Fal. Will you tell me, Master Shallow, how to choose
a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes, the stature, bulk,245
and big assemblance of a man! Give me the spirit, Master[3953]
Shallow. Here's Wart; you see what a ragged appearance[3954]
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 same250
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[3955]
swiftly will this Feeble the woman's tailor run off! O, give
me the spare men, and spare me the great ones. Put me a255
caliver into Wart's hand, Bardolph.
Bard. Hold, Wart, traverse; thus, thus, thus.[3956]
Fal. Come, manage me your caliver. So: very well:
go to: very good, exceeding good. O, give me always a
little, lean, old, chapt, bald shot. Well said, i' faith, Wart;[3957]260
thou'rt a good scab: hold, there's a tester for thee.[3957]
Shal. He is not his craft's-master; he doth not do it[3958]
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[3959]265
his piece thus; and a' would about and about, and come[3959]
you in and come you in: 'rah, tah, tah,' would a' say;[3959]
'bounce' would a' say; and away again would a' go, and[3959]
again would a' come: I shall ne'er see such a fellow.[3959][3960]
Fal. These fellows will do well, Master Shallow. God[3961][3962]270
keep you, Master Silence: I will not use many words with[3961][3962][3963]
you. Fare you well, gentlemen both: I thank you: I must[3962]
a dozen mile to-night. Bardolph, give the soldiers coats.
Shal. Sir John, the Lord bless you! God prosper your[3964]
affairs! God send us peace! At your return visit our[3965][3966]275
house; let our old acquaintance be renewed: peradventure[3966]
I will with ye to the court.[3967]
Fal. 'Fore God, I would you would, Master Shallow.[3968]
Shal. Go to; I have spoke at a word. God keep you.[3969]
Fal. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. [Exeunt[3970]280
Justices.] On, Bardolph; lead the men away. [Exeunt[3971]
Bardolph, Recruits, &c.] As I return, I will fetch off these
justices: I do see the bottom of Justice Shallow. Lord,[3972]
Lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying![3972]
This same starved justice hath done nothing but prate to[3973]285
me of the wildness of his youth, and the feats he hath done
about Turnbull Street; and every third word a lie, duer[3974]
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 the290
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 invincible: a' was the very genius[3975]
of famine; yet lecherous as a monkey, and the whores[3976]
called him mandrake: a' came ever in the rearward of the[3976][3977]295
fashion, and sung those tunes to the overscutched huswives[3978][3979]
that he heard the carmen whistle, and sware they were his[3978]
fancies or his good-nights. And now is this Vice's dagger[3978][3980]
become a squire, and talks as familiarly of John a Gaunt[3981]
as if he had been sworn brother to him; and I'll be sworn300
a' ne'er saw him but once in the Tilt-yard; and then he[3982]
burst his head for crowding among the marshal's men.[3983]
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[3984]
eel-skin; the case of a treble hautboy was a mansion for305
him, a court: and now has he land and beefs. Well, I'll[3985]
be acquainted with him, if I return; and it shall go hard[3986]
but I will make him a philosopher's two stones to me:[3987]
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[3988]310
time shape, and there an end. [Exit.[3989]