Prince. O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, and wert taken with the manner, and ever since thou hast blushed extempore. Thou hadst fire and sword on thy side, and yet thou rannest away: what instinct hadst thou for it? Bard. My lord, do you see these meteors? do you behold these exhalations? Prince. I do. Bard. What think you they portend? Bard. Choler, my lord, if rightly taken. Re-enter FALSTAFF. 350 Here comes lean Jack, here comes bare-bone. How now, my sweet creature of bombast! How long is 't ago, Jack, since thou sawest thine own 360 knee? Fal. My own knee! when I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an eagle's talon in the waist; I could have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring a plague of sighing and grief! it blows a man up like a bladder. There's villanous news abroad: here was Sir John Bracy from your father; you must to the court in the morning. That same mad fellow of the north, Percy, and he of Wales, that gave Amamon the bastinado 370 and made Lucifer cuckold and swore the devil 346. with the manner, in the act. 352. exhalations, meteors. 359. bombast, cotton-padding, used in giving an artificial rotundity to the Elizabethan doublet. 367. Sir John Bracy. Ff Braby. This person is apparently invented by Shakespeare; there is no trace of him in history. 370. Amamon, the name of a principal devil, recorded in Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft. his true liegeman upon the cross of a Welsh hook-what a plague call you him? Poins. O, Glendower. Fal. Owen, Owen, the same; and his son-inlaw Mortimer, and old Northumberland, and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs o' horseback up a hill perpendicular,— Prince. He that rides at high speed and with his pistol kills a sparrow flying. Fal. You have hit it. Prince. So did he never the sparrow. Fal. Well, that rascal hath good mettle in him; he will not run. Prince. Why, what a rascal art thou then, to praise him so for running! Fal. O' horseback, ye cuckoo; but afoot he will not budge a foot. Prince. Yes, Jack, upon instinct. Fal. I grant ye, upon instinct. Well, he is there too, and one Mordake, and a thousand blue-caps more : Worcester is stolen away tonight; thy father's beard is turned white with the news you may buy land now as cheap as stinking mackerel. Prince. Why, then, it is like, if there come a hot June and this civil buffeting hold, we shall buy maidenheads as they buy hob-nails, by the hundreds. Fal. By the mass, lad, thou sayest true; it is like we shall have good trading that way. But tell me, Hal, art not thou horrible afeard? thou being heir-apparent, could the world pick thee out 372. the cross of a Welsh hook, the point where the shaft of a halberd was crossed by the steel head which formed an axe on 380 390 400 one side and a spike on the other. 392. blue-caps, the bluebonneted Scots. 397. civil buffeting, civil war. three such enemies again as that fiend Douglas, that spirit Percy, and that devil Glendower? Art thou not horribly afraid? doth not thy blood thrill at it ? Prince. Not a whit, i' faith; I lack some of thy instinct. Fal. Well, thou wilt be horribly chid to-morrow 410 when thou comest to thy father: if thou love me, practise an answer. Prince. Do thou stand for my father, and examine me upon the particulars of my life. Fal. Shall I content: this chair shall be my state, this dagger my sceptre, and this cushion my crown. Prince. Thy state is taken for a joined-stool, thy golden sceptre for a leaden dagger, and thy precious rich crown for a pitiful bald crown! Give me Fal. Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of thee, now shalt thou be moved. a cup of sack to make my eyes look red, that it may be thought I have wept; for I must speak in passion, and I will do it in King Cambyses' vein. Prince. Well, here is my leg. Fal. And here is my speech. Stand aside, nobility. Host. O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i' faith! Fal. Weep not, sweet queen; for trickling tears are vain. 418. joined-stool, a kind of folding-chair. 425. in King Cambyses' vein, in the ranting vein of the 'lamentable tragedy' of that name by Thomas Preston, c. 1569. 427. my leg, my bow, the leg in bowing being drawn back; 420 430 hence the phrase 'to make a leg,' to salute. 431. Weep not, sweet queen, etc. In King Cambyses a similar situation actually occurred a stage direction expressly enjoining that the queen should weep. Host. O, the father, how he holds his countenance ! Fal. For God's sake, lords, convey my tristful queen; For tears do stop the flood-gates of her eyes. Host. O Jesu, he doth it as like one of these harlotry players as ever I see! Fal. Peace, good pint-pot; peace, good ticklebrain. Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also how thou art accom- 440 panied for though the camomile, the more it is trodden on the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted the sooner it wears. That thou art my son, I have partly thy mother's word, partly my own opinion, but chiefly a villanous trick of thine eye and a foolish hanging of thy nether lip, that doth warrant me. If then thou be son to me, here lies the point; why, being son to me, art thou so pointed at? Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher and eat blackberries? a 450 question not to be asked. Shall the son of England prove a thief and take purses? a question to be asked. There is a thing, Harry, which thou hast often heard of and it is known to many in our land by the name of pitch: this pitch, as ancient writers do report, doth defile; so doth the company thou 434. tristful, grieving. 437. harlotry, rogue, vagabond; the term, on the hostess' lips, can have had little, but in any case not its strict, meaning. Juliet is called a 'harlotry' by her father; so, Lady Mortimer below, I iii. 1. 199. 438. tickle - brain, the nickname of a strong liquor. 441. though the camomile, etc.; a parody (but by no means a caricature) of the Euphuistic style made current by Lyly. It is adapted from a sentence of Lyly's own (Euphues): 'Though the Camomill the more it is troden and pressed downe, the more it spreadeth, yet the Violet the oftner it is handeled and touched, the sooner it withereth and decayeth.' 450. micher, truant, vagabond. keepest for, Harry, now I do not speak to thee in drink but in tears, not in pleasure but in passion, not in words only, but in woes also: and yet there is a virtuous man whom I have often noted 460 in thy company, but I know not his name. Prince. What manner of man, an it like your majesty ? Fal. A goodly portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye and a most noble carriage; and, as I think, his age some fifty, or, by 'r lady, inclining to three score; and now I remember me, his name is Falstaff: if that man should be lewdly given, he deceiveth me; for, Harry, I see virtue in his looks. If then 470 the tree may be known by the fruit, as the fruit by the tree, then, peremptorily I speak it, there is virtue in that Falstaff: him keep with, the rest banish. And tell me now, thou naughty varlet, tell me, where hast thou been this month? Prince. Dost thou speak like a king? stand for me, and I'll play my father. Do thou Fal. Depose me? if thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, both in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a rabbit-sucker or a poulter's 480 hare. Prince. Well, here I am set. Fal. And here I stand: judge, my masters. Prince. Now, Harry, whence come you? Fal. My noble lord, from Eastcheap. Prince. The complaints I hear of thee are grievous. Fal. 'Sblood, my lord, they are false: nay, I'll tickle ye for a young prince, i' faith. 472. peremptorily, decidedly. 480. rabbit - sucker, sucking. rabbit. 480. poulter, poulterer. 482. set, seated. 489. tickle ye for a young prince, play the par. with a vengeance. |