_Bardolph._ O, my lord, my lord; the sheriff, with a most monstrous
watch, is at the door.
_Falstaff._ Out, you rogue! play out the play: I have much to say in
the behalf of that Falstaff."
One of the most characteristic descriptions of Sir John is that which Mrs.
Quickly gives of him when he asks her "What is the gross sum that I owe
thee?"
"_Hostess._ Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself, and the money
too. Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my
Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire on Wednesday
in Whitsun-week, when the Prince broke thy head for likening his
father to a singing man of Windsor; thou didst swear to me then, as I
was washing thy wound, to marry me, and make me my lady thy wife.
Canst thou deny it? Did not goodwife Keech, the butcher's wife, come
in then, and call me gossip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of
vinegar; telling us, she had a good dish of prawns; whereby thou didst
desire to eat some; whereby I told thee they were ill for a green
wound? And didst thou not, when she was gone down stairs, desire me to
be no more so familiarity with such poor people; saying, that ere long
they should call me madam? And didst thou not kiss me, and bid me
fetch thee thirty shillings? I put thee now to thy book-oath; deny it,
if thou canst."
This scene is to us the most convincing proof of Falstaff's power of
gaining over the good will of those he was familiar with, except indeed
Bardolph's somewhat profane exclamation on hearing the account of his
death, "Would I were with him, wheresoe'er he is, whether in heaven or
hell."
One of the topics of exulting superiority over others most common in Sir
John's mouth is his corpulence and the exterior marks of good living which
he carries about him, thus "turning his vices into commodity." He accounts
for the friendship between the Prince and Poins, from "their legs being
both of a bigness;" and compares Justice Shallow to "a man made after
supper of a cheese-paring." There cannot be a more striking gradation of
character than that between Falstaff and Shallow, and Shallow and Silence.
It seems difficult at first to fall lower than the squire; but this fool,
great as he is, finds an admirer and humble foil in his cousin Silence.
Vain of his acquaintance with Sir John, who makes a butt of him, he
exclaims, "Would, cousin Silence, that thou had'st seen that which this
knight and I have seen!"--"Aye, Master Shallow, we have heard the chimes
at midnight," says Sir John. To Falstaff's observation, "I did not think
Master Silence had been a man of this mettle," Silence answers, "Who, I? I
have been merry twice and once ere now." What an idea is here conveyed of
a prodigality of living? What good husbandry and economical self-denial in
his pleasures? What a stock of lively recollections? It is curious that
Shakspeare has ridiculed in Justice Shallow, who was "in some authority
under the king," that disposition to unmeaning tautology which is the
regal infirmity of later times, and which, it may be supposed, he acquired
from talking to his cousin Silence, and receiving no answers.
"_Falstaff._ You have here a goodly dwelling, and a rich.
_Shallow._ Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all, Sir
John: marry, good air. Spread Davy, spread Davy. Well said, Davy.
_Falstaff._ This Davy serves you for good uses.
_Shallow._ A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet. By the
mass, I have drunk too much sack at supper. A good varlet. Now sit
down, now sit down. Come, cousin."
The true spirit of humanity, the thorough knowledge of the stuff we are
made of, the practical wisdom with the seeming fooleries in the whole of
the garden-scene at Shallow's country-seat, and just before in the
exquisite dialogue between him and Silence on the death of old Double,
have no parallel anywhere else. In one point of view, they are laughable
in the extreme; in another they are equally affecting, if it is affecting
to shew _what a little thing is human life_, what a poor forked creature
man is!