woman's tailer well, mafter Shallow, deep, master Shallow.

Feeble. I would, Wart might have gone, Sir.

Fal. I would, thou wert a man's tailor, that thou might'ft mend him, and make him fit to go. I cannot put him to be a private foldier, that is the leader of fo many thoufands. Let that fuffice, most forcible Feeble.

Feeble. It fhall fuffice.

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

Shal. Peter Bulcalf of the Green.

Fal: Yea, marry, let us fee Bulcalf.

Bul. Here, Sir.

Fal. Trust me, a likely fellow. Come, prick me Bulcalf, till he roar again.

Bul. Oh, good my lord captain,

Fal. What doft thou roar before th'art prickt?
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: wę will have away thy Cold, and I will take fuch order that thy friends fhall ring for thee. Is here all?

Shal. There is two more called than your number, must have but four here, Sir; and fo, I pray you, 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 Saint 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 Nightwork alive?..

Fal. She lives, master Shallow,

Shal.

Shal. She never could away with me.

Fal. Never, never: fhe would always fay, fhe could hot abide mafter Shallow.

Shal. By the mafs, I could anger her to the heart? fhe was then a Bona-roba. Doth the hold her own well?

Fal. Old, old, mafter Shallow.

Shal. Nay, the must be old, fhe cannot chufe but be old; certain, fhe'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. Hah, coufin Silence, that thou hadft feen That, that this knight and I have feen! hah, Sir John, faid I well?

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

Shal. That we have, that we have, in faith, Sir John, we have: our watch-word was, hem, boys. -Come, let's to dinner; Oh, the days that we have feen! 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 stay with my friends; elfe, Sir, I did not care for mine own part fo much.

Bard. Go to; ftand afide.

Moul. And good mafter corporal captain, for my old Dame's fake ftand my friend: the hath no body to do any thing about her when I am gone, and the's old and cannot help her felf: you shall have forty, Sir. 01 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.

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

Bard. Sir, a word with you:

to free Mouldy and Bulcalf.

I have three pound

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

Shal. Marry then, Mouldy, Bulcalf, Feeble and Shadow. Fal. Mouldy, and Butealf: for you, Mouldy, ftay at home till you are paft fervice: and for your part, Bulcalf, 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. Will you tell me, mafter Shallow, how to chule a man? care I for the limb, the thewes, the stature, 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, Twifter than he that gibbets on the brewer's bucket. And this fame half-fac'd fellow Shadow, give me this man, he prefents no mark to the enemy; the fo-man may with as great aim level at the edge of a pen-knife: and, for a retreat, how fweetly 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, traverfe; 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 hot. Well faid, Wart, thou art a good fcab: hold, there's a tefter for thee. 20 Shal. He is not his craft-mafter, he doth not do it right. I remember at Mile-End-Green, when I lay at Clement's Inn, (24) I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's Show;

(24) I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's Show] The only Intelligence I have glean'd of this worthy Wight, Sir Dagonet, is from Beaumont and Fletcher in their Knight of the burning Peftle.

Boy.

Show; (2) there was a little quiver fellow, and he would manage you his piece thus; and he would a bout, 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: I fhall never fee fuch a fellow.

Fal. Thefe fellows will do well. Mafter Shallow, God keep you; farewel, mafter Silence. I will not ́ufe 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 prosper your affairs, and fend us peace. As you return, vifit my houfe. Let our old acquaintance be renewed: peradventure, I will with you to the Court.

Fal. I would you would, mafter Shallow.
Shal. Go to: I have spoke at a word. Fare

you well.

[Exit. Fal. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. On, Bardolph, lead the men away. As Freturn, I will, fetch off thefe Juftices: I do fee the bottom of Juftice Shallow. How fubject we old men are to this vice of lying! this fame ftarv'd Justice hath done nothing but prated to me of the wildness of his youth, and the feats he hath done about Turnbal-freets and every third word a lie, more

Boy. Befides, it will few ill favouredly to have a Grocer's Prentice to court a King's Daughter.

Cit. Will it fo, Sir? You are well read in Hiftories! I pray you what was Sir Dagonet? Was not be Prentice to a Grocer in Lon don? Read the Play of The Four Prentices of London, where they tofs their Pikes fo: &c.

bis

(25) There was a little quiver Fellow, and he would Piece thus.] This extreme fine Sketch of Nature and Humour in Shal. manage you low's Character feems, in my Opinion, invidiously enough sneer'd at in the Burning Peftle above quoted.

Ran, tan, tan, tan, tan, tan. O Wench, and thou hadft but seen little Ned of Aldgate drum! How he made it roar again and laid on like a Tyrant; and then ftruck foftly till the Ward came up, and then thunder'd again, and together We go. Sa, fa, fa, bounce, quoth the Guns; Courage, my Hearts, quoth the Captains; Saint George, quoth the Pikemen; and withal here they lay and here they lay; and yet for all This I am here, Wench.

duly

duly paid to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. I do remember him at Clement's Inn, like a man made after fupper of a cheese-paring. When he was naked, he was for all the world like a forked radish, with a head fantasti. cally carv'd upon it with a knife. He was fo forlorn, that his dimenfions to any thick fight were invincible. He was the very Genius of famine, yet leacherous as a Monkey, and the whores call'd him Mandrake: he came ever in the rere-ward of the fashion; and fung those tunes to the over-fcutcht hufwives that he heard the carmen whistle, and fware they were his Fancies, or his, Good-nights. (26) And now is this Vice's dagger become 4 Squire, 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 Tilt-yard, and then he broke his head for crouding among the Marshal's

men.

name law it, and told John of Gaunt he beat his own

for you might have trufs'd him and all his apparel into an Eel-skin the cafe of a treble hoboy was 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 reafon in the law of nature but I may fnap at him. Let time shape, and there's an end. Exeunt.

(26) And now is this Vice's Dagger] By Vice here the Poet means that drole Character in the old Plays, (which I have feveral Times mention'd in the Course of these Notes,) equipp'd with Affes Ears and a Wooden Dagger. It is very fatirical in Falstaff to compare Shallow's Activity and Impertinence to fuch a Machine as a wooden Dagger in the Hands and Management of a Buffoon.

ACT