Nym. I cannot tell; things must be as they may: men may sleep, and they may have their throats about them at that time, and some say knives have edges. It must be as it may: though patience be a tired mare*, yet she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I cannot tell. Enter PISTOL and MRS. QUICKLY. Bard. Here comes ancient Pistol, and his wife.Good corporal, be patient here.-How now, mine host Pistol? Pist. Base tike, call'st thou me host? Now, by this hand I swear, I scorn the term; Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers. Quick. No, by my troth, not long: for we cannot lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen, that live honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy-house straight. [NYM draws his sword.] O well-a-day, lady! if he be not hewn now!-we shall see wilful adultery and murder committed. Bard. Good lieutenant-good corporal, offer nothing here". Nym. Pish! Pist. Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-eared cur of Iceland! Quick. Good corporal Nym, show thy valour, and put up your sword. Nym. Will you shog off? I would have you solus. [Sheathing his sword. Pist. Solus, egregious dog? O viper vile! The solus in thy most marvellous face; 4 a tired MARE,] The folio reads name; the quartos, mare. 5 offer nothing here.] In the folio, 1623, this speech is properly given to Bardolph; the first part being addressed to Pistol, though called "lieutenant, and the last to Nym. All modern editors appear to have varied the text to their own liking; but why they should add "Good lieutenant Bardolph" to the end of Mrs. Quickly's speech we cannot imagine. And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy'; For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up, And flashing fire will follow. Nym. I am not Barbason'; you cannot conjure me. I have an humour to knock you indifferently well. If you grow foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my rapier, as I may, in fair terms: if you would walk off, I would prick your guts a little, in good terms, as I may; and that's the humour of it. Pist. O braggart vile, and damned furious wight! The grave doth gape, and doting death is near; Therefore exhale. [PISTOL and NYм draw. Bard. Hear me; hear me what I say:-he that strikes the first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier. [Draws. Pist. An oath of mickle might, and fury shall abate. Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give; Thy spirits are most talls. Nym. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair terms; that is the humour of it. Pist. Coupe le gorge, that's the word?—I defy thee again. O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get? And from the powdering tub of infamy Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind', 6-yea, in thy maw, PERDY ;] Perdy" is a corruption of par dieu, often occurring in our old writers. It seems to have been going out of use in Shakespeare's time, but is affectedly given to Pistol, in imitation of the style of drama preceding that of our great poet. 7 I am not BARBASON ;] "Barbason" was the name of a fiend or demon, whom Nym pretends to suppose Pistol intended to conjure by his absurd phraseology. Barbason is mentioned as a devil's name, a devil's addition," in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," Act ii. sc. 2. 66 8 Thy spirits are most TALL.] i. e. courageous or valiant. See Vol. iii. p. 330. 401. and 436. 9 - the lazar kite of Cressid's kind,] "Kites of Cressid's kind are mentioned in the same sense by Gascoigne and by Greene. Doll Tear-sheet she by name, and her espouse: Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and your hostess. He is very sick, and would to bed.-Good Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and do the office of a warming-pan: 'faith, he's very ill. Bard. Away, you rogue. Quick. By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of these days: the king has killed his heart.Good husband, come home presently. [Exeunt Mrs. QUICKLY and Boy. Bard. Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to France together. Why, the devil, should we keep knives to cut one another's throats? Pist. Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on! Nym. You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting? Pist. Base is the slave that pays. Nym. That now I will have; that's the humour of it. Pist. As manhood shall compound. Push home. [Draws. Bard. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll kill him; by this sword, I will. Pist. Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course. Bard. Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends an thou wilt not, why then be enemies with me too. Pr'ythee, put up. [Nym. I shall have my eight shillings, I won of you at betting1?] 10 - pauca, there's enough.] The folio adds, "to go to," but it seems merely surplusage. Possibly we ought to read only "go to.” [I shall have my eight shillings, I won of you at betting?] This repetition, which seems necessary to the continuity of the dialogue, is from the quarto: the folio omits it. Pist. A noble shalt thou have, and present pay; Unto the camp, and profits will accrue. Nym. I shall have my noble? Pist. In cash most justly paid. Nym. Well then, that's the humour of it. Re-enter Mrs. QUICKLY. Quick. As ever you come of women, come in quickly to sir John. Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him. Nym. The king hath run bad humours on the knight, that's the even of it. Pist. Nym, thou hast spoke the right; His heart is fracted, and corroborate. Nym. The king is a good king; but it must be as it may he passes some humours, and careers. Pist. Let us condole the knight, for lambkins we will live. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Southampton. A Council-Chamber. Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND. Bed. 'Fore God, his grace is bold to trust these traitors. Exe. They shall be apprehended by and by. West. How smooth and even they do bear them selves, As if allegiance in their bosoms sat, Crowned with faith, and constant loyalty. Bed. The king hath note of all that they intend, By interception which they dream not of. Exe. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow2, Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious fa vours; That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell Trumpets sound. Enter King HENRY, SCROOP, CAM- K. Hen. Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard. My lord of Cambridge, and my kind lord of Marsham,— And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts: Think you not, that the powers we bear with us Will cut their passage through the force of France, Doing the execution, and the act, For which we have in head assembled them? Scroop. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best. K. Hen. I doubt not that: since we are well per suaded, We carry not a heart with us from hence, That grows not in a fair consent with ours; Cam. Never was monarch better fear'd, and lov'd, Than is your majesty: there's not, I think, a subject, That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness Under the sweet shade of your government. 2 Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,] Steevens referred to the following apposite passage from Holinshed, Shakespeare's usual authority:-"The said lord Scroop was in such favour with the king, that he admitted him sometime to be his bedfellow." The commentators collected many examples to prove that it was usual for men to speak of other men as their " bedfellows" when they wished to show their extreme intimacy and friendship. 3 His sovereign's life to death and treachery.] After this line the quarto, 1600, and the two subsequent editions in the same form, add "O the good lord Marsham," but the general variations are too worthless and minute to be regularly noticed. The folio is the only authentic original of this play. |