Act 1 — Scene II. London. A street.
Reading edition
Enter Falstaff, with his Page bearing his sword and buckler.[3329]
Fal. Sirrah, you giant, what says the doctor to my water? Page. He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy[3330] water; but, for the party that owed it, he might have more[3331] diseases than he knew for.[3332]5 Fal. Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me: the brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to[3333] invent any thing that tends to laughter, more than I invent[3334] or is invented on me: I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men. I do here walk before10 thee like a sow that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one.[3335] If the prince put thee into my service for any other reason than to set me off, why then I have no judgement. Thou whoreson mandrake, thou art fitter to be worn in my cap than to wait at my heels. I was never manned with an[3336]15 agate till now: but I will inset you neither in gold nor silver,[3337] but in vile apparel, and send you back again to your master,[3338] for a jewel,—the juvenal, the prince your master, whose chin[3338] is not yet fledged. I will sooner have a beard grow in the[3339] palm of my hand than he shall get one on his cheek; and[3340]20 yet he will not stick to say his face is a face-royal: God[3341] may finish it when he will, 'tis not a hair amiss yet: he may[3342] keep it still at a face-royal, for a barber shall never earn[3343] sixpence out of it; and yet he'll be crowing as if he had[3344] writ man ever since his father was a bachelor. He may25 keep his own grace, but he's almost out of mine, I can[3345] assure him. What said Master Dombledon about the satin[3346] for my short cloak and my slops?[3347] Page. He said, sir, you should procure him better assurance than Bardolph: he would not take his band[3348]30 and yours; he liked not the security. Fal. Let him be damned, like the glutton! pray God[3349] his tongue be hotter! A whoreson Achitophel! a rascally[3350] yea-forsooth knave! to bear a gentleman in hand, and then stand upon security! The whoreson smooth-pates do now[3351]35 wear nothing but high shoes, and bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is through with them in honest taking[3352] up, then they must stand upon security. I had as lief they[3353] would put ratsbane in my mouth as offer to stop it with security. I looked a' should have sent me two and twenty[3354]40 yards of satin, as I am a true knight, and he sends me[3355] security. Well, he may sleep in security; for he hath the horn of abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it: and yet cannot he see, though he have his own lanthorn to light him. Where's Bardolph?[3356]45 Page. He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship[3357] a horse. Fal. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield: an I could get me but a wife in the stews, I[3358] were manned, horsed, and wived.50
Enter the Lord Chief Justice and Servant.[3359]
Page. Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed[3360] the prince for striking him about Bardolph. Fal. Wait close; I will not see him.[3361] Ch. Just. What's he that goes there? Serv. Falstaff, an't please your lordship.[3362]55 Ch. Just. He that was in question for the robbery? Serv. He, my lord: but he hath since done good service at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is now going with some charge to the Lord John of Lancaster. Ch. Just. What, to York? Call him back again.60 Serv. Sir John Falstaff! Fal. Boy, tell him I am deaf. Page. You must speak louder; my master is deaf. Ch. Just. I am sure he is, to the hearing of any thing good. Go, pluck him by the elbow; I must speak with him.65 Serv. Sir John! Fal. What! a young knave, and begging! Is there not[3363] wars? is there not employment? doth not the king lack[3364] subjects? do not the rebels need soldiers? Though it be a[3365] shame to be on any side but one, it is worse shame to beg70 than to be on the worst side, were it worse than the name of rebellion can tell how to make it. Serv. You mistake me, sir. Fal. Why, sir, did I say you were an honest man?[3366] setting my knighthood and my soldiership aside, I had lied in75 my throat, if I had said so.[3367] Serv. I pray you, sir, then set your knighthood and your soldiership aside; and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you say I am any other than an[3368] honest man.80 Fal. I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside that which grows to me! If thou gettest any leave of me, hang me; if thou takest leave, thou wert better be hanged. You hunt counter: hence! avaunt![3369] Serv. Sir, my lord would speak with you.85 Ch. Just. Sir John Falstaff, a word with you. Fal. My good lord! God give your lordship good time[3370] of day. I am glad to see your lordship abroad: I heard say[3371] your lordship was sick: I hope your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not clean past your90 youth, hath yet some smack of age in you, some relish of[3372] the saltness of time; and I most humbly beseech your[3373] lordship to have a reverend care of your health. Ch. Just. Sir John, I sent for you before your expedition[3374] to Shrewsbury.95 Fal. An't please your lordship, I hear his majesty is[3375] returned with some discomfort from Wales.[3376] Ch. Just. I talk not of his majesty: you would not come when I sent for you. Fal. And I hear, moreover, his highness is fallen into100 this same whoreson apoplexy. Ch. Just. Well, God mend him! I pray you, let me[3377] speak with you. Fal. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy, an't please your lordship; a kind of sleeping in the blood,[3378]105 a whoreson tingling. Ch. Just. What tell you me of it? be it as it is. Fal. It hath its original from much grief, from study[3379] and perturbation of the brain: I have read the cause of his[3380] effects in Galen: it is a kind of deafness.[3380]110 Ch. Just. I think you are fallen into the disease; for you hear not what I say to you. Fal. Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an't please[3381] you, it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal.115 Ch. Just. To punish you by the heels would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not if I do become your[3382] physician. Fal. I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient: your lordship may minister the potion of imprisonment to120 me in respect of poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or indeed a scruple itself. Ch. Just. I sent for you, when there were matters against you for your life, to come speak with me.[3383]125 Fal. As I was then advised by my learned counsel in[3384] the laws of this land-service, I did not come. Ch. Just. Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy. Fal. He that buckles him in my belt cannot live in less.[3385]130 Ch. Just. Your means are very slender, and your waste[3386] is great.[3387] Fal. I would it were otherwise; I would my means were greater, and my waist slenderer.[3388] Ch. Just. You have misled the youthful prince.135 Fal. The young prince hath misled me: I am the fellow[3389] with the great belly, and he my dog. Ch. Just. Well, I am loath to gall a new-healed wound: your day's service at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your night's exploit on Gads-hill: you may thank the unquiet140 time for your quiet o'er-posting that action. Fal. My lord?[3390] Ch. Just. But since all is well, keep it so: wake not a sleeping wolf. Fal. To wake a wolf is as bad as to smell a fox.[3391]145 Ch. Just. What! you are as a candle, the better part burnt out. Fal. A wassail candle, my lord, all tallow: if I did say[3392] of wax, my growth would approve the truth. Ch. Just. There is not a white hair on your face but150 should have his effect of gravity. Fal. His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy. Ch. Just. You follow the young prince up and down, like his ill angel.[3393] Fal. Not so, my lord; your ill angel is light; but I[3394]155 hope he that looks upon me will take me without[3395] weighing: and yet, in some respects, I grant, I cannot go: I[3396] cannot tell. Virtue is of so little regard in these[3396][3397] costermonger times that true valour is turned bear-herd: pregnancy[3397][3398] is made a tapster, and hath his quick wit wasted in giving[3399]160 reckonings: all the other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this age shapes them, are not worth a gooseberry.[3400] You that are old consider not the capacities of us that are young; you do measure the heat of our livers with the[3401] bitterness of your galls: and we that are in the vaward of our165 youth, I must confess, are wags too. Ch. Just. Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age? Have you not a moist eye? a dry hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a decreasing leg? an increasing170 belly? is not your voice broken? your wind short? your[3402] chin double? your wit single? and every part about you[3402] blasted with antiquity? and will you yet call yourself[3403] young? Fie, fie, fie, Sir John! Fal. My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the[3404]175 afternoon, with a white head and something a round belly.[3404] For my voice, I have lost it with halloing and singing of[3405] anthems. To approve my youth further, I will not: the[3406] truth is, I am only old in judgement and understanding; and he that will caper with me for a thousand marks, let180 him lend me the money, and have at him. For the box of[3407] the ear that the prince gave you, he gave it like a rude[3407][3408] prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. I have checked him for it; and the young lion repents; marry, not in ashes and sackcloth, but in new silk and old sack.185 Ch. Just. Well, God send the prince a better[3409] companion! Fal. God send the companion a better prince! I cannot[3409] rid my hands of him. Ch. Just. Well, the king hath severed you and Prince[3410]190 Harry: I hear you are going with Lord John of Lancaster[3410] against the Archbishop and the Earl of Northumberland. Fal. Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But[3411] look you pray, all you that kiss my lady Peace at home, that our armies join not in a hot day; for, by the Lord, I[3412]195 take but two shirts out with me, and I mean not to sweat[3413] extraordinarily: if it be a hot day, and I brandish any[3414] thing but a bottle, I would I might never spit white again.[3415] There is not a dangerous action can peep out his head, but I am thrust upon it: well, I cannot last ever: but it was[3416][3417]200 alway yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a[3417][3418] good thing, to make it too common. If ye will needs say[3417][3419] I am an old man, you should give me rest. I would to[3417] God my name were not so terrible to the enemy as it is:[3417] I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be[3417][3420]205 scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.[3417] Ch. Just. Well, be honest, be honest; and God bless[3421] your expedition! Fal. Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound to furnish me forth?210 Ch. Just. Not a penny, not a penny; you are too impatient to bear crosses. Fare you well: commend me to my cousin Westmoreland.
[Exeunt Chief-Justice and Servant.[3422]
Fal. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle. A man can no more separate age and covetousness than a' can[3423]215 part young limbs and lechery: but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the other; and so both the degrees[3424] prevent my curses. Boy! Page. Sir? Fal. What money is in my purse?220 Page. Seven groats and two pence. Fal. I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable. Go bear this letter to my Lord of Lancaster; this to the prince; this to the Earl of225 Westmoreland; and this to old Mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly sworn to marry since I perceived the first white hair on my chin. About it: you know where to find me.[3425] [Exit Page.] A pox of this gout! or, a gout of this pox![3426] for the one or the other plays the rogue with my great toe.[3427]230 'Tis no matter if I do halt; I have the wars for my colour,[3428] and my pension shall seem the more reasonable. A good wit will make use of any thing: I will turn diseases to commodity. [Exit.[3429]