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 living, and my utter-
most power: he is not—God be praised and
plessed!—any hurt in the world; but keeps then
pridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline.
There is an aunchient lieutenant there at the
pridge, I think, in my very conscience, he is as
valiant a man as Mark Antony; and he is a man
of no estimation in the world; but I did see him
do as gallant service. 17
Gow. What do you call him?
Flu. He is called Aunchient Pistol.
Gow. I know him not. 20
Enter Pistol.
Flu. Here is the man.
Pist. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours:
The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well.
Flu. Ay, I praise God; and I have merited
some love at his hands. 25
Pist. Bardolph, a soldier firm and sound of heart,
And of buxom valour, hath, by cruel fate
And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel, 28
That goddess blind,
That stands upon the rolling restless stone,—
Flu. By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. For-
tune is painted plind, with a muffler afore her
eyes, to signify to you that Fortune is plind: and
she is painted also with a wheel, to signify to 34
you, which is the moral of it, that she is turning,
13 aunchient lieutenant; cf. n.
27 buxom: brisk
