1 Groom. It will be two of the clock ere they come from the Coronation: difpatch, dispatch. [Exeunt Grooms. Enter Falstaff, Shallow, Pistol, Bardolph, and the Boy. Fal. Stand here by me, mafter 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. Pift. Blefs thy lungs, good Knight. Fal. Come here, Pistol, ftand behind me. O, if I had had time to have made new liveries, I would have bestow'd the thousand pound I borrow'd of you. But it is no matter, this poor show doth better; this doth infer the zeal I had to fee him. Shal. It doth fo. Fal. It fhews my earnestness of affection. Fal. My devotion. Pift. It doth, it doth, it doth. Fal. As it were, to ride day and night, and not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to fhift me. Shal. It is most certain. Fal. But to ftand ftained with travel, and fweating with defire to see him, thinking of nothing else, putting all affairs elfe in oblivion, as if there were nothing else to be done but to see him. Pift. 'Tis femper idem; for abfque hoc nihil eft. 'Tis all in all, and all in every part. Shal. 'Tis fo, indeed. Pift. My Knight, I will enflame thy noble liver, and make thee rage. Thy Dol and Helen of thy noble thoughts K 3 Fal. Fal. I will deliver her. Pift. "There roar'd the fea: and trumpet-clangour founds. Fal. The Trumpets found. Enter the King, and his train. OD fave thy Grace, King Hal, my royal Hal! Pift. The heav'ns thee guard and keep, moft royal imp of fame ! G Fal. God fave thee, my fweet boy! King. My Lord Chief Juflice, speak to that vain man. Ch. Juft. Have you your wits? know you, what 'tis you fpeak? Fal. My King, my Jove, I fpeak to thee, my heart! King. I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers: How ill white hairs become a fool and jefter! I have long dream'd of fuch a kind of man, So furfeit fwell'd, fo old, and fo profane; But, being awake. I do defpife my dream. Make lefs thy body, (hence!) and more thy grace; Leave gormandizing. Know, the Grave doth gape For thee, thrice wider than for other men. Reply not to me with a fool-born jest; Prefume not, that I am the thing I was: For heav'n doth know, fo fhall the world perceive, That I have turn'd away my former felf, So will I thofe that keep me company. When thou do hear I am as I have been, Approach me, and thou fhalt be as thou waft, The tutor and the feeder of my riots; Till then I banish thee, on pain of death, As I have done the rest of my mif-leaders, Not to come near our perfon by ten miles. For competence of life, I will allow you, That lack of means enforce you not to Evil: And as we hear you do reform yourselves, We will according to your ftrengths and qualities Give you advancement. Be't your charge, my lord, To fee perform'd the tenour of our word. Set on. Fal. M SCENE [Ex. King, &c. IX. ASTER 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 fhall be fent for in private to him: look you, he muft feem thus to the world. Fear not your advancement, I will be the man yet that fhall make you great. Shal. I cannot perceive how, unless you give me your doublet, and stuff me out with ftraw. I befeech you, good Sir John, let me have five hundred of my thoufand. 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 foon at night. Enter Chief Justice and Prince John. Ch. Juft. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet, Take all his company along with him. Fal. My lord, my lord, Ch. Juft. I cannot now fpeak, I will hear you foon. Take them away. Pift. Si fortuna me tormenta, il sperare me contenta. Manent Lancafter, and Chief Juftice. [Exeunt. Lan. I like this fair proceeding of the King's. He hath intent, his wonted followers K 4 Shall Shall all be very well provided for; But they are banish'd, till their converfations Lan. The King hath call'd his Parliament, my lord. Lan. I will lay odds, that ere this year expire, Whofe mufic, to my thinking, pleas'd the King. [Exeunt. EPILOGUE FIR Spoken by a DANCER. IRST, my fear; then, my court fy; laft, my speech. My fear is your difpleafure; my court fy, 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 fay is of mine own making, and what, indeed, I fhould fay, 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 difpleafing Play, to pray your patience for it, and to promife 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, lofe. Here, I promifed you, I would be, and here I commit my body to your mercies: bate me fome, and I will pay you fome, and, as moft debtors do, promife you infinitely. If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you command me to use my legs? and yet that were but light payment, to dance out of your debt: but a good confcience will make any poffible fatisfaction, and fo will I. All the gentle. women here have forgiven me; if the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never feen before in fuch an affembly. Que word more, I beseech you; if you be not too much cloy'd with fat meat, our humble author will continue the flory with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Catharine of France; where, for any thing I know, Falstaff fhall die of a fweat, unless already he be kill'd with your hard opinions: for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the My tongue is weary: when my legs are too, I will bid you good night, and fo kneel down before you; but, indeed, to pray for the Queen. man. K 5 THE |