书城公版Henry IV
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第40章

prick him no more. SHALLOW Ha, ha, ha! you can do it, sir; you can do it: Icommend you well. Francis Feeble! FEEBLE 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'ld 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' the green! FALSTAFF Yea, marry, let's see Bullcalf. BULLCALF 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 wilt have away thy cold; and I will take such order that my 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 Icannot 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 the 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 watch-word was 'Hem boys!'

Come, let's to dinner; come, let's to dinner:

Jesus, the days that we have seen! Come, come.

Exeunt FALSTAFF and Justices 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. 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 any thing about her when I am gone; and she is old, and cannot help herself: You shall have forty, sir. 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:

an't be my destiny, so; an't be not, so: no man is 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.