it go

which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next.

BARD. Well said; thou'rt a good fellow.

FEE. Faith, I'll bear no base mind.

Re-enter FALSTAFF and the Justices.

FAL. Come, sir, which men shall I have?
SHAL. Four of which you please.

BARD. Sir, a word with you: I have three pound to free Mouldy and Bullcalf.

FAL. Go to; well.

SHAL. Come, Sir John, which four will you have? FAL. Do you choose for me.

SHAL. Marry, then, Mouldy, Bullcalf, Feeble and Shadow.

FAL. Mouldy and Bullcalf: for you, Mouldy, stay at home till you are past service: and for your part, Bullcalf, 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: a' 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. FAL. Come, manage me your caliver. So: very well go to: very good, exceeding good. O, give me always a little, lean, old, chapt, bald shot. Well said, ' faith, Wart; thou'rt a good scab: hold, there's a tester for thee.

SHAL. He is not his craft's master; he doth not do it 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 quiver 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 a' go, and again would a' come: I shall ne'er see such a fellow.

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, the Lord bless you! God prosper your affairs! God send us peace! At your return visit our house; let our old acquaintance be renewed: peradventure I will with ye to the court.

FAL. 'Fore God, I would you would, Master Shallow.

SHAL. Go to; I have spoke at a word. God keep you.

FAL. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. [Exeunt Justices.] On, Bardolph; lead the men away. [Exeunt BARDOLPH, Recruits, etc.] As I return I will fetch off these justices: I do see the 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 a' was naked, he was, for all the world, like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife: a' was so forlorn, that his dimensions to any thick sight were invincible: a' was the very genius of famine; yet lecherous as a monkey, and the whores called him mandrake: a' came ever in the rearward of the fashion, and sung those tunes to the over-scutched huswives 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 a Gaunt as if he had been sworn brother to him; and I'll be sworn a' ne'er saw him but once in the Tilt-yard; and then he burst his head for crowding

among the marshal's men. I saw it, and told John a Gaunt he beat his own name; for you might have thrust 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 beefs. Well, I'll 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 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 THE FOURTH.

SCENE I.

Yorkshire. Gaultree Forest.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, MOWBRAY,
HASTINGS, and others.

ARCH. What is this forest call'd?

HAST. 'Tis Gaultree Forest, an't shall please

your grace.

ARCH. Here stand, my lords; and send dis

coverers forth

To know the numbers of our enemies.

HAST. We have sent forth already.

'Tis well done.

ARCH.
My friends and brethren in these great affairs,
I must acquaint you that I have received
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 retired, 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;

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.
ARCH. What well-appointed leader fronts us here?
Enter WESTMORELAND.

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

F