As you have done 'gainst me.

There is my hand.

You shall be as a father to my youth:

My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear,

And I will stoop and humble my intents

To your well-practised wise directions.

And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you;
My father is gone wild into his grave,
For in his tomb lie my affections;
And with his spirit sadly I survive,
To mock the expectation of the world,
To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out
Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down

After my seeming. The tide of blood in me
Hath proudly flow'd in vanity till now:
Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea,
Where it shall mingle with the state of floods,
And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
Now call we our high court of parliament:
And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel,

125. spirit] Spirit, Ff 3, 4; Spirits, Ff1, 2; spirites Q. bald; race Q, Ff.

120

125

130

135

127. raze] Theo

That the great body of our state may go

In equal rank with the best govern'd nation;
That war, or peace, or both at once, may be
As things acquainted and familiar to us;

In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.
Our coronation done, we will accite,

As I before remember'd, all our state :

And, God consigning to my good intents,

No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say,

God shorten Harry's happy life one day! [Exeunt. 145

SCENE III.-Gloucestershire. Shallow's orchard.

Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, SILENCE, DAVY, BARDOLPH, and the PAGE.

Shal. Nay, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbour, we will eat a last year's pippin of mine own graffing,

140. you] Q (Steev., Dev.); your Q (Mus.). 143. And, God . . . intents,] And (God consigning intents,) Q; And heauen (consigning intents) Ff 1-3; And (Heauen consigning . . . intents) F 4. 145. God] Heauen Ff. 145. Exeunt.] exit. Q.

SCENE III.

Gloucestershire . . . orchard.] Capell (subst.). Enter...] Cambridge; Enter sir Iohn, Shallow, Scilens, Dauy, Bardolfe, page. Q; Enter Falstaffe, Shallow, Silence, Bardolfe, Page, and Pistoll. Ff. 1, 2. 1. my] mine Ff. 2. mine] my Ff.

with a dish of caraways, and so forth: come, cousin
Silence and then to bed.

Fal. Fore God, you have here a goodly dwelling and a 5 rich.

Shal. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all,
Sir John: marry, good air. Spread, Davy; spread,
Davy; well said, Davy.

Fal. This Davy serves you for good uses; he is your serv-
ing-man and your husband.

Shal. A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet, Sir John: by the mass, I have drunk too much sack at supper: a good varlet. Now sit down, now sit down: come, cousin.

Sil. Ah, sirrah! quoth-a, we shall

Do nothing but eat and make good cheer,
And praise God for the merry year;
When flesh is cheap and females dear,

5. Fore God] om. Ff. 5. a. a] om. Q. 16. Sil.] Scilens Q (passim). 16. Ah] A Q, F 2.

ΙΟ

15

[Singing.

13. by the mass] om. Ff. 17-22. Do. merrily.] first as verse by Rowe (reading We shall do .); prose in Q, Ff. 18, 33, 45. Singing.] Rowe. 18. God] heauen Ff.

3. with... caraways] with a dish of caraway seeds, and not, as usually explained, a "sweetmeat containing caraway-seeds, caraway comfit." See passage from A. Borde, Dyetary of Helth, cited in note 66 on 'pippin supra; T. Ingelend, The Disobedient Child (Haz. Dods., ii. 300); Dekker, Satiro-mastix (Pearson, i. 226): "by this hand full of Carrawaies"; T. Heywood, Fair Maid of the West, Part I. v. i: "I will . . . there comfit my selfe, and cast all carawayes [with a pun on 'cares away'] downe my throat"; J. Cooke, How a Man May Choose, etc., III. iii: "apples, caraways and cheese"; J. Shirley, The Gentleman of Venice, III. iv: "comfits And carraways.'

3. and so forth] etcetera; cf. Winter's Tale, 1. ii. 218.

8. Spread] spread a cloth. G. Walker, A Manifest detection of Diceplay, 1532: "the table was fair spread with diaper cloths." For "spread" in the sense "to lay out" (a banquet, meal) no example is cited previous to 1784.

9. well said] bravo, well done; cf. 1 Henry IV. v. iv. 75.

10. serves... uses] you make good use of. So in Middleton and Rowley, A Fair Quarrel, Iv. i: “'Twill serve you to good use."

See

II. husband] husbandman. Wily Beguiled (Haz. Dods., ix. 237): "You are a good husband; you ha' done sowing barley, I am sure?" Fletcher and Massinger, The Spanish Curate, III. iii: "your steward the good husband That rakes up all for you."

12. varlet] servant. So in Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, Iv. ii: "these varlets" [= servingmen], and Chapman, Jonson and Marston, Eastward Hoe, 1. i: "Thou shameless varlet! dost thou jest at thy lawful master?"

16. Ah, sirrah !] An address by the imaginary singer to himself; for the use of " Ah, sirrah!" in soliloquy, cf. Romeo and Juliet, 1. v. 33, and G. Harvey, Letters (Grosart, i. 22): “Ah Syrrha, and Iesu Lord, thought I."

16. quoth-a] lit. "said-he ; used to indicate that the words of the singer are being repeated.

19. flesh is cheap] So in A. Shirley, The Martyr'd Souldier, IV. iii: "Womans Aesh was never cheaper; a

And lusty lads roam here and there
So merrily,

20

Fal. There's a merry heart!

And ever among so merrily,

Good Master Silence, I'll

25

give you a health for that anon.

Shal. Give Master Bardolph some wine, Davy.
Davy. Sweet sir, sit; I'll be with you anon; most sweet
sir, sit. Master page, good master page, sit. Pro-
face! What you want in meat, we'll have in drink :
but you must bear; the heart's all.

[Exit.

23. heart!... Silence,] Johnson, Capell; heart, good

23. Fal.] sir Iohn. M. Silens. Q; heart, good M. Silence. Ff. Bardolfe: some Ff. 29. must] om. Ff. man may eate it without bread; all Trades fall, so doe they." For "flesh," cf. The Interlude of Youth (Haz. Dods., ii. 19): "A wife? nay, He shall have flesh enou'," and T. Heywood, The Captives, II. ii: "A dainty peece of maydes fleshe."

19. females dear] Farmer noted that "dear" quibbles with "flesh is cheap." The same commentator suggested the dear punctuation cheap: and reading With for And in the following line (MS.).

22. ever among] all the while, as in Albion Knight (Malone Soc. Reprint, p. 213): "Beware euer amonge of the frery clarkes bell"; and Hickscorner (Haz. Dods., I. 174). The expression occurs also in the sense " every now and then" (see New Eng. Dict.; and cf. Dan. engang imellem, alt imellem, and Sw. ibland).

you,

24. give. health] toast drink your health. Craig explains "a health as "a cup of wine," comparing Antony and Cleopatra, II. vi. 145, 146.

ށ

27, 28. Proface] An Anglicized form of It. prò vi faccia (cf. F. bon prou vous face !), which Florio renders leur "Much good may it do you!" "Proface" is not again found in Shakespeare, but it was in general use as a formula of welcome before a meal from the early sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century. It usually came immediately after the grace; cf. e.g. T. Heywood, The Wise-Woman of Hogsdon, IV. i: "The dinner's half done before I say Grace, And bid the old knight and his guest proface." So in

...

25. Give
29. Exit.] Theobald.

...

some] Good M.

J. Cooke, How a Man May Choose, etc., III. iii; " Y. Arth. now say grace. Aminadab. Gloria Deo, sirs, proface"; and Dekker, If this be not a Good Play (Pearson, iii, 281): "Thankes be giuen for. this choice of tempting dishes: To which proface... much good do 't ye." Cf. also Chapman, The Widow's Tears, IV. ii, and Massinger, Middleton and Rowley, The Old Law, IV. ii: "he made the heartiest meal to-day-Much good may 't do his health." The true English equivalent of "proface" was an expression of welcome to the guests. See Macbeth, 111. iv. 33-35. Harrison (Description of England) writes concerning city entertainment: "a cup of wine or beer with . . . an 'You are heartily welcome!' is thought to be a great entertainment." Cf. N. Breton, Fantastickes, 1626: "the poor man's feast is Welcome, and God be with you'." "Proface" is sometimes used metaphorically in reference to the preface of a book-with an obvious pun; see R. Laneham, Letter, 1575 (ed. 1784, p. 9): "Thus Proface ye with the Preface; and nowe to the matter," and G. Harvey, The Trimming of Thomas Nashe, To the General Reader (1597). It is still customary in Denmark for those who have partaken of a meal (usually dinner) together to greet one another on rising from the table with the wish "Velbekomen," i.e. may it do you good.

Shal. Be merry, Master Bardolph; and, my little soldier 30

Sil. Be merry, be merry, my wife has all;

For women are shrews, both short and tall :
'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all,
And welcome merry Shrove-tide.

Fal. I did not think Master Silence had been a man of this mettle.

Sil. Who, I? I have been merry twice and once ere

Re-enter DAVY.

Davy. There's a dish of leather-coats for you. [To Bardolph. Shal. Davy!

30, 31. Be... merry.] as prose Q. 32. has] ha's Ff 1-3. wags Q. 36. Be.. merry.] printed after Shrovetide. Ff.

34. wag] 37. been] bin 38. mettle] mettall Q. 41. Re-enter D.] Theobald; om. Ff; Enter Dauy. Q (Mus., Steev., Dev.). 41. 's] is Ff. 41. To Bard.] Capell (subst.).