Fal. I am bound to thee, reverend Feeble.-Who is

next?

Shal. Peter Bull-calf of the green!

Fal. Yea, marry,

let us fee Bull-calf.

Bull. Here, fir.

Fal. 'Fore God, a likely fellow!-Come, prick me Bull-calf, till he roar again.

Bull. O lord! good my lord captain,—

Fal. What, doft thou roar before thou art prick'd?
Bull. O lord, fir! I am a difeas'd man.

Fal. What disease haft thou?

Bull. A whorefon cold, fir; a cough, fir; which I caught with ringing in the king's affairs, upon his coronation day, fir.

Fal. Come, thou fhalt go to the wars in a gown; we will have away thy cold; and I will take fuch order, that thy friends shall ring for thee.-Is here all ?

Shal. Here is two more call'd than your number; you must have but four here, fir;-and fo, I pray you, go in with me to dinner.

Fal. Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot tarry dinner. I am glad to see you, in good troth, master

Shallow.

Shal. O, fir John, do you remember fince we lay all night in the windmill in faint George's fields.

Fal. No more of that, good mafter Shallow, no more of that.

Shal. Ha, it was a merry night. And is Jane Nightwork alive?

Fal. She lives, mafter Shallow.

Shal. She never could away with me.

Fal. Never, never: fhe would always fay, the could not abide master Shallow.

Shal.

Shal. By the mass, I could anger her to the heart. was then a bona-roba. Doth the hold her own well? Fal. Old, old, mafter Shallow.

She

Shal. Nay, the must be old; fhe cannot choose but be old; certain, she's old; and had Robin Night-work by old Night-work, before I came to Clement's-inn.

Sil. That's fifty-five year ago.

Shal. Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst feen that that this knight and I have feen!-Ha, fir John, faid I well? Fal. We have heard the chimes at midnight, master Shallow.

Shal. That we have, that we have, that we have; in faith, fir John, we have; our watch-word was, Hem, boys! -Come, let's to dinner; come, let's to dinner :-O, the days that we have feen!-Come, come.

[Exeunt FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, and SILENCE. Bull. Good mafter corporate Bardolph, stand my friend; and here is four Harry ten fhillings in French crowns for you. In very truth, fir, I had as lief be hang'd, fir, as go: and yet, for mine own part, fir, I do not care; but, rather, because I am unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my friends; else, fir, I did not care, for mine own part, fo much.

Bard. Go to; ftand aside.

Moul. And good mafter corporal captain, for my old dame's fake, ftand my friend: fhe has nobody to do any thing about her, when I am gone; and the is old, and cannot help herself: you fhall have forty, fir.

Bard. Go to; stand afide.

Fee. By my troth I care not; a man can die but once; -we owe God a death ;-I'll ne'er bear a base mind :— an't be my destiny, fo; an't be not, fo: No man's too good to ferve his prince; and, let it go which way it will, he that dies this year, is quit for the next.

Bard.

Bard. Well faid; thou'rt a good fellow.
Fee. 'Faith, I'll bear no base mind.

Re-enter FALSTAFF, and Juftices.

Fal. Come, fir, which men fhall I have?

Shal. Four, of which you please.

Bard. Sir, a word with you :-I have three pound to free Mouldy and Bull-calf.

Fal. Go to; well.

Shal. Come, fir John, which four will you have?
Fal. Do you choose for me.

Shal. Marry then,-Mouldy, Bull-calf, Feeble, and Shadow.

Fal. Mouldy, and Bull-calf:-For you, Mouldy, stay at home ftill; you are past service :-and, for your part, Bull-calf,-grow till you come unto it; I will none of

you.

Shal. Sir John, fir John, do not yourself wrong; they are your likelieft men, and I would have you ferv'd with the best.

Fal. Will you tell me, mafter Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes, the ftature, bulk, and big assemblance of a man! Give me the spirit, mafter Shallow. Here's Wart ;-you see what a ragged appearance it is he shall charge you, and discharge you, with the motion of a pewterer's hammer; come off, and on, swifter than he that gibbets-on the brewer's bucket. And this fame half-faced fellow, Shadow,-give me this man ; he prefents no mark to the enemy; the foeman may with as great aim level at the edge of a penknife: And, for a retreat,-how fwiftly will this Feeble, the woman's tailor, run off? O, give me the spare men, and spare me the great ones.-Put me a caliver into Wart's hand, Bardolph.

Bard.

Bard. Hold, Wart, traverse; thus, thus, thus.

:

Fal. Come, manage me your caliver. So :-very well: -go to very good:-exceeding good.-O, give me always a little, lean, old, chapp'd, bald fhot.-Well faid, i'faith Wart; thou'rt a good scab: hold, there's a tester for thee.

Shal. He is not his craft's-master, he doth not do it right. I remember at Mile-end green, (when I lay at Clement's inn,-I was then fir Dagonet in Arthur's show,) there was a little quiver fellow, and 'a would manage you his piece thus: and 'a would about, and about, and come you in, and come you in': rah, tab, tab, would 'a fay; bounce, would 'a fay; and away again would ’a go, and again would 'a come :-I fhall never fee fuch a fellow.

Fal. Thefe fellows will do well, mafter Shallow.-God keep you, master Silence; I will not use many words with you :-Fare you well, gentlemen both: I thank you: I must a dozen mile to-night.-Bardolph, give the foldiers

coats.

Shal. Sir John, heaven blefs you, and profper your affairs, and fend us peace! As you return, vifit my houfe; let our old acquaintance be renewed: peradventure, I will with you to the court.

Fal. I would you would, mafter Shallow.

Shal. Go to; I have spoke, at a word. Fare you well. [Exeunt SHALLOW and SILENCE.

Fal. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. On, Bardolph ; lead the men away. [Exeunt BARDOLPH, Recruits, &c.] As I return, I will fetch off thefe juftices: I do fee the bottom of justice Shallow. Lord, lord, how fubject we old men are to this vice of lying! This fame starv'd justice hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his youth, and the feats he hath done about Turnbull-street ;

and

and every third word a lie, duer paid to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. I do remember him at Clement'sinn, like a man made after fupper of a cheese-paring : when he was naked, he was, for all the world, like a fork'd radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife he was fo forlorn, that his dimenfions to any thick fight were invisible: he was the very Genius of famine; yet lecherous as a monkey, and the whores call'd him-mandrake: he came ever in the rearward of the fashion; and fung those tunes to the over-fcutch'd huswives that he heard the carmen whiftle, and fware-they were his fancies, or his good-nights. And now is this Vice's dagger become a fquire; and talks as familiarly of John of Gaunt, as if he had been fworn brother to him and I'll be fworn he never faw him but once in the Tilt-yard; and then he burit his head, for crowding among the marfhal's men. I faw it; and told John of Gaunt, he beat his own name: for you might have trufs'd him, and all his apparel, into an eel-skin; the cafe of a treble hautboy was a manfion for him, a court; and now has he land and beeves. Well; I will be acquainted with him, if I return: and it shall go hard, but I will make him a philofopher's two stones to me: If the young dace be a bait for the old pike, I see no reason, in the law of nature, but I may fnap at him. Let time fhape, and there an end.

[Exeunt,

ACT