Shal. Four, of which you please.

Bard. Sir, a word with you :-I have three pound to free Mouldy and Bull-calf.'

Fal. Go to; well.

Shal. Come, sir John, which four will you have?
Fal. Do you choose for me.

Shal. Marry then,-Mouldy, Bull-calf, Feeble, and Shadow.

Fal. Mouldy, and Bull-calf:-For you, Mouldy, stay at home still; you are past service:"--and, for your part, Bull-calf,―grow till you come unto it; I will none of you.

Shal. Sir John, sir John, do not yourself wrong: they are your likeliest men, and I would have you served with the best.

:

Fal. Will you tell me, master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes," the stature, bulk, and big assemblance of a man! Give me the spirit, master Shallow. Here's Wart;-you see what a ragged appearance it is he shall charge you, and discharge you, with the motion of a pewterer's hammer; come off, and on, swifter than he that gibbets-on the brewer's bucket. And this same half-faced fellow, Shadow,-give me this man; he presents no mark to the enemy; the foeman' may with as great aim level at the edge of a penknife: And, for a retreat,-how swiftly will this Feeble, the woman's tailor, run off? O, give me the spare men, and spare me the great ones.-Put me a caliver into Wart's hand, Bardolph.

Bard. Hold, Wart, traverse; thus, thus, thus.

1 I have three pound to free Mouldy and Bull-calf.] Bardolph had received four pounds; but as Falstaff cheated the king, he is cheated by his servant in return.

stay at home still, &c.] The old copies read, Stay at home till you are past service. The emendation of the text was made by Tyrwhitt.

B

the thewes,] i. e. The muscular strength or appearance of manhood. In ancient writers this term usually implies manners, or behaviour only.STEEVENS.

swifter than he that gibbets on the brewer's bucket.] As the buckets at each end of the gibbet must be put on at the same instant, it necessarily requires a quick motion.-M. MASON.

P

-foeman-] An obsolete term for an enemy in war.

caliver-] A caliver was less and lighter than a musquet, as is evi

dent from its being fired without a rest.-GROSE.

traverse ;] An ancient term in military exercise.

Fal. Come, manage me your caliver. So:-very well: -go to:-very good :-exceeding good.-O, give me always a little, lean, old, chapped, bald shot."-Well said, i'faith, Wart: thou'rt a good scab: hold, there's a tester for thee.

doth not do it

Shal. He is not his craft's-master, he right. I remember at Mile-end green, (when I lay at Clement's inn,-I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's show,") there was a little quivers fellow, and 'a would manage you his piece thus: and 'a would about, and about, and come you in, and come you in: rah, tah, tah, would 'a say; bounce, would 'a say; and away again would go, and again would 'a come :-I shall never see such a fellow.

'a

Fal. These fellows will do well, master Shallow.-God keep you, master Silence: I will not use many words with you :-Fare you well, gentlemen both: I thank you: I must a dozen mile to-night.-Bardolph, give the soldiers coats.

Shal. Sir John, heaven bless you, and prosper your affairs, and send us peace! As you return, visit my house; let our old acquaintance be renewed: peradventure, I will with you to the court.

Fal. I would you would, master Shallow.

Shal. Go to; I have spoke, at a word. Fare you well. [Exeunt SHALLOW and SILENCE. Fal. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. On Bardolph; lead the men away. [Exeunt BARDOLPH, Recruits, &c.] As I return, I will fetch off these justices: I do see the

shot]-is here used for shooter; one who is to fight by shooting.

JOHNSON. Mile-end green,] We learn from Stowe's Chronicle, that in the year 1585, four thousand citizens were trained and exercised at Mile-end. And again, that on the 27th of August, 1599, thirty thousand citizens showed at the same place, where they trained all that day and other days, under their captaines, also citizens, until the 4th of September.-STEEVENS and MALONE.

u

Sir Dagonet in Arthur's show,] Sir Dagonet was fool to King Arthur; whether the show here alluded to, in which Shallow played Dagonet was a theatrical interlude, or an exhibition of archery, is doubted. It was most probably the latter, as we know, from Mulcaster's Positions concerning the training up of children, 4to. 1581, ard 1587, that a society of archers calling themselves ARTHUR'S KNIGHTS, existed in our poet's time.-JOHNSON and BOWLES.

quiver-] i. e. Nimble, active, &c.

bottom of justice Shallow. Lord, lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying! This same starved justice hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his youth, and the feats he hath done about Turnbull-street;' and every third word a lie, duer paid to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. I do remember him at Clement's-inn, like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring when he was naked, he was, for all the world, like a fork'd radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife: he was so forlorn, that his dimensions to any thick sight were invincible: he was the very Genius of famine; yet lecherous as a monkey, and the whores called him— mandrake: he came ever in the rear-ward of the fashion; and sung those tunes to the over-scutcheda huswifes that he heard the carmen whistle, and sware-they were his fancies, or his good-nights. And now is this Vice's dagger become a squire; and talks as familiarly of John of Gaunt, as if he had been sworn brother to him and I'll be sworn he never saw him but once in the Tilt-yard; and then he burst his head, for crouding among the marshal's men. I saw it; and told John of Gaunt, he beat his own name; for you might have truss'd him, and all his apparel, into an eel-skin; the case of a treble hautboy was a mansion for him, a court; and now has he land and beeves. Well; I will be acquainted with him, if I return and it shall go hard, but I will make him a philosopher's two stones to me: If the young dace be a bait

y

about Turnbull-street;] Turnbull or Turnmill-street, is near Cowcross, West Smithfield.

invincible:] This word is used by Ben Jonson and others in the sense of invisible. "I have some doubt," says Mr. Gifford, "whether we rightly comprehend this word as understood by our ancestors." Ben Jonson, vol. L. 30. over-scutched-] That is, whipt, carted.

fancies, or his good-nights.] Funcies and Good-nights were the titles

of little poems.

Vices' dagger] The Vice here meant is an allegorical personage in our old drama's or moralities. It filled the office of fool, and was grotesquely dressed in a cap with ass's ears, a long coat, and a dagger of lath; one of his chief employments was to make sport with the devil, leaping on his back and belabouring him with his dagger of lath, till he made him roar; the devil, however, always carried him off in the end."-NARES' Glossary.

burst-] This word was formerly synonymous with broke.

beat his own name:] That is, beat gaunt, a fellow so slender, that his name might have been gaunt.

f -- a philosopher's two stones-] After much discussion, the note of Dr.

for the old pike, I see no reason, in the law of nature, but I may snap at him. Let time shape, and there an end. [Exit.

ACT IV.

SCENE 1.-A Forest in Yorkshire.

Enter the Archbishop of York, MOWBRAY, HASTINGS, and Others.

Arch. What is this forest call'd?

Hast. "Tis Gualtree forest, an't shall please your grace. Arch. Here stand, my lords: and send discoverers forth, To know the numbers of our enemies.

Hast. We have sent forth already.
Arch.

"Tis well done.
My friends, and brethren in these great affairs,
I must acquaint you that I have receiv'd
New-dated letters from Northumberland;

Their cold intent, tenour and substance, thus :--
Here doth he wish his person, with such powers
As might hold sortance with his quality,
The which he could not levy; whereupon
He is retir'd, to ripe his growing fortunes,
To Scotland: and concludes in hearty prayers,
That your attempts may overlive the hazard,

And fearful meeting of their opposite.

Mowb. Thus do the hopes we have in him touch ground, And dash themselves to pieces...

Hast.

Enter a Messenger.

Now, what news?

Mess. West of this forest, scarcely off a mile, In goodly form comes on the enemy:

Warburton has been proved to be correct, which describes one of these stones as a universal medicine, and the other a transmuter of base metals into gold. 'Tis Gualtree forest,] "The earle of Westmoreland, &c. made forward against the rebels, and coming into a plaine within Gualtree forest, caused their standards to be pitched down in like sort as the archbishop had pitched bis, over against them." Holinshed.-STEEVENS.

And, by the ground they hide, I judge their number
Upon, or near, the rate of thirty thousand.

Mowb. The just proportion that we gave them out.
Let us sway on," and face them in the field.

Enter WESTMORELAND.

Arch. What well-appointed' leader fronts us here? Mowb. I think, it is my lord of Westmoreland. West. Health and fair greeting from our general, The prince, lord John and duke of Lancaster.

Arch. Say on, my lord of Westmoreland, in peace;、 What doth concern your coming?

West.
Then, my lord,
Unto your grace do I in chief address
The substance of my speech. If that rebellion
Came like itself, in base and abject routs,
Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rage,
And countenanc'd by boys, and beggary;
I say, if damn'd commotion so appear'd,
In his true, native, and most proper shape,
You, reverend father, and these noble lords,
Had not been here, to dress the ugly form
Of base and bloody insurrection

With your fair honours. You, lord archbishop,--
Whose see is by a civil peace maintain'd;

Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch'd;
Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor'd;
Whose white investments' figure innocence,
The dove and very blessed spirit of peace,-
Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself,
Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace,
Into the harsh and boist'rous tongue of war?
Turning your books to graves," your ink to blood,

h― sway on,] This word is intended to express the uniform and forcible motion of a compact body.-JOHNSON.

· well-appointed-] i. e. Completely accoutred.

bloody youth, guarded with rage,] i. e. Sanguine youth, or youth full of blood: guarded is an expression taken from dress, and means faced or turned up.-JOHNSON and STEEVENS.

white investments-] Formerly all bishops wore white, even when they travelled.-Grey. graves,] For graves Warburton proposes to read glaives, and is fol- "