SCENE II.
Enter Chief Justice attended.
Ch. Just.
What's the matter? keep the peace here,
hoa!
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.
-- 227 --
Stand from him, fellow; wherefore hang'st thou on him?
Host.
O my most worshipful lord, an't please your
Grace, I am a poor widow of East-cheap, 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 asham'd to inforce 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, thy self,
and the mony too. Thou didst swear to me on a parcel-gilt
goblet, sitting in my Dolphin-chamber, at the
round table, by a sea-coal fire, on Wednesday in Whitsun-week,
when the Prince broke thy head for likening
him 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 good-wife 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 did desire to eat some;
whereby I told thee, they were ill for a green wound;
and didst not thou, 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
-- 228 --
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 sawciness
from you, can thrust me from a level consideration.
I know, you have practis'd upon the easie-yielding
spirit of this woman.—
Host.
Yes, in troth, my lord.
Ch. Just.
Pry'thee, peace; pay her the debt you
owe her, and unpay the villany you have done her;
the one you may do with sterling mony, and the other
with currant repentance.
Fal.
My lord, I will not undergo 3 notethis sneap without
reply. You call honourable boldness impudent
sawciness: If a man will court'sie and say nothing, he
is virtuous. No, my lord, my humble duty remember'd,
I will not be your suitor: I say to you, I desire
deliverance from these officers, being upon hasty employment
in the King's affairs.
Ch. Just.
You speak, as having power to do wrong:
but answer in the effect your reputation, and satisfie the
poor woman.
Fal.
Come hither, hostess.
[Aside.
-- 229 --
Alexander Pope [1747], The works of Shakespear in eight volumes. The Genuine Text (collated with all the former Editions, and then corrected and emended) is here settled: Being restored from the Blunders of the first Editors, and the Interpolations of the two Last: with A Comment and Notes, Critical and Explanatory. By Mr. Pope and Mr. Warburton (Printed for J. and P. Knapton, [and] S. Birt [etc.], London) [word count] [S11301].