Fal. 'Fore God I would you would, Master 320
Shallow.
Shal. Go to; I have spoke at a word. God
keep you.
Fal. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. 324
Exit [Shallow, with Silence].
On, Bardolph; lead the men away.
[Exit Bardolph, with recruits.]
As I return, I will fetch off these justices:
I do see the bottom of Justice Shallow. Lord,
Lord! how subject we old men are to this 328
vice of lying. This same starved justice hath
done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of
his youth and the feats he hath done about
Turnbull Street; and every third word a lie, duer 332
paid to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. I do
remember him at Clement's Inn like a man made
after supper of a cheese-paring: when a' was
naked he was for all the world like a forked 336
radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it
with a knife: a' was so forlorn that his dimen-
sions to any thick sight were invisible: a' was
the very genius of famine; yet lecherous as a 340
monkey, and the whores called him mandrake:
a' came ever in the rearward of the fashion and
sung those tunes to the over-scutched huswives
that he heard the carmen whistle, and sware 344
they were his fancies or his good-nights. And
now is this Vice's dagger become a squire, and
talks as familiarly of John a Gaunt as if he had
322 at a word: briefly but sincerely
326 fetch off: get the better of, 'take in'
332 duer: more duly
343 over-scutched huswives: cant term for 'harlots'
344 carmen: teamsters
345 fancies . . . good-nights: common names for little poems
346 Vice's dagger; cf. n.
