Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/71

King Henry the Fourth, III. ii

early stirrer, by the rood! And how doth my

good cousin Silence?

Sil. Good morrow, good cousin Shallow.

Shal. And how doth my cousin, your bed-

fellow? and your fairest daughter and mine, my

god-daughter Ellen?

Sil. Alas! a black ousel, cousin Shallow!

Shal. By yea and nay, sir, I dare say my

cousin William is become a good scholar. He is

at Oxford still, is he not?

Sil. Indeed, sir, to my cost.

Shal. A' must, then, to the inns o' court

shortly. I was once of Clement's Inn; where I

think they will talk of mad Shallow yet.

Sil. You were called lusty Shallow' then,

cousin.

Shal. By the mass, I was called anything;

and I would have done anything indeed too,

and roundly too. There was I, and Little John

Doit of Staffordshire, and black George Barnes,

and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele a Cots-

wold man; you had not four such swinge-buck-

lers in all the inns o' court again: and, I may say

to you, we knew where the bona-robas were,

and had the best of them all at commandment.

Then was Jack Falstaff, now Sir John, a boy, and

page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk.

Sil. This Sir John, cousin, that comes hither

anon about soldiers?

Shal. The same Sir John, the very same. I

see him break Skogan's head at the court gate,

when a' was a crack not thus high: and the very

 3 rood: cross

9 ousel: blackbird

14 inns o' court: colleges of law

21 roundly: thoroughly

24 swinge-bucklers: roisterers

26 bona-robas: showy harlots

28, 29 Cf. n.

33 Skogan; cf. n.

34 crack: lively youngster 