And bring you back, charming the narrow seas SCENE I. London. A street. Enter Corporal NYм and Lieutenant BARDOLPH. Bard. Well met, Corporal Nym. Nym. Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph. 40 [Exit. Bard. What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet? Nym. For my part, I care not: I say little; but when time shall serve, there shall be smiles; but that shall be as it may. I dare not fight; but I will wink and hold out mine iron: it is a simple one; but what though? it will toast cheese, and it will endure cold as another man's sword will: and there's an end. 10 Bard. I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends; and we'll be all three sworn brothers to France: let it be so, good Corporal Nym. Nym. Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the certain of it: and when I cannot live any longer, I 42. The first scene was not to be at Southampton. Scene I. This is one of the humorous or character scenes that the Elizabethan drama sandwiched in amongst the poetry and rhetoric. Bardolph and Pistol are reminiscences of Henry IV, remnants of the swaggering crew of Falstaff. Nym comes from the Merry Wives. They serve Shakespeare's purpose only indirectly. For the exhibition of British courage and achievement he creates men of a different stamp, Fluellen and Gower, Macmorris and Jamy, Williams and Bates. Pistol is the only one of the swaggerers who remains through the play: Bardolph is hanged for robbing a church, and Nym is, also, though for some reason that we do not hear. will do as I may: that is my rest, that is the rendezvous of it. Bard. It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell Quickly and certainly she did you wrong; for you were troth-plight to her. 20 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. L Enter PISTOL and Hostess. Bard. Here come Ancient Pistol and his wife: good corporal, be patient here. Nym. How now, mine host Pistol! Pist. Base tike, call'st thou me host? Now, by this hand, I swear, I scorn the term; 30 Host. 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.] O well a day, Lady, if he be not drawn now! we shall see wilful adultery and murder committed. Bard. Good lieutenant! good corporal! offer nothing here. Nym. Pish! 40 Pist. Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur of Iceland! 16. the rendezvous. Let it be said, once for all, that Nym's and Pistol's French, like much of their English, passes human understanding, although not human enjoyment. W. It would seem, however, from V, i, 84 that they thought rendezvous meant rest or something of the sort. Host. Good Corporal Nym, show thy valour, and put up your sword. Nym. Will you shog off? I would have you solus. The "solus" in thy teeth, and in thy throat, 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. 60 [Pistol draws. 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 tall. Nym. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair terms: that is the humour of it. say; note the double object. 71 71. the humour of it: a favorite expression with Nym (II, Pist. "Couple a gorge י! That is the word. I thee defy again. O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get? No; to the spital go, And from the powdering-tub of infamy Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind, Enter the Boy. Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and you, 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! Host. By my troth, he 'll yield the crow a pudding one of these days. The King has kill'd his heart. Good husband, come home presently. 90 [Exeunt Hostess 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 ! i, 99, 119; II, iii, 60; III, ii, 5). Humour has many meanings in Elizabethan English, as will be seen in The Merry Wives, I, iii, where Nym uses it nine times in ten speeches. 72. Couple a gorge. See IV, iv, 38 and note. 80. pauca = little, in brief. (Lat.) W. 84. One of the many jests at Bardolph's nose. Cf. II, iii, 41. 89. By not keeping him in favor. Cf. 2 Henry IV, V, v, 51 ff. 90. presently = at this present moment, now, at once. W. 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. [They draw. Bard. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll kill him; by this sword, I will. 102 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. Prithee, put up. Nym. I shall have my eight shillings I won of you at betting? Pist. A noble shalt thou have, and present pay; And liquor likewise will I give to thee, And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood: 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 't. Re-enter Hostess. 111 119 Host. As ever you came of women, come in quickly to Sir John. Ah, poor heart! he is so shak'd 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. 98. Base is the slave, etc.: a quotation from an old play, like much of Pistol's bombast. W. |