the North; he that kills me some six or seven dozen of Scots at a breakfast, washes his hands, and says to his wife, Fie upon this quiet life! I want work. O my sweet Harry, says she, how many hast thou kill'd to-day? Give my roan horse a drench, says he; and answers, Some fourteen, an hour after, a trifle, a trifle. I pr'ythee, call in Falstaff: I'll play Percy, and that damn'd brawn shall play Dame Mortimer his wife. Rivo,16 says the drunkard. Call in ribs, call in tallow. Enter FALSTAFF, GADSHILL, BARDOLPH, and PETO; followed by FRANCIS with wine. Pointz. Welcome, Jack: where hast thou been? Fal. A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too! marry, and amen!-Give me a cup of sack, boy.— Ere I lead this life long, I'll sew nether-stocks,17 and mend them and foot them too. A plague of all cowards! cup of sack, rogue. - Is there no virtue extant? Give me a [Drinks. Prince. Didst thou never see Titan 18 kiss a dish of butter? pitiful-hearted butter, that melted at the sweet tale of the Sun! if thou didst, then behold that compound. Fal. You rogue, here's lime in this sack too: 19 there is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man: yet a 16 Of this exclamation, which was frequently used in Bacchanalian revelry, the origin or derivation has not been discovered. — Brawn refers to Falstaff's plumpness and rotundity. Properly the word means any prominent muscular part of the body, especially of the arms. 17 Nether-stocks were what we now call stockings. 18 In the classical ages of Greece the name Titan was given to various mythological personages, supposed to be descended from the original Titans, and among others to Helios, the god of the Sun. In Shakespeare's time the name was in common use for the Sun. 19 Putting lime in sack and other wines appears to have been a common device for making them seem fresh and sparkling, when in truth they were spiritless and stale. Eliot, in his Orthoepia, 1593, says, “The vintners of London put in lime, and thence proceed infinite maladies, especially the gouts." coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it, a villainous coward.—Go thy ways, old Jack: die when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot 20 upon the face of the Earth, then am I a shotten herring.21 There live not three good men unhang'd in England; and one of them is fat, and grows old: God help the while! a bad world, I say. I would I were a weaver; I could sing psalms or any thing.22 A plague of all cowards! I say still. Prince. How now, wool-sack! what mutter you? Fal. A king's son ! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath,23 and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock of wild-geese, I'll never wear hair on my face more. You Prince of Wales ! Prince. Why, you whoreson round man, what's the matter? Fal. Are you not a coward? answer me to that:—and Pointz there? Pointz. Zwounds, ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, by the Lord, I'll stab thee. Fal. I call thee coward! I'll see thee damn'd ere I call thee coward but I would give a thousand pound, I could run as fast as thou canst. You are straight enough in the shoulders; you care not who sees your back: call you that 20 The meaning is, "if, when thou shalt die, manhood, good manhood, be not forgot," &c. Shakespeare has a great many instances of shall and will used indiscriminately. 21 A shotten herring is one that has cast her spawn, and is therefore very lean and lank. 22 Weavers are mentioned as lovers of music in Twelfth Night. The Protestants who fled from the persecutions of Alva were mostly weavers, and, being Calvinists, were distinguished for their love of psalmody. Weavers were supposed to be generally good singers: their trade being sedentary, they had an opportunity of practising, and sometimes in parts, while they were at work. 23 A dagger of lath was the weapon given to the Vice in the old Moralplays; hence it came to be a theme of frequent allusion. See vol. v. page 222, note 17. backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing! give me them that will face me. - Give me a cup of sack: I am a rogue, if I drunk to-day. Prince. O villain! thy lips are scarce wiped since thou drunk'st last. Fal. All's one for that. A plague of all cowards! still say I. [Drinks. Prince. What's the matter? Fal. What's the matter! there be four of us here have ta'en a thousand pound this day morning. Prince. Where is it, Jack? where is it? Fal. Where is it! taken from us it is: a hundred upon poor four of us. Prince. What, a hundred, man? Fal. I am a rogue, if I were not at half-sword 24 with a dozen of them two hours together. I have 'scaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet, four through the hose; my buckler cut through and through; my sword hack'd like a hand-saw, -ecce signum! I never dealt better since I was a man: all would not do. A plague of all cowards! Let them speak: if they speak more or less than truth, they are villains and the sons of darkness. Prince. Speak, sirs; how was it? Gads. We four set upon some dozen, Fal. Sixteen at least, my lord. Gads. and bound them. Peto. No, no; they were not bound. Fal. You rogue, they were bound, every man of them; or I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew. Gads. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us, Fal. And unbound the rest, and then came in the other. 24 Half-sword appears to have been a term of fencing, for a close fight, or a fight within half the length of the sword. Prince. What, fought ye with them all? Fal. All! I know not what ye call all; but if I fought not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish: if there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legged creature. Prince. Pray God you have not murdered some of them. Fal. Nay, that's past praying for: I have pepper'd two of them; two I am sure I have paid, two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou knowest my old ward: here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me, Prince. What, four? thou saidst but two even now. Pointz. Ay, ay, he said four. 25 Fal. These four came all a-front, and mainly thrust at me. I made me no more ado but took all their seven points in my target, thus. Prince. Seven? why, there were but four even now. Fal. In buckram? Pointz. Ay, four, in buckram suits. Fal. Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else. Prince. [Aside to POINTZ.] Pr'ythee, let him alone; we shall have more anon. Fal. Dost thou hear me, Hal? Prince. Ay, and mark thee too, Jack. Fal. Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These nine in buckram that I told thee of, Prince. So, two more already. 25 Old ward is old posture of defence; his usual mode of warding off the adversary's blows. See page 21, note 32. — In Falstaff's next speech but one, the words "mainly thrust" mean thrust mightily, or, as we say, "with might and main." The Poet has main repeatedly in this sense; as "the main flood" and "the main of waters"; that is, the mighty ocean. Fal. their points being broken, Pointz. Down fell their hose.26 Fal. - began to give me ground: but I followed me close, came in foot and hand; and with a thought seven of the eleven I paid. Prince. O monstrous ! eleven buckram men grown out of two! Fal. But, as the Devil would have it, three misbegotten knaves in Kendal Green 27 came at my back and let drive at me; for it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand. Prince. These lies are like the father that begets them, gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brain'd guts, thou nott-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-keech,28 Fal. What, art thou mad? art thou mad? is not the truth the truth? Prince. Why, how couldst thou know these men in Kendal green, when it was so dark thou couldst not see thy hand? come, tell us your reason: what say'st thou to this? Pointz. Come, your reason, Jack, your reason. Fal. What, upon compulsion? No; were I at the strappado,29 or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on 26 The jest lies in a quibble upon points, Falstaff using the word for the sharp end of a weapon, Pointz for the tagged lace with which garments were then fastened. See vol. v. page 151, note 3. 27 Kendal green was the livery of Robin Hood and his men. The colour took its name from Kendal, in Westmoreland, formerly celebrated for its cloth manufacture. 28 A keech of tallow is the fat of an ox or cow rolled up by the butcher into a round lump, in order to be carried to the chandler. 20 The strappado was a dreadful punishment inflicted on soldiers and criminals, by drawing them up on high with their arms tied backward. Randle Holme says that they were let fall half way with a jerk, which not only broke the arms, but shook all the joints out of joint; "which punishment it is better to be hanged than for a man to undergo." |
