Thou art perfect.
POINTZ.
[Within.] Francis!
[Enter Francis.]
FRAN.
Anon, anon, sir.—Look down into the Pomegranate, Ralph.
PRINCE.
Come hither, Francis.
FRAN.
My lord?
PRINCE.
How long hast thou to serve, Francis?
FRAN.
Forsooth, five years, and as much as to—
POINTZ. [within.] Francis!
FRAN.
Anon, anon, sir.
PRINCE. Five year! by’r Lady, a long lease for the clinking of pewter. But, Francis, darest thou be so valiant as to play the coward with thy indenture and show it a fair pair of heels and run from it?
FRAN.
O Lord, sir, I’ll be sworn upon all the books in England,
I could find in my heart—
POINTZ. [within.] Francis!
FRAN.
Anon, anon, sir.
PRINCE.
How old art thou, Francis?
FRAN.
Let me see,—about Michaelmas next I shall be—
POINTZ. [within.] Francis!
FRAN.
Anon, sir.—Pray you, stay a little, my lord.
PRINCE. Nay, but hark you, Francis: for the sugar thou gavest me, ‘twas a pennyworth, was’t not?
FRAN.
O Lord, sir, I would it had been two!
PRINCE. I will give thee for it a thousand pound: ask me when thou wilt, and thou shalt have it.
POINTZ. [within.] Francis!
FRAN.
Anon, anon.
PRINCE.
Anon, Francis? No, Francis; but tomorrow, Francis; or,
Francis, a Thursday; or, indeed, Francis, when thou wilt. But,
Francis,—
FRAN.
My lord?
PRINCE. —wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, crystal-button, nott-pated, agate-ring, puke-stocking, caddis-garter, smooth-tongue, Spanish-pouch,—
FRAN.
O Lord, sir, who do you mean?
PRINCE.
Why, then, your brown bastard is your only drink; for, look you, Francis, your white canvas doublet will sully: in Barbary, sir, it cannot come to so much.
FRAN.
What, sir?
POINTZ. [within.] Francis!
PRINCE.
Away, you rogue! dost thou not hear them call?
[Here they both call him; Francis stands amazed, not knowing which way to go.]
[Enter Vintner.]
VINT. What, stand’st thou still, and hear’st such a calling? Look to the guests within. [Exit Francis.]—My lord, old Sir John, with half-a-dozen more, are at the door: shall I let them in?
PRINCE.
Let them alone awhile, and then open the door.
[Exit Vintner.]
Pointz!
[Re-enter Pointz.]
POINTZ.
Anon, anon, sir.
PRINCE. Sirrah, Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are at the door: shall we be merry?
POINTZ. As merry as crickets, my lad. But hark ye; what cunning match have you made with this jest of the drawer? Come, what’s the issue?
PRINCE. I am now of all humours that have showed themselves humours since the old days of goodman Adam to the pupil age of this present twelve o’clock at midnight.—What’s o’clock, Francis?
FRAN.
[Within.] Anon, anon, sir.
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 kill’d to-day? Give my roan horse a drench, says he; and answers, Some fourteen, an hour after,—a trifle, a trifle. I pr’ythee, call in Falstaff: I’ll play Percy, and that damn’d brawn shall play Dame Mortimer his wife. Rivo! says the drunkard. Call in ribs, call in tallow.
[Enter Falstaff, Gadshill, Bardolph, and Peto; followed by
Francis with wine.]
POINTZ.
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 cup of sack, rogue.—Is there no virtue extant?
[Drinks.]
PRINCE. Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter? pitiful-hearted butter, that melted at the sweet tale of the Sun! if thou didst, then behold that compound.
FAL. You rogue, here’s lime in this sack too: there is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man: yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it, a villanous coward.—Go thy ways, old Jack: die when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the
