To fee perform'd the tenour of our word. [Ex. King, &c. SCEN E IX. Fal. Mafter Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound. Shal. Ay, marry, Sir John, which I beseech you to let me have home with me. Fal. That can hardly be, Mr. Shallow. Do not you grieve at this; I fhall be fent for in private to him: look you, he must seem thus to the world. Fear not your advancement, I will be the man yet that fhall make you great. Shal. I cannot perceive how, unless you give me your doublet, and ftuff me out with ftraw. I befeech you, good Sir John, let me have five hundred of my thousand. Fal. Sir, I will be as good as my word. This, that you heard, was but a colour, Shal. A colour, I fear, that you will die in, Sir John. Fal. Fear no colours: go with me to dinner: come, lieutenant Pistol; come, Bardolph. I fhall be fent for foon at night. Enter Chief Justice and Prince John. Ch. Juft. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet, Take all his company along with him. Fal. My lord, my lord, Ch. Juft. I cannot now speak, I will hear you foon. Take them away. Pift. Si fortuna me (a) tormenta, il fperare me contenta. [Exeunt. [(a) - tormenta, il fperare me contenta. Oxford Editor-Vulg. tormento fpera me contento.] Manent Manent Lancaster, and Chief Justice. Lan. I like this fair proceeding of the King's. He hath intent, his wonted followers Shall all be very well provided for; But they are banifh'd, till their converfations Lan. The King hath call'd his Parliament, my lord. Lan. I will lay odds, that ere this year expire, We bear our civil fwords and native fire As far as France. I heard a bird fo fing, Whose musick, to my thinking, pleas'd the King. Exeunt. EPILOGUE. EPILOGUE. F Spoken by a DANCER. IRST, my fear; then, my court'fie; last, my speech. My fear is your displeasure; my court fie, my duty ; and my fpeech, to beg your pardons. If you look for a good fpeech now, you undo me; for what I have to fay is of mine own making, and what, indeed, I should fay, will, I doubt, prove mine own marring. But to the purpose, and fo to the venture. Be it known to you, (as it is very well) I was lately here in the end of a difpleafing Play, to pray your patience for it, and to promife you a better. I did mean, indeed, to pay you with this; which if, like an ill venture, it come unluckily home, I break; and you, my gentle creditors, lofe. Here, I promised you, I would be, and here 1 commit my body to your mercies: bate me fome, and I will pay you fome, and, as most debtors do, promife you infinitely. If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you command me to use my legs? and yet that were but light payment, to dance out of your debt: but a good confcience will make any poffible fatisfaction, and fo will I. All the gentlewomen bere have forgiven me; if the gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never feen before in fuch an affembly. One word more, I beseech you; if you be not too much clay'd with fat meat, our bumble author will continue the Bary with Sir John in it, and make you merry with I fair Catharine of France; where, for any thing I know, Falstaff shall die of a fweat, unless already be be kill'd with your hard opinions: for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man. My tongue is weary: when my legs are too, I will bid you good night, and fo kneel down before you; but, indeed, to pray for the Queen. 1 for Oldcastle died a martyr,] This alludes to a play in which Sir John Oldcastle was put for Falstaff. Mr. Pope. THE |