would have clapt in the clowt at twelve score, and carried you a fore-hand shaft a fourteen and fourteen and a half, that it would have done a man's heart good to fee.How a score of ewes now?

Sil. Thereafter as they be: a score of good ewes may be worth ten pounds.

Shal. And is old Double dead ?

Enter Bardolph, and Page.
Si. LJER E come two of Sir John Falstaff's men, as
H

I think.
Shal. Good-morrow, honest gentlemen.
Bard. I beseech you, which is Justice Shallow?

Shal. I am Robert Shallow, Sir, a poor Esquire of this Country, one of the King's Justices of the peace: what is your good pleasure with me?

Bard. My captain, Sir, commends him to you: my captain Sir John Falstaff; a tall gentleman, by heav'n! and a moft gallant leader.

Shal. He greets me well: Sir, I knew him a good back-sword man. How doth the good Knight? may I ask, how my lady his wife doth ?

Bard. Sir, pardon, a soldier is better accommodated than with a wife.

Shal. It is well said, Sir; and it is well faid, indeed, too : better accommodated-it is good, yea, indeed, is it; good phrases, surely, are, and ever were, very commendable. Accommodated it comes of accommodo ; very good, a good phrase.

Bard. Pardon me, Sir, I have heard the word. Phrafe, call you it? by this day, I know not the phrase: but I will maintain the word with my sword, to be a soldier-like word, and a word of exceeding good command. Accommodated, that is, when a man is, as they say, accommodated; or, when a

man

man is, being whereby he may be thought to be accommodated, which is an excellent thing.

SCEN E V.

Enter Falstaff.

Shal, IT is very juft: look, here comes good Sir John.

: give me your Worship's good hand: trust me, you look well, and bear your years very well. Welcome, good Sir John.

Fal. I am glad to see you well, good master Robert Shallow : Master Sure-card, as I think,

Shal. No, Sir John, it is my cousin Silence; in Commission with me.

Fal. Good master Silence, it well befits, you should

be of the peace.

Sil. Your good Worship is welcome.

Fal. Fie, this is hot weather, gentlemen; have you provided me here half a dozen of sufficient men ?

Shal. Marry, have we, Sir : will you fit ?
Fal. Let me see them, I beseech you.

Shal. Where's the roll ? where's the roll ? where's the roll? let me see, let me see, let me see : so, so, so, fo: yea, marry, Sir. Ralph Mouldy:--let them appear as I call : let them do so, let them do so. Let me fee, where is Mouldy?

Moul. Here, if it please you. Shal. What think you, Sir John? a good limb'd fellow : young, strong, and of good friends.

Fal. Is thy name Mouldy ?
Moul. Yes, if it please you.
Fal. 'Tis the more time thou wert us'd.

Shal. Ha, ha, ha, most excellent, i'faith. Things, that are mouldy, lack use: very singular good. Well said, Sir John, very well said.

Fal. Prick him.
Moul. I was prickt well enough before, if you could

haye

H4

have let me alone: my old dame will be undone now

or one to do her husbandry, and her drudgery; you need not to have prickt me; there are other men fitter to go out than I.

Fal. Go to: peace, Mouldy, you shall go. Mouldy, it is time you were spent.

Moul. Spent? Shal. Peace,' fellow, peace: stand aside: know you where you are ? for the other, Sir John. Let me see: Simon Shadow. Fal. Ay, marry,

let me have him to sit under : he's like to be a cold soldier.

Shal. Where's Shadow ?
Shad. Here, Sir.
Fal. Shadow, whose son art thou ?
Shad. My mother's son, Sir.

Fal. Thy mother's son! like enough; and thy father's shadow: so the son of the female is the shadow of the male: it is often fo, indeed, but not of the fa. ther's substance.

Shal. Do you like him, Sir John ?

Fal. Shadow will serve for summer; prick him; for we have a number of shadows do fill up the mufter-book.

Shal. Thomas Wart.
Fal. Where's he ?
W'art. Here, Sir.
Fal. Is thy name Wart ?
Wart. Yea, Sir.
Fal. Thou art a very ragged wart.
Shal. Shall I prick him down, Sir John ?

Fal. It were superfluous; for his apparel is built upon his back, and the whole frame stands upon pins; prick him no more.

Shal. Ha, ha, ha, you can do it, Sir; you can do it : I commend you well. Francis Feeble.

Feeble. Here, Sir.
Fal. What trade art thou, Feeble ?

Feeble

no more.

Feeble. A woman's tailor, Sir.
Shal. Shall I prick him, Sir ?

Fal. You may: but if he had been a man's tailor, he would have prick'd you. Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy's battel, as thou hast done in a woman's petticoat?

Feeble. I will do my good will, Sir; you can have

Fal. Well said, good woman's tailor; well faid, courageous Feeble : thou wilt be as valiant as the wrathful Dove, or most magnanimous mouse. Prick the woman's tailor well, master Shallow, deep, master Shallow.

Feeble. I would, Wart might have gone, Sir.

Fal. I would, thou wert a man's tailor, that thou might'st mend him, and make him fit to go. I cannot put him to be a private soldier, that is the leader of so many thousands. Let that suffice, most forcible Feeble.

Feeble. It shall suffice.

Fal. I am bound to thee, reverend Feeble. Who is the next?

Shal. Peter Bull-calf of the Green.
Fal. Yea, marry, let us fee Bull-calf.
Bul. Here, Sir.

Fal. Trust me, a likely fellow. Come, prick me Bull-calf, till he roar again.

Bul. Oh, good my lord captain,-
Fal. What, doft thou roar before th'art prickt?
Bul. Oh, Sir, I am a diseased man.
Fal. What disease hast thou ?

Bul. A whorelon Cold, Sir; a cough, Sir, which I caught with ringing in the King's affairs, upon his Coronation-day, Sir.

Fal. Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown: we will have away thy Cold, and I will take such order that thy friends shall ring for thee. Is here all ? Shal. There is two more called than your number,

you must have but four here, Sir; and fo, I pray you, go in with me to dinner.

Fal. Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot tarry dinner. I am glad to see you, in good troth, master Shallow.

Shal. O, Sir John, do you remember since we lay all night in the wind-mill in Saint George's fields ?

Fal. No more of that, good master Shallow, no more of that.

Shal. Ha! it was a merry night. And is Jane Night-work alive?

Fal. She lives, master Shallow.
Shal. She never could away with me.

Fal. Never, never: she would always say, she could not abide master Shallow.

Shal. By the mass, I could anger her to the heart: she was then a Bona-roba. Doth she hold her own well?

Fal. Old, old, master Shallow.

Shal. Nay, she must be old, she cannot chuse but be old; certain, she's old, and had Robin Night-work by old Night-work, before I came to Clement's Inn.

Sil. That's fifty-five years ago.

Shal. Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen That, that this knight and I have seen!hah, Sir John, said I well ?

Fal. We have heard the chimes at midnight, Mafter Shallow.

Shal. That we have, that we have, in faith, Sir John, we have : our watch-word was, hem, boys.Come, let's to dinner; Oh, the days that we have feen! come, come.

Bul. Good master corporate Bardolph, stand my friend, and here is four Harry ten shillings in French Crowns for

you: very truth, Sir, I had as lief be hang'd, Sir, as go; and yet for my own part, Sių, , I do not care, but rather because I am unwilling, and for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my

friends ;

in