Boy, bristle thy courage up ;—for Falstaff he is dead,
And we must yearn therefore.

Bard. Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, either in Heaven or in Hell!

Host. Nay, sure, he's not in Hell: he's in Arthur's bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. 'A made a fine end, and went away, an it had been any christom 3 child: 'a parted even just between twelve and one, even at the turning o' the tide: 4 for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babbled of green fields. How now, Sir John! quoth I: what, man! be o' good cheer. So 'a cried out, God, God, God! three or four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him 'a should not think of God; I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. So 'a bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my hand into the bed and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone; then I felt to his knees, and so upward and upward, and all was as cold as any stone.

Nym. They say he cried out of sack.5

Host. Ay, that 'a did.

Bard. And of women.

3 Christom is a form of chrisom. A chrisom-child was one that died within a month after the birth; so called from the chrisom, which was a white cloth put upon the child at baptism, and used for its shroud, in case it did not outlive the first month. Bishop Taylor has the word in his Holy Dying, Chap. I. sec. 2: “Every morning creeps out of a dark cloud, leaving behind it an ignorance and silence deep as midnight, and undiscerned as are the phantasms that make a chrisom-child to smile."

4 The common people of England used to believe that death always took place just as the tide began to ebb.

5 To cry out of or on a thing is to exclaim against it. See 2 Henry IV., page 115, note 5.

Host. Nay, that 'a did not.

Boy. Yes, that 'a did; and said they were devils incar

nate.

Host. 'A never could abide carnation; 'twas a colour he never liked.

Boy. 'A said once, the Devil would have him about

women.

Host. 'A did in some sort, indeed, handle women; but then he was rheumatic.6

Boy. Do you not remember, 'a saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose, and 'a said it was a black soul burning in hellfire?

Bard. Well, the fuel is gone that maintain'd that fire: that's all the riches I got in his service.

Nym. Shall we shog?7 the King will be gone from Southampton.

Pist. Come, let's away. My love, give me thy lips.

Look to my chattels and my movables:

Let senses rule; the word is Pitch and pay;

Trust none;

For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,
And hold-fast is the only dog,8 my duck:

Therefore caveto be thy counsellor.

Go, clear thy crystals.9-Yoke-fellows in arms,
Let us to France; like horse-leeches, my boys,
To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!

6 Rheumatic is a Quicklyism for lunatic. them, that is, meddle with them in his talk.

"

-"Handle women is speak of

"Pitch and pay, and go your

7 To shog is the same as to jog. Generally used with off, shog off. 8 Pistol puts forth a string of proverbs. way," is one in Florio's Collection. "Brag is a good dog, and Holdfast a better," is one of the others to which he alludes.

9 He means, dry thine eyes.

Boy. And that's but unwholesome food, they say.
Pist. Touch her soft mouth, and march.

Bard. Farewell, hostess.

[Kissing her.

Nym. I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but, adieu. Pist. Let housewifery appear: keep close, I thee com

mand.

Host. Farewell; adieu.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. -France. A Room in the French King's Palace.

Flourish. Enter the French King, attended; the Dauphin, the Duke of BURGUNDY, the Constable, and others.

Fr. King. Thus come the English with full power upon us ; And more than carefully it us concerns

To answer royally in our defences.

Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne,
Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,-

And you, Prince Dauphin, -with all swift dispatch,
To line1 and new repair our towns of war
With men of courage and with means defendant;
For England his approaches makes as fierce

As waters to the sucking of a gulf.

It fits us, then, to be as provident

As fear may teach us, out of late examples
Left by the fatal and neglected English
Upon our fields.

Dau.

My most redu..

father,

It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe;

For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,

1 To line is to strengthen. Often so. See Macbeth, page 60, note 25.

Though war nor no known quarrel were in question,
But that defences, musters, preparations,

Should be maintain'd, assembled, and collected,

As were a war in expectation.

Therefore, I say 'tis meet we all go forth

To view the sick and feeble parts of France:
And let us do it with no show of fear;

No, with no more than if we heard that England
Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance : 2
For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,
Her sceptre so fantastically borne

By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous 3 youth,
That fear attends her not.

Con.
O peace, Prince Dauphin!
You are too much mistaken in this King: V
Question your Grace the late ambassadors,—
With what great state he heard their embassy,
How well supplied with noble counsellors,
How modest in exception, and withal
How terrible in constant resolution,

nd you shall find his vanities forespent Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus, Covering discretion with a coat of folly;

As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots

2 Morris is an old corruption of Morisco. The morris-dance is thought to have sprung from the Moors, and to have come through Spain, where it is said to be still deted in by th natives and strangers, under the name of Fandango.

3 Humorous is freakish, frolicsome, or governed by whims. Hotspur, having the same thing in view, calls him the madcap Prince of Wales." See page 41, note 5.

4 That is, modest, or diffident in raising objections, in finding fault, or expressing disapproval or dissent.

That shall first spring and be most delicate.

Dau. Well, 'tis not so, my Lord High-Constable;
But though we think it so, it is no matter:
In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he seems:
So the proportions of defence are fill'd;
Which 5 of a weak and niggardly projection,
Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting
A little cloth.

Fr. King. Think we King Harry strong;
And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him!
The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;
And he is bred out of that bloody strain 7
That haunted us in our familiar paths:
Witness our too-much memorable shame
When Cressy battle fatally was struck,
And all our princes captived by the hand

Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;
Whiles that his mighty sire- on mountain standing,8

5 The grammar of this passage is somewhat perplexed. Being is un stood after which; and not merely which, but the whole clause is the subject of doth spoil. So that the meaning comes thus: The ordering of which after a weak and niggardly project or plan is like the work of a miser, who spoils his coat with scanting a little cloth. For the meaning of proportions, in the line before, see page 57, note 36.

6 To flesh, as the word is here used, is to feed as upon flesh; to satiate, to gorge. So in 2 Henry IV., iv. 5: "The wild dog shall flesh his tooth in every innocent." For kindred senses of the same word see King John, page 126, note 5; and 2 Henry IV., page 62, note 19.

7 Strain for stock, lineage, or race. So in Julius Cæsar, v. 1: 'If thou wert the noblest of thy strain." See, also, Much Ado, page 54, note 34.

8 The battle of Cressy took place August 25, 1346, the Black Prince being then fifteen years old. The King had knighted him a short time before. During the battle, the King did in fact keep his station on the top of a hill, from whence he calmly surveyed the field of action, where the Prince was