SCENE III
Another part of the forest.Alarum. Excursions.
Enter FALSTAFF and COLEVILE, meeting.
Fal.
What's your name, sir? of what condition
are you, and of what place, I pray?
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 shall be still your name, a traitor your
degree, and the dungeon your place, a place
deep enough; so shall you be still Colevile of
the dale.
Cole.
Are not you Sir John Falstaff?
Fal.
As good a man as he, sir, whoe'er I
am. Do ye yield, sir? or shall I sweat for
you? If I do sweat, they are the drops of thy
lovers, and they weep for thy death: therefore
rouse up fear and trembling, and do observance
to my mercy.
Cole.
I think you are Sir John Falstaff, and (19)
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 speaks any other word but my name. An I
had but a belly of any indifference, I were
simply the most active fellow in Europe: my
womb, my womb, my womb, undoes me. Here
comes our general. Enter PRINCE JOHN OF LANCASTER, WESTMORELAND, BLUNT, and others.
Lan.
The heat is past; follow no further now:
Call in the powers, good cousin Westmoreland. [Exit Westmoreland.
Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while?
When every thing is ended, then you come:
These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life,
One time or other break some gallows' back.
Fal.
I would be sorry, my lord, but it
should be thus: I never knew yet but rebuke
and check was the reward of valor. Do you
think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bullet?
have I, in my poor and old motion, the expedition
of thought? I have speeded hither with
the very extremest inch of possibility; I have
foundered nine score and odd posts: and here,
travel-tainted 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 saw me, and
yielded; that I may justly say, with thehooknosed
fellow of Rome, 'I came, saw, andovercame.
Lan.
It was more of his courtesy than your
deserving.
Fal.
I know not: here he is, and here I
yield him: and I beseech your grace, let it be
booked with the rest of this day's deeds; or,
by the Lord, I will have it in a particularballad
else, with mine own picture on the top on't,
Colevile kissing my foot: to the which course
if I be enforced, if you do not all show like gilt
twopences to me, and I in the clear sky of
fame o'ershine you as much as the full moon
doth the cinders of the element, which show
like pins' heads to her, believe not the word of
the noble: therefore let me have right, and let (61)
desert mount.
Lan.
Thine's too heavy to mount.
Fal.
Let it shine, then.
Lan.
Thine's too thick to shine.
Fal.
Let it do something, my good lord,
that may do me good, and call it what you will.
Lan.
Is thy name Colevile?
Cole.
It is, my lord. (69)
Lan.
A famous rebel art thou, Colevile.
Fal.
And a famous true subject took him.
Cole.
I am, my lord, but as my betters are
That led me hither: had they been ruled by me,
You should have won them dearer than you have.
Fal.
I know not how they sold themselves:
but thou, like a kind fellow, gavest thyself
away gratis; and I thank thee for thee. Re-enter WESTMORELAND.
Lan.
Now, have you left pursuit?
West.
Retreat is made and execution stay 'd.
Lan.
Send Colevile with his confederates (80)
To York, to present execution:
Blunt, lead him hence; and see you guard him sure. [Exeunt Blunt and others with Colevile.
And now dispatch we toward the court, my lords:
I hear the king my father is sore sick:
Our news shall go before us to his majesty,
Which, cousin, you shall bear to comfort him,
And we with sober speed will follow you.
Fal.
My lord, I beseech you, give me leave to go
Through Gloucestershire: and, when you come to court,
Stand my good lord, pray, in your good report. (90)
Lan.
Fare you well, Falstaff: I, in my condition,
Shall better speak of you than you deserve. [Exeunt all but Falstaff.
Fal.
I would you had but the wit: 'twere
better than your dukedom. Good faith, this
same young sober-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 none of these demure boys come to any
proof; for thin drink doth so over-cool their
blood, and making many fish-meals, that they
fall into a kind of male green-sickness; and
then, when they marry, they get wenches: they
are generally fools and cowards; which some of
us should be too, but for inflammation. A
good sherris sack hath a two-fold operation
in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me
there all the foolish and dull and curdy vapors
which environ it; makes it apprehensive,
quick, forgetive, full of nimble fiery and delectable
shapes; which, delivered o'er to the
voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes
excellent wit. The second property of your excellent
sherris is, the warming of the blood;
which, before cold and settled, left the liver
white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity
and cowardice; but the sherris warms
it and makes it course from the inwards to
the parts extreme: it illumineth the face,
which as a beacon gives warning to all the
rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and
then the vital commoners and inland petty
spirits muster me all to their captain, the
heart, who, great and puffed up with thisretinue,
doth any deed of courage; and this valor
comes of sherris. So that skill in the weapon is
nothing without sack, for that sets it a-work;
and learning a mere hoard of Fold kept by a
devil, till sack commences it and sets it in act
and use. Hereof comes it that Prince Harry
is valiant; for the cold blood he did naturally
inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, sterile
and bare land, manured, husbanded and tilled
with excellent endeavor of drinking good and
good store of fertile sherris, that he is become
very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand sons,
the first humane principle I would teach them
should be, to forswear thin potations and to
addict themselves to sack. Enter BARDOLPH.
How now, Bardolph?
Bard.
The army is discharged all and gone.
Fal.
Let them go. I 'll through Gloucestershire;
and there will I visit Master Robert
Shallow, esquire: I have him already tempering
between my finger and my thumb, and
shortly will I seal with him. Come away. [Exeunt.
