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Mrs. Ford. Go, go, fweet fir John: miftrefs Page, and I, will look fome linen for your head.

Mrs. Page. Quick, quick; we'll come drefs you ftraight: put on the gown the while. [Exit Falstaff.

Mrs. Ford. I would, my husband would meet him in this fhape: he cannot abide the old woman of Brentford; he fwears, fhe's a witch; forbade her my house, and hath threatened to beat her.

Mrs. Page. Heaven guide him to thy husband's cudgel; and the devil guide his cudgel afterwards! Mrs. Ford. But is my husband coming?

Mrs. Page. Ay, in good sadness, is he; and talks of the basket too, howfoever he hath had intelligence. Mrs. Ford. We'll try that; for I'll appoint my men to carry the basket again, to meet him at the door with it, as they did last time.

Mrs. Page. Nay, but he'll be here prefently: let's go dress him like the witch of Brentford.

Mrs. Ford. I'll first direct my men what they fhali do with the basket. Go up, I'll bring linen for him ftraight.

Mrs. Page. Hang him, difhoneft varlet! we cannot mifufe him enough.

We'll leave a proof, by that which we will do,
Wives may be merry, and yet honeft too:
We do not act, that often jeft and laugh;
'Tis old but true, Still fwine eat all the draugh.

for the purpose of making coarse hats. In the Midsummer Night's

Dream:

"O fates, come, come,

"Cut thread and thrum."

A muffler was fome part of drefs that covered the face. So, in the Cobler's Prophecy, 1594:

"Now is the bare-fac'd to be feen :-ftrait on her Muffler

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Again, in Laneham's account of Queen Elizabeth's entertainment at Kenelworth castle, 1575: -his mother lent him a nu

auflar for a napkin, that was tyed to hiz gyrdl for lozyng."

STEEVENS.

Mrs.

Mrs. Ford. Go, firs, take the basket again on your fhoulders; your master is hard at door; if he bid you fet it down, obey him: quickly, difpatch.

[Exeunt Mrs. Page and Mrs. Ford.

Enter Servants with the basket.

1 Serv. Come, come, take up.

2 Serv. Pray heaven, it be not full of the knight again.

I Serv. I hope not; I had as lief bear fo much lead.

Enter Ford, Shallow, Page, Caius, and Sir Hugh Evans.

Ford. Ay, but if it prove true, mafter Page, have you any way then to unfool me again?-Set down the basket, villain :-Somebody call my wife :-Youth in a basket !-Oh, you panderly rafcals! there's a knot, a gang, a pack, a confpiracy, against me: Now fhall the devil be fham'd. What! wife, I fay! come, come forth; behold what honeft cloaths you send forth to bleaching.

Page. Why, this paffes?! Mafter Ford, you are not to go loose any longer; you must be pinion'd. Eva. Why, this is lunatics! this is mad as a mad dog!

Shal. Indeed, master Ford, this is not well; indeed.

this pales!] The force of the phrase I did not understand when our former impreffion of Shakespeare was prepared; and therefore gave these two words as part of an imperfect fentence. One of the obfolete fenfes of the verb, to pass, is, to go beyond bounds. So, in Sir Clyomon, &c. Knight of the Golden Shield, 1599: "I have fuch a deal of substance here when Brian's men are flaine,

"That it paleth. Oh that I had while to stay!"? Again, in the tranflation of the Menæchmi, 1595: "This paleth, that I meet with none, but thus they vexe me with ftrange fpeeches." STEEVENS.

Enter

Enter Mrs. Ford.

Ford. So fay I too, fir.-Come hither, mistress Ford;-mistress Ford, the honeft woman, the modest wife, the virtuous creature, that hath the jealous fool to her husband!-I fufpect without caufe, miftrefs, do I?

Mrs. Ford. Heaven be my witness, you do, if you fuspect me in any dishonesty.

Ford. Well faid, brazen-face; hold it out.-Come forth, firrah. [Pulls the cloaths out of the basket.

Page. This paffes.

Mrs. Ford. Are you not afham'd? let the cloaths alone.

Ford. I fhall find you anon.

Eva. 'Tis unreafonable! Will you take up your wife's cloaths? come away.

Ford. Empty the basket, I fay.
Mrs. Ford. Why, man, why,-

Ford. Mafter Page, as I am a man, there was one convey'd out of my houfe yesterday in this bafket ; Why may not he be there again? In my houfe I am fure he is my intelligence is true; my jealousy is reasonable Pluck me out all the linen.

Mrs. Ford. If you find a man there, he fhall die a flea's death.

Page. Here's no man,

Shal. By my fidelity, this is not well, mafter Ford; 'this wrongs you.

Eva. Mafter Ford, you must pray, and not follow the imaginations of your own heart: this is jealoufies. Ford. Well, he's not here I feek for.

I this wrongs you. This is below your character, unwerthy of your understanding, injurious to your honour. So, in The Taming of the Shrew, Bianca, being ill treated by her rugged fifter, fays:

"You wrong me much, indeed you wrong yourself."

JOHNSON.

Page.

Page. No, nor no where else but in your brain. Ford. Help to fearch my house this one time: if I find not what I feek, fhew no colour for my extremity, let me for ever be your table-sport; let them fay of me, As jealous as Ford, that fearch'd a hollow wall-nut for his wife's leman. Satisfy me once more, once more fearch with me.

Mrs. Ford. What hoa, mistress Page! come you, and the old woman down; my husband will come into the chamber.

Ford. Old woman! what old woman's that?

Mrs. Ford. Why, it is my maid's aunt of Brentford.

Ford. A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean! Have I not forbid her my houfe? She comes of errands, does the? We are fimple men; we do not know what's brought to pass under the profeffion of fortune-telling. She works by charms, by fpells, by the figure, and fuch daubery as this is: beyond our element we know nothing.- Come down, you witch; you hag you, come down, I fay.

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Mrs. Ford. Nay, good, fweet hufband;-good gentlemen, let him not strike the old woman.

Enter Falstaff in women's cloaths, led by Mrs. Page. Mrs. Page. Come, mother Prat, come, give me your hand.

Ford. I'll prat her:-Out of my doors, you witch! [Beats him.] you hag, you baggage, you poulcat,

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his wife's leman.] Leman, i. e. lover, is derived from leef, Dutch, beloved, and man. STEEVENS.

3 She works by charms, &c.] Concerning fome old woman of Brentford, there are feveral ballads; among the reft, Julian of Brentford's laft Will and Teftament, 1599. STEEVENS.

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--

-fuch daubery- -] Dauberies are difguifes. So, in K. Lear, Edgar fays: "I cannot daub it further." STEEVENS.

you

you' ronyon! out! out! I'll conjure you, I'll for tune-tell you. [Exit Fal. Mrs. Page. Are you not asham'd? I think, you have kill'd the poor woman.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, he will do it:-"Tis a goodly credit for you.

Ford. Hang her, witch!

Eva. By yea and no, I think, the 'oman is a witch indeed: I like not when a 'omans has a great peard"; ? I spy a great peard under his muffler."

Ford. Will you follow, gentlemen? I beseech you, follow; fee but the iffue of my jealoufy if I cry out thus upon no trail, never truft me when I open again.

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-ronyon! —] Ronyon, applied to a woman, means, as far as can be traced, much the fame with fcall or feab spoken of a man. JOHNSON.

So, in Macbeth:

"Aroint thee witch, the rump-fed ronyon cries.”

From Rogneux, Fr. So again: "The roynifh clown," in As you like it. STEEVENS.

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—a great peard;--] One of the marks of a supposed witch, was a beard. So in Macbeth:

66

-you fhould be women,

"And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
"That you are fo."

Again, in the Duke's Miftrefs, 1638:

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-a chin, without all controverfy, good "To go a fishing with; a witches beard on't."

STEEVENS.

•Ifpy a great peard under his muffler.] As the fecond ftratagem, by which Falítaff efcapes, is much the groffer of the two, I wish it had been practifed first. It is very unlikely that Ford, having been fo deceived before, and knowing that he had been deceived, would fuffer him to escape in fo flight a disguise.

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-cry out thus

JOHNSON.

upon no trail,-] The expreffion is taken from the hunters. Trail is the fcent left by the paffage of the game. To cry out, is to open or bark. JOHNSON.

So, in Hamlet:

"How chearfully on the falfe trail they cry:

"Oh this is counter, ye falfe Danish dogs!" STEEVENS,

Page.

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