Fluellen.
Gow.
How now, captain Fluellen, come you from
the bridge?
Flu.
I assure you, there is very excellent services
committed at the pridge.
Gow.
Is the Duke of Exeter safe?
Flu.
The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as
Agamemnon, and a man that I love and honour with
my soul, and my heart, and my duty, and my life,
and my living, and my uttermost power. He is not,
God be praised and plessed, any hurt in the world;
he is maintain the pridge most valiantly, with excellent
discipline. There is an Antient lieutenant there at the
pridge, I think, in my very conscience, he is as valiant
a man as Mark Antony, and he is a man of no estimation
in the world, but I did see him do gallant services.
-- 370 --
Gow.
What do you call him?
Flu.
He is call'd Ancient Pistol.
Gow.
I know him not.
Enter Pistol.
Flu.
Here is the man.
Pist.
Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours:
The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.
Flu.
I, I praise God, and I have merited some love
at his hands.
Pist.
Bardolph, a soldier firm and sound of heart,
And buxom valour, hath by cruel fate,
And giddy fortune's furious fickle wheel,
That Goddess blind that stands upon the rolling restless stone—
Flu.
By your patience, Ancient Pistol: 5 note
Fortune
is painted with a muffler before her eyes, to signifie
to you that fortune is plind; and she is painted also
with a wheel, to signifie to you, which is the moral
of it, that she is turning and inconstant, and mutabilities
and variations; and her foot, look you, is fixed
upon a spherical stone, which rowles, and rowles,
and rowles; in good truth, the Poet makes a most
excellent description of it: fortune is an excellent
moral.
-- 371 --
Pist.
Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;
6 notefor he hath stoln a Pax, and hanged must a'be; damned
death!
Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free,
And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate;
But Exeter hath given the doom of death,
For Pax of little price. Therefore, go speak,
The Duke will hear thy voice;
And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut
With edge of penny-cord, and vile reproach.
Speak, Captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.
Flu.
Ancient Pistol, I do partly understand your
meaning.
Pist.
Why then rejoice therefore.
Flu.
Certainly, Ancient, it is not a thing to rejoice
at; for if, look you, he were my brother, I would desire
the Duke to use his good pleasure, and put him to
executions; for disciplines ought to be used.
Pist.
Die and be damn'd, and Figo for thy friendship!
Flu.
It is well.
Pist.
The fig of Spain &lblank;
[Exit Pist.
Flu.
Very good.
Gow.
Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal, I
remember him now; a bawd, a cut-purse.
Flu.
I'll assure you, he utter'd as prave words at the
pridge, as you shall see in a summer's day: but it is
very well; what he has spoke to me, that is well, I
warrant you, when time is serve.
Gow.
Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and
then goes to the wars, to grace himself at his return into
London, under the form of a soldier. &wlquo;Such fellows are
perfect in the great commanders' names, and they
will learn you by rote where services were done; at
such and such a sconce, at such a breach, at such a
-- 372 --
convoy; who came off bravely, who was shot, who
disgrac'd, what terms the enemy stood on; and this
they con perfectly in the phrase of war, which they
trick up with new-turned oaths: And what a beard
of the general's cut, and a horrid sute of the camp,
will do among foaming bottles and ale-wash'd wits,
is wonderful to be thought on!&wrquo; But you must learn
to know such slanders of the age, or else you may be
marvelously mistook.
Flu.
I tell you what, captain Gower; I do perceive,
he is not the man that he would gladly make shew to
the world he is; if I find a hole in his coat, I will tell
him my mind; hear you, 7 notethe King is coming, and I
must speak with him from the pridge.
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].
