ther's fhadow: so the son of the female is the shadow of the male: it is often fo, indeed, but not of the father's fubftance.

Shal. Do you like him, Sir John?

Fal. Shadow will ferve for fummer; prick him; for we have a number of fhadows to fill up the mufter-book. Shal. Thomas Wart.

Fal. Where's he?

Wart. Here, Sir.

Fal. Is thy name Wart?

Wart. Yea, Sir.

Fal. Thou art a very ragged wart.

Shal. Shall I prick him down, Sir John?

Fal. It were fuperfluous; for his apparel is built upon his back, and the whole frame ftands upon pins; prick him no more.

Shal. Ha, ha, ha, you can do it, Sir*

; you can do it: I commend you well. Francis Feeble. Feeble. Here, Sir.

Fal. What trade art thou, Feeble?
Feeble. A woman's tailor, Sir.

Shal. Shall I prick him, Sir?

Fal. You may: but if he had been a man's tailor, he would have prick'd you. Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy's battle, as thou hast done in a woman's petticoat?

Feeble. I will do my good will, Sir; you can have

no more.

Fal. Well faid, good woman's tailor; well faid, courageous Feeble: thou wilt be as valiant as the wrathful dove, or moft magnanimous moufe. Prick the woman's tailor well, Mafter Shallow, deep, Mafter Shallow.

Feeble. I would Wart might have gone, Sir.

Fal. I would thou wert a man's tailor, that thou might'st mend him, and make him fit to go. I cannot put him to be a private foldier, that is the leader of so many thousands. Let that fuffice, moft forcible Feeble. Feeb. It fhall fuffice.

Fal. I am bound to thee, reverend Feeble. Who is the next?

i. e. you know how to jest.

Shal.

Shal. Peter Bull-calf of the green.

Fal. Yea, marry, let us fee Bull-calf.

Bul. Here, Sir.

Fal. Trust me, a likely fellow. Come, prick me Bull-calf, till he roar again.

Bul. Oh, good my Lord Captain

Fal. What, doft thou roar before th'art prick'd? Bul. Oh, Sir, I am a diseased man.

Fal. What disease haft thou?

Bul. A whorfon cold, Sir; a cough, Sir, which I caught with ringing in the King's affairs, upon his coronation-day, Sir.

Fal. Come, thou fhalt go to the wars in a gown: we will have away thy cold, and I will take fuch order that thy friends shall ring for thee. Is here all?

Shal. There is two more called than your number; you must have but four here, Sir; and fo, I pray you, go in with me to dinner.

Fal. Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot tarry dinner. I am glad to fee you, in good troth, Mafter Shallow.

Shal. O, Sir John, do you remember fince we lay all night in the wind-mill in St. George's fields? Fal. No more of that, good Master Shallow, no more of that.

Shal. Ha! it was a merry night. And is Jane Night-work alive.

Fal. She lives, Mafter Shallow.

Shal. She never could away with me.

Fal. Never, never: fhe would always fay, she could not abide Mafter Shallow.

Shal. By the mafs, I could anger her to the heart: she was then a Bona-roba. Doth fhe hold her own well? Fal. Old, old, Mafter Shallow.

Shal. Nay, she must be old, fhe cannot chufe but be old; certain, she's old, and had Robin Night-work by old Night-work, before I came to Clement's inn. Sil. That's fifty-five years ago.

Shal. Ha, coufin Silence, that thou hadst feen that that this knight and I have feen!-Hah, Sir John, faid I well?

Fal.

Fal. We have heard the chimes at midnight, Mafter Shallow.

Shal. That we have, that we have, in faith, Sir John, we have: our watchword was, Hem, boys.— Come, let's to dinner; oh, the days that we have seen! come, come.

Bul. Good Mafter Corporate Bardolph, ftand my friend, and here is four Harry ten fhillings in French crowns for you: in very truth, Sir, I had as lief be hang'd, Sir, as go; and yet for my own part, Sir, I do not care, but rather because I am unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a defire to ftay with my friends; elfe, Sir, I do not care for mine own part fo much. Bard. Go to; ftand afide.

Moul. And, good Mafter Corporal Captain, for myold dame's fake ftand my friend: fhe hath no body to do any thing about her when I am gone, and she's old, and cannot help herself: you fhall have forty, Sir. Bard. Go to; ftand afide.

Feeble. I care not, a man can die but once; we owe God a death; I will never bear a bafe mind; if it be. my deftiny, fo; if it be not, fo. No man is too good to ferve his prince; and let it go which way it will, he that dies this year, is quit for the next.

Bard. Well faid, thou art a good fellow.
Feeble. 'Faith, I will bear no bafe mind.

Fal. Come, Sir, which men fhall I have?
Shal. Four of which you please.

Bard. Sir, a word with you.-I have three pound to free Mouldy and Bull-calf.

Fal. Go to: well.

Shal. Come, Sir John, which four will you have? Fal. Do you chufe for me.

Shal. Marry then, Mouldy, Bull-calf, Feeble, and Shadow.

Fal. Mouldy, and Bull-calf:for you, Mouldy, ftay at home till you are paft fervice; 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 likelieft men, and I would have you ferv'd with the beft.

Fal.

Fal. Will you tell me, Mafter Shallow, how to chufe a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes, the ftature, bulk and big femblance of a man? give me the spirit, Mafter Shallow. Here's Wart; you fee what a ragged appearance it is: he fhall 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 fame half-face'd fellow Shadow, give me this man, he prefents no mark to the enemy; the foman may with as great aim level at the edge of a penknife; and, for a retreat, how fwiftly will this Feeble, the woman's tailor, run off? O give me the fpare men, and fpare 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: fo, very well, go to, very good, exceeding good. O, give me always a little, lean, old, chopt, bald fhot. Well faid, Wart, thou art a good scab: hold, there is a teiter for thee.

Shal. He is not his craft-mater, 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 he would manage you his piece thus; and he would about, and about, and come you in, and come you in: Rah, tah, tah, would he fay, Bounce, would he fay, and away again would he go, and again would he come. 1 fnall never fee fuch a fellow.

Fal. Thefe fellows will do well. Mafter Shallow, God keep you; farewel, Maiter Silence. I will not use many words with you, fare you well, Gentlemen both. I thank you, I must a dozen mile to-night. Bardolph, give the foldiers coats.

Shal. Sir John, heaven bless you, and profper your affairs, and fend us peace. As you return, visit my houfe. Let our old acquaintance be renewed: peradventure I will with you to the court.

Fal. I would you would, Maiter Shallow.

Shal. Go to: I have ipoke at a word. Fare you

well.

[Exit.

Fal. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. On, Bardolph, lead the men away. “As I return, I will fetch

"off

"off thefe Justices. I do fee the bottom of Justice "Shallow. How fubject we old men are to this vice "of lying! this fame ftarv'd Juftice hath done no

66

thing but prated to me of the wildnefs of his youth, " and the feats he hath done about Turnbal-street; "and every third word a lye, more duly 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 cheeseparing. When he was naked, he was for "all the world like a forked radifh, with a head fantaftically carv'd upon it with a knife. He was fo for"lorn, that his dimenfions to any thick fight were in"vifible. He was the very genius of famine, yet lecherous as a monkey, and the whores call'd him mandrake: he came ever in the rere-ward of the fashion; and fung thofe tunes to the over-fcutch'd * huswives that he heard the carmen whistle, and fware they were his fancies or his good-nights. And now is this vice's dagger become a fquire, and talks as familiarly of John of Gaunt as if he had been fworn brother to him: and I'll be fworn, he never faw him but once in the tiltyard, and then he broke his head for crouding among the Marshal's men. I faw it, and told John of Gaunt he beat his own name; for you might have truss'd him and all his apparel into an eel-skin: the cafe of a treble hoboy was a manfion for him, a court; and now hath he land and beeves. Well, I will be acquainted with him, if I return; and it fhall go hard but I will make him a philofopher's two ftones † to me. If the young dace be a bait for the old pike, I fee no reason in the law of nature but I may fnap at him. Let time fhape, and there's an end.

i. e. whipp'd, carted.

[Exeunt.

+ One of which was an univerfal medicine, and the other a tranfmuter of bafer metals into gold. Mr. Warburton.

ACT