his parliament, my P. John. I will lay odds, that, ere this year We hear our civil swords, and native fire, EPILOGUE.- Spoken by a Dancer First, my fear; then my court'sy: last, my speech. My fear is, your displeasure; my court'sy, 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. Sir THOMAS ERPINGHAM, GOWER, FLUEllen, MACMORRIS, JAMY, officers in King Henry's army. BATES, COURT, WILLIAMS, soldiers in the same. NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, formerly servants to Falstaff, now soldiers in the same. Boy, servant to them. A Herald. Chorus. CHARLES THE SIXTH, King of France. DUKES OF BURGUNDY, ORLEANS, and BOURBON. RAMBURES and GRANDPREE, French lords. Governor of Harfleur. MONTJOY, a French herald. Ambassadors to the King of England. ISABEL, Queen of France. KATHARINE, daughter of Charles and Isabel. ALICE, a lady attending on the Princess Katharine. QUICKLY, Pistol's wife, an hostess. Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Soldiers The SCENE, at the beginning of the Play, lies in ENGLAND; but afterwards wholly in FRANCE. Enter Chorus. O, for a muse of fire, that would ascend Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times; Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray, SCENE 1.- London. ACT I. An Ante-chamber in the | Any retirement, any sequestration Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, and BISHOP Cant. My lord, I'll tell you, that self bill is Which, in the eleventh year o' the last king's reign Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? A thousand pounds by the year: Thus runs the bill. 'Twould drink the cup and all. And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him; To envelop and contain celestial spirits. With such a heady current, scouring faults; So soor did lose his seat, and all at once, Ely. You would say, it hath been all-in-all his study: And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, Ely. The strawberry grows underneath, the nettle And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best, Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality : And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt, Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty. Cant. It must be so; for miracles are ceas'd; And therefore we must needs admit the means, How things are perfected. Ely. But, my good lord, How now for mitigation of this bill Cant. He seems indifferent ; Or, rather, swaying more upon our part, And in regard of causes now in nand, Ely. How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord? Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms; Ely. What was the impediment that broke this off? It is. Cant. Then go we in, to know his embassy; Which I could, with a ready guess, declare, Before the Frenchman speak a word of it. Ely. I'll wait upon you; and I long to hear it. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The same. A Room of State in the same. Enter KING HENRY, GLOSTER, BEDFORD, Exeter, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants. K. Hen. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury? Exe. Not here in presence. K. Hen. Send for him, good uncle. West. Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege? K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin; we would be resolv'd, Before we hear him, of some things of weight, Cant. God and his angels, guard your sacred throne, And make you long become it! |