---swift corantos;_] A corant is a sprightly
dance.]

[Footnote III.3: _With +pennons+_] _Pennons_ armorial were small
flags, on which the arms, device, and motto of a knight were
painted.]

SCENE II.--A VIEW IN PICARDY.

_Distant Battle heard._

_Enter GOWER, L.U.E., meeting FLUELLEN, R.H._

_Gow._ (C.) How now, Captain Fluellen! come you from the bridge?(A)

_Flu._ (R.C.) I assure you, there is very excellent service committed at
the pridge.

_Gow._ Is the Duke of Exeter safe?

_Flu._ The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon; and a man that
I love and honour with my soul, and my heart, and my duty, and my life,
and my livings, and my uttermost powers: he is not (Heaven be praised
and plessed!) any hurt in the 'orld; but keeps the pridge most
valiantly, with excellent discipline. There is an ensign there at the
pridge,--I think in my very conscience he is as valiant as Mark Antony;
and he is a man of no estimation in the 'orld; but I did see him do
gallant service.

_Gow._ What do you call him?

_Flu._ He is called--ancient Pistol.[5]

_Gow._ I know him not.

_Enter PISTOL, R.H._

_Flu._ Do you not know him? Here comes the man.

_Pist._ Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours:
The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.

_Flu._ Ay, I praise Heaven; and I have merited some love at his hands.

_Pist._ Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart,
Of buxom valour,[6] hath,--by cruel fate,
And giddy fortune's furious fickle wheel,
That goddess blind.
That stands upon the rolling restless stone,--[7]

_Flu._ By your patience, ancient Pistol. Fortune is painted plind, with
a muffler before her eyes,[8] to signify to you that fortune is plind;
And she is painted also with a wheel, to signify to you, which is the
moral of it, that she is turning, and inconstant, and variations, and
mutabilities: and her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone,
which rolls, and rolls, and rolls:--In good truth, the poet makes a most
excellent description of fortune: fortune, look you, is an excellent
moral.

_Pist._ Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;
For he has stolen a _pix_,[9] and hang'd must 'a be.(B)
A damned death!
Let gallows gape for dog; let man go free,

[_Crosses to L.H._

But Exeter hath given the doom of death,
For _pix_ of little price.
Therefore, go speak, the duke will hear thy voice;
And let not Bardolph's vita