Fal. I went to her, master Brook, as you see, like a poor old man: but I came from her, master Brook, like a poor old woman. That same knave, Ford her husband, bath the finest mad devil of jealousy in him, master Brook, that ever governed frenzy. I will tell you.-He beat me grievously, in the shape of a woman; for in the shape of man, master Brook, I fear not Goliath 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 plucked geese, played truant, and whipped top, I knew not what it was to be beaten, till lately. Follow me: 'll tell you strange things of this knave Ford; on whom to-night I will be revenged, and I will deliver his wife into your hand.-Follow:-Strange things in hand, master Brook! follow. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Windsor Park. Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and Slender. Page. Come, come; we'll couch i' the castle-ditch, 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, mum; 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 struck ten o'clock.

Page. The night is dark; light and spirits will become it well. Heaven prosper our sport! No man means evil but the devil, and we shall know him by his horns. Let's away; follow me. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

The Street in Windsor. Enter Mrs. PAGE, Mrs. FORD, and 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 despatch it quickly: Go before into the park; we two must go together.

Caius. I know vat I have to do; Adieu.

[Exit.

[6] To strip a living goose of his feathers, was formerly an act of puerile barbarity.

STEEVENS.

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, Hugh?

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

Mrs. Ford. That cannot choose but amaze him.

Mrs. Page. If he be not amazed, he will be mocked; if he be amazed, he will every way be mocked.

Mrs. Ford. We'll betray him finely.

Mrs. Page. Against such lewdsters, and their lechery, Those that betray them do no treachery.

Mrs. Ford. The hour draws on; To the oak, to the oak. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Windsor Park. 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.

:

SCENE V.

[Exeunt.

Another Part of the Park. Enter FALSTAFF disguised, 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.-O powerful love! that, in some respects, makes a beast a man; in some other, a man a beast.You were also, Jupiter, a swan, for the love of Leda ;— O, 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 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, i' the forest: Send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to piss my tallow? Who comes here? my doe?

Enter Mrs. FORD and Mrs. PAGE.

Mrs. Ford. Sir John ? art thou there, my deer? my male deer?

Fal. My doe with the black scut ?-Let the sky 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.

[Embracing her. Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page is come with me, sweetheart. Fal. Divide me like a bribe-buck, each a haunch: I will keep my sides to myself, my shoulders for the fellow of this walk, and my horns I bequeath to your husbands. Am I a woodman? ha! Speak I like Herne the hunter? Why, now is Cupid a child of conscience; he makes restitution. As I am a true spirit, welcome! [Noise within. Mrs. Page. Alas! what noise?

Mrs. Ford. Heaven forgive our sins!
Fal. What should this be?

Mrs. Ford, Mrs. Page. Away, away.

[They run off.

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

Enter Sir HUGH EVANS, like a satyr; Mrs. QUICKLY, and PISTOL; ANNE PAGE, as the Fairy Queen, attended by her Brother and others, dressed like Fairies, with waxen tapers on their heads.

Quic. Fairies, black, gray, green, and white, You moon-shine revellers, and shades of night, You Ouphen heirs of fixed destiny,

Attend your office, and your quality.

Crier Hobgoblin, make the Fairy o-yes.

Pist. Elves, list your names ;-silence, you airy toys.-Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap :

Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths unswept, There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry :

Our radiant queen hates sluts, and sluttery.

Fal. They are fairies: he, that speaks to them, shall die: I'll wink and couch: No man their works must eye. [Lies down upon his face.

Eva. Where's Pede?-Go you, and where you find a That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said, [maid,

[7] Potatoes, when they were first introduced into England, were supposed to be strong provocatives. [8] The bilberry is the whortleberry. STEEV.

Raise up the organs of her fantasy;

Sleep she as sound as careless infancy;

But those that sleep, and think not on their sins,

Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, sides, and shins. Quic. About, about;

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 wholesome, 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!
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 knight hood's bending knee;
Fairies use flowers for their charactery.
Away; disperse But, till 'tis one o'clock,
Our dance of custom, round about the oak
Of Herne the hunter, let us not forget.

[set:

Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand; yourselves in order And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be, To guide our measure round about the tree. But, stay; I smell a man of middle earth.'

Fal. Heavens defend me from that Welch fairy! lest he transform me to a piece of cheese!

Pist. Vile worm, thou wast o'er-look'd even in thy birth. 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,

[8] It was an article of our ancient luxury, to rub tables, &c. with aromatic herbs. Pliny informs us, that the Romans did the same, to drive away evil spirits. STEEVENS.

[9] Charactery-For the matter with which they make letters. JOHNSON. Bullokar, in his English Expositor improved by R. Browne," says that charac tery is a writing by characters in strange marks." In 1588 was printed-" Charactery, an arte of shorte, swift, and secrete writing, by character. Invented by Timothie Brighte, doctor of Phisike " This seems to have been the first book upon short-hand writing printed in England DOUCE.

[1] Spirits are supposed to inhabit the ethereal regions, and fairies to dwell un der ground; men are therefore in a middle station. JOHNSON.

It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.

Pist. A trial, come. [They burn him with their tapers. Eva. Come, will this wood take fire.

Fal. Oh, oh, oh!

Quic. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire !

About him, fairies; sing a scornful rhyme :

And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time.

Eva. It is right; indeed, he is full of lecheries and iniquity.

SONG.

Fye on sinful phantasy!
Fye on lust and luxury !
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 villany;

Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about,

Till candles, and star-light, and moon-shine be out. During this song, the Fairies pinch FALSTAFF. Dr. CAIUS comes one way, and steals away a Fairy in green; SLENDER another way, and takes off 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 off his buck's-head, and rises. Enter PAGE, FORD, Mrs. PAGE, and Mrs. FORD. They lay hold on him.

Page. Nay, do not fly: I think, we have watch'd you now: Will none but Herne the hunter serve your turn?

Mrs. Page. I pray you, come; hold up the jest no higher: Now, good sir John, how like you Windsor wives? -See you these, husband? do not these fair yokes 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, he hath enjoyed nothing of Ford's but his buck-basket, 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 could never meet. I will never take you for my love again, but I will always count you my deer.