Act 2, Scene 1

London. A street.

[Flourish. Enter Chorus.]
Chorus
452 Now all the youth of England are on fire,
453 And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies.
454 Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought
455 Reigns solely in the breast of every man.
456 They sell the pasture now to buy the horse,
457 Following the mirror of all Christian kings,
458 With winged heels, as English Mercuries.
459 For now sits Expectation in the air,
460 And hides a sword from hilts unto the point
461 With crowns imperial, crowns, and coronets,
462 Promis'd to Harry and his followers.
463 The French, advis'd by good intelligence
464 Of this most dreadful preparation,
465 Shake in their fear, and with pale policy
466 Seek to divert the English purposes.
467 O England! model to thy inward greatness,
468 Like little body with a mighty heart,
469 What mightst thou do, that honour would thee do,
470 Were all thy children kind and natural!
471 But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out
472 A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills
473 With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted men,
474 One, Richard Earl of Cambridge, and the second,
475 Henry Lord Scroop of Masham, and the third,
476 Sir Thomas Grey, knight of Northumberland,
477 Have, for the gilt of France,—O guilt indeed!—
478 Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France;
479 And by their hands this grace of kings must die,
480 If hell and treason hold their promises,
481 Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton.
482 Linger your patience on, and we'll digest
483 The abuse of distance, force a play.
484 The sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;
485 The King is set from London; and the scene
486 Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton.
487 There is the playhouse now, there must you sit;
488 And thence to France shall we convey you safe,
489 And bring you back, charming the narrow seas
490 To give you gentle pass; for, if we may,
491 We'll not offend one stomach with our play.
492 But, till the King come forth, and not till then,
493 Unto Southampton do we shift our scene.
[Exit.]
[Enter Corporal Nym and Lieutenant Bardolph.]
Bardolph
494 Well met, Corporal Nym.
Corporal Nym
495 Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.
Bardolph
496 What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet?
Corporal Nym
497 For my part, I care not. I say little; but when time shall
498 serve, there shall be smiles; but that shall be as it may. I dare
499 not fight, but I will wink and hold out mine iron. It is a simple
500 one, but what though? It will toast cheese, and it will endure
501 cold as another man's sword will; and there's an end.
Bardolph
502 I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends; and we'll
503 be all three sworn brothers to France. Let it be so, good
504 Corporal Nym.
Corporal Nym
505 Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the certain of it; and
506 when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may. That is my rest,
507 that is the rendezvous of it.
Bardolph
508 It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell Quickly; and
509 certainly she did you wrong, for you were troth-plight to her.
Corporal Nym
510 I cannot tell. Things must be as they may. Men may sleep, and
511 they may have their throats about them at that time; and some say
512 knives have edges. It must be as it may. Though patience be a
513 tired mare, yet she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I
514 cannot tell.
[Enter Pistol and Hostess.]
Bardolph
515 Here comes Ancient Pistol and his wife. Good Corporal, be
516 patient here. How now, mine host Pistol!
Pistol
517 Base tike, call'st thou me host?
518 Now, by this hand, I swear I scorn the term;
519 Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers.
Hostess (Mistress Quickly)
520 No, by my troth, not long; for we cannot lodge and board a
521 dozen or fourteen gentlewomen that live honestly by the prick of
522 their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy house
523 straight.
[Nym and Pistol draw.]
Hostess (Mistress Quickly)
524 O well a day, Lady, if he be not
525 drawn now! We shall see wilful adultery and murder committed.
Bardolph
526 Good Lieutenant! good corporal! offer nothing here.
Corporal Nym
527 Pish!
Pistol
528 Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur of Iceland!
Hostess (Mistress Quickly)
529 Good Corporal Nym, show thy valour, and put up your sword.
Corporal Nym
530 Will you shog off? I would have you solus.
Pistol
531 "Solus," egregious dog! O viper vile!
532 The "solus" in thy most mervailous face;
533 The "solus" in thy teeth, and in thy throat,
534 And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy,
535 And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth!
536 I do retort the "solus" in thy bowels;
537 For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up,
538 And flashing fire will follow.
Corporal Nym
539 I am not Barbason; you cannot conjure me. I have an humour to
540 knock you indifferently well. If you grow foul with me, Pistol, I
541 will scour you with my rapier, as I may, in fair terms. If you
542 would walk off, I would prick your guts a little, in good terms,
543 as I may; and that's the humour of it.
Pistol
544 O braggart vile and damned furious wight!
545 The grave doth gape, and doting death is near,
546 Therefore exhale.
Bardolph
547 Hear me, hear me what I say. He that strikes the first
548 stroke I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier.
[Draws.]
Pistol
549 An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate.
550 Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give.
551 Thy spirits are most tall.
Corporal Nym
552 I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair terms:
553 that is the humour of it.
Pistol
554 "Couple a gorge!"
555 That is the word. I thee defy again.
556 O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get?
557 No! to the spital go,
558 And from the powdering tub of infamy
559 Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind,
560 Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse.
561 I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly
562 For the only she; and—pauca, there's enough.
563 Go to.
[Enter the Boy.]
Boy
564 Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and you,
565 hostess. He is very sick, and would to bed. Good Bardolph, put
566 thy face between his sheets, and do the office of a warming-pan.
567 Faith, he's very ill.
Bardolph
568 Away, you rogue!
Hostess (Mistress Quickly)
569 By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of these days.
570 The King has kill'd his heart.
571 Good husband, come home presently.
[Exeunt Hostess and Boy.]
Bardolph
572 Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to France
573 together; why the devil should we keep knives to cut one
574 another's throats?
Pistol
575 Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on!
Corporal Nym
576 You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting?
Pistol
577 Base is the slave that pays.
Corporal Nym
578 That now I will have: that's the humour of it.
Pistol
579 As manhood shall compound. Push home.
[They draw.]
Bardolph
580 By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll kill
581 him; by this sword, I will.
Pistol
582 Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course.
Bardolph
583 Corporal Nym, and thou wilt be friends, be friends; an
584 thou wilt not, why, then, be enemies with me too. Prithee,
585 put up.
Corporal Nym
586 I shall have my eight shillings I won from you at betting?
Pistol
587 A noble shalt thou have, and present pay;
588 And liquor likewise will I give to thee,
589 And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood.
590 I'll live by Nym, and Nym shall live by me.
591 Is not this just? For I shall sutler be
592 Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.
593 Give me thy hand.
Corporal Nym
594 I shall have my noble?
Pistol
595 In cash most justly paid.
Corporal Nym
596 Well, then, that's the humour of't.
[Re-enter Hostess.]
Hostess (Mistress Quickly)
597 As ever you come of women, come in quickly to Sir John.
598 Ah, poor heart! he is so shak'd of a burning quotidian tertian,
599 that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him.
Corporal Nym
600 The King hath run bad humours on the knight; that's the even
601 of it.
Pistol
602 Nym, thou hast spoke the right.
603 His heart is fracted and corroborate.
Corporal Nym
604 The King is a good king; but it must be as it may; he
605 passes some humours and careers.
Pistol
606 Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins, we will live.
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 457historical topical
“mirror of all Christian kings”
The Chorus calls Henry the 'mirror' — meaning the perfect model or standard — of all Christian kings. The phrase echoes the courtesy-book ideal of the virtuous prince as a living example for others to imitate, a standard framework in Renaissance political writing. Holinshed himself praises Henry V in nearly identical terms.
historical Holinshed's Chronicles
TLN 458classical allusion
“English Mercuries”
Mercury (Greek Hermes) was the messenger-god of the Romans, famous above all for the small wings on his sandals and helmet that let him travel at supernatural speed. The Chorus calls the English soldiers 'Mercuries' — swift, winged, ready messengers of war — to make their eagerness feel heroic and almost divine.
TLN 477wordplay
“gilt of France,—O guilt indeed!—”
The Chorus puns on two words that were near-homophones in Elizabethan English: 'gilt' (gold, the bribe money paid by France) and 'guilt' (moral culpability). The traitors are literally bought with French gold ('gilt') and thereby stained with moral 'guilt' — both senses collapse into the same sound. The dash-enclosed exclamation 'O guilt indeed!' signals the pun to the audience.
TLN 496archaic vocab
“Ancient Pistol”
'Ancient' here is a military rank, not an adjective meaning 'old.' It is a corruption of 'ensign' — the officer who carried the company's flag (the standard or colors) in the field. Pistol holds this low commissioned rank. The same word is used for Iago's rank in Othello ('his Moorship's ancient').
TLN 509archaic vocab
“you were troth-plight to her”
To be 'troth-plight' meant to be formally betrothed — a legally binding promise of marriage, made before witnesses, that was treated in Elizabethan law almost as seriously as the marriage itself. Bardolph is saying that Nym had a binding contract to marry the Hostess before Pistol married her instead. This explains Nym's grievance: he has been jilted out of a legal arrangement.
TLN 517archaic vocab
“Base tike, call'st thou me host?”
Pistol rages at Bardolph for calling him 'host' — the keeper of a tavern or lodging-house, a trade Pistol considers beneath his military dignity. 'Tike' (also spelled 'tyke') meant a coarse, low-bred dog or mongrel, used as an insult for a mean or contemptible person. 'Base' intensifies the social disgrace: Pistol insists he is a soldier, not an innkeeper.
TLN 528historical topical
“Iceland dog! thou prick-ear'd cur of Iceland”
Iceland dogs were small, long-coated spitz-type dogs imported to England from Iceland and Scandinavia, fashionable among Elizabethan ladies as lap-dogs and pets. Pistol flings the breed as an insult: calling Nym a yapping, useless, decorative lapdog rather than a proper fighting animal. 'Prick-ear'd' describes the erect pointed ears characteristic of the breed.
TLN 530archaic vocab
“Will you shog off? I would have you solus”
'Shog off' means go away, move along — a blunt dismissal roughly equivalent to 'shove off.' 'Solus' is the Latin word for 'alone': Nym wants Pistol without the others present so he can fight him one-on-one. Pistol, playing the bombastic braggart, immediately seizes on 'solus' as a Latin insult and rants against it for five lines, pretending it is a slur rather than a simple word.
TLN 539historical topical
“I am not Barbason; you cannot conjure me”
Barbason was the name of a demon known from Elizabethan demonology. Conjuring — summoning a demon by chanting its name — was believed to give the conjuror power over it. Nym's point is sardonic: Pistol's thundering repetition of 'solus! solus! solus!' sounds like an exorcist's incantation, but Nym is not a demon and cannot be conjured or commanded by name-chanting.
TLN 558historical topical
“the powdering tub of infamy”
The 'powdering tub' was a sweating-tub used to treat syphilis: a patient would sit inside it while being fumigated with mercury vapor, which was thought to cause the body to sweat out the disease. The process was agonizing and only partly effective. Pistol is telling Nym to find Doll Tearsheet — a prostitute — who is herself diseased and undergoing this treatment, rather than disputing with him over the Hostess.
TLN 559classical allusion
“lazar kite of Cressid's kind”
A 'lazar' was a leper or any person covered with disgusting sores (from Lazarus, the beggar of the parable). A 'kite' was a scavenging bird of prey — a term of contempt for a person who lives off others. 'Cressid's kind' refers to Cressida, the Trojan woman of the legend who betrayed her lover Troilus for a Greek soldier; in later medieval versions of the story she was punished by contracting leprosy. Pistol is calling Doll Tearsheet a diseased, treacherous woman.
TLN 561archaic vocab
“the quondam Quickly”
'Quondam' is a Latin word meaning 'formerly' or 'the one-time' — something or someone that was once what they are named. Pistol uses it to mean 'the former Mistress Quickly' — i.e. she who was once known as 'Quickly' before she became his wife and changed status. The word was used in legal and semi-learned English to identify a previous holder of a title or office.
TLN 569archaic vocab
“yield the crow a pudding one of these days”
This is a colloquial Elizabethan expression for dying — specifically, for leaving behind a corpse for scavenging birds (crows) to feed on. A 'pudding' in this context refers to the intestines or offal of a slaughtered animal (the word was used for stuffed entrails, i.e. sausage), and the crow will get its share of the body's offal. The Hostess is saying, with rough affection, that Falstaff will be dead soon.
TLN 591historical topical
“I shall sutler be Unto the camp”
A sutler was a civilian provisioner who followed an army and sold food, drink, and supplies to soldiers for cash. The trade was legal but associated with sharp dealing and profiteering — sutlers were notorious for overcharging. Pistol's plan is to attach himself to the French campaign not as a proper soldier but as a camp-following merchant: his 'profits will accrue' from selling to his comrades.
TLN 598archaic vocab
“burning quotidian tertian”
The Hostess means Falstaff has a serious fever, but she has garbled the medical terminology. A 'quotidian' fever recurs every day; a 'tertian' fever recurs every third day — the two are distinct, clinically different types, so 'quotidian tertian' is a contradiction in terms. The malapropism is characteristic of the Hostess, who reaches for learned words and misapplies them, here combining two different diagnoses to make Falstaff's illness sound worse.
TLN 603archaic vocab
“His heart is fracted and corroborate”
'Fracted' means broken, fractured — from the Latin fractus. But 'corroborate' (from Latin corroborare, to strengthen) means made strong or confirmed, the opposite of broken. Pistol intends to say that Falstaff's heart is broken and confirmed broken, i.e. broken beyond repair, but the two words are nearly contradictory. This is Pistol's characteristic bombastic style: he piles on Latinate words that sound impressive but don't quite fit together.