for we have a number of shadows to fill up the muster-book.1

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, sir John?

Fal. It were superfluous; for his apparel is built upon his back, and the whole frame stands 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! Fee. Here, sir.

Fal. What trade art thou, Feeble?

Fee. A woman's tailor, sir.

Shal. Shall I prick him, sir?

Fal. You may but if he had been a man's tailor, he would have pricked you.-Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy's battle, as thou hast done in a woman's petticoat?

Fee. I will do my good will, sir; you can have

no more.

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

i. e. we have in the muster-book many names for which we receive pay, though we have not the men.

the woman's tailor well, master Shallow; deep, master Shallow.

Fee. I would, Wart might have gone, sir.

Fal. I would, thou wert a man's tailor, that thou mightst mend him, and make him fit to go. I cannot put him to a private soldier, that is the leader of so many thousands. Let that suffice, most forcible Feeble.

Fee. It shall suffice, sir.

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

Shal. Peter Bullcalf of the green!

Fal. Yea, marry, let us see Bullcalf.

Bull. Here, sir.

Fal. 'Fore God, a likely fellow! Come, prick me Bullcalf, till he roar again.

Bull. O lord! good my lord captain,—

Fal. What, dost thou roar before thou art pricked?

Bull. O lord, sir! I am a diseased man.

Fal. What disease hast thou?

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

Fal. Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown; we will have away thy cold; and I will take such order,1 that thy friends shall ring for thee. Is here all?

1 Take such measures.

Shal. Here is two more called than your number; you must have but four here, sir; and So, 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 see you, in good troth, master Shallow.

Shal. O, sir John, do you remember since we lay all night in the windmill in Saint George's fields. Fal. No more of that, good master Shallow; no more of that.

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

Fal. She lives, master Shallow.

Shal. She never could away with me.

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

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

Fal. Old, old, master Shallow.

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

Si. That's fifty-five year ago.

Shal. Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen that that this knight and I have seen!-Ha, sir John, said I well?

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

Shal. That we have, that we have, that we have;

come.

in faith, sir John, we have; our watch-word was, 'Hem, boys!' Come, let's to dinner; come, let 's to dinner. O, the days that we have seen!—Come, [Exeunt Falstaff, Shallow, and Silence. Bull. Good master corporate Bardolph, stand my friend; and here is four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you. In very truth, sir, I had as lief be hanged, sir, as go; and yet, for mine own part, sir, I do not care; but, rather, because I am unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my friends; else, sir, I did not care, for mine own part, so much.

Bar. Go to; stand aside.

Moul. And, good master corporal captain, for my old dame's sake, stand my friend: she has nobody to do any thing about her, when I am gone; and she is old, and cannot help herself: you shall have forty, sir.

Bar. Go to; stand aside.

Fee. By my troth, I care not; -a man can die but once we owe God a death; I'll ne'er bear a base mind: an 't be my destiny, so; an 't be not, so. No man's too good to serve his prince; and, let it go which way it will, he that dies this year, is quit for

the next.

Bar. Well said; thou'rt a good fellow.
Fee. Faith, I'll bear no base mind.

Re-enter FALSTAFF and JUSTICES.

Fal. Come, sir, which men shall I have?
Shal. Four, of which you please.

Bar. Sir, a word with you.

to free Mouldy and Bullcalf.

Fal. Go to; well.

I have three pound

Shal. Come, sir John, which four will you have?

Fal. Do you choose for me.

Shal. Marry, then,-Mouldy, Bullcalf, Feeble, and Shadow.

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

Shal. Sir John, sir John, do not yourself wrong; they are your likeliest men, and I would have you served with the best.

Fal. Will you tell me, master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes,1 the stature, bulk, and big assemblance of a man? Give me the spirit, master Shallow. Here's Wart; you see what a ragged appearance it is: he shall charge you and discharge you with the motion of a pewterer's hammer; come off and on swifter than he that gibbets on the brewer's bucket: and this same half-faced fellow, Shadow,- give me this man: he presents no mark to the enemy; the foeman may with as great aim level at the edge of a penknife and, for a retreat, how swiftly will this Feeble, the woman's tailor, run off! O, give me

1 The muscular strength.