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his men well, Davy; for they are arrant knaves, and will backbite.

Davy. No worse than they are back-bitten, sir; for they have marvellous foul linen.

Shal. Well conceited, Davy. About thy business, Davy.

Davy. I beseech you, sir, to countenance William Visor of Wincot5 against Clement Perkes of the hill.

Shal. There are many complaints, Davy, against that Visor; that Visor is an arrant knave on my knowledge.

Davy. I grant your worship, that he is a knave, sir: but yet, God forbid, sir, but a knave should have some countenance at his friend's request. An honest man, sir, is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not. I have served your worship truly, sir, this eight years; and if I cannot once or twice in a quarter bear out a knave against an honest man, I have but a very little credit with your worship". The knave is mine honest friend, sir; therefore, I beseech your worship, let him be countenanced.

Shal. Go to; I say, he shall have no wrong. Look about, Davy. [Exit DAVY.] Where are you, Sir John? Come, off with your boots.-Give me your hand, master Bardolph.

5 Wilnecote, or Wincot, is a village in Warwickshire, near Stratford. The old copies read Woncot.

6 This is no exaggerated picture of the course of justice in Shakspeare's time. Sir Nicholas Bacon, in a speech to parliament, 1559, says, 'Is it not a monstrous disguising to have a justice a maintainer, acquitting some for gain, enditing others for malice, bearing with him as his servant, overthrowing the other as his enemy.' D'Ewes, p. 34. He repeats the same words again in 1571. Ib. 153. A member of the house of commons, in 1601, says, ' A justice of peace is a living creature, that for half a dozen chickens will dispense with a dozen of penal statutes,' &c.

Bard. I am glad to see your worship.

Shal. I thank thee with all my heart, kind master Bardolph:-and welcome, my tall fellow. [To the Page.] Come, Sir John. [Exit SHALLOW.

Fal. I'll follow you, good master Robert Shallow. Bardolph, look to our horses. [Exeunt BARDOLPH and Page.] If I were sawed into quantities, I should make four dozen of such bearded hermit'sstaves as master Shallow. It is a wonderful thing, to see the semblable coherence of his men's spirits and his: They, by observing him, do bear themselves like foolish justices; he, by conversing with them, is turned into a justicelike serving-man; their spirits are so married in conjunction with the participation of society, that they flock together in consent, like so many wild geese. If I had a suit to master Shallow, I would humour his men, with the imputation of being near their master: if to his men, I would curry with master Shallow, that no man could better command his servants. It is certain, that either wise bearing, or ignorant, carriage, is caught, as men take diseases, one of another: therefore, let men take heed of their company. I will devise matter enough out of this Shallow, to keep Prince Harry in continual laughter, the wearing-out of six fashions (which is four terns, or two actions9), and he shall laugh without intervallums. O, it is much, that a lie, with a slight oath, and a jest, with a sad brow 10, will do with a fellow that

7 Consent is accord, agreement; a combination for any particular purpose. Baret renders 'secta, a divers consente in sundry wilful opinions.' See note on Macbeth, Act ii. Sc. 1, p. 240. 8 i.e. admitted to their master's confidence.

9 There is something humorous in making a spendthrift compute time by the operation of an action for debt.

10 i. e.
e. a serious face. So in The Winter's Tale :-

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'My father and the gentlemen are in sad talk.'

never had the ache in his shoulders! O, you shail see him laugh, till his face be like a wet cloak ill laid up.

Shal. [Within.] Sir John!

Fal. I come, master Shallow; I come, master Shallow.

[Exit FALSTAFF.

SCENE II.

Westminster. A Room in the Palace.

Enter WARWICK, and the Lord Chief Justice. War. How now, my lord chief justice? whither away?

Ch. Just. How doth the king? ·

War. Exceeding well; his cares are now all ended. Ch. Just. I hope, not dead.

War.

He's walk'd the way of nature;

And, to our purposes, he lives no more.

Ch. Just. I would, his majesty had call'd me with him:

The service that I truly did his life,

Hath left me open to all injuries.

War. Indeed, I think, the young king loves you not. Ch. Just. I know, he doth not; and do arm myself, To welcome the condition of the time; Which cannot look more hideously upon me Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.

Enter PRINCE JOHN, PRINCE HUMPHREY, CLARENCE, WESTMORELAND, and Others. War. Here come the heavy issue of dead Harry: O, that the living Harry had the temper Of him, the worst of these three gentlemen! How many nobles then should hold their places, That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort!

Ch. Just. Alas! I fear, all will be overturn'd.

P. John. Good morrow, cousin Warwick.
P. Humph. Cla. Good morrow, cousin.

P. John. We meet like men that had forgot to speak.

War. We do remember; but our argument Is all too heavy to admit much talk.

P. John. Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy!

Ch. Just. Peace be with us, lest we be heavier! P. Humph. O, good my lord, you have lost a friend, indeed:

And I dare swear, you borrow not that face
Of seeming sorrow; it is, sure, your own.

P. John. Though no man be assur'd what grace to find,

You stand in coldest expectation:

I am the sorrier; 'would, 'twere otherwise.

Cla. Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair;

Which swims against your stream of quality.
Ch. Just. Sweet princes, what I did, I did in ho-

nour,

Led by the impartial conduct of my soul;
And never shall you see, that I will beg
A ragged and forestall'd remission 1.-
If truth and upright innocency fail me,
I'll to the king my master that is dead,
And tell him who hath sent me after him.
War. Here comes the prince.

1 'A ragged and forestalled remission' is a remission or pardon obtained by beggarly supplication. Forestalling is prevention. In a former scene the prince says to his father :

'But for my tears, &c.

I had forestall'd this dear and deep rebuke.'

Enter KING HENRY V.

Ch. Just. Good morrow; and heaven save your

majesty !

King. This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, Sits not so easy on me as you think.

Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear;
This is the English, not the Turkish court;
Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,

But Harry Harry: Yet be sad, good brothers,
For, to speak truth, it very well becomes you;
Sorrow so royally in you appears,

That I will deeply put the fashion on,

And wear it in my heart. Why then, be sad:
But entertain no more of it, good brothers,
Than a joint burden laid upon us all.

For me, by heaven, I bid you be assur'd,
I'll be your father and your brother too;
Let me but bear your love, I'll bear your cares.
Yet weep, that Harry's dead; and so will I:
But Harry lives, that shall convert those tears,
By number, into hours of happiness.

P. John, &c. We hope no other from your majesty. King. You all look strangely on me; and you [To the Chief Justice. You are, I think, assur'd I love you not.

most;

Ch. Just. I am assur'd, if I be measur'd rightly, Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me. King. No!

How might a prince of my great hopes forget

2 Amurath IV. emperor of the Turks, died in 1596; his second son, Amurath, who succeeded him, had all his brothers strangled at a feast, to which he invited them, while yet ignorant of their father's death. It is highly probable that Shakspeare alludes to this transaction. The play may have been written while the fact was still recent.

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