To five and twenty thousand men of choice;
And our supplies live largely in the hope
Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns
With an incensed fire of injuries.

BARD. The question then, lord Hastings, standeth thus ;-
Whether our present five and twenty thousand
May hold up head without Northumberland ?

Hast. With him we may.
BARD.

Ay, marry there's the point;
But if without him we be thought too feeble,
My judgment is, we should not step too far, a
Till we had his assistance by the hand :
For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this,
Conjecture, expectation, and surmise
Of aids incertain, should not be admitted.

ARCH. 'Tis very true, lord Bardolph ; for, indeed,
It was young Hotspur's case * at Shrewsbury.

BARD. It was, my lord; who lind himself with hope,
Eating the air on promise of supply,
Flattering himself in † project of a power
Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts:
And so, with great imagination,
Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,
. And, winking, leap'd into destruction.

HAST. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt,
To lay down likelihoods, and forms of hope.

BARD. Yes, if this present quality of war,
Indeed the instant action : a cause on foot,
Lives so in hope, as in an early spring
We see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit,
Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair,
That frosts will bite them.b When we mean to build,
We first survey the plot, then draw the model ;
And when we see the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection ;
Which if we find outweighs ability,
What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices ; or, at least, desist
To build at all ? Much more, in this great work,
(Which is, almost, to pluck a kingdom down,
And set another up,) should we survey
The plot of situation, and the model ;
Consent upon a sure foundation ;

(*) Quarto, cause.

(+) First folio, with. • We should not step too far,–] The remainder of this speech is omitted in the quarto. b Yes, if this present quality of war ;

That frosts will bite them.] In this opening clause of Lord Bardolph's speech, something has apparently been lost or misprinted; and as the passage only occurs in the 10110, the omission or error, it is to be feared, is irremediable.

. At least,-] Capell proposed, and we think judiciously, to read, at last,

Question surveyors; know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo,
To weigh against his opposite ;a or else,
We fortify in paper, and in figures,
Using the names of men instead of men:
Like one, that draws the model of a house
Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created cost
A naked subject to the weeping clouds,
And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.

Hast. Grant, that our hopes (yet likely of fair birth)
Should be still-born, and that we now possess'd
The utmost man of expectation ;
I think we are a body strong enough,
Even as we are, to equal with the king.

BARD. What! is the king but five and twenty thousand ?

Hast. To us, no more; nay, not so much, lord Bardolph.
For his divisions, as the times do brawl,
Are in three heads; one power against the French,
And one against Glendower; perforce, a third
Must take up us: so is the unfirm king
In three divided ; and his coffers sound
With hollow poverty and emptiness.

ARCH. That he should draw his several strengths together,
And come against us in full puissance,
Need not be dreaded.
HAST.

If he should do so,
He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh
Baying him at the heels: never fear that.

BARD. Who, is it like, should lead his forces hither?

Hast. The duke of Lancaster, and Westmoreland :
Against the Welsh, himself, and Harry Monmouth :
But who is substituted 'gainst the French,
I have no certain notice.
ARCH.

Let us on ;
And publish the occasion of our arms.
The commonwealth is sick of their own choice,
Their over-greedy love hath surfeited :

- know our own estate, How able such a work to undergo,

To weigh against his opposite;] Mr. Collier's Annotator, from not reflecting that his was in Shakespeare's time neuter as well as masculine, and that in this passage it does duty as its, has gone to the extreme length of interpolating a new line; reading :

" — Know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo.
A careful leader sums what force he brings

To weigh against his opposite.” The only alteration required is to read “ And weigh,” instead of " To weigh,” in the last line.

. We fortify in paper,-) In the quarto, the speech of Bardolph begins here, the previous lines being omitted.

ARCH. Let us on ;] This speech is omitted in the quarto.

An habitation giddy and unsure
Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
O thou fond many! with what loud applause
Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke,
Before he was what thou would’st have him be?
And being now trimm'd in thine own desires,
Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him,
That thou provok'st thyself to cast him up.
So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge
Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard ;
And now thou would'st eat thy dead vomit up,
And howl'st to find it. What trust is in these times ?
They that, when Richard liv'd, would have him die,
Are now become enamour'd on his grave :
Thou, that threw'st dust upon his goodly head,
When through proud London he came sighing on
After the admired heels of Bolingbroke,
Cry'st now, ( earth, yield us that king again,
And take thou this! O thoughts of men accurst!
Past, and to come, seem best ; things present, worst.

MOWB. Shall we go draw our numbers, and set on ?
HAST. We are time's subjects, and time bids, be gone.

[Eceunt.

АСТ II.

SCENE I.—London. A Street. Enter Hostess; FANG, and his Boy, with her; and SNARE following. Host. Master Fang, have you entered the action ? . FANG. It is entered.

Host. Where's your yeoman ? Is it a lusty yeoman ? will a'* stand to't?

FANG. Sirrah, where's Snare ?
Host. O Lord,t ay; good master Snare.
SNARE. Here, here.
FANG. Snare, we must arrest sir John Falstaff.
HOST. Yea, i good master Snare; I have entered him and all.
SNARE. It may chance cost some of us our lives, for he will stab.

Host. Alas the day! take heed of him : he stabbed me in mine own house, and that most beastly: in good faith, || he cares not what mischief he doth, if his weapon be out: he will foin like any devil; he will spare neither man, woman, nor child.

(*) First folio, he.

(t) First folio omits, O Lord. (1) First folio, Ay.

) First folio omits, for.

CID First folio omits, in good faith. & Where's your yeoman?] The follower of a serjeant of the mace, or, as we now term him, sheriff's officer, was called a serjeant's yeoman.

VOL. II.

FANG. If I can close with him, I care not for his thrust.
Host. No, nor I neither; I'll be at your elbow.

Fang. An* I but fist him once; an* a' come but within my vice;

Host. I am undone by † his going ; I warrant you, f he's an infinitive thing upon my score.-Good master Fang, hold him sure:good master Snare, let him not 'scape. A' comes continuantly to Pye-corner, (saving your manhoods,) to buy a saddle; and he is indited to dinner to the lubbar's head in Lumbert $ street, to master Smooth's the silkman: I pray ye, since my exion is entered, and my case so openly known to the world, let him be brought in to his answer. A hundred mark is a long one for a poor lone woman to bear : and I have borne, and borne, and borne ; and have been fubbed off, and fubbed off, and fubbed off, from this day to that day, that it is a shame to be thought on. There is no honesty in such dealing ; unless a woman should be made an ass, and a beast, to bear every knave's wrong. Yonder he comes; and that arrant malmsey-nose knave, || Bardolph, with him. Do your offices, do your offices, master Fang, and master Snare; do me, do me, do me your offices.

Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, Page, and BARDOLPH. FAL. How now? whose mare's dead? what's the matter? Fang. Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of mistress Quickly.

FAL, Away, varlets !-Draw, Bardolph; cut me off the villain's head ; throw the quean in the channel.

HOST. Throw me in the channel ? I'll throw thee in the channel.a Wilt thou ? wilt thou ? thou bastardly rogue!--Murder, murder! O thou honey-suckle villain! wilt thou kill God's officers, and the king's! O thou honey-seed rogue!) thou art a honey-seed; a manqueller, and a woman-queller. ;

Fal. Keep them off, Bardolph.
Fang. A rescue! a rescue! :

Host. Good people, bring a rescue or two. Thou wo't, wo’t thou? thou wo't, wo’t thou ? do, do, thou rogue! do, thou hemp-seed !

FAL. Away, you scullion! you rampallian; you fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe.

Enter the Lord Chief Justice, attended.
Ch. JUST. What is the matter? keep the peace here, ho!
Host. Good my lord, be good to me! I beseech you stand to me!

CH. JUST. How now, sir John? what, are you brawling here?
Doth this become your place, your time, and business?
You should have been well on your way to York.-
Stand from him, fellow; wherefore hang'st upon him?

Host. O my most worshipful lord, an 't please your grace, I am a poor widow of Eastcheap, and he is arrested at my suit.

CH. JUST. For what sum ?

Host. It is more than for some, my lord; it is for all, all I have: he hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his :—but I will have some of it out again, or I'll ride thee o' nights, like the mare.

FAL. I think, I am as like to ride the mare, if I have any vantage of ground to get up.

CH. JUST. How comes this, sir John ? Fie! what* man of good temper would endure this tempest of exclamation ? Are you not ashamed to enforce a poor widow to so rough a course to come by her own?

FAL. What is the gross sum that I owe thee?

Host. Marry if thou wert an honest man, thyself, and the money too. Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upont Wednesday in Whitsun-week, when the prince broke thy head for liking | his father to a singing-man of Windsor ; thou didst swear to me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me, and make me my lady thy wife. Canst thou deny it? Did not goodwife Keech, the butcher's wife, come in then, and call me gossip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of vinegar; telling us, she had a good dish of prawns; whereby thou didst desire to eat some; whereby I told thee, they were ill for a green wound? And didst thou not, when she was gone down stairs, desire me to be no more so familiarity with such poor people; saying, that ere long they should call me madam ? And didst thou not kiss me, and bid me fetch thee thirty shillings? I put thee now to thy book-oath ; deny it, if thou canst.

FAL. My lord, this is a poor mad soul; and she says, up and down the town, that her eldest son is like you: she hath been in good case, and, the truth is, poverty hath distracted her. But for these foolish officers, I beseech you, I may have redress against them.

CH. JUST. Sir John, sir John, I am well acquainted with your manner of wrenching the true cause the false way. It is not a confident brow, nor the throng of words that come with such more than impudent sauciness from you, can thrust me from a level consideration ; you have, as it appears to me, practised upon the easy-yielding spirit of this woman, and made her serve your uses both in purse and person.

Host. Yes, in troth, my lord.

CH. JUST. Prythee, peace :-Pay her the debt you owe her, and unpay the villainy you' have done with her; the one you may do with sterling money, and the other with current repentance.

(*) First folio inserts, a. (t) First folio, on. (1) First folio, likning,

(3) First folio, no more familiar. (1) First 'folio omits, with. Parcel-guilt goblet,-] “ Parcel-gilt means what is now called by artists party-gilt, that is, where part of the work is gilt, and part left plain, or ungilded.”-MALONE.

You have, as it appears to me, &c.] So the quarto. 'In the folio, we read only, “I know you have practised upon the easy-yielding spirit of this woman."

. . Donn6 C 2