"Where is the life that late I led ?" say they : Why, here it is; welcome these pleasant days! [Exeunt. SCENE IV-LONDON A STREET Enter Beadles, dragging in HOSTESS QUICKLY and HOST. No, thou arrant knave; I would to God that I might die, that I might have thee hanged: thou hast drawn my shoulder out of joint. FIRST 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 now go with do miscarry, thou wert better thou 10 hadst struck thy mother, thou paper-faced villain. HOST. O the Lord, that Sir John were come! he 139 Where is the life...led] This song is quoted by Petruchio in T. of Shrew, IV, i, 124. (stage direction) Enter Beadles]. Thus the Folios with very slight variation. The Quarto reads: "Enter Sinklo and three or foure officers." Sinklo, the name of the actor who played the First Beadle, found its way into the theatrical copy of the piece from which the Quarto was printed. The same actor is similarly men tioned in T. of Shrew, Induction. 5 whipping-cheer] whipping fare, plenty of whipping. 8 nut-hook] a cant name for a bailiff or constable. Cf. M. Wives, I, i, 151. would make this a bloody day to somebody. But I pray God the fruit of her womb miscarry! FIRST 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 amongst you. DOL. I'll tell you what, you thin man in a censer, I will have you as soundly swinged for this, you blue- 20 bottle rogue, you filthy famished correctioner, if you be not swinged, I'll forswear half-kirtles. FIRST BEAD. Come, come, you she knight-errant, come. HOST. O God, 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! DOL. Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal. [Exeunt. 19 you thin man in a censer] A censer or fire pan for burning perfumes usually had a small figure of a man embossed on the pierced cover. 20-21 blue-bottle rogue] a reference to the blue uniform of beadles. 22 half-kirtles] short petticoats or aprons. 25 of sufferance comes ease] after suffering comes quiet. 29 atomy] anatomy, skeleton. 30 SCENE V-A PUBLIC PLACE NEAR WESTMINSTER ABBEY Enter two Grooms, strewing rushes FIRST GROOM. More rushes, more rushes. SEC. GROOM. The trumpets have sounded twice. FIRST GROOM. "T will be two o'clock ere they come from the coronation: dispatch, dispatch. [Exeunt. 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 10 had had time to have made new liveries, I would have bestowed the thousand pound I borrowed of you. But 't is 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. 1 More rushes] Rushes were invariably strewn on ceremonial occasions both on the floors of houses and about the streets. 15, 17, 19 It doth so ... the Quarto to Pistol. But it is clear that all it doth] These three remarks are assigned in The Folio transfers the first only to Shallow. belong to him. FAL. As it were, to ride day and night; and not to 20 deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to shift me, SHAL. It is best, 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 "obsque hoc nihil est:" 't is 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, Haled thither By most mechanical and dirty hand: Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell Alecto's snake, For Doll is in. Pistol speaks nought but truth. FAL. I will deliver her. 29 't is all in every part] a free rendering of an old English proverb, “All in all, and all in every part," signifying complete identity. 37 Rouse up revenge] A parody of the ghost's reiterated cry in Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, III, xv, 7, 9, 12, 16, 28, "Awake revenge." Alecto's snake] Alecto was one of the three Furies, who is described as crowned with snakes in Virgil's Aeneid, vii, 346. Cf. Ant. and Cleop., II, v, 40: "like a Fury crown'd with snakes." Pistol has already mentioned the Furies' lap, V, iii, 105, supra. 38 Doll is in] sc. gaol. 80 PIST. There roar'd the sea, and trumpet-clangor sounds. Enter the KING and his train, the LORD 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 't is 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 ! I have long dream'd of such a kind of man, For God doth know, so shall the world perceive, 43 imp] scion. 45 vain man] foolish man. 40 50 60 |