in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived.'|
Enter the Lord Chief Justice, and an attendant.
Page. Sir, here comes the nobleman that com-
mitted the prince for striking him about Bardolph.
Fal. Wait close; I will not see him.
Ch. Just. What's he that goes there?
Alten. Falstaff, an't please your lordship.

Ch. Just. I think, you are fallen into the disease; for you hear not what I say to you.

Fal. Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an't please you, it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal.

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

Ch. Just. He that was in question for the robbery? Fal. I am as poor as Job, my lord; but not so Alten. He, my lord: but he hath since done patient: your lordship may minister the potion of good service at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is imprisonment to me, in respect of poverty; but now going with some charge to the lord John of how I should be your patient to follow your pre scriptions, the wise may make some dram of a

Lancaster.
Ch. Just. What, to York? Call him back again. scruple, or, indeed, a scruple itself.
Atten. Sir John Falstaff!

Fal. Boy, tell him, I am deaf.

Page. You must speak louder, my master is deaf. Ch. Just. I am sure, he is, to the hearing of any thing good.-Go, pluck him by the elbow; I must speak with him.

Atten. Sir John,——

Fal. What! a young knave, and beg! Is there not wars? is there not employment? Doth not the king lack subjects? do not the rebels need soldiers? Though it be a shame to be on any side but one, it is worse shame to beg than to be on the worst side, were it worse than the name of rebellion can tell how to make it.

Atten. You mistake me, sir.

Fal. Why, sir, did I say you were an honest man? setting my knighthood and my soldiership aside, I had lied in my throat if I had said so.

Allen. I pray you, sir, then set your knighthood and your soldiership aside; and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man.

Fal. I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside that which grows to me! If thou gett'st any leave of me, hang me; if thou takest leave, thou wert better be hanged: You hunt-counter, hence!

avaunt!

Atten. Sir, my lord would speak with you.

Ch. Just. Sir John Falstaff, a word with you. Fal. My good lord!-God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to see your lordship abroad: I heard say, your lordship was sick: I hope your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet some smack of age in you, some relish of the saltness of time; and I most humbly beseech your lordship, to have a reverend care of your health.

Ch. Just. I sent for you, when there were mattrs against you for your life, to come speak with me.

Fal. As I was then advised by my learned counsel in the laws of this land-service, I did not come. Ch. Just. Well, the truth is, sir John, you live in great infamy.

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

Ch. Just. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.

Fal. I would it were otherwise; I would my means were greater, and my waist slenderer.

Ch. Just. You have misled the youthful prince. Fal. The young prince hath misled me: I am the fellow with the great belly, and he my dog.

Ch. Just. Well, I am loath to call a new-healed wound; your day's service at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your night's exploit on Gads-hill: you may thank the unquiet time for your quiet o'er posting that action.

Fal. My lord?

Ch. Just. But since all is well, keep it so: wake not a sleeping wolf.

Fal. To wake a wolf, is as bad as to smell a fox. Ch. Just. What! you are as a candle, the better part burnt out.

Fal. A wassel candle, my lord; all tallow: if did say of wax, my growth would approve the truth.

Ch. Just. There is not a white hair on your face, but should have his effect of gravity.

Fal. His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy. Ch. Just. You follow the young prince up and down, like his ill angel.

Fal. Not so, my lord; your ill angel is light; but, I hope, he that looks upon me, will take me Ch. Just. Sir John, I sent for you before your without weighing: and yet, in some respects, I expedition to Shrewsbury. Grant, I cannot go, I cannot tell: Virtue is of so Fal. An't please your lordship, I hear, his ma- little regard in these coster-monger times, that true jesty is returned with some discomfort from Wales, valour is turned bear-herd: Pregnancy is made a Ch. Just. I talk not of his majesty:-You would tapster, and hath his quick wit wasted in giving not come when I sent for you. reckonings: all the other gifts appertinent to man,

Fal. And I hear moreover, his highness is fallen as the malice of this age shapes them, are not into this same whoreson apoplexy. worth a gooseberry. You, that are old, consider Ch. Just. Well, heaven mend him! I pray, let not the capacities of us that are young: you me speak with you. measure the heat of our livers with the bitterness of Fal. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of your galls: and we that are in the vaward' of our lethargy, an't please your lordship; a kind of sleep- youth, I must confess, are wags too. ing in the blood, a whoreson tingling. Ch. Just. Do you set down your name in the

Ch. Just. What tell you me of it? be it as it is. scroll of youth, that are written down old with all Fal. It hath its original from much grief; from the characters of age? Have you not a moist eye? study, and perturbation of the brain: I have read a dry hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a the cause of his effects in Galen; it is a kind of decreasing leg? an increasing belly? Is not your deafness. voice broken? your wind short? your chin double?

(1) Alluding to an old proverb: Who goes to Westminster for a wife, to St. Paul's for a man, and to Smithfield for a horse, may meet with a whore, a knave, and a jade.

(2) A catch-pole or bum-bailiff.
(3) A large candle for a feast.
(4) The coin called an angel.
(6) Readiness.

(5) Pass current. (7) Forepart.

[Exit.

Arch. Thus have you heard our cause, and known

our means;

your wit single?1 and every part about you blasted wit will make use of any thing; I will turn diswith antiquity? and will you yet call yourself eases to commodity. young? Fie, fie, fie, sir John! Fal. My lord, I was born about three of the SCENE III.-York. A room in the archbishop's clock in the afternoon, with a white head, and palace. Enter the archbishop of York, the lords Hastings, Mowbray, and Bardolph. something a round belly. For my voice,-I have lost it with hollaing, and singing of anthems. To approve my youth further, I will not: the truth is, I am only old in judgment and understanding And, my most noble friends, I pray you all, and he that will caper with me for a thousand Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes:marks, let him lend me the money, and have at And first, lord marshal, what say you to it? him. For the box o'the ear that the prince gave Mowb. I well allow the occasion of our arms: you, he gave it like a rude prince, and you took But gladly would be better satisfied, it like a sensible lord. I have check'd him for it; How, in our means, we should advance ourselves and the young lion repents: marry, not in ashes, To look with forehead bold and big enough and sackcloth; but in new silk, and old sack. Upon the power and puissance of the king. Ch. Just. Well, heaven send the prince a better companion!

Fal. Heaven send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my hands of him.

Ch. Just. Well, the king hath severed you and prince Harry: I hear, you are going with lord John of Lancaster, against the archbishop, and the earl of Northumberland.

:

Hast. Our present musters grow upon the file
To five and twenty thousand men of choice;
And our supplies live largely in the hope
Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns
With an incensed fire of injuries.

Bard. The question then, lord Hastings, stand-
eth thus ;-

Whether our present five and twenty thousand
May hold up head without Northumberland.
Hast. With him, we may.
Bard.

Fal. Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But look you pray, all you that kiss my lady peace at home, that our armies join not in a hot day! Ay, marry, there's the point : for, by the Lord, I take but two shirts out with me, But, if without him we be thought too feeble, and I mean not to sweat extraordinarily if it be My judgment is, we should not step too far a hot day, an I brandish any thing but my bottle, Till we had his assistance by the hand: I would I might never spit white again. There is For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this, not a dangerous action can peep out his head, but Conjecture, expectation, and surmise I am thrust upon it: Well, I cannot last ever: Of aids uncertain, should not be admitted. But it was always yet the trick of our English na- Arch. 'Tis very true, lord Bardolph; for, indeed, tion, if they have a good thing, to make it too com- It was young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury. mon. If you will needs say, I am an old man, you should give me rest. I would to God, my name were not so terrible to the enemy as it is. I were better to be eaten to death with rust, than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.

Ch. Just. Well, be honest, be honest; And God bless your expedition!

Fal. Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound, to furnish me forth?

Ch. Just. Not a penny, not a penny; you are too impatient to bear crosses. Fare you well: Commend me to my cousin Westmoreland.

Bard. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with
hope,

Eating the air on promise of supply,
Flattering himself with project of a power
Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts:
And so, with great imagination,
Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,
And, winking, leap'd into destruction.

Hast. But, by your leave it never yet did hurt,
To lay down likelihoods, and forms of hope.

Bard. Yes, in this present quality of war ;Indeed the instant action (a cause on foot,) [Exeunt Chief Justice and Attendant. Lives so in hope, as in an early spring Fal. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle. We see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit, A man can no more separate age and covetous- Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair, ness, than he can part young limbs and lechery: That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build, but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the We first survey the plot, then draw the model; other; and so both the degrees prevent my And when we see the figure of the house, curses.-Boy!

Page. Sir?

Fal. What money is in my purse?
Page. Seven groats and two-pence.

Then must we rate the cost of the erection :
Which if we find outweighs ability,
What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at least, desist

Fal. I can get no remedy against this consump-To build at all? Much more, in this great work tion of the purse: borrowing only lingers and (Which is, almost, to pluck a kingdom down, lingers it out, but the disease is incurable.-Go, And set another up,) should we survey bear this letter to my lord of Lancaster; this to The plot of situation, and the model; the prince; this to the earl of Westmoreland; and Consent upon a sure foundation; this to old mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly Question surveyors; know our own estate, sworn to marry since I perceived the first white How able such a work to undergo, hair on my chin: About it; you know where to To weigh against his opposite; or else, find me. [Exit Page.] A pox of this gout! or, a We fortify in paper, and in figures, gout of this pox! for the one, or the other, plays Using the names of men, instead of men: the rogue with my great toe. It is no matter, if I Like one, that draws the model of a house do halt; I have the wars for my colour, and my Beyond his power to build it; who, half through, pensions shall seem the more reasonable: A good Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created cost A naked subject to the weeping clouds, And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.

(2) Old age.

(1) Small. (3) A large wooden hammer so heavy as to require three men to wield it,

Hast. Grant that our hopes (yet likely for fair
birth,)

Should be still-born, and that we now possess'd
The utmost man of expectation;

I think, we are a body strong enough,
Even as we are, to equal with the king.

Bard. What is the king but five and twenty
thousand?

Hast. To us, no more; nay, not so much, lord
Bardolph.

For his divisions, as the times do brawl,
Are in three heads: one power against the French,
And one against Glendower; perforce, a third
Must take up us: So is the unfirm king
In three divided; and his coffers sound
With hollow poverty and emptiness.

Arch. That he should draw his several strengths
together,

And come against us in full puissance,
Need not be dreaded.

Against the Welsh, himself, and Harry Monmouth:
But who is substituted 'gainst the French,
I have no certain notice.

Arch.

Let us on;
And publish the occasion of our arms.
The commonwealth is sick of their own choice,
Their over-greedy love hath surfeited:---
A habitation giddy and unsure

Hath he, that buildeth on the vulvar heart.
O thou fond many! with what loud applause
Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke,

Before he was what thou would'st have him be?
And being now trimm'd2 in thine own desires,
Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him,
That thou provok'st thyself to cast him up.
So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge
Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard;
And now thou would'st eat thy dead vomit up,
And howl'st to find it. What trust is in these times?
They that, when Richard liv'd, would have him die,
Are now become enamour'd on his grave:
Thou, that threw'st dust upon his goodly head,
When through proud London he came sighing on
After the admired heels of Bolingbroke,
Cry'st now, O earth, yield us that king again,
And take thou this! O thoughts of men accurst!
Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst.
Mowb. Shall we go draw our numbers, and set on?
Hast. We are tiine's subjects, and time bids be
gone.
[Exeunt.

Snare. Here, here.

Fang. Snare, we must arrest sir John Falstaff. Host. Yea, good master Snare; I have entered him and all.

Snare. It may chance cost some of us our lives, for he will stab.

Host. Alas the day! take heed of him; he stabbed me in mine own house, and that most beastly: in good faith, a' cares not what mischief he doth, if his weapon be out: he will foin like any devil; he will spare neither man, woman, nor child.

Fang. If I can close with him, I care not for his thrust.

Host. No, nor I neither: I'll be at your elbow. Fang. An I but fist him once; an a' come but within my vice ; —

Host. I am undone by his going; I warrant you, he's an infinitive thing upon my score:-Good master Fang, hold him sure;-good master Snare, let him not 'scape. He comes continually to Piecorner, (saving your manhoods,) to buy a saddle; and he's indited to d nner to the lubbar's head in Lumbert-stre t, to master Smooth's the silkman: I pray ye, since my exion is entered, and my case so op ly known to the world, let him be brought in to is answer. A hundred mark is a long loan for a poor lone woman to bear: And I have borne, and borne, and borne; and have been fubbed off, and fybbed off, and fubbed off, from this day to that day, that it is a shame to be thought on. There is no honesty in such dealing; unless a woman should be made an ass, and a beast, to bear every knave's wrong.-

Enter Sir John Falstaff, Page, and Bardolph. Yonder he comes; and that arrant malmsey-nose knave, Bardolph, with him. Do your offices, do vour offices, master Fang, and master Snare; do me, do me, do me your oflices.

Fal. How now? whose mare's dead? what's the matter?

Fang. Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of mistress Quickly.

Fal. Away, varlets!-Draw, Bardolph; cut me off the villain's head; throw the quean in the

channel.

Host. Throw me in the channel? I'll throw thee in the channel. Wilt thou? wilt thou? thou bassuckle villain! wilt thou kill God's officers, and tardly rogue!-Murder, murder! O thou honeythe king's? O thou honey-seed" rogue! thou art a honey-seed; a man-queller, and a woman-queller. Fal. Keep them off, Bardolph. Fang. A rescue! a rescue!

Host. Good people, bring a rescue or two.Thou wo't, wo't thou? thou wo't, wo't thou? do, do, thou rogue! do, thou hemp-seed!

Fal. Away, you scullion! you rampallion! you fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe,

Enter the Lord Chief Justice, attended. Ch. Just. What's the matter? keep the peace here, ho!

Host. Good my lord, be good to me! I beseech you, stand to me!

Ch. Just. How now, sir John? what, are you brawling here?

Doth this become your place, your time, and business?

You should have been well on your way to York.Stand from him, fellow; Wherefore hang'st thou on him?

Host, O my most worshipful lord, an't please your grace, I am a poor widow of Eastcheap, and he is arrested at my suit.

Ch. Just. For what sum?

Host. It is more than for some, my lord; it is for all, all I have: he hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his :-but I will have some of it out again, or I'll ride thee o'nights, like the mare.

Fal. I think, I am as like to ride the mare, if have any vantage of ground to get up.

I

Ch. Just. How comes this, sir John? Fie! what man of good temper would endure this tempest of exclamation? Are you not ashamed, to enforce a poor widow to so rough a course to come by her

own?

Gow. The king, my lord, and Harry prince of
Wales

Are near at hand: the rest the paper tells.
Fal. As I am a gentleman ;-

Host. Nay, you said so before.

Fal. As I am a gentleman;--Come, no more words of it.

Host. By this heavenly ground I tread on, I must be fain to pawn both my plate, and the tapestry of my dining-chambers.

Fal. Glasses, glasses, is the only drinking: and for thy walls,-a pretty slight drollery, or the story of the prodigal, or the German hunting in water work, is worth a thousand of these bed-hangings, and these fly-bitten tapestries. Let it be ten pound, if thou canst. Come, an it were not for thy hu Fal. What is the gross sum that I owe thee? mours, there is not a better wench in England." Go, Host. Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thy-wash thy face, and draw thy action: Come, thou self, and the money too. Thou didst swear to me must not be in this humour with me; dost not know upon a parcel-gilti goblet, sitting in my Dolphin me? Come, come, I know thou wast set on to this. chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, Host. Pray thee, sir John, let it be but twenty upon Wednesday in Whitsun week, when the prince nobles; i'faith, I am loath to pawn my plate, in broke thy head for liking his father to a singing- good earnest, la.

Host. Well, you shall have it, though I pawn my gown. I hope, you'll come to supper: You'll pay me all together?

Fal. Will I live?-Go, with her, with her; [To
Bardolph.] hook on, hook on.
Host. Will you have Doll Tear-sheet meet you
at supper?

man of Windsor; thou didst swear to me then, as Fal. Let it alone; I'll make other shift: you'll I was washing thy wound, to marry me, and make be a fool still. me my lady thy wife. Canst thou deny it? Did not good wife Keech, the butcher's wife, come in then, and call me gossip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of vinegar; telling us, she had a good dish of prawns; whereby thou didst desire to eat some; whereby I told thee, they were ill for a green wound? And didst thou not, when she was gone down stairs, desire me to be no more so familiarity with such poor people; saying, that ere long they should call me madam? And didst thou not kiss me, and bid me fetch thee thirty shillings? I put thee now to thy book-oath; deny it, if thou

canst.

Fal. My lord, this is a poor mad soul; and she says, up and down the town, that her eldest son is like you: she hath been in good case, and, the truth is, poverty hath distracted her. But for these foolish officers, I beseech you, I may have redress against them.

Fal. No more words; let's have her.

[Exeunt Host. Bard. officers, and page.
Ch. Just. I have heard better news.
Fal. What's the news, my good lord?
Ch. Just. Where lay the king last night?
Gow. At Basingstoke, my lord.

Fal. I hope, my lord, all's well: What's the news, my lord?

Ch. Just. Come all his forces back?

Gow. No; fifteen hundred foot, five hundred horse,

Are march'd up to my lord of Lancaster,

Ch. Just. You shall have letters of me presently:
Come, go along with me, good master Gower.
Fal. My lord!

Ch. Just. Sir John, sir John, I am well acquaint-Against Northumberland, and the archbishop. ed with your manner of wrenching the true cause Fal. Comes the king back from Wales, my noble the false way. It is not a confident brow, nor the lord? throng of words that come with such more than impudent sauciness from you, can thrust me from a level consideration; you have, as it appears to me, practised upon the easy-yielding spirit of this woman, and made her serve your uses both in purse and person.

Host. Yea, in troth, my lord.

Ch. Just. Pr'ythee, peace:-Pay her the debt you owe her, and unpay the villany you have done with her; the one you may do with sterling money, and the other with current repentance.

Ch. Just. What's the matter?

Fal. Master Gower, shall I entreat you with me to dinner?

Gow. I must wait upon my good lord here: I thank you, good sir John.

Ch. Just. Sir John, you loiter here too long, being you are to take soldiers up in counties as

you go.

Fal. Will you sup with me, master Gower? Ch. Just. What foolish master taught you these manners, sir John?

Fal. My lord, I will not undergo this sneap without reply. You call honourable boldness, impudent sauciness: if a man will make court'sy, and say nothing, he is virtuous: No, my lord, my humble Fal. Master Gower, if they become me not, he duty remem bered, I will not be your suitor; I say was a fool that taught them me.-This is the right to you, I do desire deliverance from these officers, fencing grace, my lord; tap for tap, and so part fair. being upon hasty employment in the king's affairs. Ch. Just. Now the Lord lighten thee! thou art Ch. Just. You speak as having power to do a great fool. [Exeunt. wrong: but answer in the effect of your reputation,' and satisfy the poor woman. Fal. Come hither, hostess. [Taking her aside. Enter Gower. Ch. Just. Now, master Gower; What news? (2) Snub, check.

(1) Partly gilt.

SCENE II.-The same. Another street. Enter
Prince Henry and Poins.

P. Hen. Trust me, I am exceeding weary. Poins. Is it come to that? I had thought weariness durst not have attached one of so high blood.

(3) Suitable to your character. (4) Withdraw

P. Hen. 'Faith, it does me; though it discolours the complexion of my greatness to acknowledge it. Doth it not show vilely in me, to desire small beer?

Enter Bardolph and Page.

Bard. 'Save your grace!

P. Hen. And yours, most noble Bardolph! Poins. Why, a prince should not be so loosely Bard. Come, you virtuous ass, [To the page.] studied, as to remember so weak a composition. P. Hen. Belike then my appetite was not princely you bashful fool, must you be blushing? wherefore blush you now? What a maidenly man at arms are got; for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature, small beer. But, indeed, these humble you become! Is it such a matter, to get a pottleconsiderations make me out of love with my great-pot's maidenhead? ness. What a disgrace is it to me, to remember

Bard. Away, you whoreson upright rabbit,

away!

Page. He called me even now, my lord, through thy name? or to know thy face to-morrow? or to a red lattice, and I could discern no part of his take note how many pair of silk stockings thou face from the window: at last, I spied his eyes; hast; viz. these, and those that were the peach-and, methought, he had made two holes in the alecoloured ones? or to bear the inventory of thy wife's new petticoat, and peeped through. P. Hen. Hath not the boy profited?" shirts; as, one for superfluity, and one other for use?-but that, the tennis-court keeper knows better than I; for it is a low ebb of linen with thee, when thou keepest not racket there; as thou hast not done a great while, because the rest of thy low-away! countries have made a shift to eat up thy holland :) and God knows, whether those that bawl out the ruins of thy linen,' shall inherit his kingdom; but the midwives say, the children are not in the fault: whereupon the world increases, and kindreds are mightily strengthened.

Poins. How ill it follows, after you have laboured so hard, you should talk so idly! Tell me, how many good young princes would do so, their fathers being so sick as yours at this time is?

P. Hen. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins? Poins. Yes; and let it be an excellent good thing. P. Hen. It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.

Poins. Go to; I stand the push of your one thing that you will tell.

I

P. Hen. Why, I tell thee,-it is not meet that should be sad, now my father is sick albeit I could tell to thee (as to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend,) I could be sad, and

sad indeed too.

Page. Away, you rascally Althea's dream, P. Hen. Instruct us, boy: What dream, boy? Page. Marry, my lord, Althea dreamed she was delivered of a fire-brand; and therefore I call him her dream.

thee.

P. Hen. A crown's worth of good interpretation. -There it is, boy. Gives him money. Poins. O, that this good blossom could be kept from cankers!-Well, there is sixpence to preserve Bard. An you do not make him be hanged among you, the gallows shall have wrong. P. Hen. And how doth thy master, Bardolph? coming to town; there's a letter for you. Bard. Well, my lord. He heard of your grace's

Poins. Delivered with good respect.-And how doth the Martlemas,3 your master? Bard. In bodily health, sir.

Poins. Marry, the immortal part needs a physician: but that moves not him; though that be sick, dies not.

it

P. Hen. I do allow this went to be as familiar with me as my dog: and he holds his place; for, look you, how he writes.

Poins. Very hardly, upon such a subject. P. Hen. By this hand, thou think'st me as far in Poins. [Reads.] John Falstaff, knight,--Every the devil's book, as thou, and Falstaff, for obduracy But 1 man must know that, as oft as he has occasion to and persistency: Let the end try the man. tell thee, my heart bleeds inwardly, that my father name himself. Even like those that are kin to the is so sick and keeping such vile company as thou king; for they never prick their finger, but they art, hath in reason taken from me all ostentation say, There is some of the king's blood spilt: How

of sorrow.

comes that? says he, that takes upon him not to conceive: the answer is as ready as a borrower's cap; I am the king's poor cousin, sir.

P. Ien. Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it from Japhet. But the letter:

:

Poins. Sir John Falstaff, knight, to the son of
the king, nearest his father, Harry, prince of
Wales, greeting.-Why, this is a certificate.
P. Hen. Peace!

Poins. I will imitate the honourable Roman in brevity:-he sure means brevity in breath; shortwinded.-I commend me to thee, I commend thee, and I leave thee. Be not too familiar with Poins, for he misuses thy favours so much, that he swears thou art to marry his sister Nell. Repent at idle times as thou may'st, and so farewell.

Thine, by yea and no, (which is as much as to say, as thou usest him,) Jack Falstaff, with my familiars, John, with my brothers and sisters, and Sir John, with all Europe.

My lord, I will steep this letter in sack, and make

P. Hen. And the boy that I gave Falstaff: he
had him from me Christian; and look, if the fat him eat it.
villain have not transformed him ape.

(1) Children wrapt up in his old shirts.
(2) An ale-house window.

P. Hen. That's to make him eat twenty of his

(3) Martinmas, St. Martin's day is Nov. 11. (4) Swollen excrescence.