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out mine iron: it is a simple one; but what though? it will toast cheese, and it will endure cold as another man's sword will: and there's an end.

BARD. I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends; 10 and we'll be all three sworn brothers to France: let it be so, good Corporal Nym.

NYM. Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the certain of it; and when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may that is my rest, that is the rendezvous of it.

BARD. It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell Quickly and, certainly, she did you wrong; for you were troth-plight to her.

NYM. I cannot tell: things must be as they may: 20 men may sleep, and they may have their throats about them at that time; and some say knives have edges. It must be as it may: though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I cannot tell.

Enter PISTOL and HOSTESS

BARD. Here comes Ancient Pistol and his wife: good corporal, be patient here. How now, mine host Pistol! PIST. Base tike, call'st thou me host?

Now, by this hand, I swear, I scorn the term;
Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers.

HOST. No, by my troth, not long; for we cannot lodge

11 sworn brothers to France] bosom comrades on our visit to France. 15 rest] stake or wager; a term in the game of “primero.”

23 mare] The Folios read name; the Quarto, mare, which Theobald

restored.

24 conclusions] an end to all things.

30

28 tike] ugly cur.

and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen that live honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy house straight. [Nym and Pistol draw.] O well a day, Lady, if he be not drawn now! we shall see wilful adultery and murder committed.

BARD. Good lieutenant! good corporal! offer nothing here.

NYM. Pish!

PIST. Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur of Iceland!

HOST. Good Corporal Nym, show thy valour, and put up your sword.

NYм. Will you shog off? I would have you solus.
PIST. "Solus," egregious dog? O viper vile!
The "solus" in thy most mervailous face;
The "solus" in thy teeth, and in thy throat,
And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy,
And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth!
I do retort the "solus" in thy bowels;

For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up,
And flashing fire will follow.

NYM. I am not Barbason; you cannot conjure me. I

35 drawn] Theobald's emendation of the Folio reading hewn.

39 Iceland dog] a shaggy, sharp-eared, white-haired dog, in much favour with Elizabethan ladies.

43 shog off] jog on, pack off. Cf. II, iii, 45, infra.

45 mervailous] Pistol's affected pronunciation of "marvellous."

47 perdy] a corruption of "par Dieu," "by God."

50 take] "take fire" or "catch fire; used of a gun "going off." Pistol is talking to himself as if he were a pistol.

52 Barbason] a popular name of a fiend of hell, already mentioned in M. Wives, II, ii, 265; see note there.

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have an humour to knock you indifferently well. If you grow foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my rapier, as I may, in fair terms: if you would walk off, I would prick your guts a little, in good terms, as I may: and that's the humour of it.

PIST. O braggart vile, and damned furious wight! The grave doth gape, and doting death is near;

Therefore exhale.

BARD. Hear me, hear me what I say: he that strikes the first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier. [Draws. PIST. An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate. Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give:

Thy spirits are most tall.

NYM. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair terms that is the humour of it.

PIST. "Couple a gorge!"

That is the word. I thee defy again.

O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get?
No; to the spital go,

57 that's the humour of it] that's my meaning. This catch-phrase, which is constantly in Nym's mouth, satirises a passing vogue common parlance, which brought the word "humour constant use in vague and barely intelligible senses.

60 exhale] draw swords, in Pistol's vocabulary.

into

69 "Couple a gorge!"] Corruption of "Coupe la gorge," cut your throat. 71 O hound of Crete] Cretan hounds were credited by classical authors with special excellence. Shakespeare describes hunting with dogs of fine breed in Crete, Mids. N. Dr., IV, i, 110 seq.

72-73 spital... powdering-tub] a reference to the hospital and the treatment accorded there to sufferers from venereal disease. "Powderingtub" literally means "salting-tub.”

60

70

And from the powdering-tub of infamy
Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind,
Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse:
I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly
For the only she; and pauca, there's enough.
Go to.

Enter the Boy

Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and you, hostess: he is very sick, and would to bed. 80 Good Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and do the office of a warming-pan. Faith, he's very ill.

BARD. Away, you rogue!

HOST. By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of these days. The king has killed his heart. Good husband, come home presently. [Exeunt Hostess and boy.

BARD. Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to France together: why the devil should we keep knives to cut one another's throats?

PIST. Let floods o'ers well, and fiends for food howl 90 on!

NYм. You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of at betting?

PIST. Base is the slave that pays.

you

NYM. That now I will have: that's the humour of it.

74 the lazar kite of Cressid's kind] Cressida, the faithless mistress of Troilus, whose story was treated at length by Shakespeare in Troil. and Cress., died, according to some traditions, an inmate of a leper's hospital. "Lazar kite" would mean literally a leprous bird of carrion. "Kite of Cressid's kind" is applied to women of bad character by many Elizabethan writers.

85 killed broken. Cf. line 121, infra: "His heart is fracted."

PIST. As manhood shall compound: push home.

[They draw. BARD. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll kill him; by this sword, I will.

PIST. Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their

course.

BARD. Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends: an thou wilt not, why, then, be enemies with me too. Prithee, put up.

NYм. I shall have my eight shillings I won of betting?

you at

PIST. A noble shalt thou have, and present pay;
And liquor likewise will I give to thee,
And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood:
I'll live by Nym, and Nym shall live by me;
Is not this just? for I shall sutler be

Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.
Give me thy hand.

NYM. I shall have my noble?

PIST. In cash most justly paid.

NYм. Well, then, that's the humour of 't.

Re-enter HOSTESS

HOST. As ever you came of women, come in quickly to Sir John. Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him.

101 put up] sheathe thy sword.

104 A noble] A coin worth 6s. 8d.

116 quotidian tertian] Mrs. Quickly jumbles together two kinds of fever, the "quotidian," in which the paroxysms take place every day, and the "tertian," in which they take place every third day.

101

110

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