Pistol (smiling sardonically).--What! I do bring good news? Sir John Falstaff.--Carry Master Silence to bed.--Master Shallow, my Lord Shallow, be what thou wilt, I am fortune’s steward. Get on thy boots: we’ll ride all night__O sweet Pistol!--Away, Bardolph.--Come, Pistol, utter more to me; and, withal, devise something to do thyself good.--Boot, boot, Master Shallow: I know, the young king is sick for me. Let us take any man’s horses; the laws of England are at my commandment. Happy are they which have been my friends, and woe unto my lord chief justice! Pistol: Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also! Where is the life that late I led say they; Why, here it is! (snaps his fingers.) Welcome those pleasant days. Scene closes. ] * It will be observed that Shakspeare almost invariably makes Pistol speak in a kind of mongrel blank verse-- apparently in remote imitation of the masques, pageants, and miracle plays then recently introduced into this country from Italy--fashionable amusements, whereat the worthy ancient (in his capacity of hanger-on of all dirty work to the upper classes) doubtless frequently assisted, in a supernumerary capacity. Sir John Falstaff answers him playfully, from one of the earliest known specimens of this kind of composition--See Payne Collier’s History of Dramatic Poetry, and other works to be met with in the admirable and compendious catalogue of the British Museum, which will amply repay perusal. The time long hoped for had then arrived. There was no more thought of drowsiness or dissipation for that night,--no more of debt or difficulty for the future. Henry of Monmouth--Sir John’s pet pupil, his “tender lambkin”--was king; and surely, if such feelings as gratitude and goodfellow-ship existed in the hearts of princes, no man had greater right to look forward to emoluments and dignities under the new _regime_ than Sir John Falstaff. He himself was incapable of forgetting old friends in his prosperity, and he could not suspect such baseness in others. We have heard him declare that he would double charge Pistol with dignities, that Master Shallow might choose what office he would in the land--it should be his! Bardolph, knowing his master’s disposition, would not take a knighthood for his fortune. Not one present was omitted from the circle of Sir John Falstaff’s comprehensive benevolence. Even to poor Master Silence he performed the only kindness which that vocalist was just then capable of benefiting by,--he ordered his inebriated worship to be carried up to bed!