Gloucestershire. Before Justice Shallow's House.
 Enter Justice SHALLOW and Justice SILENCE, meeting;
 with MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, BULLCALF, following far behind Shallow.

Shallow	Come on, come on, come on; give me your hand, sir, give me 
	your hand, sir. An early stirrer, by the rood! And how 
	doth my good cousin Silence?

Silence	Good morrow, good cousin Shallow.

Shallow	And how doth my cousin your bedfellow? And your fairest 
	daughter and mine, my goddaughter Ellen?

Silence	Alas, a black woosel, cousin Shallow.

Shallow	By yea and no, sir, I dare say my cousin William is become 
	a good scholar. He is at Oxford still, is he not?

Silence	Indeed, sir, to my cost.

Shallow	A' must then to the Inns o'Court shortly. I was once of 
	Clement's Inn, where I think they will talk of mad Shallow 
	yet.

Silence	You were called 'lusty Shallow' then, cousin.

Shallow	By the mass, I was called anything; and I would have done 
	anything indeed too, and roundly too. There was I, and 
	little John Doit of Staffordshire, and black George 
	Barnes, and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele, a Cotsole 
	man - you had not four such swinge-bucklers in all the 
	Inns o'Court again; and, I may say to you, we knew where 
	the bona-robas were, and had the best of them all at 
	commandment. Then was Jack Falstaff, now Sir John, a boy, 
	and page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk.

Silence	This Sir John, cousin, that comes hither anon about 
	soldiers?

Shallow	The same Sir John, the very same. I see him break 
	Scoggin's head at the court gate when a' was a crack not 
	thus high; and the very same day did I fight with one 
	Samson Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's Inn. Jesu, 
	Jesu, the mad days that I have spent! And to see how many 
	of my old acquaintance are dead!

Silence	We shall all follow, cousin.

Shallow	Certain, 'tis certain; very sure, very sure. Death, as the 
	Psalmist saith, is certain to all, all shall die. How a 
	good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair?

Silence	By my troth, I was not there.

Shallow	Death is certain. Is old Double of your town living yet?

Silence	Dead, sir.

Shallow	Jesu, Jesu, dead! A' drew a good bow - and dead? A' shot a 
	fine shoot. John a'Gaunt loved him well, and betted much 
	money on his head. Dead! A' would have clapped i'th' clout 
	at twelve score, and carried you a forehand shaft a 
	fourteen and fourteen and a half, that it would have done 
	a man's heart good to see. How a score of ewes now?

Silence	Thereafter as they be: a score of good ewes may be worth 
	ten pounds.

Shallow	And is old Double dead?

Silence	Here come two of Sir John Falstaff's men, as I think.

                   Enter BARDOLPH and Falstaff's PAGE.

Shallow	Good morrow, honest gentlemen.

Bardolph	I beseech you, which is Justice Shallow?

Shallow	I am Robert Shallow, sir; a poor esquire of this county, 
	and one of the king's justices of the peace. What is your 
	good pleasure with me?

Bardolph	My captain, sir, commends him to you; my captain Sir John 
	Falstaff, a tall gentleman, by heaven, and a most gallant 
	leader.

Shallow	He greets me well, sir. I knew him a good backsword man. 
	How doth the good knight? May I ask how my lady his wife 
	doth?

Bardolph	Sir, pardon; a soldier is better accommodated than with a 
	wife.

Shallow	It is well said, in faith, sir; and it is well said 
	indeed, too. "Better accommodated?" - it is good, yea 
	indeed is it; good phrases are surely, and ever were, very 
	commendable. "Accommodated", it comes of 'accommodo'. Very 
	good, a good phrase.

Bardolph	Pardon, 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, by heaven. Accommodated: 
	that is, when a man is, as they say, accommodated; or, 
	when a man is being whereby a' may be thought to be 
	accommodated; which is an excellent thing.

Shallow	It is very just.

                         Enter Sir John FALSTAFF.

	Look, here comes good Sir John. Give me your good hand, 
	give me your worship's good hand. By my troth, you like 
	well, and bear your years very well. Welcome, good Sir 
	John.

Falstaff	I am glad to see you well, good Master Robert Shallow. 
	Master Surecard, as I think?

Shallow	No, Sir John, it is my cousin Silence, in commission with 
	me.

Falstaff	Good Master Silence, it well befits you should be of the 
	peace.

Silence	Your good worship is welcome.

Falstaff	Fie, this is hot weather, gentlemen. Have you provided me 
	here half a dozen sufficient men?

Shallow	Marry have we, sir. Will you sit?

Falstaff	Let me see them, I beseech you.

Shallow	Where's the roll, where's the roll, where's the roll? Let 
	me see, let me see, let me see. So, so, so, so, so, so, 
	so. Yea, marry, sir - Ralph Mouldy! [To SILENCE.] Let them 
	appear as I call; let them do so, let them do so. Let me 
	see - Where is Mouldy?

Mouldy	[Coming forward.] Here, and't please you.

Shallow	What think you, Sir John? A good-limbed fellow; young, 
	strong, and of good friends.

Falstaff	Is thy name Mouldy?

Mouldy	Yea, and't please you.

Falstaff	'Tis the more time thou wert used.

Shallow	Ha, ha, ha, most excellent, i'faith. Things that are 
	mouldy lack use - very singular good, in faith. Well said, 
	Sir John, very well said.

Falstaff	Prick him.

Mouldy	I was pricked well enough before, and 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 pricked 
	me; there are other men fitter to go out than I.

Falstaff	Go to! Peace, Mouldy, you shall go. Mouldy, it is time you 
	were spent.

Mouldy	Spent!

Shallow	Peace, fellow, peace; stand aside - know you where you 
	are? For th' other, Sir John, let me see. - Simon Shadow!

Falstaff	Yea, marry, let me have him to sit under: he's like to be 
	a cold soldier.

Shallow	Where's Shadow?

Shadow	[Coming forward.] Here, sir.

Falstaff	Shadow, whose son art thou?

Shadow	My mother's son, sir.

Falstaff	Thy mother's son! Like enough, and thy father's shadow: so 
	the son of the female is the shadow of the male; it is 
	often so indeed - but much of the father's substance!

Shallow	Do you like him, Sir John?

Falstaff	Shadow will serve for summer; prick him, for we have a 
	number of shadows fill up the muster-book.

Shallow	Thomas Wart!

Falstaff	Where's he?

Wart	[Coming forward.] Here, sir.

Falstaff	Is thy name Wart?

Wart	Yea, sir.

Falstaff	Thou art a very ragged Wart.

Shallow	Shall I prick him, Sir John?

Falstaff	It were superfluous, for his apparel is built upon his 
	back, and the whole frame stands upon pins: prick him no 
	more.

Shallow	Ha, ha, ha! You can do it, sir, you can do it; I commend 
	you well. Francis Feeble!

Feeble	[Coming forward.] Here, sir.

Falstaff	What trade art thou, Feeble?

Feeble	A woman's tailor, sir.

Shallow	Shall I prick him, sir?

Falstaff	You may; but if he had been a man's tailor he'd ha' 
	pricked you. Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy's 
	battle as thou hast done in a woman's petticoat?

Feeble	I will do my good will, sir; you can have no more.

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

Feeble	I would Wart might have gone, sir.

Falstaff	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.

Feeble	It shall suffice, sir.

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

Shallow	Peter Bullcalf o'th' green!

Falstaff	Yea, marry, let's see Bullcalf.

Bullcalf	[Coming forward.] Here, sir.

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

Bullcalf	O Lord, good my lord captain - 

Falstaff	What, dost thou roar before thou art pricked?

Bullcalf	O Lord, sir, I am a diseased man.

Falstaff	What disease hast thou?

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

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

Shallow	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.

Falstaff	Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot tarry dinner. 
	I am glad to see you, by my troth, Master Shallow.

Shallow	O, Sir John, do you remember since we lay all night in the 
	Windmill in Saint George's Field?

Falstaff	No more of that, good Master Shallow, no more of that.

Shallow	Ha, 'twas a merry night! And is Jane Nightwork alive?

Falstaff	She lives, Master Shallow.

Shallow	She never could away with me.

Falstaff	Never, never; she would always say she could not abide 
	Master Shallow.

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

Falstaff	Old, old, Master Shallow.

Shallow	Nay, she must be old, she cannot choose but be old; 
	certain she's old; and had Robin Nightwork by old 
	Nightwork before I came to Clement's Inn.

Silence	That's fifty-five year ago.

Shallow	Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen that that this 
	knight and I have seen! Ha, Sir John, said I well?

Falstaff	We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow.

Shallow	That we have, that we have, that we have; in faith, Sir 
	John, we have. Our watchword was "Hem, boys!" Come, let's 
	to dinner; come, let's to dinner. Jesus, the days that we 
	have seen! Come, come.
							[Exeunt FALSTAFF, SHALLOW and SILENCE.

Bullcalf	Good Master Corporate Bardolph, stand my friend, and 
	here's 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.
													[Giving the money.

Bardolph	Go to; stand aside.

Mouldy	And, good Master Corporal Captain, for my old dame's sake 
	stand my friend. She has nobody to do anything about her 
	when I am gone, and she is old and cannot help herself. 
	You shall have forty, sir.
													[Giving the money.

Bardolph	Go to; stand aside.

Feeble	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. And't be my 
	destiny, so; and't be not, so. No man's too good to 
	serve's prince; and, let it go which way it will, he that 
	dies this year is quit for the next.

Bardolph	Well said; thou'rt a good fellow.

Feeble	Faith, I'll bear no base mind.

                  Re-enter FALSTAFF, SHADOW and SILENCE.

Falstaff	Come, sir, which men shall I have?

Shallow	Four of which you please.

Bardolph	[Aside to FALSTAFF] Sir, a word with you. I have three 
	pound to free Mouldy and Bullcalf.

Falstaff	[Aside to BARDOLPH] Go to, well.

Shallow	Come, Sir John, which four will you have?

Falstaff	Do you choose for me.

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

Falstaff	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.
										[Exeunt MOULDY and BULLCALF.

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

Falstaff	Will you tell me, Master Shallow, how to choose a man? 
	Care I for the limb, the thews, 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: a' 
	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 the 
	spare men, and spare me the great ones. Put me a caliver 
	into Wart's hand, Bardolph.

Bardolph	[Giving a caliver to WART.]
	Hold, Wart. Traverse - thas! thas! thas!

Falstaff	Come, manage me your caliver. So, very well! Go to, very 
	good! Exceeding good! O, give me always a little, lean, 
	old, chopped, bald shot. Well said, i' faith, Wart, 
	thou'rt a good scab. Hold, there's a tester for thee.

Shallow	He is not his craft's master, he doth not do it right. I 
	remember at Mile End Green, when I lay at Clement's Inn - 
	I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's show - there was a 
	little quiver fellow, and a' would manage you his piece 
	thus, and a' would about, and about, and come you in, and 
	come you in. "Rah, tah, tah" would a' say; "Bounce" would 
	a' say; and away again would a' go, and again would a' 
	come. I shall ne'er see such a fellow.

Falstaff	These fellows will do well, Master Shallow. God keep you, 
	Master Silence; I will not use many words with you. Fare 
	you well, gentlemen both; I thank you. I must a dozen mile 
	tonight. Bardolph, give the soldiers coats.

Shallow	Sir John, the Lord bless you! God prosper your affairs! 
	God send us peace! At your return, visit our house; let 
	our old acquaintance be renewed. Peradventure I will with 
	ye to the court.

Falstaff	'Fore God, I would you would, Master Shallow.

Shallow	Go to, I have spoke at a word. God keep you!

Falstaff	Fare you well, gentle gentlemen.
										[Exeunt SHALLOW and SILENCE.
	On, Bardolph; lead the men away.
													[Exeunt all but FALSTAFF.
	As I return, I will fetch off these justices: I do see the 
	bottom of Justice Shallow. Lord, Lord, how subject we old 
	men are to this vice of lying! This same starved justice 
	hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his 
	youth and the feats he hath done about Turnbull Street, 
	and every third word a lie, duer paid to the hearer than 
	the Turk's tribute. I do remember him at Clement's Inn, 
	like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring. When a' 
	was naked, he was for all the world like a forked radish 
	with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife. A' 
	was so forlorn that his dimensions to any thick sight were 
	invisible. A' was the very genius of famine, yet lecherous 
	as a monkey, and the whores called him mandrake. A' came 
	ever in the rearward of the fashion, and sung those tunes 
	to the overscutched housewives that he heard the carmen 
	whistle, and sware they were his fancies or his good-
	nights. And now is this Vice's dagger become a squire, and 
	talks as familiarly of John a'Gaunt as if he had been 
	sworn brother to him, and I'll be sworn a' ne'er saw him 
	but once in the tilt-yard, and then he burst his head for 
	crowding among the marshal's men. I saw it and told John 
	a'Gaunt he beat his own name, for you might have thrust 
	him and all his apparel into an eel-skin; the case of a 
	treble hautboy was a mansion for him, a court - and now 
	has he land and beefs. Well, I'll be acquainted with him, 
	if I return; and't shall go hard but I'll make him a 
	philosopher's two stones to me. If the young dace be a
	bait for the old pike, I see no reason in the law of 
	nature but I may snap at him. Let time shape, and there an 
	end.

													[Exit.
