North. Come, come, go in with me: 'tis with my

mind,

As with the tide swell'd up unto its height,

That makes a still-stand, running neither way.
Fain would I go to meet the archbishop,
But many thousand reasons hold me back :———
I will resolve for Scotland; there am I,
Till time and vantage crave my company.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

London. A Room in the Boar's Head Tavern, in
Eastcheap +.

Enter Two Drawers.

1 Draw. What the devil hast thou brought there? apple-Johns? thou know'st, sir John cannot endure an apple-John.

2 Draw. Mass, thou sayest true: The prince once set a dish of apple-Johns before him, and told him, there were five more sir Johns: and, putting off his hat, said, I will now take my leave of these six dry, round, old, withered knights. It angered him to the heart but he hath forgot that.

1 Draw. Why then, cover, and set them down: And see if thou canst find out Sneak's noise; mistress Tear-sheet would fain hear some musick. Despatch :The room where they supped, is too hot; they'll come in straight.

2 Draw. Sirrah, here will be the prince, and master Poins anon and they will put on two of our jerkins,

†The Boar's Head was near the prince's residence, a mansion called Cold-harbour, near All-hallow's church, Upper Thames

street.

6 Sneak's noise ;] Sneak was a street minstrel, and therefore the drawer goes out to listen if he can hear him in the neighbourhood. JOHNSON.

and aprons; and sir John must not know of it: Bardolph hath brought word.

I Draw. By the mass, here will be old utis': It will be an excellent stratagem.

2 Draw. I'll see, if I can find out Sneak.

Enter Hostess and DOLL TEAR-SHEET.

[Exit.

Host. I'faith, sweet heart, methinks now you are in an excellent good temporality: your pulsidge beats as extraordinarily as heart would desire; and your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any rose: But, i'faith, you have drunk too much canaries; and that's a marvellous searching wine, and it perfumes the blood ere one can say,-What's this? How do you now?

Dol. Better than I was. Hem.

Host. Why, that's well said; a good heart's worth gold. Look, here comes sir John.

Enter FALSTAFF, singing.

Fal. When Arthur first in court-Empty the jordan. —And was a worthy king: [Exit Drawer.] How now, mistress Doll?

Host. Sick of a calm': yea, good sooth.

Fal. So is all her sect; an they be once in a calm, they are sick.

Dol. You muddy rascal, is that all the comfort you give me?

Fal. You make fat rascals', mistress Doll.

7 here will be old utis:] Utis, an old word yet in use in some counties, signifying a merry festival, from the French huit,

octo.

8 When Arthur first in court —] The entire ballad is published in the first volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of ancient English Poetry.

9 Sick of a calm :] Perhaps she means to say of a qualm.

1 You make fat rascals,] Falstaff alludes to a phrase of the forest. Lean deer are called rascal deer. He tells her she calls him wrong, being fat he cannot be a rascal.

JOHNSON.

Dol. I make them! gluttony and diseases make them; I make them not.

Fal. If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help to make the diseases, Doll; we catch of you, Doll, we catch of you; grant that, my poor virtue, grant that.

Dol. Ay, marry; our chains, and our jewels.

Fal. Your brooches, pearls, and owches;-for to serve bravely, is to come halting off, you know: To come off the breach with his pike bent bravely, and to surgery bravely; to venture upon the charged chambers' bravely:

Dol. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang your

self!

Host. By my troth, this is the old fashion; you two never meet, but you fall to some discord: you are both, in good troth, as rheumatick' as two dry toasts'; you cannot one bear with another's confirmities. What the good-year! one must bear, and that must be you: [to DOLL] you are the weaker vessel, as they say, the emptier vessel.

Dol. Can a weak empty vessel bear such a huge full hogshead? there's a whole merchant's venture of Bourdeaux stuff in him; you have not seen a hulk better stuffed in the hold.-Come, I'll be friends with thee, Jack thou art going to the wars; and whether I shall ever see thee again, or no, there is nobody

cares.

:

2 the charged chambers] To understand this quibble, it is necessary to say, that a chamber signifies not only an apartment, but a piece of ordnance.

3

rheumatick] Rheumatick, in the cant language of the times, signified capricious, humoursome. In this sense it appears to be used in many other old plays.

4

— as two dry toasts;] Which cannot meet but they grate one another.

Re-enter Drawer.

Draw. Sir, ancient Pistol's' below, and would speak

with you.

Dol. Hang him, swaggering rascal! let him not come hither: it is the foul mouth'dst rogue in England.

Host. If he swagger, let him not come here: no, by my faith; I must live amongst my neighbours; I'll no swaggerers: I am in good name and fame with the very best:-Shut the door;-there comes no swaggerers here; I have not lived all this while, to have swaggering now:-shut the door, I pray you.

Fal. Dost thou hear, hostess?—

Host. Pray you, pacify yourself, sir John; there comes no swaggerers here".

Fal. Dost thou hear? it is mine ancient.

Host. Tilly-fally, sir John, never tell me; your ancient swaggerer comes not in my doors. I was before master Tisick, the deputy, the other day; and, as he said to me, it was no longer ago than Wednesday last,-Neighbour Quickly, says he ;-master Dumb, our minister, was by then;-Neighbour Quickly, says he, receive those that are civil; for, saith he, you are in an ill name;-now he said so, I can tell whereupon; for, says he, you are an honest woman, and well thought on; therefore take heed what guests you receive: Receive, says he, no swaggering companions.-There comes none here;-you would bless you to hear what he said: -no, I'll no swaggerers.

Fal. He's no swaggerer, hostess; a tame cheater', he; you may stroke him as gently as a puppy grey

5

ancient Pistol -] Is the same as ensign Pistol. Falstaff was captain; Peto, lieutenant; and Pistol, ensign, or ancient.

6 there comes no swaggerers here.] A swaggerer was a roaring, bullying, blustering, fighting fellow.

7

a tame cheater,] Gamester and cheater were, in Shakspeare's age, synonymous terms.

hound: he will not swagger with a Barbary hen, if her feathers turn back in any show of resistance.-Call him up, drawer.

Host. Cheater, call you him? I will bar no honest man my house, nor no cheater: But I do not love swaggering; by my troth I am the worse, when one says-swagger: feel, masters, how I shake; look you, I warrant you.

Dol. So you do, hostess.

Host. Do I? yea, in very truth, do I, an 'twere an aspen leaf: I cannot abide swaggerers.

Enter PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and Page.

Pist. 'Save you, sir John!

Fal. Welcome, ancient Pistol. Here, Pistol, I charge you with a cup of sack: do you discharge upon mine. hostess.

Pist. I will discharge upon her, sir John, with two bullets.

Fal. She is pistol-proof, sir; you shall hardly offend her.

Host. Come, I'll drink no proofs, nor no bullets: I'll drink no more than will do me good, for no man's pleasure, I.

Pist. Then to you, mistress Dorothy; I will charge

you.

Dol. Charge me? I scorn you, scurvy companion. What! you poor, base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen mate! Away, you mouldy rogue, away! I am meat for your master.

Pist. I know you, mistress Dorothy.

The

8 I will bar no honest man my house, nor no cheater :] humour of this consists in the woman's mistaking the title of cheater, (which our ancestors gave to him whom we now, with better manners, call a gamester,) for that office of the exchequer called an escheator, well known to the common people of that time; and named, either corruptly or satirically, a cheater.