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(Enter Snacks.)

Snacks. I have brought your lordship he money. He means to make 'em fly, so I have taken care the guineas shall be all light. (Aside.)

Rob. Now, then, young and old, great and small, little and tall, merry men all, here's among you. (Throws the money; they scramble.) Now you've got your pockets filled, come to the castle, and I'll fill all your mouths for you. (Villagers carry him off, shouting. Snacks follows.)

LESSON L.

OLLAPOD-SIR JOHN CROPLAND.

COLMAN.

Ollapod. Sir John, I have the honor to be your slave. Hope your health is good. Been a hard winter here; sore throats were plenty so were woodcocks. Flushed four couple, one morning in a half-mile walk from our town, to cure Mrs. Quarles of a quinsy. May coming on soon, Sir John. Hope you come to sojourn. Should n't be always on the wing-that's being too flighty. you take?

Do you take, good sir, do

Sir John. Oh, yes, I take. But by the cockade in your hat, Ollapod, you have added lately, it seems, to your avocations.

Olla. My dear Sir John, I have now the honor to be cornet in the volunteer association corps of our town. It fell out unexpected-pop on a sudden, like the going-off of a fieldpiece, or an alderman in an apoplexy.

Sir J. Explain.

Olla. Happening to be at home-rainy day-no going out to sport, blister, shoot, nor bleed—was busy behind the counter.

You know my shop, Sir John-Galen's head over the doornew-gilt him last week, by the by-looks as fresh as a pill. Sir J. Well, no more on that head now; proceed.

Olla. On that head! That's very well, very well, indeed! Thank you, good sir-I owe you one. Churchwarden Posh, of our town, being ill of an indigestion, from eating three pounds of measly pork, at a vestry dinner, I was making up a cathartic for the patient, when who should strut into the shop but Lieutenant Grains, the brewer-sleek as a dray-horse-in a smart scarlet jacket, tastily turned up with a rhubarb-colored lapel. I confess his figure struck me. I looked at him, as I was thumping the mortar, and felt intensely inoculated with a military ardor.

Sir J. Inoculated! I hope your ardor was of a very favorable sort.

Olla. Ha! ha! That's very well-very well, indeed! Thank you, good sir-I owe you one. We first talked of shooting-he knew my celebrity that way, Sir John. I told him, the day before, I had killed six brace of birds—I thumped on at the mortar. We then talked of physic-I told him, the day before, I had killed-lost, I mean-six brace of patients— I thumped on at the mortar, eyeing him all the while; for he looked mighty flashy, to be sure; and I felt an itching to belong to the corps. The medical and military both deal in death, you know—so 'twas natural. Do you take, good sir— do you take?

Sir J. Take? oh, nobody can miss.

Olla. He then talked of the corps itself; said it was sickly -and if a professional person would administer to the health of the association-dose the men, and drench the horse-he could, perhaps, procure him a cornetcy.

Sir J. Well, you jumped at the offer.

Olla. Jumped! I jumped over the counter-kicked down Churchwarden Posh's cathartic into the pocket of Lieutenant

Grain's smart scarlet jacket, tastily turned up with a rhubarbcolored lapel; embraced him and his offer, and I am now Cornet Ollapod, apothecary, at the Galen's Head, of the association corps of cavalry, at your service.

Sir J. I wish you joy of your appointment. You may now distill water for the shop, from the laurels you gather in the field.

Olla. Water for-oh! laurel water. Come, that's very well, very well, indeed! Thank you, good sir-I owe you one. Why, I fancy fame will follow, when the poison of a small mistake I made has ceased to operate.

Sir J. A mistake?

Olla. Having to attend Lady Kitty Carbuncle on a grand field day, clapped a pint bottle of her ladyship's diet drink into one of my holsters; intending to proceed to the patient, after the exercise was over. I reached the martial ground, and jalaped-galloped, I mean-wheeled and flourished with great eclat; but when the word "fire" was given, meaning to pull out my pistol, in a horrible hurry, I presented, neck foremost, the villanous diet drink of Lady Kitty Carbuncle; and the medicine being unfortunately fermented by the jolting of my horse, it forced out the cork with a prodigious pop, full in the face of my gallant commander.

Sir J. A mistake, indeed!-ha! ha! ha!

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Falstaff. A plague on all cowards, I say, and a vengeance, too! marry, and amen! (To an attendant.) Give me a cup of sack, boy. Ere I lead this life long, I'll sew nethersocks,

and mend them and foot them, too. A plague on all cowards. Give me a cup of sack, rogue. Is there no virtue extant? (Drains the cup.) You rogue, here's lime in this sack, too. There is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man! Yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it; a villainous coward. Go thy ways, old Jack; die when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a shotten herring. There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat, and grown old-a bad world, I say! A plague on all cowards, I

say still!

Henry. How now, wool-sack? what mutter you?

Fal. A king's son! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath, and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock of wild geese, I'll never wear hair on my face more. You-Prince of Wales!

Henry. Why, what's the matter?

Fal. Are you not a coward? answer me that.

Henry. Ye fat paunch, and ye call me coward, I'll stab thee.

Fal. I call thee coward? I'll see thee hanged ere I call thee coward: but I would give a thousand pound, I could run as fast as thou canst. You are straight enough in the shoulders, you care not who sees your back. Call you that, backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing! give me them that will face me. Give me a cup of sack: I am a rogue,

if I have drunk to-day.

Henry. Oh villain! thy lips are scarce wiped since thou drankst last.

Fal. All's one for that. (He drinks.) A plague on all cowards, still say I!

Henry. What's the matter?

Fal. What's the matter? here be four of us have taken a thousand pound this morning.

Henry. Where is it, Jack? where is it?

Fal. Where is it? taken from us, it is: a hundred upon poor four of us.

Henry. What, a hundred, man?

Fal. I am a rogue, if I were not at half-sword with a dozen' of them two hours together. I have escaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet: four through the hose; my buckler cut through and through; my sword hacked like a handsaw, ecce signum. (Shows his sword.) I never dealt better since I was a man: all would not do. A plague on all cowards!

Henry. What, fought you with them all?

Fal. All? I know not what ye call all; but, if I fought not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish: if there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then I am no twolegged creature.

Henry. Pray heaven, you have not murdered some of them!

Fal. Nay, that's past praying for. I have peppered two of them: two I am sure, I have paid; two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me a horse. Thou knowest my old ward. (Taking a position for fighting.) Here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me

Henry. What, four? thou saidst but two, even now.

Fal. Four, Hal! I told thee four. These four came all a-front, and mainly thrust at me. I made no more ado, but took all their seven points in my target, thus.

Henry. Seven! why, there were but four, even now.
Fal. In buckram.

Henry. Ay, four in buckram suits.

Fal. Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else. Dost thou hear me, Hal?

Henry. Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.

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