Page 1067 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

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 [255] 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 [260] hand, Bardolph.

BARDOLPH
Hold, Wart, traverse. Thus, thus, thus.

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, [265] Wart. Th’ art 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 [270] 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. [275] 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 to-night. Bardolph, give the soldiers coats.

SHALLOW
Sir John, the Lord bless you! God prosper your [280] 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, would you would, Master Shallow.