SCENE IV.
Enter Bardolph and Page.
Sil.
Here come two of Sir John Falstaff's men, as I think.
Shal.
Good-morrow, honest gentlemen.
Bard.
I beseech you, which is Justice Shallow?
Shal.
I am Robert Shallow, Sir, a poor Esquire of this county,
one of the King's Justices of the peace: what is your good pleasure
with me?
Bard.
My captain, Sir, commends him to you: my captain
Sir John Falstaff; a tall gentleman by heav'n! and a most gallant
leader.
Shal.
He greets me well: Sir, I knew him a good backsword
-- 339 --
man. How doth the good knight? may I ask how my
lady his wife doth?
Bard.
Sir, pardon, a soldier is better accommodated than
with a wife.
Shal.
It is well said, Sir; and it is well said indeed, too: better
accommodated—it is good, yea indeed is it; good phrases
surely are, and c noteever were, very commendable. Accommodated—
it comes of Accommodo; very good, a good phrase.
Bard.
Pardon me, Sir, I have heard the word. Phrase, call
you it? by this day, I know not the phrase: but I will maintain
the word with my sword, to be a soldier-like word, and a word
of exceeding good command. Accommodated, that is, when a
man is as they say, accommodated; or, when a man is, being
whereby he may be thought to be accommodated, which is an
excellent thing.
George Sewell [1723–5], The works of Shakespear in six [seven] volumes. Collated and Corrected by the former Editions, By Mr. Pope ([Vol. 7] Printed by J. Darby, for A. Bettesworth [and] F. Fayram [etc.], London) [word count] [S11101].