dozen of them two hours together. I have 'scap'd by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet four, through the hose; my buckler cut through and through; my sword hacked like a hand-saw, ecce sig num. I never dealt better since I was a man: all would not do. A plague of all cowards!-Let them speak if they speak more or less than truth, they are villains, and the sons of darkness. P. Hen. Speak, sirs; how was it? Peto. No, no, they were not bound. Fal. You rogue, they were bound, every man of them; or I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew.3 Gads. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us, Fal. And unbound the rest, and then come in the other. P. Hen. What, fought ye with them all? Fal. All? I know not what ye call, all; but if I fought not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish if there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legged creature. Poins. Pray God, you have not murdered some of them. Fal. Nay, that's past praying for: for I have peppered two of them: two, I am sure, I have paid; two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal,—if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou knowest my old ward;-here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me, P. Hen. What, four? thou said'st but two even now. Fal. Four, Hal; I told thee four. Poins. Ay, ay, he said four. Fal. These four came all a-front, and mainly thrust at me. I made me no more ado, but took all their seven points in my target, thus. P. Hen. Seven? Why,there were but four, even now. Fal. In buckram. Poins. Ay, four, in buckram suits. Fal. Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else. [3] The natives of Palestine were called Hebrews, by way of distinction from the stranger Jews denominated Greeks. STEEV. P. Hen. Pr'ythee, let him alone; we shall have more anon. Fal. Dost thou hear me, Hal? P. Hen. Ay, and mark thee too, Jack. Fal. Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These nine in buckram, that I told thee of, P. Hen. So, two more already. Fal. Began to give me ground: But I followed me close, came in foot and hand; and, with a thought, seven of the eleven I paid. P. Hen. O monstrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two! Fal. But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten knaves, in Kendals green, came at my back, and let drive at me ;-for it was so dark, Hal, that thou could'st not see thy hand. P. Hen. These lies are like the father that begets them; gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brained guts; thou knotty-pated fool; thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-keech, 6. Fal. What, art thou mad? art thou mad? is not the truth, the truth? P. Hen. Why, how could'st thou know these men in Kendal green, when it was so dark thou could'st not see thy hand? come tell us your reason; What sayest thou to this? Poins. Come, your reason, Jack, your reason. 7 Fal. What, upon compulsion? No; were I at the strappado, or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compulsion. Give you a reason on compulsion! if reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I. [4] To understand Poins's joke, the double meaning of point must be remembered, which signifies the sharp end of a weapon, and the lace of a garment. The cleanly phrase for letting down the hose, ad levandum alvum, was, to untruss a point. JOHNS. [5] Kendal in Westmoreland, is a place famous for making cloths, and dying them with several bright colours. STEEV. [6] A keech of tallow is the fat of an ox or cow rolled up by the butcher in a round lump, in order to be carried to the chandler. It is the proper word in use now. PERCY. A keech is what is called a tallow-loaf in Sussex, and in its form resembles the rotundity of a fat man's belly. COLLINS. [7] The strappado is when the person is drawn up to his height, and then suddenly to let him fall half way with a jerk, which not only breaketh his arms to pieces, but also shaketh all his joints out of joint. STEEV. P. Hen. I'll be no longer guilty of this sin; this sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horse-back-breaker, this huge hill of flesh; 8 Fal. Away, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neats-tongue, bull's pizzle, you stock-fish,-O, for breath to utter what is like thee !-you tailor's yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck ; P. Hen. Well, breathe a while, and then to it again : and when thou hast tired thyself in base comparisons, hear me speak but this. Poins. Mark, Jack. P. Hen. We two saw you four set on four; you bound them, and were masters of their wealth.Mark now, how plain a tale shall put you down.-Then did we two set on you four: and, with a word, out-faced you from your prize, and have it; yea, and can show it you here in the house :-and, Falstaff, you carried your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roared for mercy, and still ran and roared, as ever I heard bull-calf. What a slave art thou, to hack thy sword as thou hast done; and then say, it was in fight? What trick, what device, what starting-hole, canst thou now find out, to hide thee from this open and apparent shame ? Poins. Come, let's hear, Jack; what trick hast thou now? Fal. By the Lord, I knew ye, as well as he that made ye. Why, hear ye, my masters: Was it for me to kill the heir apparent? Should I turn upon the true prince? Why, thou knowest, I am as valiant as Hercules: but beware instinct; the lion will not touch the true prince. Instinct is a great matter; I was a coward on instinct. I shall think the better of myself and thee, during my life; I, for a valiant lion, and thou for a true prince. But, by the lord, lads, I am glad you have the money.Hostess, clap to the doors; watch to-night,pray to-morrow.-Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you! What, shall we be merry? shall we have a play extempore? P. Hen. Content ;-and the argument shall be, thy running away. Fal. Ah! no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me. [8] Shakspeare had historical authority for the leanness of the prince of Wales. Stowe, speaking of him, says, he exceeded the mean stature of men, his neck long, body slender and lean, and his bones small." STEEV. འ Enter Hostess. Host. My lord the prince, P. Hen. How now, my lady the hostess? what say'st thou to me? Host. Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman of the court at door, would speak with you: he says, he comes from your father. P. Hen. Give him as much as will make him a royal man, and send him back again to my mother. Fal. What manner of man is he? Host. An old man. Fal. What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight? Shall I give him his answer? P. Hen. Pr'ythee, do, Jack. Fal. 'Faith, and I'll send him packing. [Exit P. Hen. Now, sirs; by'r lady, you fought fair;-so did you, Peto;—so did you, Bardolph: you are lions too, you ran away upon instinct, you will not touch the true prince; no,-fye! Bard. 'Faith, I ran when I saw others run. P. Hen. Tell me now in earnest, How came Falstaff's sword so hacked? Peto. Why, he hacked it with his dagger; and said, he would swear truth out of England, but he would make you believe it was done in fight; and persuaded us to do the like. Bard. Yea, and to tickle our noses with spear-grass, to make them bleed; and then to beslubber our garments with it, and to swear it was the blood of true men. 9 I did that I did not this seven year before, I blushed to hear his monstrous devices. P. Hen. O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, and wert taken with the manner, and ever since thou hast blushed extempore: Thou hadst fire and sword on thy side, and yet thou ranʼst away; What instinct hadst thou for it? [9] i. e. the men with whom they fought, of honest men opposed to thieves. JOHNS. [1]Manour, or mainour,or maynour, an old law term, (from the French mainaver or manier, lat. manu tractare,) signifies the thing which a thief takes away or steals: and to be taken with the manour, or mainour, is to be taken with the thing stolen about him, or doing an unlawful act, flagrante delicto, or, as we say, in the fact. The expression is much used in the forest laws. HAWKINS. [2] The fire was in his face. A red face is termed a fiery face. JOHNS. Bard. My lord, do you see these meteors? do you behold these exhalations? P. Hen. I do. Bard. What think you they portend? Re-enter FALSTAFF. How Here comes lean Jack, here comes bare-bone. now, my sweet creature of bombast ?4 How long is't ago, Jack, since thou saw'st thine own knee? Fal. My own knee? When I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an eagle's talon in the waist; I could have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring: A plague of sighing and grief! it blows up a man like a bladder. There's villainous news abroad: here was Sir John Bracy from your father; you must to the court in the morning. That same mad fellow of the north, Percy; and he of Wales, that gave Amaimon the bastinado, and made Lucifer cuckold,and swore the devil his true liegeman upon the cross of aWelsh hook, 5-what, a plague, call you him ?— Poins. O, Glendower. Fal. Owen, Owen; the same ;-and his son-in-law, Mortimer; and old Northumberland; and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs o'horseback up a hill perpendicular. P. Hen. He that rides at high speed, and with his pistol kills a sparrow flying. Fal. You have hit it. P. Hen. So did he never the sparrow. Fal. Well, that rascal hath good mettle in him; he will not run. P. Hen. Why, what a rascal art thou then, to praise him so for running? Fal. O'horseback, ye cuckoo! but, afoot, he will not budge a foot. [3] i. e. drunkenness and poverty. To drink, was, in the language of those times, to heat the liver. JOHNS [4] Bombast is the stuffing of lothes. Stubbs in his Anatomy of Abuses, 1595, observes that in his time," the doublettes were so hard quilted, stuffed: bombasted, and sewed, as they could neither work, nor yet well play in them;-they were stuffed with foure, five, or sixe pound of bombast at least.” Bombast is cotton. STEEV. [5] The Welsh hook is probably a weapon of the same kind with the Lochabar axe. STEEV. |