Enter Chief Justice, and Servants.

Page. Sir, here comes the Nobleman that committed the Prince for striking him, about Bardolph. Fal. Wait close, I will not see him. Ch. Juft. What's he that goes there? Serv. Falstaff, an't please your lordship.

Ch. Just. He that was in queftion for the robbery? Serv. He, my lord. But he hath fince done good fervice at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is now going with fome charge to the lord John of Lancaster.

Ch. Juft. What to York? call him back again.
Serv. Sir John Falstaff,

Fal. Boy, tell him I am deaf.

Page. You muft fpeak louder, my master is deaf. Ch. Just I am fure, he is, to the hearing of any thing good. Go pluck him by the elbow. I must Speak with him.

Serv. Sir John

Fal. What a young knave and beg! are there not wars? is there not employment? doth not the King lack Subjects? do not the Rebels need foldiers? though it be a hame to be on any fide but one, it is worse fhame to beg, than to be on the worst fide, were it worfe than the name of Rebellion can tell how to make it.

Serv. You mistake me, Sir.

Fal. Why, Sir, did I fay you were an honest man? fetting my knight-hood and my foldiership afide, I had lied in my throat, if I had faid' fo.

and

Sery. I pray you, Sir, then fet your knight-hood your foldiership afide, and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you fay I am any other than an honeft man.

Fal. I give thee leave to tell me fo? I lay afide that, which grows to me? if thou gett'ft any leave

of me, hang me; if thou tak'ft leave, thou wert better be hang'd. You * hunt-counter, hence; avaunt. Serv. Sir, my lord would fpeak with you.

Ch. Juft. Sir John Falstaff, a word with you. Fal. My good lord! God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to fee your lordship abroad; I heard fay, your lordfhip was fick. I hope, your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not clean paft your youth, hath yet some smack of age in you; fome relifh of the faltnefs of time; and I most humbly befeech your lordship, to have a reverend care of your health.

Ch. Juft. Sir John, I fent for you before your expedition to Shrewsbury

Fal. If it please your lordfhip, I hear, his Majefty is return'd with fome difcomfort from Wales.

Ch. Juft. I talk not of his Majefty. You would not come when I fent for you.

Fal. And I hear moreover, his Highness is fallen into this fame whorfon apoplexy.

Ch. Just. Well, heav'n mend him! I pray, let me fpeak with you.

Fal. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy, an't please your lordship, a kind of fleeping in the blood, a whorfon tingling.

Ch. Juft. What tell you me of it? be it, as it is. Fal. It hath its original from much grief; from ftudy and perturbation of the brain. I have read the cause of it in Galen. It is a kind of deafnels.

Ch. Just. I think you are fallen into that disease: for you hear not what I fay to you.

Fal. 5 Very well, my lord, very well; rather, an't

pleafe * Hunt-counter.] That is, blan-avell:] In the Quarto Edition, derer. He does not, I think, al lude to any relation between the judge's fervant and the counterprifon.

5 Fal. Fer, well, my Lord, very

printed in 1600, this Speech ftands thus;

Old. Very well, myLord, veryavel : I had not obferv'd this, when I wrote my Note, to the first put

of

please you, it is the disease of not lift'ning, the maady of not marking, that I am troubled withal.

Ch. Juft. To punish you by the heels, would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not if I do become your phyfician.

Fal. I am as poor as fob, my lord, but not fo patient. Your lordship may minifter the potion of imprisonment to me, in refpect of poverty; but how I fhould be your Patient to follow your prefcriptions, the wife may make fome dram of a fcruple, or, indeed, a fcruple it felf.

Ch. Just. I fent for you, when there were matters against you for your life, to come fpeak with me.

Fal. As I was then advis'd by my Counsel learned in the laws of this land-fervice, I did not come.

Ch. Juft. Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy.

Fal. He that buckles him in my belt, cannot live in lefs.

Ch. Juft. Your means are very flender, and your wafte is great.

Fal. I would it were otherwife; I would, my means were greater, and my wafte flenderer.

Ch. Just. You have mif-led the youthful Prince. Fal. The young Prince hath mif-led me. I am the fellow with the great belly, and he my dog.

Ch. Just. Well, I'm loth to gall a new-heal'd wound; your day's fervice at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your night's exploit on Gads-bill. You may thank the unquiet time, for your quiet o'er-pofting

that action.

of Henry IV. concerning the Tradition of Falstaff's Character having been firit calle 1Oidcaple. This aimoft amounts to a felf-evident Proof, of the Thing being fo: and that the Play being printed from the Stage-Manufcript, Oldcale had been all along altered

into Falstaff, except in this fingle Place by an Overfight of which the Printers, not being aware, continued thefe initial Traces of the Original Name. THEOBALD.

61 do not understand this joke. Dogs lead the blind, but why does a dog lead the fat?

Fal

1

Fal. My lord

Cb. Just. But fince all is well, keep it fo: wake not a fleeping Wolf.

Fal. To wake a Wolf, is as bad as to fmell a Fox. Ch. Juft. What? you are as a candle, the better part burnt out.

Fal. A waffel candle, my lord; all ta'low; but if I did fay of wax, my growth would approve the truth. Ch. Juft. There is not a white hair on your face, but fhould have his effect of gravity.

Fal. His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy.

Ch. Juft. You follow the young Prince up and down, like his ill angel.

8

Fal. Not fo, my lord, your ang 1 is light: but I hope, he that looks upon me, will take me without weighing; and yet, in fome refpects, I grant, I cannot go; I cannot tell. Virtue is of fo little regard in these cofter-mongers' days, that true valour is turned bear-herd; pregnancy is made a tapiter, and hath his quick wit wafted in giving reckonings; all the other

7 A wafel candle, &c.] A waffel candle is a large candle lighted up at a feaft. There is a poor quibble upon the word wax, which fignifies encrease as well as the matter of the boneycomb.

You follow the young Prince up and down like his evil Angel.] What a precious Collator has Mr. Pope approv'd himfelf in this Paffage! Befides, if this were the true Reading, Fate could not have made the witty and humorous Evafion he has done in his Reply. I have reftor'd the Reading of the oldelt Quarto. The Lord Chief Juftice calls Falfoff the Prince's ill Angel or Genius: which Falaf turns off by faying, an ill Angel (meaning the Coin call'd an angel) is light;

- the

but, furely, it can't be faid that he wants We ght: ergo,Inference is obvious. Now Money may be call'd ill, or bad; but it is never call'd evil, with Regard to its being under Weight, This Mr. Pope will facetioufly call restoring of Puns: But if the Author wrote a Pun, and it happens to be loft in an Editor's Indolence, I fhail, in fpite of his Grimace, venture at bringing it back to Light.

THEOBALD. * I cannot tell.] I cannot be taken in a reckoning; I cannot pafs current.

9 in these cofer-mongers' day,} In thefe times when the prevalence of trade has produced that meannefs that rates the merit of every thing by moncy.

gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this age fhapes them, are not worth a goofe-berry. You, that are old, confider not the capacities of us that are young; you measure the heat of our Livers, with the bitterness of your Galls; and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confefs, are wags too.

Ch. Juft. Do you fet down your name in the fcrowl` of youth, that are written down old, with all the characters of age? Have you not a moift eye? a dry hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a decreasing leg? an increafing belly? Is not your voice broken? your wind fhort? your chin double? your wit fingle? and every part about you blasted with antiquity? and will you yet call yourself young? fie, fie, fie, Sir John.

Fal. My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the afternoon, with a white head, and fomething a round belly. For my voice, I have loft it with hallowing and finging of Anthems. To approve my youth further, I will not. The truth is, I am only old in judgment and understanding, and he, that will caper with me for a thoufand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him. For the box o'th'ear that the Prince gave you, he gave it like a rude Prince, and you took it like a fenfible lord. I have checkt him for it; and the young Lion repents: marry, not in afhes and fack-cloth, but in new filk and old fack. Ch. Just. Well, heav'n fend the Prince a better Companion!

Fal. Heav'n fend the companion a better Prince! I cannot rid my hands of him.

Ch. Juft. Well, the King hath fever'd you and Prince

your wit fin le? We call a man fing e-witted who attains but one fpecies of knowledge. This fenfe I know not how to apply to Fallaff, and rather think that the Chief If tice hints at a calamity always incident to a gray-haired wit, whofe

misfortune is, that his mertiment is unfafhionable. His allations are to forgotten facts: his linttrations are drawn from notions obfcured by time; les keitos therefore fugle, fuch as none has any part in but himleif.

Harry.