show'd themselves humours since the old days
of goodman Adam to the pupil age of this
present twelve o'clock at midnight. [Drawer
crosses the stage, with bottles.] What's o'clock,
Francis? 110
Fran. Anon, anon, sir. [Exit.]
Prince. That ever this fellow should have
fewer words than a parrot, and yet the son of a
woman! His industry is up-stairs and down-
stairs; his eloquence the parcel of a reckoning.
I am not yet of Percy's mind, the Hotspur of the
North; he that kills me some six or seven dozen
of Scots at a breakfast, washes his hands, and
says to his wife, 'Fie upon this quiet life! I
want work.' 'O my sweet Harry,' says she, 'how
many hast thou killed to-day ?' 'Give my roan
horse a drench,' says he, and answers, 'Some
fourteen,' an hour after, 'a trifle, a trifle.' I
prithee call in Falstaff: I'll play Percy, and that
damned brawn shall play Dame Mortimer his
wife. 'Rivo!' says the drunkard. Call in ribs,
call in tallow. 127
Enter Falstaff, [Bardolph, Peto, and Gadshill. The Drawer follows, with wine.]
Poins. Welcome, Jack: where hast thou been?
Fal. A plague of all cowards, I say, and a
vengeance too! marry, and amen! Give me a
cup of sack, boy. Ere I lead this life long,
I'll sew nether-stocks and mend them and foot
them too. A plague of all cowards! Give me a
107 pupil age: youthful time
115 parcel of a reckoning: an item on a bill
122 drench: bran and water
125 brawn; cf. n.
126 'Rivo': a Spanish (?) exclamation of drunkards
132 nether-stocks: short stockings
