then;-Neighbour Quickly, says he, receive those that are civil; for, saith he, you are in an ill name;—now he said so, I can tell whereupon; for, says he, you are an honest woman, and well thought on; therefore take heed what guests you receive: Receive, says he, no swaggering companions.There comes none here;-you would bless you to hear what he said :-no, I'll no swaggerers.

Fal. He's no swaggerer, hostess; a tame cheater, he; you may stroke him as gently as a puppy greyhound: he will not swagger with a Barbary hen, if her feathers turn back in any show of resistance.-Call him up, drawer.

Host. Cheater, call you him? I will bar no honest man my house, nor no cheater: But I do not love swaggering; by my troth, I am the worse, when one says-swagger: feel, masters, how I shake; look you, I warrant you. Dol. So you do, hostess.

Host. Do I? yea, in very truth, do I, an 'twere an aspen leaf: I cannot abide swaggerers.

Enter PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and Page.

Pist. 'Save you, sir John!

Fal. Welcome, ancient Pistol. Here, Pistol, I charge you with a cup of sack: do you discharge upon mine hostess.

Pist. I will discharge upon her, sir John, with two bullets.

Fal. She is pistol-proof, sir; you shall hardly offend her. Host. Come, I'll drink no proofs, nor no bullets: I'll drink no more than will do me good, for no man's pleasure, I.

Pist. Then to you, mistress Dorothy; I will charge you. Dol. Charge me? I scorn you, scurvy companion. What! you poor, base, rascally, cheating, lack-linen mate! Away, you mouldy rogue, away! I am meat for your master.

b— a tame-cheater,] A cheater was not, as many modern notes assert, a mere gamester, but one who played with false dice; the name is said to have been originally assumed by those gentry themselves.-See NARES' Glossary.

e I will bar no honest man my house, nor no cheater:] The humour of this consists in the woman's mistaking the title of cheater, for that office of the exchequer called an escheator, well known to the common people of that time; and named, either corruptly or satirically, a cheater.—WARBURTON.

Pist. I know you, mistress Dorothy.

Dol. Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away! by this wine, I'll thrust my knife in your mouldy chaps, an you play the saucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rascal! you basket-hilt stale juggler, you!Since when, I pray you, sir ?—What, with two points' on your shoulder? much !s

Pist. I will murder your ruff for this.

Fal. No more, Pistol; I would not have you go off here: discharge yourself of our company, Pistol.

Host. No, good captain Pistol; not here, sweet captain. Dol. Captain! thou abominable damned cheater, art thou not ashamed to be called-captain? If captains were of my mind, they would truncheon you out, for taking their names upon you before you have earned them. You a captain, you slave! for what? for tearing a poor whore's ruff in a bawdy-house?-He a captain! Hang him, rogue! He lives upon mouldy stewed prunes, and dried cakes. A captain! these villains will make the word captain as odious as the word occupy; which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted: therefore captains had need look to it.

Bard. Pray thee, go down, good ancient.

Fal. Hark thee hither, mistress Doll.

Pist. Not I: tell thee what, corporal Bardolph ;-I could tear her :-I'll be revenged on her.

Page. Pray thee, go down.

Pist. I'll see her damned first;-to Pluto's damned lake, to the infernal deep, with Erebus and tortures vile also. Hold hook and line, say I. Down! down, dogs! down faitors Have we not Hiren here ?'

d bung,] A low-lived term of reproach for a sharper.-See NARES' Glossary.

e

cuttle-] Probably corrupted from cutter, the old cant word for a bully or sharper.-See NARES' Glossary.

r

g

with two points-] As a mark of commission.-JOHNSON.

much!] A common expression of disdain at that time, of the same sense with that more modern one, Marry came up.-WARBUrton.

b · mouldy stewed prunes and dried cakes.] i. e. The refuse provisions of brothels. STEEVENS.

occupy ;] "Many, out of their own obscene apprehensions, refuse pro

per and fit words; as, occupy, nature," &c.-BEN JONSON'S Discoveries.

faitors!] i. e. Traitors, rascals.

Hiren- A cant word for a harlot.

Host. Good captain Peesel, be quiet; it is very late, i'faith: I beseek you now, aggravate your choler.

Pist. These be good humours, indeed! Shall packhorses,

And hollow pamper'd jades of Asia,TM

Which cannot go but thirty miles a day,
Compare with Cæsars, and with Cannibals,"

And Trojan Greeks? nay, rather damn them with
King Cerberus; and let the welkin roar.

Shall we fall foul for toys?

Host. By my troth, captain, these are very bitter words. Bard. Be gone, good ancient; this will grow to a brawl

anon.

Pist. Die men, like dogs; give crowns like pins ; Have we not Hiren here?

Host. O' my word, captain; there's none such here. What the good-year! do you think, I would deny her? for God's sake, be quiet.

Pist. Then, feed and be fat, my fair Calipolis :" Come, give's some sack.

Si fortuna me tormenta, sperato me contenta."— Fear we broadsides? no, let the fiend give fire: Give me some sack ;-and, sweetheart, lie thou there. [Laying down his sword.

Come we to full points here; and are et ceteras nothing? Fal. Pistol, I would be quiet.

Pist. Sweet knight, kiss thy neif: What! we have seen the seven stars.

And hollow pamper'd jades of Asia,] These lines are in part a quotation from Marlow's Tamburlaine. They are addressed by the hero of the play to the captive princes who draw his chariot.

Cannibals,] By a blunder for Hannibal.

-feed and be fat, my fair Calipolis:] This is a burlesque on a line in an old play called The battle Alcazar, &c. printed in 1594, in which Muley Mahomet enters to his wife with the lion's flesh on his sword:

"Feed then, and faint not, my fair Calypolis."-STEEVENS.

P Si fortuna me, &c.] Pistol here quotes from Hannibal Gonsaga, who vaunted on yielding himself a prisoner, as you may read in an old collection of tales, called wits, fits, and fancies:

"Si fortuna me tormenta,

"Il speranza me contenta."-FARMER.

a Come we to full points here;] That is, shall we stop here, shall we have no further entertainment?-JOHNSON.

counties.

neif:] i. e. Fist, the word is still used in this sense in the northern

Dol. Thrust him down stairs; I cannot endure such a fustian rascal.

Pist. Thrust him down stairs! know we not Galloway nags?s

Fal. Quoit him down, Bardolph, like a shove-groat shilling: nay, if he do nothing but speak nothing, he shall be nothing here.

Bard. Come, get you down stairs.

Pist. What! shall we have incision? shall we im

brue?

[Snatching up his sword.
Then death rock me asleep," abridge my doleful days!
Why then, let grievous, ghastly, gaping wounds
Untwine the sisters three! Come, Atropos, I say!
Host. Here's goodly stuff toward!
Fal. Give me my rapier, boy.

Dol. I pray thee, Jack, I pray thee, do not draw.
Fal. Get you down stairs.

[Drawing, and driving PISTOL out. Host. Here's a goodly tumult! I'll forswear keeping house, afore I'll be in these tirrits and frights. So; murder, I warrant now. Alas, alas! put up your naked weapons, put up your naked weapons.

[Exeunt PISTOL and BARDOLPH. Dol. I pray thee, Jack, be quiet; the rascal is gone. Ah, you whoreson little valiant villain, you.

Host. Are you not hurt i'the groin? methought, he made a shrewd thrust at your belly.

Re-enter BARDOLPH.

Fal. Have you turned him out of doors?

Bard. Yes, sir. The rascal's drunk: you have hurt him, sir, in the shoulder.

Galloway nags?] i. e. Common hacknies.

t —a shove-groat shilling:] i. e. A shilling worn smooth, and fit to play at shove-groat with. Shove-grout, shove-board, shovel-board, and shuffle-board, was a trivial game, which consisted in pushing or shaking pieces of money on a board, to reach certain marks. Mr. Gifford says, that, in playing this game, "the shilling is placed on the extreme edge of the table and propelled towards the mark, by a smart stroke with the palm of the hand."-Ben Jonson, vol. i. p. 86. It was called shove-groat, from its having been at one time played with silver groats.

u Then death rock me asleep,] This is a fragment of a song attributed to Anne Boleyn. The entire song is in Sir John Hawkins' General History of Musick, vol. iii. p. 30.-STEEVENS.

Fal. A rascal! to brave me!

Dol. Ah, you sweet little rogue, you! Alas, poor ape, how thou sweat'st! Come, let me wipe thy face;-come on, you whoreson chops :-Ah, rogue! i'faith, I love thee. Thou art as valourous as Hector of Troy, worth five of Agamemnon, and ten times better than the nine worthies.* Ah, villain!

Fal. A rascally slave! I will toss the rogue in a blanket.

Dol. Do, if thou darest for thy heart: if thou dost, I'll canvas thee between a pair of sheets.

Enter Musick.

Page. The musick is come, sir.

Fal. Let them play;-Play, sirs.-Sit on my knee, Doll. A rascal bragging slave! the rogue fled from me like quicksilver.

Dol. I'faith, and thou followedst him like a church. Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig," when wilt thou leave fighting o'days, and foining o'nights, and begin to patch up thine old body for heaven?

Enter behind, Prince HENRY and POINs, disguised like Drawers.

Fal. Peace, good Doll! do not speak like a death's head; do not bid me remember mine end.

Dol. Sirrah, what humour is the prince of?

Fal. A good shallow young fellow: he would have made a good pantler, he would have chipped bread well. Dol. They say, Poins has a good wit.

Fal. He a good wit? hang him, baboon! his wit is as thick as Tewksbury mustard ;' there is no more conceit in him, than is in a mallet.

11

the nine worthies.] Famous personages often alluded to and classed together, in rather an arbitrary manner. Three of them were Gentiles, three Jews, three Christian: viz. Hector, Alexander, and Julius Cæsar: Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabæus: King Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey de Bouillon. They are often introduced in comparisons for bravery.

tidy Bartholomew boar-pig,] Tidy is here used in the sense of fat, which is not unusual. The custom of roasting pigs at Bartholomew-fair continued till the beginning of the last century, if not later.-REED.

-Tewksbury mustard;] Tewksbury in Gloucestershire, was formerly noted for the mustard-balls made there and sent into other parts.-GREY.