Act 5, Scene 3

Gloucestershire. Shallow's orchard.

[Enter Falstaff, Shallow, Silence, Davy, Bardolph, and the Page.]
Justice Shallow
2727 Nay, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbour, we will eat
2728 a last year's pippin of mine own graffing, with a dish of caraways,
2729 and so forth: come, cousin Silence: and then to bed.
Sir John Falstaff
2730 'Fore God, you have here a goodly dwelling and a rich.
Justice Shallow
2731 Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all, Sir John:
2732 marry, good air. Spread, Davy; spread, Davy: well said, Davy.
Sir John Falstaff
2733 This Davy serves you for good uses; he is your serving-man
2734 and your husband.
Justice Shallow
2735 A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet, Sir John:
2736 by the mass, I have drunk too much sack at supper: a good
2737 varlet. Now sit down, now sit down: come, cousin.
Justice Silence
2738 Ah, sirrah! quoth-a, we shall
2739 Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer,
[Singing.]
Justice Silence
2740 And praise God for the merry year;
2741 When flesh is cheap and females dear,
2742 And lusty lads roam here and there
2743 So merrily,
2744 And ever among so merrily.
Sir John Falstaff
2745 There's a merry heart! Good Master Silence, I'll give you
2746 a health for that anon.
Justice Shallow
2747 Give Master Bardolph some wine, Davy.
Davy
2748 Sweet sir, sit; I'll be with you anon; most sweet sir, sit.
2749 Master page, good master page, sit. Proface!
2750 What you want in meat, we'll have in drink:
2751 but you must bear; the heart 's all.
[Exit.]
Justice Shallow
2752 Be merry, Master Bardolph; and, my little soldier there,
2753 be merry.
Justice Silence
2754 Be merry, be merry, my wife has all;
[Singing.]
Justice Silence
2755 For women are shrews, both short and tall;
2756 'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all;
2757 And welcome merry Shrove-tide.
2758 Be merry, be merry.
Sir John Falstaff
2759 I did not think Master Silence had been a man of this mettle.
Justice Silence
2760 Who, I? I have been merry twice and once ere now.
[Re-enter Davy.]
Davy
2761 There 's a dish of leather-coats for you.
[To Bardolph.]
Justice Shallow
2762 Davy!
Davy
2763 Your worship! I'll be with you straight
[To BARDOLPH.]
Davy
2764 .
2765 A cup of wine, sir?
Justice Silence
2766 A cup of wine that 's brisk and fine,
[Singing.]
Justice Silence
2767 And drink unto the leman mine;
2768 And a merry heart lives long-a.
Sir John Falstaff
2769 Well said, Master Silence.
Justice Silence
2770 An we shall be merry, now comes in the sweet o' the night.
Sir John Falstaff
2771 Health and long life to you, Master Silence!
Justice Silence
2772 Fill the cup, and let it come,
[Singing.]
Justice Silence
2773 I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom.
Justice Shallow
2774 Honest Bardolph, welcome: if thou wantest anything and
2775 wilt not call, beshrew thy heart. Welcome, my little tiny thief
[to the Page]
Justice Shallow
2776 ,
2777 and welcome indeed too. I'll drink to Master Bardolph, and to all
2778 the cavaleros about London.
Davy
2779 I hope to see London once ere I die.
Bardolph
2780 An I might see you there, Davy,—
Justice Shallow
2781 By the mass, you'll crack a quart together, ha! will you not,
2782 Master Bardolph?
Bardolph
2783 Yea, sir, in a pottle-pot.
Justice Shallow
2784 By God's liggens, I thank thee: the knave will stick by thee, I
2785 can assure thee that. A' will not out; he is true bred.
Bardolph
2786 And I'll stick by him, sir.
Justice Shallow
2787 Why, there spoke a king. Lack nothing: be merry.
[Knocking within.]
Justice Shallow
2788 Look who 's at door there, ho! who knocks?
[Exit Davy.]
Sir John Falstaff
2789 Why, now you have done me right.
[To Silence, seeing him take off a bumper.]
Justice Silence
2790 Do me right,
[Singing.]
Justice Silence
2791 And dub me knight:
2792 Samingo.
2793 Is't not so?
Sir John Falstaff
2794 'Tis so.
Justice Silence
2795 Is't so? Why then, say an old man can do somewhat.
[Re-enter Davy.]
Davy
2796 An't please your worship, there 's one Pistol come from the
2797 court with news.
Sir John Falstaff
2798 From the court? Let him come in.
[Enter Pistol.]
Sir John Falstaff
2799 How now, Pistol!
Pistol
2800 Sir John, God save you!
Sir John Falstaff
2801 What wind blew you hither, Pistol?
Pistol
2802 Not the ill wind which blows no man to good. Sweet knight,
2803 thou art now one of the greatest men in this realm.
Justice Silence
2804 By'r lady, I think a' be, but goodman Puff of Barson.
Pistol
2805 Puff!
2806 Puff in thy teeth, most recreant coward base!
2807 Sir John, I am thy Pistol and thy friend,
2808 And helter-skelter have I rode to thee,
2809 And tidings do I bring and lucky joys
2810 And golden times and happy news of price.
Sir John Falstaff
2811 I pray thee now, deliver them like a man of this world.
Pistol
2812 A foutre for the world and worldlings base!
2813 I speak of Africa and golden joys.
Sir John Falstaff
2814 O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news?
2815 Let King Cophetua know the truth thereof.
Justice Silence
2816 And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John.
[Singing.]
Pistol
2817 Shall dunghill curs confront the Helicons?
2818 And shall good news be baffled?
2819 Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Furies' lap.
Justice Shallow
2820 Honest gentleman, I know not your breeding.
Pistol
2821 Why then, lament therefore.
Justice Shallow
2822 Give me pardon, sir: if, sir, you come with news from the
2823 court, I take it there 's but two ways, either to utter them, or
2824 conceal them.
2825 I am, sir, under the king, in some authority.
Pistol
2826 Under which king, Besonian? speak, or die.
Justice Shallow
2827 Under King Harry.
Pistol
2828 Harry the Fourth? or Fifth?
Justice Shallow
2829 Harry the Fourth.
Pistol
2830 A foutre for thine office!
2831 Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is king;
2832 Harry the Fifth's the man. I speak the truth.
2833 When Pistol lies, do this; and fig me, like
2834 The bragging Spaniard.
Sir John Falstaff
2835 What, is the old king dead?
Pistol
2836 As nail in door: the things I speak are just.
Sir John Falstaff
2837 Away, Bardolph! saddle my horse. Master Robert Shallow,
2838 choose what office thou wilt in the land, 'tis thine. Pistol, I
2839 will double-charge thee with dignities.
Bardolph
2840 O joyful day!
2841 I would not take a knighthood for my fortune.
Pistol
2842 What! I do bring good news.
Sir John Falstaff
2843 Carry Master Silence to bed. Master Shallow, my Lord Shallow,—
2844 be what thou wilt; I am fortune's steward—get on thy boots:
2845 we'll ride all night. O sweet Pistol! Away, Bardolph!
[Exit Bardolph.]
Sir John Falstaff
2846 Come, Pistol, utter more to me; and withal devise something to do
2847 thyself good. Boot, boot, Master Shallow: I know the young king is
2848 sick for me. Let us take any man's horses; the laws of England are at
2849 my commandment. Blessed are they that have been my friends; and woe
2850 to my lord chief-justice!
Pistol
2851 Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also!
2852 "Where is the life that late I led?" say they:
2853 Why, here it is; welcome these pleasant days!
[Exeunt.]

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Word definitions on hover

Notes

TLN 2728archaic vocab
“a last year's pippin of mine own graffing”
A 'pippin' is a variety of eating apple; 'graffing' is an old form of 'grafting,' the technique of joining a cutting from one tree onto the rootstock of another to propagate a desired variety. Shallow is proudly offering an apple from a tree he grafted himself, a point of a country gentleman's practical skill and domestic pride.
TLN 2728cultural context
“a dish of caraways, and so forth”
Caraway seeds were traditionally served with roasted apples and other fruit at dessert in Elizabethan England, both as a digestive and as a flavoring. The vague 'and so forth' is characteristic of Shallow's rambling, self-important hospitality — he sounds generous while actually saying very little.
TLN 2733archaic vocab
“he is your serving-man and your husband”
Falstaff uses 'husband' in its older sense of 'husbandman' or estate manager — one who manages and economizes the resources of a household, not a spouse. Davy, as Shallow's sole all-purpose servant, serves at table and also stewards the farm, so Falstaff is praising his double usefulness with a wry compliment.
TLN 2749archaic vocab
“Proface!”
'Proface!' was a toast or welcome said to a guest before eating, meaning roughly 'may it do you good' or 'much good may it do you.' It comes from the Italian 'pro faccia' (for your face, i.e. for your benefit) and was a conventional polite formula of hospitality. Davy uses it here as he ushers Bardolph and the Page to the table.
TLN 2757cultural context
“welcome merry Shrove-tide”
Shrovetide was the three days immediately before Lent (Shrove Sunday, Monday, and Shrove Tuesday), a season of feasting, festivity, and licensed excess before the forty days of fasting. It was one of the most celebrated popular holidays of the Elizabethan calendar, associated with eating up rich food, drinking, games, and revelry. Silence's drunken song places their merrymaking in the warmest possible festive tradition.
TLN 2767archaic vocab
“drink unto the leman mine”
'Leman' is an archaic word for a sweetheart or mistress — the woman a man loves. It comes from Old English 'leofman' (dear person). By Shakespeare's day the word was old-fashioned and deliberately evoked the world of medieval songs and romances, fitting the snatches of old ballads that the suddenly voluble Silence sings throughout this scene.
TLN 2814rhetorical device
“O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news? Let King Cophetua know the truth thereof.”
Falstaff fights bombast with bombast, mocking Pistol by out-inflating him. 'Base Assyrian knight' is a deliberately nonsensical insult — Pistol has no connection to Assyria — and 'King Cophetua' comes from a popular ballad about a legendary African king who falls in love with a beggar-maid. Both phrases are theatrical hot air used to command Pistol to get to the point. The joke is that Falstaff, normally the deflater of pretension, matches Pistol's absurdity to expose it as meaningless.
TLN 2817classical allusion
“Shall dunghill curs confront the Helicons”
Helicon was the mountain in Boeotia sacred to the Muses — the nine goddesses of poetry, music, and learning in classical mythology. Pistol uses 'the Helicons' as a grandiose way of saying 'the poets' or 'those inspired by the Muses,' casting himself as a figure of divine inspiration whom 'dunghill curs' (common, low people like Shallow) are too base to question. The allusion is part of Pistol's habit of wrapping ordinary bullying in scraps of theatrical high-style.
TLN 2826archaic vocab
“Under which king, Besonian? speak, or die.”
'Besonian' (also spelled 'bisognio' or 'bezoian') was a contemptuous term for a raw, newly levied, ill-equipped soldier — derived from the Italian 'bisogno,' meaning need or want, applied to needy recruits. Pistol flings it at Shallow to belittle him as an ignorant provincial nobody who doesn't even know which king is on the throne. The word belongs to the blustering military slang that defines Pistol's character.
TLN 2833cultural context
“fig me, like The bragging Spaniard”
To 'fig' someone was to make a rude, obscene gesture of contempt: thrusting the thumb between two closed fingers (called 'the fig of Spain'). It was strongly associated with Spaniards and was considered a particularly degrading insult. Pistol is swearing an oath: if he is lying about the King's death, let Falstaff do the most humiliating thing imaginable — give him 'the fig' as a braggart Spaniard would. The gesture and the national stereotype were both familiar stage currency.
TLN 2847historical topical
“I know the young king is sick for me. Let us take any man's horses; the laws of England are at my commandment.”
Falstaff's boast that 'the laws of England are at my commandment' signals his catastrophic misreading of his relationship with the new King Henry V. He believes that Hal's old affection will translate into personal immunity from law — that favoritism will override justice. The play has carefully built toward this delusion throughout both Henry IV plays; the Chief Justice who enforced the law against Falstaff's wishes is the very man Henry V is about to confirm in office. Falstaff's confidence here is the precise measure of his coming fall.
historical Prince Hal and the Lord Chief Justicehistorical The king's two bodies
TLN 2849biblical allusion
“Blessed are they that have been my friends; and woe to my lord chief-justice!”
Falstaff parodies the form of the Beatitudes — Jesus's blessings from the Sermon on the Mount, each beginning 'Blessed are they that...' (Matthew 5:3-11, Geneva 1599) — but turns them to self-serving threats: blessed are those who curried favor with me, cursed is the man who enforced the law against me. The blasphemous inversion measures Falstaff's grandiosity at its height and his theology at its worst.