Doll. Goodman death! goodman bones! Doll. Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal ! 1 Bead. Very well. [Exeunt. SCENE V.-A public Place near Westminster Abbey. Enter two Grooms strewing rushes. I Groom. More rushes, more rushes. 2 Groom. The trumpets have sounded twice. I Groom. It will be two of the clock ere they come from the coronation; dispatch, dispatch. [Exeunt Grooms. Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, PISTOL, BARDOLPH, Fal. Stand here by me, master Robert Shallow; I will make the king do you grace: I will leer upon him, as he comes by; and do but mark the countenance that he will give me. Pist. 'Bless thy lungs, good knight. Fal. Come here, Pistol; stand behind me.— [To SHALLOW.] O, if I had had time to have made new liveries, I would have bestowed the thousand pound I borrowed of you. But it is no matter; this poor show doth better: this doth infer the zeal I had to see him. Shal. It doth so. Fal. It shows my earnestness in affection. Fal. My devotion. Shal. It doth, it doth, it doth. Fal. As it were, to ride day and night; and VOL. VI. 21 not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to shift me. Shal. It is most certain. Fal. But to stand stained with travel, and sweating with desire to see him: thinking of nothing else; putting all affairs else in oblivion; as if there were nothing else to be done but to see him. Pist. 'Tis semper idem, for absque hoc nihil est : "Tis all in every part. Shal. 'Tis so, indeed. Pist. My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver, And make thee rage. Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts, By most mechanical and dirty hand: Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell Alecto's snake, For Doll is in; Pistol speaks nought but truth. Fal. I will deliver her. [Shouts within, and the trumpets sound. Pist. There roar'd the sea, and trumpetclangor sounds. Enter the KING and his Train, the CHIEF JUSTICE among them. Fal. 'Save thy grace, king Hal! my royal Hal! Pist. The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame! Fal. 'Save thee, my sweet boy! King. My lord chief justice, speak to that vain man. Ch. Just. Have you your wits; know you what 'tis you speak? Fal. My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart! King. I know thee not, old man fall to thy prayers; How ill white hairs become a fool and jester! gape For thee thrice wider than for other men: Presume not that I am the thing I was: For Heaven doth know, so shall the world perceive, That I have turn'd away my former self We will, according to your strength and qualities, lord, To see perform'd the tenor of our word. Set on. [Exeunt KING and his Train. Fal. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound. Shal. Ay, marry, sir John; which I beseech you to let me have home with me. Fal. That can hardly be, master Shallow. Do not you grieve at this; I shall be sent for in private to him: look you, he must seem thus to the world. Fear not your advancement; I will be the man yet that shall make you great. Shal. I cannot well perceive how; unless you should give me your doublet, and stuff me out with straw. I beseech you, good sir John, let me have five hundred of my thousand. Fal. Sir, I will be as good as my word this that you heard was but a colour. Shal. A colour, I fear, that you will die in, sir John. Fal. Fear no colours; go with me to dinner. Come, lieutenant Pistol ;-come, Bardolph :-I shall be sent for soon at night. Re-enter PRINCE JOHN, the CHIEF JUSTICE, Officers, &c. Ch. Just. Go, carry sir John Falstaff to the Take all his company along with him. Fal. My lord, my lord,— Ch. Just. I cannot now speak: I will hear you soon. Take them away. Pist. Si fortuna me tormenta, spero me contenta. [Exeunt FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, PISTOL, BARDOLPH, Page, and Officers. P. John. I like this fair proceeding of the He hath intent, his wonted followers But all are banish'd till their conversations Appear more wise and modest to the world. P. John. The king hath call'd his parliament, my lord. Ch. Just. He hath. P. John. I will lay odds,-that, ere this year expire, We bear our civil swords, and native fire, As far as France: I heard a bird so sing, [Exeunt. EPILOGUE. [Spoken by a Dancer.] First, my fear; then, my court'sy; last, my speech. My fear is, your displeasure; my court'sy, my duty; and my speech, to beg your pardons. If you look for a good speech now, you undo me for what I have to say is of mine own making; and what, indeed, I should say, will, I doubt, prove mine own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the venture. Be it known to you, (as it is very well,) I was lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your patience for it, and to promise you a better. I did mean, indeed, to pay you with this; which, if, like an ill venture, it come unluckily home, I break, and you, my gentle creditors, lose. Here, I promised you, I would be, and here I commit my body to your mercies: bate me some, and I will pay you some, and, as most debtors do, promise you infinitely. If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, |