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And, as I am a gentleman, I'll give thee
A hundred pound in gold, more than your loss.
Host. Iwill hear you, master Fenton; and I will,
at the least, keep your counsel.

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While other sports are tasking of their minds,
And at the deanery, where a priest attends,
Straight marry her: to this her mother's plot
She seemingly obedient, likewise hath
Made promise to the doctor:-Now, thus it rests;
Her father means she shall be all in white;
And in that habit, when Slender sees his time
To take her by the hand, and bid her go,
She shall go with him : her mother hath intended,
10 The better to devote her to the doctor,
(For they must all be mask'd and vizarded)
That quaint in green, she shall be loose enrob'd,
With ribbands pendant, flaring 'bout her head;
And when the doctor spies his vantage ripe,
To pinch her by the hand, and, on that token,
The maid hath given consent to go with him.
Host. Which means she to deceive? father or
mother?

Feat. From time to time I have acquainted you
With the dear love I bear to fair Anne Page;
Who, mutually, hath answer'd my affection
(So far forth as herself might he her chuser)
Even to my wish: I have a letter from her
Of such contents as you will wonder at;
The mirth whereof's so larded with my matter,
That neither, singly, can be manifested,
Without the shew of both: Fat sir John Falstaff
Hath a great scene; the image of the jest
[Shewing a letter. 15
I'll shew you here at large. Hark, good mine

host;

1

[one,

To-night at Herne's oak, just 'twixt twelve and
Must iny sweet Nan present the fairy queen;
The purpose why, is here2; in which disguise,
While other jests are something rank on foot,
Her father hath commanded her to slip
Away with Slender, and with him at Eaton [sir,
Immediately to marry: she hath consented: now,
Her mother even strong against that match,
And firm for doctor Caius, hath appointed
That he shall likewise shuffle her away,

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SCENE I.

A CT V.

Enter Falstaff and Mrs. Quickly.
Fal. PRYTHEE, no more pratling;-go.

[35]hape of man, master Brook, I fear not Goliah
with a weaver's beam; because I know also,
life is a shuttle. I am in haste; go along with
me; I'll tell you all, master Brook. Since I
pluck'd geese, play'd truant, and whipp'd top, I
knew not what 'twas to be beaten, till lately.
Follow me: I'll tell you strange things of this
knave Ford; on whom to-night I will be re-
veng'd, and I will deliver his wife into your hand.
Follow: Strange things in hand, master Brook!
follow.~
[Excunt.

I'll hold: This is the third time: I hope good luck lies in odd numbers. Away, go; they 40 say there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance or death.-Away.

Quic. I'll provide you a chain; and I'll do what
I can to get you a pair of horns. [Ex. Mrs. Quickly.
Fal. Away, I say; time wears: hold up your 45
head, and mince.

Enter Ford.

How now, master Brook? Master Brook, the
matter will be known to-night, or never. Be you
in the Park about midnight, at Herne's oak, and 50
you shall see wonders.

Ford. Went you not to her yesterday, sir, as you told me you had appointed?

Fal. I went to her, master Brook, as you see, like a poor old man: but I came from her, mas-55 ter Brook, like a poor old woman. That same knave, Ford her husband, hath the finest mad devil of jealousy in him, master Brook, that ever govern'd frenzy. I will tell you.-He beat me grievously, in the shape of a woman; for in the 60

SCENE II.

Windsor Park.

Enter Page, Shallow, and Slender. Page. Come, come; we'll couch i' the castleditch, till we see the light of our fairies.-Remember, son Slender, my daughter.

Slen. Ay, forsooth; I have spoke with her, and we have a nay-word' how to know one another. I come to her in white, and cry, nium; she cries, budget; and by that we know one another.

Shal. That's good too: But what needs either your mum, or her budget? the white will decipher her well enough.-It hath sruck ten o'clock.

Page. The night is dark; light and spirits will 3 Even here means as. 4 Perhaps we As quaint signifies fantastical, the meaning may be, fantastically drest in To mince is to walk with affected delicacy. That is, a watch-word.

That is, the representation. 2 In the letter. should read denote.

green.

become

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SCENE III. Enter Mistress Page, Mistress Ford,and Dr.Caius Mrs. Page. Master doctor, my daughter is in green: when you see your time, take her by the hand, away with her to the deanery, and dispatch it quickly: Go before into the park; we two must go together.

Caius. I know vat I have to do; Adieu. [Exit. Mrs. Page. Fare you well, sir. My husband will not rejoice so much at the abuse of Falstaff, as he will chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter: but 'tis no matter; better a little chiding, than a great deal of heart-break.

Mrs. Ford. Where is Nan now, and her troop of fairies? and the Welch devil Evans?

Enter Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Fage. Mrs. Ford. Sir John? art thou there, my dear? my male deer?

Fal My doe with the black scut?Let the sky 5 rain potatoes, let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves; hail kissing-comfits, and snow eringoes; let there come a tempest of provocation, I will shelter me here.

10

Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page is come with me, sweetheart.

Ful. Divide me like a bribe-buck, cacha haunch; I will keep my sides to myself, my shoulders for the fellow of this walk, and my horns I bequeath your husbands. Am I woodman? ba! Speak I 15ike Herne the hunter-Why, now is Cupid a child of conscience; he makes restitution. As I Jam a true spirit, welcome! [Noise within. Mrs. Page, Alas! what noise? Mrs. Ford. Heaven forgive our sins! Fal. What shall this be?

Mrs. Page. They are all couch'd in a pit hard by Herne's oak, with obscur'd lights; which, at 20 the very instant of Falstaf's and our meeting, they will at once display to the night.

Mrs. Ford. That cannot chuse but amaze him. Mrs. Page. If he be not amaz'd, he will be mock'd; if he be amaz'd, he will every way be 25

mock'd.

Mrs. Ford. We'll betray him finely. [lechery, Mrs. Page. Against such lewdsters, and their Those that betray them do no treachery. Mrs. Ford. The hour draws on; To the oak, to 30 the oak! [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Enter Sir Hugh Evans, and Fairies. Eva. Trib, trib, fairies; come; and remember your parts: be pold, I pray you; follow me into the pit; and when I give the watch-'ords, do as I pid you; Come come; trib, trib. [Exeunt.

SCENE V.

Mrs. Ford.)
Mrs. Page.

Away, away. [The women run out,

Fal. I think the devil will not have me damn'd' lest the oil that is in me should set hell on fire; he never would else cross me thus,

Enter Sir Hugh like a satyr; Quickly, and others
dress'd like fairies, with tapers.

Quick. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white,
You moon-shine revellers, and shades of night,
You orphan-heirs of fixed destiny,
Attend your office, and your quality.-
Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy o-yes.

[toys.
Eva. Elves, list your names; silence, you airy
Cricket, to Windsor chimnies shalt thou leap:
35 Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths un-
There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry'; [swept,
Our radiant queen hates sluts, and sluttery. [die:
Fal. They are fairies; he, that speaks to them, shall
I'll wink and couch: No mantheir works must eye.
40
[Lies down upon his face.
Eva. Where's Bede?-Go you, and where you
find a maid,

Enter Falstaff with a buck's head on. Fal. The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; the minute draws on: Now, the hot-blooded gods assist me!-Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa; love set on thy horns.-Oh powerful love! that, in some respects, makes a beast a man, 45 in some other, a man a beast.-You were also, Jupiter, a swan, for the love of Leda;-Oh, omnipotent love! how near the god drew to the complexion of a goose!—A fault done first in the form of a beast;-O Jove, a beastly fault!-and then 50 another fault in the semblance of a fowl;-think on't, Jove; a foul fault.—When gods have hot backs, what shall poor men do? For me, I am here a Windsor stag; and the fattest, I think, '55 the forest: Send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who cau blame me to piss my tallow1? Who comes here? my doe?

3

That, ere she sleep, hath thrice her prayers said,
Rein up the organs of her fantasy,
Sleep she as sound as careless infancy:
But those as sleep,andthink not on their sins,[shins.
Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, sides, and
Quick. About, about;

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Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out:
Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room;
That it may stand till the perpetual doom,
In state as wholsome as in state'tis fit;
Worthy the owner, and the owner it.
The several chairs of order look you scour
With juice of balm, and every precious flower:
Each fair instalment coat, and several crest,
With loyal blazon, evermore be blest!

1 A technical phrase spoken of bucks who grow lean after rutting-time, and may be applied to men. Potatoes, when they were first introduced in England, were supposed to be strong provocatives. Sugar plums perfumed to make the breath sweet. That is, for the keeper of this district. By custom, the shoulders and humbles were a perquisite of the keeper's. The whortleberry, called bilberry in Staffordshire, and on which the More game feed. That is, elevate her ideas above sensual desires and imaginations. Wholsome here significs entire or perfect.

And

And nightly, meadow-fairies, look, you sing,
Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring:
The expressure that it bears, green let it be,
More fertile-fresh than all the field to see,
And Honi Soit Qui Mal y Pense, write,
In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white;
Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee;
Fairies use flowers for their charactery1.
Away; disperse: But, till 'tis one o'clock,
Our dance of custom, round about the oak
Of Herne the hunter, let us not forget. [order set:
Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand; yourselvesin
And twenty glow-worms shall our lanthorns be,
To guide our measure round about the tree.
But, stay; I smell a man of middle 2 earth.
Ful. Heavens defend me from that Welch fairy!
lest he transform me to a piece of cheese! [birth.
Era. Vile worm, thou wast o'erlook'devenin thy
Quic. With trial-fire touch me his finger end:
If he be chaste, the flame will back descend,
And turn him to no pain; but if he start,
It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.

Eva. A trial, çome.

Become the forest better than the town?

Ford. Now, sir, who's a cuckold now? Master Brook, Falstaff's a knave, a cuckoldly knave: here are his horns, master Brook: And, master Brook, 5 he hath enjoy'd nothing of Ford's but his buckbasket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds of money; which must be paid to master Brook; his horses are arrested for it, master Brook.

Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we 10 could never meet. I will never take you for my love again, but I will always count you my deer. Fal. I do begin to perceive that I am made an

ass.

Ford. Ay, and an ox too; both the proofs are

15 extant.

Fal. And these are not fairies? I was three or four times in the thought they were not fairies: and yet the guiltiness of my mind, the sudden surprize of my powers, drove the grossness of the 20 foppery into a receiv'd belief, in despight of the teeth of all rhime and reason, that they were fairies. See now, how wit may be made a Jack-alent, when 'tis upon ill employment!

Eva. Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave

[They burn him with their tapers, and pinch him. 25 your desires, and fairies will not pinse you. Come, will this wood take fire?

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The SONG.

Fie on sinful phantasy!

Fie on lust and luxury3!

Lust is but a bloody fire*,

Kindled with unchaste desire,

Fed in heart; whose flames aspire,

As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher.
Pinch him, fairies, mutually:
Pinch him for his villainy;

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Ford. Well said, fairy Hugh.

Eva. And leave your jealousies also, I pray you. Ford. I will never mistrust my wife again, till thou art able to woo her in good English.

Fal. Have I lay'd my brain in the sun, and dried it, that it wants matter to prevent so gross o'erreaching as this? Am I ridden with a Welch goat too? shall I have a coxcomb or frize? 'tis time I were choak'd with a piece of toasted cheese.

Era. Seese is not good to give putter; your pelly is all putter.

Fal. Seese and putter! have I liv'd to stand in the taunt of one that makes fritters of English ?this is enough to be the decay of lust and late40 walking, through the realm.

Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about,
'Till candles, and star-light, and moonshine be out.
[During this song, they pinch him. Doctor Caius
comes one way, and steals away a fairyin green; 45
Slender another way, and he takes away a fairy
in white; and Fenton comes, and steals away
Mrs. Anne Page. A noise of hunting is made
within. All the fairies run away. Falstaff pulls
of his buck's head, and rises.]

Enter Page, Ford, &c. They lay hold on him.
Page. Nay, do not fly: I think, we have watch'd

you now;

50

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Mrs. Page. Why sir John, do you think, though we would have thrust virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders, and have given ourselves without scruple to hell, that ever the devil could have made you our delight?

Ford. What a hodge-pudding? a bag of flax? Mrs. Page. A puff'd man?

Page. Old, cold, wither'd, and of intolerable entrails?

Ford. And one that is as slanderous as Satan? Page. And as poor as Job?

Ford. And as wicked as his wife?

Era. And given to fornications, and to taverns, and sacks, and wines, and metheglins, and to drinkings, and swearings, and starings, pribbles and prabbles?

Fal. Well, I am your theme; you have the start of me; I am dejected; I am not able to an

'Or the matter with which they make letters. 2 Spirits being supposed to inhabit the ætherial regions, and fairies to dwell under ground, men therefore are in a middle station. Luxury here

3

signifies incontinence. 4 That is, the fire in the blood. A Jack o' Lent was a puppet thrown at in Lent, like Shrove-tide cocks. That is, a fool's cap made out of Welch cloth.

swer

swer the Welch flannel'; ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me: use me as you will.

Ford. Marry, sir, we'll bring you to Windsor, to one master Brook, that you cozened of money, to whom you should have been a pandar: over 5 and above that you have suffer'd, I think, to repay that money will be a biting affliction. [amends: Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to make Forgive that sum, and so we'll all be friends.

Ford. Well, here's my hand; all's forgiven at last. 10 Page. Yet be cheerful, knight: thou shalt eat a posset to-night at my house; where I will desire thee to laugh at my wife, that now laughs at thee: Tell her, master Slender hath married her daughter.

Mrs. Page. Doctors doubt that; if Anne Page be my daughter, she is, by this, doctor Caius' wife.

Enter Slender.

[Aside.

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Page. Of what, son?

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20

25

Slen. I came yonder at Eaton to marry mistress Anne Page, and she's a great lubberly boy: If it had not been i' the church, I would have swing'd him, or he should have swing'd me. If I did not 30 think it had been Anne Page, would I might never stir, and 'tis a post-master's boy.

Page. Upon my life then you took the wrong. Slen. What need you tell ine that? I think so, when I took a boy for a girl: If I had been mar-35 ried to him, for all he was in woman's apparel, I would not have had him.

Page. Why, this is your own folly: Did not I tell you, how you should know my daughter by her garments?

Slen. I went to her in white, and cry'd mum, and she cry'd budget, as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a post-master's boy.

Era. Jeshu! Master Slender, cannot you see but marry poys?

Page. O, I am vex'd at heart: What shall I do? Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry; I knew of your purpose; turn'd my daughter into green; and, indeed, she is now with the doctor at the deanery, and there married.

Enter Caius.

Caius. Vere is mistress Page? By gar I am co-l

40

zen'd; I ha' married un garcon, a boy; unpaisan,
by gar, a boy; it is not Anne Page: by gar,
, I am
cozen'd.

Mrs. Page. Why, did you not take her in green?

Caius. Ay, be gar, and 'tis a boy: be gar, I'll raise all Windsor. [Exit Caius. Ford. This is strange: Who hath got the right Anne?

Page. My heart misgives me-Here comes master Fenton.

Enter Fenton and Anne Page.
How now, master Fenton ?

Anne. Pardon, good father! good my mother,
pardon!

Page. Now, mistress, how chance you went not with master Slender?

Mrs. Page. Why went you not with master

doctor, maid?

Fent. You do amaze her: Hear the truth of it.
You would have married her most shamefully,
Where there was no proportion held in love.
The truth is, She and I, long since contracted,
Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us.
The offence is holy, that she hath committed:
And this deceit loses the name of craft,
Of disobedience, or unduteous title:
Since therein she doth evitate and shun
A thousand irreligious cursed hours,
Which forced marriage would have brought upon
Ford. Stand not amaz'd: here is no remedy:-
In love, the heavens themselves do guide the state;
Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate.

[her.

Fal. I am glad, though you have ta'en a special stand to strike at me, that your arrow hath glanc'd. Page. Well, what remedy? Fenton, heaven give thee joy!

What cannot be eschew'd, must be embrac'd.
Era. I will dance and eat plums at your wedding.
Fal. When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer are
chard.

Mrs. Page. Well, I will muse no further:-Master
Fenton,

Heaven give you many, many merry days!--
45 Good husband, let us every one go home,
And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire;
Sir John and all.

50

Ford. Let it be so:- -Sir John, To master Brook you yet shall hold your word; For he, to-night, shall lye with mistress Ford. [Exeunt omnes.

On the meaning of this difficult passage

Flannel was originally the manufacture of Wales. commentators are greatly divided. Dr. Farmer's conjecture, that we should read, "Ignorance itself

is a planet o er me," appears to be the most intelligible.

MEASURE

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