So, fo, thou common dog, didit thou disgorge
Thy glutton bofom of the royal Richard,

And now thou would't eat thy dead vomit up,
And howl'ft to find it. What Truft is in these times?
They, that when Richard liv'd, would have him die,
Are now become enamour'd on his Grave;
Thou, that threw'ft duft upon his goodly head,
When through proud London he came fighing on
After th' admired heels of Bolingbroke,

Cry't now, O Earth, yield us that King again,
And take thou this. O thoughts of men accurft!
Paft and to come, seem beft; things prefent, worft.
Mowb. Shall we go draw our numbers, and fet on?
Haft. We are time's fubjects, and time bids, be gone.
[Exeunt.

ACT II.

SCENE I.

A Street in LONDO N.

1

Enter Hoftefs, with two Officers, Phang and Snare.

M

HOSTESS.

R. Phang, have you enter'd the action?
Phang. It is enter'd.

Hoft. Where's your yeoman? is he a lufty yeoman? Will he ftand to it?

Phang. Sirrah, where's Snare?

Hoft. O Lord, ay, good Mr. Snare.

Snare. Here, here.

Phang. Snare, we must arrest Sir John Falstaff. Hoft. Ay, good Mr. Snare, I have enter'd him and all.

Snare. It may chance cost some of us our lives: for he will ftab.

Hoft. Alas-the-day! take heed of him; he ftab'd me in mine own houfe, and that most beaftly; he cares not what mischief he doth, if his

weapon be

out.

out. He will foin like any devil; he will spare neither man, woman, nor child.

Phang. If I can close with him, I care not for his thruft.

Hoft. No, nor I neither; I'll be at your elbow. Phang. If I but fift him once; if he come but within my vice.

Hoft. I am undone by his going; I warrant you, he is an infinitive thing upon my score. Good Mr. Phang, hold him fure; good Mr. Snare, let him not fcape. He comes continually to Pie-corner, faving your manhoods, to buy a faddle: and he is indited to dinner to the Lubbar's-head in Lombard-ftreet, to Mr. Smooth's the Silkman. I pray ye, fince my action is enter'd, and my cafe fo openly known to the world, let him be brought in to his anfwer. A hundred mark is a long Lone, for a poor lone woman to bear; and I have borne, and borne, and borne, and have been fub'd off, and fub'd off, from this day to that day, that it is a fhame to be thought on. There is no honefty in fuch dealing, unlefs a woman fhould be made an Afs and a beaft, to bear every knave's wrong.

Enter Falstaff, Bardolph, and the boy.

Yonder he comes, and that arrant malmsey - nofe knave Bardolph with him. Do your offices, do your offices: Mr. Phang and Mr. Snare, do me, do me, do me your offices.

Fal. How now? whofe mare's dead? what's the matter?

Phang. Sir John, I arreft you at the fuit of Mrs. Quickly.

Fal. Away, varlets; draw, Bardolph: cut me off the villain's head:, throw the quean in the kennel. Hoft.Throw me in the kennel? I'll throw thee in the kennel. Wilt thou? wilt thou? thou bastardly rogue. Murder, murder! O thou honey-fucle vilG

lain,

lain, wilt thou kill God's officers and the King's? O thou honey-feed rogue! thou art a honey-seed, man-queller, and a woman-queller.

Fal. Keep them off, Bardolph.

Phang. A refcue, a rescue!

Hoft. Good people, bring a rescue or too; thou wo't, wo't thou? thou wo't, wo't thou? do, do, thou rogue, do, thou hemp-feed!

Fal. Away, you fcullion, you rampallian, you fuftilarian I'll tickle your catastrophe.

SCENE II.

Enter Chief Justice attended.

Ch. Juft. W

THAT's the matter? keep the peace here, hoa!

Hoft. Good my lord, be good to me. I beseech you, ftand to me.

Ch. Juft. How now, Sir John? what, are you brawling here?

Doth this become your place, your time, and business? You should have been well on your way to York. Stand from him, fellow; wherefore hang'ft thou on him?

Hoft. O my moft worshipful lord, an't pleafe your Grace, I am a poor widow of Eaft-cheap, and he is arrested at my fuit.

Ch. Juft. For what fum ?

Hoft. It is more than for fome, my lord, it is for all; all I have; he hath eat me out of house and home; he hath put all my fubftance into that fat belly of his; but I will have fome of it out again, or I'll ride thee o'nights, like the mare.

Fal. I think, I am as likely to ride the mare, if I have any 'vantage of ground to get up.

Ch. Juft. How comes this, Sir John? fie, what man of good temper would endure this tempest of exclamation?

exclamation? are you not asham'd to enforce a poor widow to fo rough a course to come by her own? Fal. What is the grofs fum that I owe thee?

Hoft. Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself, and the money too. Thou didst swear to me on a parcel-gilt goblet, fitting in my Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a fea-coal fire, on Wednesday in Whitfun-week, when the Prince broke thy head for likening him to a finging-man of Windfor; thou didst fwear to me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me, and make me my lady thy wife. Canft thou deny it? did not good-wife Keech, the butcher's wife, come in then, and call me goffip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of vinegar; telling us, fhe had a good dish of prawns; whereby thou did defire to eat fome ; whereby I told thee, they were ill for a green wound; and didst not thou, when she was gone down stairs, defire me to be no more fo familiarity with fuch poor people, faying, that ere long they fhould call me Madam? and didft thou not kifs me, and bid me fetch thee thirty fhillings? I put thee now to thy book-oath; deny it, if thou canft.

Fal. My lord, this is a poor mad foul; and fhe fays up and down the town, that her eldest fon is like you. She hath been in good cafe, and the truth is, poverty hath distracted her; but for these foolish Officers, I beseech you, I may have redress against them.

Ch. Juft. Sir John, Sir John, I am well acquainted with your manner of wrenching the true cause the falfe way. It is not a confident brow, nor the throng of wounds that come with fuch more than impudent faucinefs from you, can thrust me from a level confideration. I know, you have practis'd upon the easy-yielding spirit of this woman.

Hoft. Yes, in troth, my lord.

Ch. Juft. Pr'ythee, peace; pay her the debt you owe her,and unpay the villany you have done her?

G 2

the

the one you may do with fterling money, and the other with currant repentance.

Fal. My lord, I will not undergo this fneap without reply. You call honourable boldness impudent faucinefs: If a man will court'fy and fay nothing, he is virtuous. No, my lord, my humble duty remember'd, I will not be your fuitor: I fay to you, I defire deliverance from thefe officers, being upon hafty employment in the King's affairs.

Ch. Juft. You speak, as having power to do wrong: but answer in the effect your reputation, and fatisfy the poor woman.

Fal. Come hither, hostess.

SCENE

[Afide.

III.

Enter Mr. Gower.

Ch. Juft. M Gower. The King, my lord, and Henry

ASTER Gower, what news?

Prince of Wales

paper tells.

Are near at hand: the rest the
Fal. As I am a gentleman-
Hoft. Nay, you faid fo before.

Fal. As I am a gentleman;-come, no more words of it.

Hoft. By this heav'nly ground I tread on, I muft be fain to pawn both my plate, and the tapeftry of my dining chambers.

Fal. Glaffes, glasses, is the only drinking; and for thy walls, a pretty flight drollery, or the ftory of the Prodigal, or the *German Hunting in water-work, is worth a thousand of these dead-hangings, and these fly-bitten tapestries: let it be ten pound, if thou canft. Come, if it were not for thy humours, there is not a better wench in England. Go, wash thy face, and draw thy action: come, thou must not be in this hu*German Hunting in water-work,] i. e. in Water-colours.

mour