Bardolph.
Fal.
Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a
bottle of sack: our soldiers shall march through; we'll
-- 78 --
to Sutton-Colfield note to-night.
Bar.
Will you give me money, captain?
Fal.
Lay out, lay out.
Bar.
This bottle makes an angel.
Fal.
An it note do, take it for thy labour; and if it make
twenty, take them all, I'll answer the coinage. Bid my
lieutenant Peto meet me at the note town's end.
Bar.
I will, captain: farewel.
[Exit.
Fal.
If I be not note ashamed of my soldiers, I am a
souc'd gurnet. I have mis-us'd the king's press damnably:
I have got, in exchange of a hundred and fifty soldiers,
three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but
good housholders, yeomen's sons: enquire me out contracted
batchelors, such as had been ask'd twice on the
banes; such a commodity of warm slaves, as had as
lief hear the devil as a drum; such as fear the report of
a caliver, worse than a struck deer, note14Q0650 or a hurt wild-fowl note.
I prest me none but such toasts and butter, with hearts
in their bellies no bigger than pins' heads, and they
have bought note out their services; and now my whole
charge consists of ancients, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen
of companies, slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the
painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his sores:
and such as, indeed, were never soldiers; but discarded
unjust servingmen, younger sons to younger brothers,
revolted tapsters, and ostlers trade-fall'n; the cankers of
a calm world, and a long note peace; ten note times more dishonourably note
ragged, than an old-fac'd note ancient: and such
have I, to fill up the rooms of them that have note bought
out their services; that you would think, I note had a hundred
and fifty tatter'd note prodigals, lately come from swine-keeping,
from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow
-- 79 --
met me on the way, and told me, I had unloaded all
the gibbets, and prest the dead bodies. No eye hath
seen such scare-crows. I'll not march through note Coventry
with them, that's flat:—Nay, and the villains march
wide betwixt note the legs, as if they had gyves on; for,
indeed, I had the most of them out of prison. There's
but a note shirt and a half in all my company: and the half-shirt
is two napkins, tack'd together, and thrown over
the shoulders like a herald's coat without sleeves; and
the shirt, to say the truth, stoln from my host at Saint note
Alban's, or the red-nose inn-keeper of Daintry note. But
that's all one; they'll find linnen enough on every
hedge.
Enter the Prince, and Lord Westmoreland.
Pri.
How now, blown Jack? how now, quilt?
Fal.
What, Hal? How now, mad wag? what a devil
dost thou in Warwickshire?—My good lord of Westmoreland,
I cry you mercy; I thought, your honour had
already been at Shrewsbury.
Wes.
'Faith, sir John, 'tis more than time that I were
there, and you too; but my powers are there already:
The king, I can tell you, looks for us all; we must away
all night note.
Fal.
Tut, never fear me note; I am as vigilant, as a cat
to steal cream.
Pri.
I think, to steal cream indeed; for thy theft
hath already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack;
Whose fellows are these that come after?
Fal.
Mine, Hal, mine.
Pri.
I did never see such pitiful rascals.
Fal.
Tut, tut, good enough to toss; food for powder,
food for powder; they'll fill a pit as well as better note:
-- 80 --
tush, man, mortal men, mortal men.
Wes.
Ay, but, sir John, methinks, they are exceeding
poor and bare; too beggarly.
Fal.
'Faith, for their poverty,—I know not where
they had that: and for their bareness,—I am sure, they
never learn'd note that of me.
Pri.
No, I'll be sworn; unless you call three fingers
on the note ribs, bare. But, sirrah, make haste; Percy is
already in the field.
[Exit.
Fal.
What, is the king encamp'd?
Wes.
He is, sir note John; I fear, we shall stay too long.
[Exit.
Fal.
Well,
To note the latter note end of a fray, and the beginning of a feast,
Fits a dull fighter, and a keen guest.
[Exit.
Edward Capell [1767], Mr William Shakespeare his comedies, histories, and tragedies, set out by himself in quarto, or by the Players his Fellows in folio, and now faithfully republish'd from those Editions in ten Volumes octavo; with an introduction: Whereunto will be added, in some other Volumes, notes, critical and explanatory, and a Body of Various Readings entire (Printed by Dryden Leach, for J. and R. Tonson [etc.], London) [word count] [S10601].
