4 Sil. Is't fo? why, then fay, an old man can do fomewhat. Davy. If it please your Worship, there's one Piftol come from the Court with news. Fal. From the Court? let him come in. Pift. Sir John, 'fave you, Sir. V. Fal. What wind blew you hither, Pistol? Pift. Not the ill wind which blows no man good. Sweet Knight, thou art now one of the greateft men in the Realm. Sil. Indeed, I think he be, but goodman Puff of Barfon. Pift. Puff? Puff in thy teeth, most recreant coward base. 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. Pift. A foutra for the world and worldlings bafe! I fpeak of Africa and golden joys. Fal. O bafe Affyrian Knight, what is thy news? 'Let King Cophetua know the truth thereof. may 4 An old man can do fomewhat.] It be obferved that Shakefp are, in the Merry Wives of Windfor, which he wrote after this play, for the greater commodioufnefs of his piot, changed the age of Silence. He is here a man advanced in years, with a fon at the univerfity: he there goes a courting to a young girl. Shallow is an old man in both plays. 5 Let King Cophetua, &c.] Lines taken from an old bombast play of King Cophetua: of whom, as we learn from Shakespear, there were ballads too. WARB. See Love's labour left. Sil. And Robin-hood, Scarlet, and John. [Sings. Pift. Shall dunghill curs confront the Helicons? And fhall good news be baffled? Then Pistol lay thy head in Fury's lap. Shal. Honeft gentleman, I know not your breeding. Pift. 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 fome authority. Pift. Under which King? 6 Bezonian, speak or die. Pift. Harry the Fourth? or Fifth? Pist. A foutra for thine office! Sir John, thy tender Lambkin now is King. Fal. What, is the old King dead? Pift. As nail in door. The things I fpeak are juft. Fal. Away, Bardolph, faddle my horfe. Mafter Robert Shallow, chufe what office thou wilt in the Land, 'tis thine. Pistol, I will double charge thee with Dig nities. for Bard. O joyful day; I would not take a Knighthood my fortune. Pift. What? I do bring good news. Fal. Carry mafter Silence to bed. Mafter Shallow, my Lord Shallow, be what thou wilt; I am fortune's 6 Bezonian, Speak or de.] So again Suffolk fays in zd Henry VI. Great Men oft die by vile Be zonians. It is a Term of Reproach, frequent in the Writers contemporary with our Poet. Eifognofo, a my Perfon; thence metapho rically, a bafe Scoundrel. * THEOBALD. Fig me like The bragging Spaniard.] To fig, in Spanh, Higas dar, is to infult by putting the thumb between the fore and middle finger. From this Spanish cultom we yet fay in contempt, a fig for you. Steward. Steward. Get on thy boots, we'll ride all night. Oh, fweet Piftol!-Away, Bardolph-Come, Piftol, utter more to me; and withal devife fomething to do thyfelf good. Boot, boot, mafter Shallow. I know, the young King is fick for me. Let us take any man's horfes; the Laws of England are at my commandment. Happy are they which have been my friends; and woe to my Lord Chief Juftice! Pist. Let vultures vile feize on his lungs alfo! 7 Where is the life that late I led, fay they? Why, here it is, welcome this pleasant day. [Exeunt. Changes to a Street in LONDON. Enter Hoftefs Quickly, Doll Tear-fheet, and Beadles. O, thou arrant knave, I would I might die, Hoft. N that I might have thee hang'd; thou haft drawn my shoulder out of joint. Bead. The conftables have deliver'd her over to me; and she shall have whipping cheer enough, I warrant her. There hath been a man or two kill'd about her. Dol. Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lye. Come on. I'll tell thee what, thou damn'd tripe-visag'd rascal, if the child, I go with, do mifcarry, thou hadst better thou hadft ftruck thy mother, thou paper-fac'd villain. Hoft. O the Lord, that Sir John were come, he would make this a bloody day to fome body. But I pray God, the fruit of her womb miscarry. Bead. If it do, you fhall have a dozen of cufhions 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. 7 Where is the life that late I led,- -] Words of an old ballad. WARBURTON. It has been already obferv'd on the Merry Wives of Windfor, that Nut-hook feems to have been in those times a name of reproach for a catchpoll. Dol. Dol. I'll tell thee what, thou thin 9 man in a Cenfer! I will have you as foundly swing'd for this, you bluebottle rogue! You filthy famifh'd correctioner! if you be not fwing'd, I'll fortwear half-kirtles. * Bead. Come, come, you fhe-Knight-arrant, come. Hoft. O, that Right fhould thus o'ercome Might! Well, of fufferance comes ease. Dol. Come, you rogue, come. Bring me to a Justice. Hoft. Yes, come, you ftarv'd blood-hound. Dol. Goodman death, goodman bones! Hoft. Thou Atomy, thou? Dol. Come, you thin thing: come, you rascal! Bead. Very well. [Exeunt. A publick Place near Westminster-Abbey. I Groom. M 2 Groom. The trumpets have founded twice. 1 Groom. It will be two of the clock ere they come from the Coronation: defpatch, defpatch. [Exeunt Grooms. Enter Falstaff, Shallow, Pistol, Bardolph, and the boy. 9 Fal. Stand here by me, mafter Robert Shallow, I thou thin man in a Cenfer!] Thefe old Cenfers of thin metal had generally at the bottom the figure of fome faint raifed up with the hammer, in a barbarous kind of imboffed or chafed work. The hunger-starved Beadle is compared, in substance, to one of these thin raised figures, by the fame kind of humour that Piftol, in the Merry Wives, calls Slender, a laten bilboe. WARB. blue bottle rogue!] A name I fuppofe given to the beadle from the colour of his livery. half-kirtles.] Probably the drefs of the prostitutes of that time. It has been already obferved, that, at ceremonial entertainments, it was the custom to ftrew the floor with rushes. Caus de Ephemera. will make the King do you grace. I will leer upon him as he comes by, and do but mark the countenance that he will give me. Pift. Blefs thy lungs, good Knight. Fal. Come here, Piftol; ftand behind me. O, if I had had time to have made new liveries, I would have bestow'd the thousand pound I borrow'd of you. [To Shallow.] But it is no matter, this poor Show doth better; this doth infer the zeal I had to fee him. Shal. It doth fo. Fal. It fhews my earneftness of affection. Fal. My devotion. Pift. It doth, it doth, it doth. 3 Fal. As it were, to ride day and night, and not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to fhift me. Shal. It is most certain. Fal. But to ftand ftained with travel, and fweating with defire to fee him, thinking of nothing elfe, putting all affairs elfe in oblivion, as if there were nothing elle to be done but to fee him. Pift. 'Tis femper idem; for abfque hoc nihil eft. 'Tis all in every part. Shal. 'Tis fo, indeed. Pift. My Knight, I will enflame thy noble liver, Thy Dol and Helen of thy noble thoughts 3 The two little anfwers here given to Piftol, are transferred by Sir T. Hanmer to Shallow, the repetition of it doth fuits Shallow beft. 4 'Tis all in every part.] The fentence alluded to is, 'Tis all in all, and all in every part. And fo doubtless it fhould be read. 'Tis a common way of expreffing one's approbation of a right meafure, to fay, 'tis all in all. To which this phantaftic character adds, with fome humour, and all in every part: which, both together, make up the philofophic fentence, and compleat the abfurdity of Pistol's phrafcology. WARBURTON. Haul'd |