would have clapt in the clowt at twelve score, and carried you a fore-hand fhaft 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 fcore of good ewes may be worth ten pounds.

Shal. And is old Double dead?

Sil. TIERE come two of Sir John Falstaff's men, as
Η
HI

I think.

Shal. Good-morrow, honeft gentlemen.

Bard. I befeech you, which is Justice Shallow? Shal. I am Robert Shallow, Sir, a poor Efquire of this Country, one of the King's Juftices 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-fword man. How doth the good Knight? may I ask, how my lady his wife doth?

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

Shal. It is well faid, 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 phrafe.

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 fword, to be a foldier-like word, and a word of exceeding good command. Accommodated, that is, when a man is, as they fay, accommodated; or, when a

man

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

Shal.

It is very bare co. give me your
Tis very juft: look, here comes good Sir John.

Worship's good hand: truft me, you look well, and
bear your years very well. Welcome, good Sir John.
Fal. I am glad to fee you well, good mafter Robert
Shallow Mafter Sure-card, as I think,-

Shal. No, Sir John, it is my coufin Silence; in Commiffion with me.

Fal. Good mafter Silence, it well befits, you fhould 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 fufficient men? Shal. Marry, have we, Sir: will you fit?

Fal. Let me fee 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 fo. Let me fee, where is Mouldy?

:

Moul. Here, if it please you.

Shal. What think you, Sir John? a good limb'd fellow young, ftrong, and of good friends.

Fal. Is thy name Mouldy?

Moul. Yea, if it please you.

Fal. 'Tis the more time thou wert us'd.

Shal. Ha, ha, ha, moft excellent, i'faith.

Things,

that are mouldy, lack use: very fingular good. Well

faid, Sir John, very well faid.

Fal. Prick him.

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

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 fhall go. Mouldy, it is time you were spent.

Moul. Spent?

Shal. Peace, fellow, peace: ftand aside: know you where you are? for the other, Sir John. Let me fee:

Simon Shadow.

Fal. Ay, marry, let me have him to fit under : he's like to be a cold foldier.

Shal. Where's Shadow?
Shad. Here, Sir..

Fal. Shadow, whose son art thou?
Shad. My mother's fon, Sir.

Fal. Thy mother's fon! like enough; and thy father's fhadow: fo the fon of the female is the fhadow of the male: it is often fo, indeed, but not of the father's fubftance.

Shal. Do you like him, Sir John?

Fal. Shadow will ferve for fummer; prick him; for we have a number of fhadows do fill up the mufter-book.

Shal. Thomas Wart.

Fal. Where's he?

Wart. 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 fuperfluous; for his apparel is built upon his back, and the whole frame ftands 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

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 haft done in a woman's petticoat?

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

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

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

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

Feeble. It fhall fuffice.

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. Truft 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 haft thou?

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

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

H 5

your number,

you

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 fee you, in good troth, mafter Shallow.

Shal. O, Sir John, do you remember fince we lay all night in the wind-mill in Saint George's fields? Fal. No more of that, good mafter Shallow, no more of that.

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

Fal. She lives, mafter Shallow.

Shal. She never could away with me.

Fal. Never, never: fhe would always fay, fhe could not abide mafter Shallow.

Shal. By the mafs, I could anger her to the heart: fhe was then a Bona-roba. Doth fhe hold her own

well?

Fal. Old, old, mafter Shallow.

Shal. Nay, fhe must be old, fhe cannot chuse but be old; certain, fhe'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, coufin Silence, that thou hadst seen That, that this knight and I have feen!hah, Sir John, faid I well?

Fal. We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master 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 mafter corporate Bardolph, ftand my friend, and here is four Harry ten fhillings in French Crowns for you: in very truth, Sir, I had as lief be hang'd, Sir, as go; and yet for my own part, Sir, I do not care, but rather because I am unwilling, and for mine own part, have a defire to stay with my friends;