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Fal. Good mafter Silence, it well befits you should be of the peace.

Sil. Your good worship is welcome.

Fal. Fie! this is hot weather.-Gentlemen, have you provided me here half a dozen fufficient men? Shal. Marry, have we, Sir. Will you fit? Fal. Let me fee them, I beseech you.

Shal. Where's the roll? where's the roll? where's the roll? Let me fee, let me fee, let me fee. So, fo, fo, fo. Yea, marry, Sir. Ralph Mouldy!-let them appear as I call. Let them do fo, let them do so. Let me fee; where is Mouldy?

Moul. Here, an't please you.

Shal. What think you, Sir John? a good limb'd fellow: young, ftrong, and of good friends. Fal. Is thy name Mouldy?

Moul. Yea, an't please you.

Fal. 'Tis the more time thou wert us'd.

Shal. Ha, ha, ha! moft excellent, i'faith! Things that are mouldy lack use. Very fingular good! Well faid, Sir John; very well faid.

Fal. Prick him.

Moul. I was prick'd well enough before, an you could have let me alone. My old dame will be undone now for one to do her husbandry, and her drudgery you need not to have prick'd me; there are other men fitter to go out than I.

Fal. Go to: peace, Mouldy, you fhall

it is time you were spent.

Moul. Spent!

go. Mouldy,

Shal. Peace, fellow, peace. Stand afide. Know you where you are? For the other, Sir John :-Let me fee-Simon Shadow!

Fal. Ay marry, let me have him to fit under: he's like to be a cold foldier.

Shal. Where's Shadow?

Shad. Here, Sir.

Fal, Shadow, whofe fon art thou?

Shad

Shad. My mother's fon, Sir.

Fal. Thy mother's fon! like enough; and thy father's fhadow: fo the fon of the female is the fhadow of the male: it is often fo, indeed; but not much of the father's fubftance.

Shal. Do you like him, Sir John?

Fal. Shadow will ferve for fummer; prick him; for 7 we have a number of shadows do fill up the mufter-book.

Shal. Thomas Wart!

Fal. Where's he?

Wart. Here, Sir.

Fal. Is thy name Wart?

Wart. Yea, Sir.

Fal. Thou art a very ragged wart.

Shal. Shall I prick him down, Sir John?

Fal. It were fuperfluous; for his apparel is built upon his back, and the whole frame ftands upon pins: prick him no more.

Shal. Ha, ha, ha!-You can do it, Sir; you can do it: I commend you well. Francis Feeble!

Feeble. Here, Sir.

Fal. What trade art thou, Feeble?

Feeble. A woman's taylor, Sir.

Shal. Shall I prick him, Sir?

Fal. You may but if he had been a man's taylor, he would have prick'd you. Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy's battle, as thou haft done in a woman's petticoat?

Feeble. I will do my good will, Sir; you can have

no more.

Fal. Well faid, good woman's taylor! well faid, courageous Feeble! Thou wilt be as valiant as the wrathful dove, or most magnanimous moule. Prick

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we have a number of fhadows do fill up the muferbook.] That is, we have in the mufter-book many names for which we receive pay, though we have not the men.

JOHNSON.

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the woman's taylor well, master Shallow; deep, mafter Shallow.

Feeble. I would Wart might have gone, Sir.

Fal. I would thou wert a man's taylor, that thou might'st mend him, and make him fit to go. I cannot put him to be a private foldier, that is the leader of fo many thousands. Let that fuffice, moft forcible Feeble.

Feeble. It fhall fuffice.

Fal. I am bound to thee, reverend Feeble. Who is next?

Shal. Peter Bull-calf of the green!

Fal. Yea, marry, let us fee Bull-calf.

Bull. Here, Sir.

Fal. Truft me, a likely fellow. Come, prick me Bull-calf till he roar again.

Bull. Oh, good my lord captain

Fal. What, doft thou roar before thou art prick'd?
Bull. Oh, Sir, I am a difeafed man.

Fal. What disease haft thou?

Bull. A whorfon cold, Sir; a cough, Sir, which I caught with ringing in the king's affairs, upon his coronation-day, Sir.

Fal. Come, thou fhalt go to the wars in a gown: we will have away thy cold; and I will take fuch order, that thy friends fhall ring for thee. Is here all?

Shal. There is two more called than your number, you must have but four here, Sir; and fo, I pray you, go in with me to dinner.

Fal. Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot tarry dinner. I am glad to fee you, in good troth, mafter Shallow.

Shal. O, Sir John, do you remember fince we lay all night in the wind-mill in Saint George's Fields? Fal. No more of that, good mafter Shallow, no more of that.

Shal. Ha! it was a merry night. And is Jane Night-work alive?.

Fal.

Fal. She lives, mafter Shallow.

Shal. She could never away with me.

Fal. Never, never: fhe would always say, she could not abide master Shallow.

Shal. By the mass, I could anger her to the heart, She was then a 8 bona-roba. Doth fhe hold her own well?

Fal. Old, old, mafter Shallow,

Shal. Nay, fhe must be old; fhe cannot choose but be old; certain fhe's old; and had Robin Nightwork by old Night-work, before I came to Clement's Inn.

Sil. That's fifty-five years ago.

Shal. Ha, coufin Silence, that thou hadft seen that, that this knight and I have feen!-Hah, Sir John, faid I well?

Fal. We have heard the chimes at midnight, master Shallow.

Shal. That we have, that we have, that we have, in faith, Sir John, we have. Our watch-word was, Hem, boys.Come, let's to dinner; come, let's to dinner: Oh, the days that we have seen! Come, come !

Bull. [afide to Bardolph.] Good master corporate Bardolph, ftand my friend; and here is four Harry ten fhillings in French crowns for you. In very truth, Sir, I had as lief be hang'd, Sir, as go: and yet, for my own part, Sir, I do not care, but, rather, because I am unwilling, and, for my own part, have a defire to stay with my friends; elfe, Sir, I did not care for mine own part, so much.

Bard. Go to; stand aside.

Moul. And good mafter corporal captain, for my old dame's fake, ftand my friend: fhe hath no-body

8 bona-roba.] A fine fhowy wanton. JOHNSON. Bona-roba was, in our author's time, the common term for a ftrumpet. It is used in that fenfe by B. Jonfon in his Every Man out of his Humour, and by many others. STEEVENS.

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to do any thing about her when I am gone; and she's old, and cannot help herself: you fhall have forty,

Sir.

Bard. Go to; ftand afide.

Feeble. I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God a death; I will never bear a base mind: an't be my deftiny, fo; an it be not, fo. No man is too good to ferve his prince: and let it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next. Bard. Well faid; thou art a good fellow. Feeble. 'Faith, I will bear no base mind. Fal. Come, Sir, which men fhall I have? Shal. Four of which you please.

Bard. Sir, a word with you :-9 I have three pound to free Mouldy and Bull-calf.

Fal. Go to: well.

Shal. Come, Sir John, which four will you have? Fal. Do you choose for me.

Shal. Marry then, Mouldy, Bull-calf, Feeble, and Shadow.

Fal. Mouldy and Bull-calf. For you, Mouldy, stay at home till you are past service: and, for your part, Bull-calf, grow till you come unto it. I will none of you.

Shal. Sir John, Sir John, do not yourself wrong; they are your likelieft men, and I would have you ferv'd with the beft.

Fal. Will you tell me, mafter Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes, the ftature, bulk and big affemblage of a man? give me the fpirit, mafter Shallow. Here's Wart; you see what a ragged appearance it is: he fhall charge you, and discharge you with the motion of a pewterer's

I have three pound-] Here feems to be a wrong computation. He had forty fhillings for each. Perhaps he meant to conceal part of the profit. JOHNSON.

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