Act 5, Scene 4

London. A street.

[Enter Beadles, dragging in Hostess Quickly and Doll Tearsheet.]
Mistress Quickly
2854 No, thou arrant knave; I would to God that I might die,
2855 that I might have thee hanged: thou hast drawn my shoulder out
2856 of joint.
Beadle
2857 The constables have delivered her over to me; and she shall have
2858 whipping-cheer enough, I warrant her: there hath been a man
2859 or two lately killed about her.
Doll Tearsheet
2860 Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on; I'll tell thee what, thou
2861 damned tripe-visaged rascal, an the child I now go with do
2862 miscarry, thou wert better thou hadst struck thy mother, thou
2863 paper-faced villain.
Mistress Quickly
2864 O the Lord, that Sir John were come! he would make this a
2865 bloody day to somebody. But I pray God the fruit of her womb
2866 miscarry!
Beadle
2867 If it do, you shall have a dozen of cushions again; you
2868 have but eleven now. Come, I charge you both go with me; for the
2869 man is dead that you and Pistol beat amongst you.
Doll Tearsheet
2870 I'll tell you what, you thin man in a censer, I will have you as
2871 soundly swinged for this,—you blue-bottle rogue, you filthy famished
2872 correctioner, if you be not swinged, I'll forswear half-kirtles.
Beadle
2873 Come, come, you she knight-errant, come.
Mistress Quickly
2874 O God, that right should thus overcome might! Well, of
2875 sufferance comes ease.
Doll Tearsheet
2876 Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a justice.
Mistress Quickly
2877 Ay, come, you starved blood-hound.
Doll Tearsheet
2878 Goodman death, goodman bones!
Mistress Quickly
2879 Thou atomy, thou!
Doll Tearsheet
2880 Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal!
Beadle
2881 Very well.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 2860archaic vocab
“Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie”
A 'nut-hook' was a long hooked pole used to pull down branches for harvesting nuts; by extension it became a contemptuous slang term for a constable or beadle, who 'hooks' people in by arresting them. Doll hurls the word as a double insult — implying the officer is both a petty scavenger and a common thief.
TLN 2861cultural context
“an the child I now go with do miscarry”
Doll claims she is pregnant ('go with' = be pregnant with), and the claim carries legal weight: under the custom known as 'pleading the belly,' a visibly pregnant woman could ask the courts to stay her punishment until after the birth, so as not to harm the unborn child. By warning that a miscarriage will be on the Beadle's head, Doll is reaching for that protection.
TLN 2870archaic vocab
“you thin man in a censer, I will have you as soundly swinged for this,—you blue-bottle rogue”
A censer is a metal vessel for burning incense, pierced all over with small holes to let the smoke out — so a 'thin man in a censer' is a figure visible only as a silhouette through perforations, an image of extreme thinness. A 'blue-bottle' was slang for a constable or beadle because they wore blue coats as their uniform. 'Swinged' means thrashed or beaten.
TLN 2879archaic vocab
“Thou atomy, thou”
An 'atomy' is a corruption of 'anatomy' — meaning a skeleton or a living person reduced to skin and bone, a walking corpse. Mistress Quickly hurls it at the thin Beadle along with Doll's 'Goodman death, goodman bones' and 'you thin thing': the women are heaping abuse on him by imaging him as a figure of Death itself, a skeletal revenant.