Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

Shal. Four, of which you please.

Fal. These fellows will do well, master Shallow.

Bard. Sir, a word with you:-I have three-God keep you, master Silence; I will not use pound' to free Mouldy and Bull-calf.

Fal. Go to; well.

Shal. Come, Sir 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 till you are past service :-and, for your part, Bull-calf,-grow till you come unto it; I will none of you.

Shal. Sir John, Sir John, do not yourself wrong: they are your likeliest men, and I would have you served with the best.

Fal. Will you tell me, master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes,2 the stature, bulk, and big assemblance of a man! Give me the spirit, master 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 same half-fac'd fellow, Shadow,-give me this man; he presents no mark to the enemy: the foeman may with as great aim level at the edge of a penknife: And, for a retreat,-how swiftly 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. 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, chapped, bald shot. Well said, 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 Sir 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, tah, tah, would 'a say; bounce, would 'a say; and away again would 'a go, and again would 'a come :-I shall never see such a fel

low.

1 Bardolph was to have four pound: perhaps he means to conceal part of his profit.

2 Shakspeare uses thewes in a sense almost peculiar to himself, for muscular strength or sinews.

3 A calirer was less and lighter than a musket; and was fired without a rest. Falstaff's meaning is that though Wart is unfit for a musqueteer, yet, if armed with a lighter piece, he may do good service.

4 Traverse was an ancient military terin for march! 5 Shot, for shooter.

many words with you:-Fare you well, gentlemen both: I thank you: I must a dozen mile to-night.Bardolph, give the soldiers coats.

Shal. Sir John, heaven bless you, and prosper your affairs, and send us peace! As you return, visit my house; let our old acquaintance be renewed: peradventure, I will with you to the court. Fal. I would you would, master 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 these justices: I do see the bottom of Justice Shallow. Lord, lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying! This same starved justice hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his youth, and the feats he had done about Turnbull Street: and every third word a lie, duer paid to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. I do remember him at Clement's Inn, like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring: when he was naked, he was, for all the world like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife: he was so forlorn, that his dimensions to any thick sight were invincible: 10 he was the very Genius of famine; yet lecherous as a monkey, and the whores called him mandrake:11 he came ever in the rear-ward of the fashion; and sung those tunes to the overscutched12 huswives that he heard the carmen whistle, and swear-they were his fancies, or his goodnights,13 And now is this Vice's dagger become a squire, and talks as familiarly of John of Gaunt, as if he had been sworn brother to him: and I'll be sworn he never saw him but once in the Tilt-yard; and then he burst's his head, for crowding among the marshal's men. I saw it; and told John of Gaunt, he beat his own name;16 for you might have truss'd him, and all his apparel, into an celskin; the case of a treble haut-boy was a mansion 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 philosopher's two stones to me: If the young dace be

[blocks in formation]

9 Turnbull-street, or Turnball-street, is a corruption of Turnmill-street, near Clerkenwell; anciently the resort of bullies, rogues, and other dissolute persons. The reader will remember its vicinity to Ruffians' Hall, now Smithfield Market. Pickt Hatch, a celebrated brothelry, is supposed to have been situate in or Dear Turnbull-street.

12 i. e. whipped, carted, says Pope; and notwithstanding Johnson's doubts, Pope is right. A scutcher was a whip or riding rod, according to Cotgrare. And for a further illustration of this pastage the reader, curious in such matters, may turn to Torriano's Italian Dictionary, 1659, in v. Trentuno.

6 Mile End Green was the place for public sports and exercises. Stowe mentions that, in 1585, 4000 citizens were trained and exercised there. And again, that 30,000 citizens shewed on the 27th August, 1599, on the Miles-end; where they trained all that day and other dayes under their captaines (also citizens) until the 4th of September. The pupils of this military school were 10 Steevens has adopted Rowe's alteration of this word, thought but slightly of. Shakspeare has already re-invincible to invisible, without necessity. The word is ferred to Mile End and its military exercises rather con- metaphorically used for not to be mastered or taken in temptuously in All's Well that Ends Well, Act iv. Sc. 3. 11 See Sir Thomas Brown's Vulzar Errors, 1685, p. 7 Arthur's show was not, as some have supposed, a 72; and note on Act i. Sc. 2, of this play. masque or pageant, in which an exact representation of Arthur and his knights was made, but an exhibition of Toxopholites, styling themselves The Auncient Order, Society, and Unitie laudable of Prince Arthure and his Knightly Armory of the Round Table.' The associates of which were fifty-eight in number, taking the names of the knights in the romantic history of that chivalric worthy. According to their historian and poet, Richard Robinson, this Society was established by charter under King Henry the Eighth, who, when he sawe a good archer indeede, he chose him and ordained such a one for a knight of this order. Robinson's book was printed in 1533, and in a MS. list of his own works, now in the British Museum, he says, 'Mr. Thomas Smith, her majestie's customer, representing himself Prince Arthure, gave me for his booke vs. 66 knightes gave me every one for his xviijd. and every Esqre for his booke viijd, when they shott under the same Prince Arthure at Myles end green.' Shakspeare has

His

13 Titles of little poems.

14 For some account of the Vice and his dagger of lath the reader may see Twelfth Night, Act iv. Se. 2. There is something excessively ludicrous in the compa. rison of Shallow to this powerless weapon of that droll personage the Old Vice or fool.

15 Burst, brast and broken, were formerly synony mous; as may be seen under the words break and broken, in Baret.

16 Gaunt is thin, slender.

17 This is only a humorous exaggerative way of expressing He shall be more than the philosopher's stone to me, or twice as good. I will make gold out of him.'

a bait for the old pike, I see no reason, in the law | Had not been here, to dress the ugly form
of nature, but I may snap at him. Let time shape, Of base and bloody insurrection
and there an end.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. A Forest in Yorkshire. Enter the Archbishop of York, MOWBRAY, HASTINGS, and

others.

Arch. What is this forest called?

[Exit. With your fair honours. You, lord archbishop,-
Whose see is by a civil peace maintain'd;
Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch'd:
Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor'd;
Whose white investments figure innocence,
The dove and very blessed spirit of peace,-
Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself,
Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace,
Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,
Into the harsh and boist'rous tongue of war?
To a loud trumpet, and a point of war?
pens to lances; and your tongue divine

Hast. 'Tis Gualtree forest, an't shall please your

grace.

Arch. Here stand, my lords; and send discoveries forth,

To know the numbers of our enemies.
Hast. We have sent forth already.
Arch.

'Tis well done.

My friends, and brethren in these great affairs,
I must acquaint you that I have receiv'd
New-dated letters from Northumberland;

Their cold intent, tenour, and substance, thus:-
Here doth he wish his person, with such powers
As might hold sortance with his quality,
The which he could not levy; whereupon
He is retir'd, to ripe his growing fortunes,
To Scotland: and concludes in hearty prayers,
That your attempts may overlive the hazard,
And fearful meeting of their opposite.

Mowb. Thus do the hopes we have in him touch ground,

And dash themselves to pieces.

Enter a Messenger.

Hast. Now, what news? Mess. West of this forest, scarcely off a mile, In goodly form comes on the enemy: And, by the ground they hide, I judge their number Upon, or near, the rate of thirty thousand. Moub. The just proportion that we gave them out. Let us sway2 on, and face them in the field.

[blocks in formation]

3 Completely accoutred.

4 Baret carefully distinguishes between bloody, full of blood, sanguineous, and bloody, desirous of blood, sanguinarius. In this speech Shakspeare uses the word in both senses.

5 Guarded is a metaphor taken from dress; to guard being to ornament with guards or facings.

6 Formerly all bishops wore white, even when they travelled.-Hody's History of Convocations, p. 141. This white investment was the episcopal rochet.

7 Warburton very plausibly reads glaires; Steevens proposed greares; and this emendation has my full concurrence. It should be remarked that greaves, or leg-armour, is sometimes spelt graves.

8 Grievances.

9 The old copies read from our most quiet there. Warburton made the alteration; I am not quite perFuaded that it was necessary.

10 In Holinshed the Archbishop says, 'Where he and his companie were in armes, it was for feare of the king, to whom he could have no free accesse, by reason of such a multitude of flatterers as were about him.'

Your

Arch. Wherefore do I this?-so the question stands.

Briefly to this end:-We are all diseas'd;
And, with our surfeiting, and wanton hours,
Have brought ourselves into a burning fever,
And we must bleed for it: of which disease
Our late king, Richard, being infected, died.
But, my most noble lord of Westmoreland,
I take not on me here as a physician;
Nor do I, as an enemy to peace,
Troop in the throngs of military men:
But, rather, show a while like fearful war,
To diet rank minds, sick of happiness;
And purge the obstructions, which begin to stop
I have in equal balance justly weigh'd
Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly.

What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we suffer.

And find our griefs heavier than our offences.
We see which way the stream of time doth run,
And are enforc'd from our most quiet sphere
By the rough torrent of occasion:
And have the summary of all our griefs,
When time shall serve, to show in articles;
Which, long ere this, we offer'd to the king,
And might by no suit gain our audience:
When we are wrong'd, and would unfold our griefs,
We are denied access unto his person1
Even by those men that most have done us wrong.
The dangers of the days but newly gone,
(Whose memory is written on the earth
With yet-appearing blood,) and the examples
Of every minute's instance (present now,)
Have put us in these ill-beseeming arms:
Not to break peace, or any branch of it;
But to establish here a peace indeed,
Concurring both in name and quality.

West. When ever yet was your appeal denied?
Wherein have you been galled by the king?
What peer hath been suborn'd to grate on you?
That you should seal this lawless bloody bock,
Of forg'd rebellion with a seal divine,

And consecrate commotion's bitter edge ?12
Arch. My brother general, the commonwealth,
To brother born an household cruelty,

I make my quarrel in particular.13

11 Examples of every minute's instance,' are' Examples which every minute instances or supplies. Which even the present minute presses on their notice. 12 Commotion's bitter edge? that is, the edgeof bitter strife and commotion; the sword of rebellion. This line is omitted in the folio.

13 The second line of this very obscure speech is omitted in the folio. As the passage stands I can make nothing of it; nor do any of the explanations which have been offered appear to me satisfactory. I think with Malone that a line has been lost, though I do not agree with him in the sense he would give to it. It is with all proper humility I offer the following reading :—

My quarrel general, the commonwealth,
Whose wrongs do loudly call out for redress;
To brother born an household cruelty,
I make my quarrel in particular.'

i. e. my general cause of discontent is public wrongs, my particular cause the death of my own brother, who was beheaded by the king's order. This circum stance is referred to in the first part of this play :

'The archbishop-who bears hard

His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop." The answer of Westmoreland makes it obvious that

West. There is no need of any such redress;
Or, if there were, it not belongs to you.
Mowb. Why not to him, in part; and to us all,
That feel the bruises of the days before;
And suffer the condition of these times
To lay a heavy and unequal hand
Upon our honours?

West.
O my good lord Mowbray,'
Construe the times to their necessities,
And you shall say indeed,-it is the time,
And not the king, that doth you injuries.
Yet, for your part, it not appears to me,
Either from the king, or in the present time,
That you should have an inch of any ground
To build a grief on: Were you not restor'd
To all the duke of Norfolk's signiories,
Your noble and right well remember'd father's?
Mowb. What thing in honour had my father lost,
That need to be reviv'd and breath'd in me?
The king, that lov'd him, as the state stood then,
Was, force perforce, compell'd to banish him :
And then, when Harry Bolingbroke, and he,—
Being mounted, and both roused in their seats,
Their neighing coursers daring of the spur,
Their armed staves in charge, their beavers' down,
Their eyes of fire sparkling through sights of steel,
And the loud trumpet blowing them together;
Then, then, when there was nothing could have
staid

My father from the breast of Bolingbroke,
O, when the king did throw his warder' down,
His own life hung upon the staff he threw :
Then threw he down himself; and all their lives,
That by indictment, and by dint of sword,
Have since miscarried under Bolingbroke.

Moub. Well, by my will, we shall admit no

parley.

West. That agues but the shame of your offence: A rotten case abides no handling.

Hast. Hath the Prince John a full commission, In very ample virtue of his father,

To hear, and absolutely to determine

Of what conditions we shall stand upon?

West. That is intended' in the general's name: I muse, you make so slight a question.

Arch. Then take, my lord of Westmoreland, this
schedule;

For this contains our general grievances ;-
Each several article herein redress'd;

All members of our cause, both here and hence,
That are insinew'd to this action,
Acquitted by a true substantial form;
And present execution of our wills
To us, and to our purposes, consign'd ;*
We come within our awful banks again,
And knit our powers to the arm of peace.

West. This will I show the general. Please you,
lords,

In sight of both our battles we may meet :
And either end in peace, which heaven so frame.
Or to the place of difference call the swords
Which must decide it.
Arch.
My lord, we will do so.
[Erit WEST.
Mowb. There is a thing within my bosom, tells me,
That no conditions of our peace can stand.
Hast. Fear you not that: if we can make our
peace

Upon such large terms, and so absolute,
As our conditions shall consist1o upon,

West. You speak, Lord Mowbray, now you know Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.

not what:

The earl of Hereford was reputed then

In England the most valiant gentleman;

Mowb. Ay, but our valuation shall be such,
That every slight and false-derived cause,
Yea, every idle, nice, and wanton reason,

Who knows, on whom fortune would then have Shall, to the king, taste of this action:

smil'd?

But, if your father had been victor there,
He ne'er had borne it out of Coventry :
For all the country, in a general voice,
Cried hate upon him; and all their prayers, and
love,

Were set on Hereford, whom they doted on,
And bless'd, and grac'd indeed, more than the king.
But this is mere disgression from my purpose.—
Here come I from our princely general,

To know your griefs; to tell you from his grace,
That he will give you audience: and wherein
It shall appear that your demands are just,
You shall enjoy them; every thing set off,
That might so much as think you enemies.
Mowb. But he hath forc'd us to compel this offer;
And it proceeds from policy, not love."

West. Mowbray, you overween, to take it so;
This offer comes from mercy, not from fear;
For, lo! within a ken our army lies;
Upon mine honour, all too confident
To give admittance to a thought of fear.
Our battle is more full of names than yours,
Our men more perfect in the use of arms,
Our armour all as strong, our cause the best;
Then reason wills, our hearts should be as good:-
Say you not then, our offer is compell'd.

That, were cur royal faiths12 martyrs in love,
We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind,
That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff,
And good from bad find no partition.

Arch. No, no, my lord; Note this, the king is

weary

Of dainty and such picking13 grievances:
For he hath found,-to end one doubt by death,
Revives two greater in the heirs of life.
And therefore will he wipe his tables14 clean;
And keep no tell-tale to his memory,
That may repeat and history his loss

To new-remembrance: For full well he knows,
He cannot so precisely weed this land,
As his misdoubts present occasion:
His foes are so enrooted with his friends,
That, plucking to unfix an enemy,
He doth unfasten so, and shake a friend.
So that this land, like an offensive wife,
That hath enrag'd him on to offer strokes ;
As he is striking, holds his infant up,
And hangs resolv'd correction in the arm
That was uprear'd to execution.

Hast. Besides, the king hath wasted all his rods
On late offenders, that he now doth lack

6 This is a mistake: he was duke of Hereford. 7 Intended is understood, i. e. meant without expres sing it. Entendu, Fr.; subauditur, Lat.

something about redress of public wrongs should have S The old copy reads confin'd. Johnson proposed to fallen from the archbishop. Johnson proposed to read read consign'd; which must be understood in the Latin quarrel instead of brother in the first line, and explain-sense, consignatus, signed, sealed, rutified, confrm. ed the passage much as I have done. I have merely ed; which was indeed the old meaning according to the superadded the line, which seems to me necessary to dictionaries. Shakspeare uses consign and consigning complete the sense, and make Westmoreland's reply in other places in this sense. intelligible.

1 The thirty-seven following lines are not in the quarto.

2 i. e. their lances fixed in the rest for the encounter. 3 It has been already observed that the beaver was a

9 Awful for lawful; or under the due awe of authority.

10 To consist, to rest; consisto.-Baret.
11 Trivial.

12 The faith due to a king. So in King Henry VIII: moveable piece of the helmet, which lifted up or down,The citizens have shown at full their royal minds,"

to enable the bearer to drink or breathe more freely.
4 The perforated part of the helmets, through which
they could see to direct their aim. Visiere, Fr,

Truncheon,

i. e. their minds well affected to the king.

13 Piddling, insignificant.

14 Alluding to the table books of slate, ivory, &c. used by our ancestors.

[blocks in formation]

P. John. You are well encounter'd here, my
cousin Mowbray :-

Good day to you, gentle lord archbishop ;-
And so to you, Lord Hastings,-and to all.-
My lord of York, it better show'd with you,
When that your flock, assembled by the bell,
Encircled you, to hear with reverence
Your exposition on the holy text;
Than now to see you here an iron man,'
Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,
Turning the word to sword, and life to death.
That man that sits within a monarch's heart,
And ripens in the sunshine of his favour,
Would he abuse the countenance of the king,
Alack, what mischiefs might he set abroach,
In shadow of such greatness! With you, lord

bishop,

It is even so :-Who hath not heard it spoken,
How deep you were within the books of God?'
To us, the speaker in his parliament:
To us, the imagin'd voice of God himself:
The very opener, and intelligencer,
Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven,
And our dull workings: O, who shall believe,
But you misuse the reverence of your place;
Employ the countenance and grace of heaven,
As a false favourite doth his prince's name,
In deeds dishonourable? You have taken up ;4
Under the counterfeited zeal of God,
The subjects of the substitute, my father;
And, both against the peace of heaven and him,
Have here up-swarm'd them.

Arch.

Good, my lord of Lancaster,
I am not here against your father's peace:
But, as I told my lord of Westmoreland,
The time misorder'd doth, in common sense,
Crowd us, and crush us, to this monstrous form,
To hold our safety up. I sent your grace
The parcels and particulars of our grief;

Mowb. If not, we ready are to try our fortunes
To the last man.
Hast.

And though we here fall down,
We have supplies to second our attempt;
If they miscarry, theirs shall second them:
And so, success of mischief shall be born;
And heir from heir shall hold this quarrel up,
Whiles England shali have generation.

P. John. You are too shallow, Hastings, much
too shallow,

To sound the bottom of the after-times.

West. Pleaseth your grace to answer them di

rectly,

How far-forth do you like their articles?

P. John. I like them all, and do allow them well:
And swear here by the honour of my blood,
My father's purposes have been mistook;
And some about him have too lavishly
Wrested his meaning, and authority.-
My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redress'd;
Upon my soul, they shall. If this may please you,
Discharge your powers unto their several counties,
As we will ours: and here, between the armies,
Let's drink together friendly, and embrace;
That all their eyes may bear those tokens home,
Of our restored love and amity.

Arch. I take your princely word for these ro

dresses.

P. John. I give it you, and will maintain my word; And thereupon I drink unto your grace.

Hast. Go, captain [To an Officer,] and deliver to the army

This news of peace; let them have pay, and part;
I know, it will well please them; Hie thee, captain.
[Exit Officer,
Arch. To you, my noble lord of Westmoreland.
West. I pledge your grace: And, if you knew
what pains

I have bestow'd to breed this present peace,
You would drink freely: but my love to you
Shall show itself more openly hereafter.
Arch. I do not doubt you.

West.
I am glad of it.
Health to my lord, and gentle cousin, Mowbray.
Mowb. You wish me health in very happy season;
For I am, on the sudden, something ill.

Arch Against ill chances, men are ever merry ;
But heaviness foreruns the good event.

West. Therefore be merry, coz: since sudden

[blocks in formation]

P. John. The word of peace is render'd; Hark,
how they shout!

Mowb. This had been cheerful, after victory.
Arch. A peace is of the nature of a conquest;
For then both parties nobly are subdued,
And neither party loser.

P. John.
Go, my lord,
And let our army be discharged too.

[Exit WESTMORELAND.

The which hath been with scorn shov'd from the And, good my lord, so please you, let our trains

court,

Whereon this Hydra son of war is born:

Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd

asleep,

[ocr errors]

With grant of our most just and right desires :
And true obedience of this madness cur'd,
Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.

1 Holinshed says of the Archbishop, that, 'coming foorth amongst them clad in armour, he encouraged and pricked them foorth to take the enterprize in hand.' 2 This expression has been adopted by Milton :Around him all the sanctities of heaven

Stood thick as stars.'

3 Dull workings are labours of thought.

4 Raised up in arms.

March by us; that we may peruse the men
We should have cop'd withal.

Arch.

And, ere they be dismiss'd, let them march by.
Go, good Lord Hastings,
[Exit HASTINGS.
P. John. I trust, my lords, we shall lie to-night
together.-

6 Alluding to the dragon charmed to rest by the spells of Medea.

7 Succession. 8 Approve. 9. It was Westmoreland who made this deceitful propo sal, as appears from Holinshed:-The earl of Westmoreland, using more policie than the rest, said, whereas our people have been long in armour, let them depart home to their woonted trades: In the mean time lot us drink togither in signe of agreement, that the people

5 Common sense is the general sense of general on both sides may see it, and know that it is true, that

danger.

we be light at a point.'

Re-enter WESTMORELAND.

Now, cousin, wherefore stands our army still?
West. The leaders, having charge from you to
stand,

Will not go off until they hear you speak.
P. John. They know their duties.

Re-enter HASTINGS.

Hast. My lord, our army is dispers'd already: Like youthful steers unyok'd, they take their courses East, west, north, south; or, like a school broke up, Each hurries toward his home, and sporting-place. West. Good tidings, my Lord Hastings; for the which

I do arrest thee, traitor, of high treason:

Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while?
When every thing is ended, then you come:*
These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life,
One time or other break some gallows' back.

Fal. I would be sorry, my lord, but it should be thus; I never knew yet, but rebuke and check was the reward of valour. Do you think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bullet? have I, in my poor and old motion, the expedition of thought? I have speeded hither with the very extremest inch of possibility; I have foundered nine score and odd posts: and here, travel-tainted as I am, have, in my pure and immaculate valour, taken Sir John Colevile of the dale, a most furious knight, and valorous enemy: But what of that? he saw me, and yielded; that I

And you, lord archbishop,-and you, Lord Mow- may justly say with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome,' bray,

Of capital treason I attach you both.

Mowb. Is this proceeding just and honourable?

West. Is your assembly so?

P. John.

Arch. Will you thus break your faith?
I pawn'd thee none
I promis'd you redress of these same grievances,
Whereof you did complain; which, by mine honour,
I will perform with a most christian care.
But, for you, rebels,-look to taste the due
Meet for rebellion, and such acts as yours.
Most shallowly did you these arms commence,
Fondly brought here, and foolishly sent hence.-
Strike up our drums, pursue the scatter'd stray;
Heaven, and not we, have safely fought to-day.-
Some guard these traitors to the block of death;
Treason's true bed, and yielder up of breath.

[Exeunt.2 SCENE III. Another Part of the Forest. Alarums: Excursions. Enter FALSTAFF and COLEVILE, meeting.

Fal. What's your name, sir? of what condition are you and of what place, I pray?

Cole. I am a knight, sir; and my name is-Colevile of the dale.

Fal. Well then, Colevile is your name; a knight is your degree; and your place, the dale: Colevile shall still be your name; a traitor your degree; and the dungeon your place,-a place deep enough: so shall you still be Colevile of the dale.

Cole. Are not you Sir John Falstaf?

I came, saw, and overcame.

P. John. It was more of his courtesy than your deserving.

Fal. I know not; here he is, and here I yield him: and I beseech your grace, let it be booked with the rest of this day's deeds; or, by the Lord, I will have it in a particular ballad else, with mine own picture on the top of it, Coleville kissing my foot: To the which course, if I be enforced, if you do not all show like gilt two-pences to me; and I, in the clear sky of fame, o'ershine you as much as the full moon doth the cinders of the element," which show like pins' heads to her; believe not the word of the noble : Therefore let me have right, and let desert mount.

P. John. Thine's too heavy to mount.
Fal. Let it shine then.

P. John. Thine's too thick to shine.
Fal. Let it do something, my good lord, that may
do me good, and call it what you will.
P. John. Is thy name Colevile ?'
Cole.

It is, my lord.
P. John. A famous rebel art thou, Colevile.
Fal. And a famous true subject took him.
Cole. I am, my lord, but as my betters are,
That led me hither: had they been rui'd by me,
You should have won them dearer than you have.

Fal. I know not how they sold themselves: but thou, like a kind fellow, gavest thyself away; and I thank thee for thee.

Re-enter WESTMORELAND.

Fal. As good a man as he, sir, whoe'er I am. Do ye yield, sir? or shall I sweat for you? If I do sweat, they are drops of thy lovers, and they weep for thy death therefore rouse up fear and trem-To York, to present execution :bling, and do observance to my mercy.

Cole. I think, you are Sir John Falstaff; and in that thought, yield me.

Fal. I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine; and not a tongue of them all speaks any other word but my name. An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were simply the most active fellow in Europe: My womb, my womb, my womb undoes me.-Here comes our general.

Enter PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, WESTMORE-
LAND, and others.

P. John. The heat is past, follow no further

now

Call in the powers, good cousin Westmoreland.-
[Exit WEST.

1 i. e. foolishly.

P. John. Now, have you left pursuit ?
West. Retreat is made, and execution stay'd
P. John. Send Colevile, with his confederates,
Blunt, lead him hence; and see you guard him sure.
[Exeunt some with COLEVILE.
And now despatch we toward the court, my lords;
hear, the king my father is sore sick
Our news shall go before us to his majesty,-
Which, cousin, you shall bear,--to comfort him;
And we with sober speed will follow you.

[ocr errors]

Fal. My lord, I beseech you, give me leave to go through Glostershire: and, when you come to Court, stand my good lord," 'pray, in your good report.

6 At the king's coming to Durham the Lord Hastings, Sir John Colevile of the dale, &c. being convicted of the conspiracy, were there beheaded.'-Holinshed p. 520. It is to be observed that there are two accounts of the termination of the archbishop of York's conspira cy, both of which are given by Holinshed. He states 2 It cannot but raise some indignation to find this that on the archbishop and earl marshal submitting to horrid violation of faith passed over thus slightly by the the king and to his son Prince John, there present, poet without any note of censure or detestation."'—John- | ' their troopes skaled and fledde their wayes; but being That Shakspeare followed the historians is no pursued, many were taken, many slain, &c.; the archexcuse; for it is the duty of a post always to take the bishop and earl marshall were brought to Pomfret to the side of victue.I had some doubt whether I should re-king, who from thence went to Yorke, whyther the pri tain this reflection upon the pretical ju tice of Shaks- soners were also brought, and there beheaded' It is peare; but I have been determined to do so by the hope this last account that Shakspeare has followed, but with that it may lead to the discussion of the passage. I would ome variation; for the names of Colevile and Hastings not willingly believe that the poet approved this abomi- are not mentioned among those who were beheaded at nable piece of treachery York. 4 A ludicrous term for the stars.

[ocr errors]

3 Cæsar.

6 It appears that Colevile was designed to be pro. nounced as a trisyllable; it is often spelt Colleville in the old copies.

7 Johnson was so much unacquainted with ancient phraseology as to make difficulties about this phrase, which is one of the most common petitionary forms of our ancestors. Stand my good lord, or be my good

« PředchozíPokračovat »