Some guard these traitors to the block of death, Treason's true bed and yielder up of breath. [Exeunt. [Alarm. Excurfions.

SCENE III.

Another part of the foreft.

Enter Falstaff and Colevile, meeting.

Fal. What's your name, Sir? of what condition are you? and of what place, I pray?

2 Cole. I am a knight, Sir; and my name is Colevile of the Dale.

Fal. Well then, Colevile is your name; a knight is your degree; and your place, the dale. Colevile fhall ftill be your name; a traitor your degree; and the dungeon your place, a place deep enough:-fo fhall you ftill be Colevile of the Dale.

Cole. Are not you Sir John Falstaff?

Fal. As good a man as he, Sir, whoe'er I am. Do you yield, Sir, or fhall I fweat for you? If I do fweat,

Exeunt.] It cannot but raife fome indignation to find this horrible violation of faith paffed over thus flightly by the poet, without any note of cenfure or deteftation. JOHNSON.

* Cole. I am a knight, Sir; and my name is Colevile of the Dale.

Fal. Well then, Colevile is your name; a knight is your degree, and your place, the Dale. Colevile fhall fill be your name, a traitor your degree, and the dungeon your place, a place deep enough. So fball you fill be Colevile of the Dale.

But where is the wit, or the logic of this conclufion? I am almost perfuaded that we ought to read thus,

Colevile fhall fill be your name, a traitor your degree,

and the dungeon your place, a dale deep enough.

He may then justly infer,

So fhall you fill be Colevile of the Dale.

Obfervations and Conjectures, &c. printed at Oxford, 1766.

The fenfe of dale is included in deep; a dale is a deep place; a dungeon is a deep place: he that is in a dungeon may be therefore faid to be in a dale. JOHNSON.

VOL. V.

Gg

they

they are drops of thy lovers, and they weep for thy death: therefore rouze up fear and trembling, and do obfervance to. my mercy.

Cole. I think you are Sir John Falstaff; and, in that thought, yield me.

Fal. I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine; and not a tongue of them all fpeaks any other word but my name. An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were fimply the moft active fellow in Europe: my womb, my womb, my womb undoes Here comes our general.

me.

Enter prince John of Lancaster and Weftmorland.

Lan. 3 The heat is paft, follow no farther now; Call in the powers, good coufin Weftmorland.

[Exit Weft. Now, Falftaff, where have you been all this while? When every thing is ended, then you come.Thefe tardy tricks of yours will, on my life, One time or other break fome gallows' back.

Fal. I would be forry, my lord, but it should be thus. I never knew yet but rebuke and check was the reward of valour. Do you think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bullet? Have I, in my poor and old motion, the expedition of thought? I fpeeded hither with the very extremeft inch of poffibility; I have founder'd nine-fcore and odd posts: and here, traveltainted as I am, have, in my pure and immaculate valour, taken Sir John Colevile of the Dale, a most furious knight, and valorous enemy. But what of that? he faw me and yielded; that I may juftly fay with the hook-nos'd fellow of Rome-I came, faw, and overcame.

3 The heat is past,-] That is, the violence of refentment, the eagerness of revenge. JOHNSON.

the book-nos'd fellow of Rome,] The quarto reads, "the hook-nos'd fellow of Rome, their cofin." I have fo lowed the folio. The modern editors read, but without authority," the hook-nos'd fellow of Rome there, Cajar."

STEEVENS,
Lan,

Lan. It was more of his courtesy than your deferving.

Fal. I know not; here he is, and here I yield him : and I beseech your grace, let it be book'd with the reft of this day's deeds; or, by the lord, I will have it in a particular ballad elfe, with mine own picture on the top of it, Colevile kiffing my foot: to the which course if I be enforc'd, if you do not all fhew like gilt two-pences to me; and I, in the clear fky of fame, o'erfhine you as much as the full moon doth the cinders of the element, which fhew like pins heads to her; believe not the word of the noble. Therefore let me have right, and let defert mount.

Lan. Thine's too heavy to mount.

Fal. Let it shine then.

Lan. Thine's too thick to fhine.

Fal. Let it do fomething, my good lord, that may do me good, and call it what you will.

Lan. Is thy name Colevile ?

Cole. It is, my lord.

Lan. A famous rebel art thou, Colevile. Fal. And a famous true fubject took him. Cole. I am, my lord, but as my betters are That led me hither: had they been rul'd by me, You should have won them dearer than you have. Fal. I know not how they fold themselves: but thou, like a kind fellow, gav'ft thyfelf away gratis ; and I thank thee for thee.

Re-enter Westmorland.

Lan. Now have you left pursuit?

Weft. Retreat is made, and execution stay'd.

Lan. Send Colevile with his confederates

To York, to prefent execution.

A

Blunt, lead him hence; and fee you guard him fure.

[Ex. with Colevile. And now dispatch we toward the court, my lords; I hear the king, my father, is fore fick :

Gg 2

Qur

Our news fhall go before us to his majefty,
Which, coufin, you fhall bear, to comfort him;
And we with fober speed will follow you.

Fal. My lord, I befeech you, give me leave to go through Glo'fterfhire: and when you come to court, 'pray, 5 ftand, my good lord, in your good report. Lan. Fare you well, Falftaff: 6 I, in my condition, 6 Shall better fpeak of you than you deferve.

[Exit. Fal. I would you had but the wit; 'twere better than your dukedom. Good faith, 7 this fame young fober-blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh; but that's no marvel, he drinks no wine. There's never any of these demure boys come to any proof: for thin drink doth fo over-cool their blood, and making many fifh-meals, that they fall into a kind of male green-ficknefs; and then, when they marry, they get wenches. They are generally fools and cowards; which fome of us fhould be too, but for inflammation. A good sherris-sack hath

-ftand, my good lord, in your good report.] We muft either read, pray let me ftand, or, by a conftruction somewhat harsh, understand it thus: Give me leave to go-and—stand. To ftand in a report, referred to the reporter, is to perfift; and Falstaff did not ask the prince to perfift in his prefent opinion. JOHNSON.

·I, in my condition,

Shall better speak of you than you deferve.] I know not well the meaning of the word condition in this place; I believe it is the fame with temper of mind: I fhall, in my good nature, fpeak better of you than you merit. JOHNSON.

I believe it means, I, in my condition, i. e. in my place as a general officer, who ought to reprefent things merely as they are, fhall fpeak of you better than you deserve. STEEVENS.

7- this fume young fober-blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh;-] Falstaff speaks here like a veteran in life. The young prince did not love him, and he defpaired to gain his affection, for he could not make him laugh. Men only become friends by community of pleafures. He who cannot be foftened into gaiety cannot easily be melted into kindnefs. JOHNSON.

-berris-fack-] This liquor is mentioned in The Captain, by B. and Fletcher. STEEVENS.

a two.

a two-fold operation in it. It afcends me into the brain, dries me there all the foolish, and dull, and crudy vapours which environ it; makes it apprehenfive, quick, 9 forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable fhapes; which deliver'd over to the voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The fecond property of your excellent fherris is, the warming of the blood; which before cold and fettled, left the liver white and pale; which is the badge of pufillanimity and cowardice: but the fherris warms it, and makes it courfe from the inwards to the parts extreme. It illuminateth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the reft of this little kingdom, man, to arm: and then the vital commoners, and inland petty fpirits, mufter me all to their captain, the heart; who, great, and puff'd up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage; and this valour comes of fherris. So that skill in the weapon is nothing without fack, for that fets it a-work; and learning a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil, till fack commences it, and fets it in act and ufe. Hereof comes it that prince Harry is valiant: for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, steril, and bare land, manured, husbanded, and till'd, with excellent endeavour of drinking good, and good ftore of fertil fherris, that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand fons, the firft human principle I would teach them, fhould be--to forfwear thin potations, and to addict themfelves to fack.

I

Enter Bardolph.

How now, Bardolph ?

Bard. The army is difcharged all, and gone.

9-forgetive,-] Forgetive from forge; inventive, imaginative. JOHNSON.

till fack commences it,-] I believe, till fack gives it a beginning, brings it into action. The author of Th Revifal would read commerces it.

STEEVENS.