Serv. I pray you, fir, then set your knighthood and your foldiership afide; and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you fay I am any other than an honeft man.

Fal. I give thee leave to tell me fo! I lay aside that which grows to me! If thou get'st any leave of me, hang me; if thou tak'st leave, thou wert better be hang'd: You hunt-counter, hence! avaunt!

Serv. Sir, my lord would fpeak with you.

Ch. Juft. Sir John Falstaff, a word with you.

Fal. My good lord!-God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to fee your lordship abroad: I heard fay, your lordship was fick :: I hope, your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet fome fmack of age in you, fome relish of the faltnefs of time; and I moft humbly befeech your lordship, to have a reverend care of your health.

Ch. Just. Sir John, I fent for you before your expedition to Shrewsbury.

Fal. If it please your lordship, I hear, his majesty is return'd with some discomfort from Wales,

Ch. Just. I talk not of his majesty :-You would not come when I fent for you.

Fal. And I hear moreover, his highness is fallen into this fame whorefon apoplexy.

Ch. Just. Well, heaven mend him! I pray, let me speak with you...

Fal. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy, an't please your lordship; a kind of fleeping in the blood, a whorefon tingling.

Ch. Just. What tell you me of it? be it as it is.

Fal. It hath its original from much grief; from study, and perturbation of the brain: I have read the caufe of his effects in Galen; it is a kind of deafnefs.

bunt-counter,]-worthlefs cur; catchpole.

Ch. Just.

Ch. Juft. 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 difeafe of not liftening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal.

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

Fal. I am as poor as Job, my lord; but not fo patient: your lordship may minifter the potion of imprisonment to me, in refpect of poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your prefcriptions, the wife may make fome dram of a fcruple, or, indeed, a scruple itself.

Ch. Juft. I fent for you, when there were matters against you for your life, to come speak with me.

Fal. As I was then advised by my learned counfel in the laws of this land-fervice, I did not come,

Ch. Juft. Well, the truth is, fir John, you live in great infamy.

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

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

Fal. I would it were otherwife; I would my means were greater, and my waist flenderer.

Ch. Juft. You have mif-led the youthful prince.

b

Fal. The young prince hath mif-led me: I am the fellow with the great belly, and he my dog.

Ch. Juft. Well, I am loth to gall a new-heal'd wound; your day's fervice at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over

z in respect of poverty;]-my inability to pay a fine.

a waste great.]

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, Vol. I. p. 180. Fal. the fellow-the blind map.

your

your night's exploit at Gads-hill: you may thank the unquiet time for your quiet o'er-pofting that action. Fal. My lord?

Ch. Juft. But fince all is well, keep it fo: wake not a sleeping wolf.

Fal. To wake a wolf, is as bad as to smell a fox.

Ch. Juft. What! you are as a candle, the better part burnt out.

с

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

Ch. Just. There is not a white hair on your face, but fhould 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.

ft

Fal. Not fo, my lord; your ill angel is light; but, I hope, he that looks upon me, will take me without weighing and yet, in some respects, I grant, I cannot go, I cannot tell: Virtue is of fo little regard in these cofter-monger times, that true valour is turn'd bearherd: Pregnancy is made a tapfter, and hath his quick wit wasted in giving reckonings: all the other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this age fhapes them, are not worth a goofeberry. You, that are old, confider not the capacities of us that are young; you measure the heat of our livers with the bitterness of your galls: and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confefs, are wags too.

Ch. Juft. Do you fet down your name in the fcrowl of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of A waffel candle,]-a,large, festival one.

of wax,]-that I wax.

• ill angel is light ;]—(pun) Ch. Juft. evil genius.-Fal. base coin. fteil:]-pafs current.

8 cofter-wonger]-mean, mechanical, wherein money is made the ftandard of merit. Pregnancy]-of parts, acuteness.

age?

age ? Have you not a moist eye? a dry hand? a yellow, cheek? a white beard? a decreasing leg? an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken? your wind fhort? your chin double? * your wit single? and every part about you blasted with antiquity? and will you yet call yourself young? Fie, fie, fie, fir John!

Fal. My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the afternoon, with a white head, and something a round belly. For my voice,-I have loft it with hallowing and finging of anthems. To approve my youth further, I will not the truth is, I am only old in judgment and understanding; and he that will caper with me for a thoufand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him. For the box o'the ear that the prince gave you, he gave it like a rude prince, and you took it like a fenfible lord. I have check'd him for it; and the young lion repents: marry, not in ashes, and fack-cloth; but in new filk, and old fack.

Ch. Juft. Well, heaven send the prince a better companion!

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

Ch. Juft. Well, the king hath fever'd you and prince Harry I hear, you are going with lord John of Lancaster, against the archbishop, and the earl of Northumberland.

Fal. Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But look you pray, all you that kifs my lady peace at home, that our armies join not in a hot day; for, by the lord, I take but two fhirts out with me, and I mean not to sweat extraordinarily if it be a hot day, an I brandish any

:

1 a dry band?]—" It's dry, fir."

TWELFTH NICHT, Vol. II. p. 480. Mar. k your wit fingle?]-confined to one object, the promotion of riot and diffipation-fingle, or half-witted-your wit bears no proportion to your bulk.

thing but my bottle, I would I might never 'fpit white again. There is not a dangerous action can peep out his head, but I am thrust upon it: Well, I cannot last ever : But it was always yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a good thing, to make it too common. If you will needs fay, I am an old man, you should give me rest. I would to God, my name were not fo terrible to the enemy as it is. I were better to be eaten to death with ruft, than to be fcour'd to nothing with perpetual motion, Ch. Juft. Well, be honeft, be honeft; And heaven blefs your expedition!

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

Ch. Juft. Not a penny, not a penny; "you are too impatient to bear croffes. Fare you well: Commend me to my cousin Weftmoreland.

[Exit.

Fal. If I do, "fillip me with a three-man beetle.-A man can no more feparate age and covetoufnefs, than he can part young limbs and lechery: but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the other; and fo both the degrees ° prevent my curfes.-Boy!

Page. Sir?

Fal. What money is in my purse ?

Page. Seven groats and two-pence.

Fal. I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable.-Go bear this letter to my lord of Lancaster; this to the prince; this to the earl of Welt

m

f

1 Spit white]-after a debauch-never spit again—I wish I may die. you are too impatient to bear croffes.]-unfit to be trafted with money-some coins were ftamped with a X.

AS YOU LIKE IT, Vol. II. p. . Clo. n fillip me with a three-man beetle.]—a rammer weilded by three men a fit inftrument to ftrike the board, laid across a pole, at one end whereof Sir John may be conceived to be placed, in order to be fillip'd, or tofs'd into the air. prevent-anticipate.

moreland;