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Which if we find outweighs ability,

What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at least, desist

To build at all? Much more, in this great work,
(Which is, almost, to pluck a kingdom down,
And set another up,) should we survey
The plot of situation, and the model;
Consent upon a sure foundation;
Question surveyors; know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo,
To weigh against his opposite; or else,

We fortify in paper, and in figures,

Using the names of men instead of men;
Like one that draws the model of a house

Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created cost

A naked subject to the weeping clouds,

And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.

25,000.

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

Should be still-born, and that we now possessed
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,

1 Agree.

2 During this rebellion of Northumberland and the archbishop, a French army of twelve thousand men landed at Milford Haven, in aid of Owen Glendower. See Holinshed, p. 531

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And come against us in full puissance,

Need not be dreaded.

If he should do so,

Hast. He leaves his back unarmed, the French and Welsh Baying him at the heels: never fear that.

Bard. Who, is it like, should lead his forces hither? Hast. The duke of Lancaster,' and Westmoreland Against the Welsh, himself, and Harry Monmouth: But who is substituted 'gainst the French,

I have no certain notice.

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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 vulgar heart.
O thou fond many, with what loud applause
Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke,
Before he was what thou wouldst have him be!
And being now trimmed3 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 wouldst eat thy dead vomit up,

And howl'st to find it. What trust is in these times?
They that, when Richard lived, would have him die,
Are now become enamored 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,

1 This is an anachronism. Prince John of Lancaster was not created a duke till the second year of the reign of his brother, king Henry V. At this time prince Henry was actually duke of Lancaster. Shakspeare was misled by Stowe, who, speaking of the first parliament of king Henry IV., Bays, "Then the king rose, and made his eldest sonne prince of Wales, &c.: his second sonne was there made duke of Lancaster." Annales 1631.-He seems to have consulted Stowe (p. 323) between the times of finishing the last play and beginning of the present.

2 This speech first appeared in the folio

3 Dressed.

Fickle

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 time's subjects, and time bids be gone.
[Exeunt

ACT II.

SCENE I. London. A Street.

Enter Hostess; FANG, and his boy, with her; and
SNARE, following.

Host. Master Fang, have you entered the action?
Fang. It is entered.

Host. Where is your yeoman? Is it a lusty yeoman? will a' stand to't?

Fang. Sirrah, where's Snare?

Host. O Lord, ay; good master Snare.

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; 2

1 A bailiff's follower was formerly called a serjeant's yeoman.

2 The quarto reads view. Vice is used for grasp or clutch. The fist is vulgarly called the vice in the west of England.

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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 Pie-corner (saving your manhoods) to buy a saddle; and he's indited to dinner to the lubbar's head in Lumbert-street, to master Smooth's the silkman. I pray ye, since my exionis entered, and my case so openly known to the world, let him be brought in to his 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 fubbed 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 your offices, master Fang, and master Snare; do me, do me, do me your offices.

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 bastardly rogue!-Murder, murder!-O thou honey-suckle2 villain! wilt thou kill God's officers, and the king's? O thou honey-seed rogue! thou art a honey-seed; a man-queller,3 and a woman-queller.

1 The old copies read "long_one;" which Theobald supposed was a corruption of lone or loan. Mr. Douce thinks the alteration unnecessary; and that the hostess means to say that a hundred mark is a long score, or reckoning, for her to bear.

2 It is scarce necessary to remark that honey-suckle and honey-seed are dame Quickly's corruptions of homicidal and homicide.

3 To quell was anciently used for to kill.

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 rampallian! 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 YorkStand 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 I have any vantage of ground to get up.

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?

Fal. What is the gross sum that I owe thee?

Host. Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself, and the money too. Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin-chamber, at

1 Parcel-gilt is partly gilt, or gilt only in parts. Laneham, in his Letter from Kenilworth, describing a bride-cup, says, "It was formed of a

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