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FAL. Fie! this is hot weather, gentlemen. Have you provided me here half a dozen sufficient men? SHAL. Marry, have we, sir. Will you sit? FAL. Let me see 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, so, so, so, so: yea, marry, sir: Ralph Mouldy! Let them appear as I call; let them do so, let them Let me see; where is Mouldy?

do so.

MOUL. Here, an 't please you.

SHAL. What think you, Sir John? a good-limbed fellow; young, strong, and of good friends.

FAL. Is thy name Mouldy?

MOUL. Yea, an't please you.

FAL. 'Tis the more time thou wert used.

SHAL. Ha, ha, ha! most excellent, i' faith! things that are mouldy lack use: very singular good! in faith, well said, Sir John, very well said.

FAL. Prick him.

MOUL. I was pricked well enough before, an you could have let me alone: my old dame will be undone now for one to do her husbandry and her drudgery: you need not to have pricked me; there are other men fitter to go out than I.

FAL. Go to: peace, Mouldy; you shall go. Mouldy, it is time you were spent.

MOUL. Spent!

SHAL. Peace, fellow, peace; stand aside: know you where you are ? For the other, Sir John: let ine see: Simon Shadow !

FAL. Yea, marry, let me have him to sit under: he's like to be a cold soldier.

SHAL. Where's Shadow?

SHAD. Here, sir.

FAL. Shadow, whose son art thou?
SHAD. My mother's son, sir.

FAL. Thy mother's son! like enough, and thy father's shadow: so the son of the female is the shadow of the male: it is often so, indeed but much of the father's substance!

SHAL. Do you like him, Sir John?

FAL. Shadow will serve for summer; prick him, for we have a number of shadows to fill up the muster-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 superfluous; for his apparel is built upon his back and the whole frame stands 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! FEE. Here, sir.

FAL. What trade art thou, Feeble?

FEE. A woman's tailor, sir.

SHAL. Shall I prick him, sir?

FAL. You may: but if he had been a man's tailor, he 'ld ha' pricked you. Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy's battle as thou hast done in a woman's petticoat?

FEE. I will do my good will, sır: you can have

no more.

FAL. Well said, good woman's tailor! well said, courageous Feeble! thou wilt be as valiant as the wrathful dove or most magnanimous mouse. Prick the woman's tailor: well, Master Shallow: deep, Master Shallow.

FEE. I would Wart might have gone, sir.

FAL. I would thou wert a man's tailor, that thou mightst mend him and make him fit to go. I cannot put him to a private soldier that is the leader of so many thousands: let that suffice, most forcible Feeble.

FEE. It shall suffice, sir.

FAL. I am bound to thee, reverend Feeble Who is next?

SHAL. Peter Bullcalf o' the green!

FAL. Yea, marry, let's see Bullcalf.

BULL. Here, sir.

FAL. 'Fore God, a likely fellow Come, prick me Bullcalf till he roar again.

BULL. O Lord! good my lord captain,

FAL. What, dost thou roar before thou art pricked? BULL. O Lord, sir! I am a diseased man.

FAL. What disease hast thou?

BULL. A whoreson cold, sir, a cough, sir, which

I caught with ringing in the king's affairs upon his coronation-day, sir.

FAL. Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown; we will have away thy cold; and I will take such order that thy friends shall ring for thee. Is here all?

SHAL. Here is two more called than your number; you must have but four here, sir: and so, 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 see you, by my troth, Master Shallow.

SHAL. O, Sir John, do you remember since we lay all night in the windmill in Saint George's field? FAL. No more of that, good Master Shallow, no more of that.

SHAL. Ha! 'twas a merry night. And is Jane Nightwork alive?

FAL. She lives, Master Shallow.

SHAL. She never could away

with me.

FAL. Never, never; she would always say she could not abide Master Shallow.

SHAL. By the mass, I could anger her to the heart. She was then a bona-roba. Doth she hold her own well?

FAL. Old, old, Master Shallow.

SHAL. Nay, she must be old; she cannot choose but be old; certain she's old; and had Robin Nightwork by old Nightwork before I came to Clement's Inn.

SIL. That's fifty five year ago.

SHAL. Ha, Cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen that that this knight and I have seen! Ha, Sir John, said I well?

FAL. We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.

come.

SHAL. That we have, that we have, that we have; in faith, Sir John, we have: our watchword was Hem boys! Come, let's to dinner; come, let's to dinner: Jesus, the days that we have seen! Come, [Exeunt FALSTAFF and the Justices. BULL. Good Master Corporate Bardolph, stand my friend; and here's four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you. In very truth, sir, I had as lief be hanged, sir, as go: and yet, for mine own part, sir, I do not care; but rather, because I am unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my friends; else, sir, I did not care, for mine own part, so much.

BARD. Go to; stand aside.

MOUL. And, good master corporal captain, for my old dame's sake, stand my friend: she has nobody to do any thing about her when I am gone; and she is old, and cannot help herself: you shall have forty, sir.

BARD. Go to; stand aside.

FEE. By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once we owe God a death: I'll ne'er bear a base mind: an't be my destiny, so; an't be not, so; no man is too good to serve's prince; and let

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