[Pistol draws.]

Bardolph. Good Lieutenant—good Corporal—offer nothing here.

Nym. Pish!

Pistol. Pish for thee, Iceland dog;° thou prick-eared cur of Iceland!

 

Hostess. Good Corporal Nym, show thy valor, and put up your sword.°

21 troth-plight betrothed (more binding than a modern engagement)

25-26 patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod patience is wearisome, yet it achieves its purpose in the end

36 honestly (1) decently (2) chastely (“prick” of the same line sustains the bawdy allusion)

44 Iceland dog white sharp-eared dog, so shaggy that neither its face nor body can be seen (a favonte lapdog)

46-47 show thy valor, and put up your sword (unintentionally apposite, for Nym had such little valor that he could not fight)

Nym. Will you shog off?° I would have you solus.°

Pistol. “Solus,” egregious° dog? O viper vile!

The “solus” in thy most marvelous face!
The “solus” in thy teeth, and in thy throat,
And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw,° perdy!°
And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth!
I do retort the “solus” in thy bowels;
For I can take,° and Pistol’s cock is up,°
And flashing fire will follow.

Nym. I am not Barbason;° you cannot conjure° me; I have an humor to knock you indifferently° well. If you grow foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my rapier,° as I may, in fair terms.° If you would walk off, I would prick your guts a little in good terms,° as I may, and that’s the humor° of it.

Pistol. O braggard vile, and damnèd furious wight,° The grave doth gape,° and doting° death is near; Therefore exhale!°

 

Bardolph. Hear me, hear me what I say! He that strikes the first stroke, I’ll run him up to the hilts,° as I am a soldier. [Draws.]

Pistol. An oath of mickleo might, and fury shall abate. [Pistol and Nym sheathe their swords.]

Give me thy fist, thy forefoot° to me give.

48 shog off move off (slang)

48 solus alone (Pistol takes it to mean single; i.e., unmarried; or, ignorant of Latin, some great insult)

49 egregious outsized

52 maw stomach

52 perdy by God

55 take (1) cause harm to befall (by his elaborate exorcism or curse) (2) strike (3) take fire 55 cock is up is cocked for firing (punning on his name)

57 Barbason name of a fiend

57 conjure exorcise

58 indifferenthy fairly

59-60 If you grow ... my rapier (a pistol was said to be “foul after firing, and was normally cleaned with a ramrod or scouring rod)

60 m fair terms fairly (a fashionable cliché)

61-62 in good terms on a good footing (another fashionable cliché)

62 humor fancy, inclination (yet another cliché)

63 wight person

64 gape (1) open (2) greedily desire

64 doting loving, fond

65 exhale draw forth

67 run him up to the hilts drive the whole sword blade into him

69 mickle great (already, in Shakespeare’s day, archaistic)

70 forefoot paw

Thy spirits are most tall.°

Nym. I will cut thy throat one time or other in fair terms, that is the humor of it.

Pistol. Couple a gorge!°

That is the word. I thee defy° again.
O hound of Crete,° think‘st thou my spouse to get?
No; to the spital° go,
And from the powd’ring tub° of infamy
Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid’s kind,°
Doll Tearsheet,° she by name, and her espouse.
I have, and I will hold, the quondam° Quickly
For the only she;° and—pauca,° there’s enough.
Go to!

Enter the Boy.

Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master° —and your hostess. He is very sick and would to bed. Good Bardolph, put thy faceo between his sheets, and do the office of a warming pan. Faith, he’s very ill.

Bardolph. Away, you rogue!

Hostess. By my troth, he’ll yield the crow a pudding° one of these days. The King has killed his heart.° Good husband, come home presently.° Exit.

Bardolph. Come, shall I make you two friends? We

71 tall courageous

74 Couple a gorge cut the throat (a comic version of the French, couper la gorge, appropriate to the coming campaign)

75 defy challenge

76 hound of Crete (another shaggy dog; cf. line 44, note)

77 spital hospital

78 powd‘ring tub pickling vat (frequently applied to the sweating tub used for curing venereal disease)

79 lazar kite of Cressid’s kind leprous whore (a stock phrase; a kite is a bird of prey)

80 Doll Tearsheet (cf. 2 Henry 4, 2.3.165-68 and 5.4)

81 quondam former

82 only she one woman in the world

82 pauca few words (Latin, pauca verba) 84 my master i.e., Falstaff (the boy is the page given to Falstaff by Prince Hal, 2 Henry 4, 1.2)

86 thy face (Bardolph’s was red like fire) 90 he’ll yield the crow a pudding i.e., the boy will make food (pudding = stuffed intestines) for crows on the gallows (proverbial)

91 The King has killed his heart (by rejecting Falstaff; cf. 2 Henry 4, 5.5.51-77)

92 presently immediately

must to France together; why the devil should we keep knives to cut one another’s throats?

Pistol. Let floods o‘erswell, and fiends for food howl on!°

Nym. You’ll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting?

Pistol. Base is the slave that pays.°

Nym. That now I will have; that’s the humor of it.

Pistol. As manhood shall compound.° Push° home. [They] draw.

Bardolph. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I’ll kill him! By this sword, I will. [Draws.]

_ Pistol. “Sword” is an oath, and oaths must have their course. [Sheathes his sword.]

Bardolph. Corporal Nym, and° thou wilt be friends, be friends; and thou wilt not, why then be enemies with me too. Prithee put up.°

Nym. I shall have my eight shillings I won of you at betting?

Pistol. A noble° shalt thou have, and present° pay;

And liquor likewise will I give to thee,
And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood.
I’ll live by Nym, and Nym shall live by me.
Is not this just? For I shall sutler° be
Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.
Give me thy hand. [Nym sheathes his sword.]

Nym. I shall have my noble?

Pistol. In cash, most justly paid.

96 Let floods ... howl on let riot thrive and the devils be deprived of their prey

99 Base is the slave that pays (a corruption of the proverb, “The poor man always pays”)

101 manhood shall compound valor decides

101 Push thrust (of a sword)

105 and if

107 put up sheathe

110 noble coin worth six shillings and eight pence

110 present immediate

114 sutler seller of provisions to a camp or garrison

Nym. Well then, that’s the humor of’t.

Enter Hostess.

Hostess. As ever you come of women, come in quickly to Sir John. Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning quotidian tertian° that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him.

Nym. The King hath run bad humors° on the knight; that’s the even° of it.

Pistol. Nym, thou hast spoke the right;

His heart is fracted and corroborated °

Nym. The King is a good king, but it must be as it may: he passes some humors, and careers.°

Pistol. Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins, we will live. [Exeunt.]

[Scene 2.