Shal. That's good too: but what needs goose!--A fault done first in the form of a either your "mum," or her "budget?" the beast ;-O Jove, a beastly fault! and then white will decipher her well enough. It hath another fault in the semblance of a fowl: struck ten o'clock. 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? 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 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 despatch it quickly. Go before into the park: we two must go together. Caius. I know vat I have to do. Adieu. 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, [Exit Caius.] sweetheart. My husband will not rejoice so much at the Fal. Divide me like a bribed buck, each a abuse of Falstaff, as he will chafe at the haunch: I will keep my sides to myself, my doctor's marrying my daughter: but 'tis no shoulders for the fellow of this walk, and my matter; better a little chiding, than a great horns I bequeath your husbands. Am I a deal of heart-break. Mrs. Ford. Where is Nan now, and her troop of fairies? and the Welsh 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 Falstaft's and our meeting, they will at once display to the night. [him. Mrs. Ford. That cannot choose but amaze 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. Those that betray them do no treachery. SCENE IV.-Windsor Park. SCENE V.-Another part of the Park. Enter Falstaff disguised as Herne, 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 woodman, ha? Speak I like Herne the Mrs. Page. Alas! what noise? Away, away! [They run off. Fal. I think the devil will not have me damned, lest the oil that is in me should set heil on fire; he would never else have crossed me thus. Enter Sir Hugh Evans, as a Satyr; Mrs. You moonshine revellers, and shades of night, Pist. Elves, list your names; silence, you airy toys! Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, room; That it may stand till the perpetual doom, In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery, Fairies use flowers for their charactery. And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be, Fal. Heavens defend me from that Welsh Eva. Come, will this wood take fire? Fie on sinful fantasy ! Kindled with unchaste desire, Fed in heart; whose flames aspire, As thoughts do blow them higher and Pinch him for his villainy; The noise of hunting is made within. Enter Page, Ford, Mrs Page, and Mrs. Ford. Page. Nay, do not fly: I think we have [turn? Will none but Herne the hunter serve your Mrs. Page. I pray you come; hold up the jest no higher.[wives? Now, good Sir John, how like you Windsor 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. [an ass. Fal. I do begin to perceive that I am made Ford. Ay, and an ox too; both the proofs are 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 surprise of my powers, drove the grossness of the foppery into a received belief, in despite of the teeth of all rhyme and reason, that they were fairies. See now, how wit may be made a Jack-a-lent, when 'tis upon ill employment! Eva. Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave your desires, and fairies will not pinse you. Ford. Well said, fairy Hugh. [you. Eva. And leave your jealousies too, I pray Ford. I will never mistrust my wife again, till thou art able to woo her in good English. Fal. Have I laid my brain in the sun, and dried it, that it wants matter to prevent so gross o'er-reaching as this? Am I ridden with a Welsh goat too? shall I have a coxcomb of frize? 'Tis time I were choked with a piece of toasted cheese. [pelly is all putter. Eva. Seese is not goot to give putter; your Fal. Seese and putter! have I lived to stand at the taunt of one that makes fritters of Enghigher.lish? This is enough to be the decay of lust and late-walking through the realm. [about, Mrs. Page. Why, Sir John, do you think, Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him though we would have thrust virtue out of our Till candles, and star-light, and moonshine hearts by the head and shoulders, and have given ourselves without scruple to hell, that ever the devil could have made you our delight? be out. During this song, the fairies pinch Falstaff. Doctor 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 Anne Page. Al [flax? Ford. What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of Enter Doctor Caius. Caius. Vere is mistress Page? By gar, I am cozened: I ha' married un garçon, a boy; un paisan, by gar, a boy; it is not Anne Page: by gar, I am cozened. [green? Mrs. Page.. Why, did you take her in Caius. Ay, by gar, and 'tis a boy by gar, I'll raise all Windsor. (Exit. Ford. This is strange. Who hath got the right Anne? Page. My heart misgives me here comes Fal. Well, I am your theme: you have the start of me; I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welsh flannel; ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me: use me as you will. Ford. Marry, sir, we'll bring you to Wind-master Fenton. sor, to one master Brook, that you have cozened of money, to whom you should have been a pander: over and above that have suffered, I think, to repay that money will be a biting affliction. you 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. [Aside.] Doctors doubt that: if Anne Page be my daughter, she is, by this, doctor Caius' wife. Enter Slender. Slen. Whoo, ho! ho! father Page! Page. Son, how now! how now, son! have you despatched? Slen.-Despatched !-I'll make the best in Gloucestershire know on't; would I were Page. Of what, son? [hanged, la, else! Slen. I came yonder at Eton to marry mistress Anne Page, and she's a great lubberly boy. If it had not been i' the church, I would have swinged him, or he should have swinged me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never stir!-and 'tis a post-master's boy. [wrong. Page. Upon my life, then, you took the Slen. What need you tell me that? I think so, when I took a boy for a girl. If I had been married 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 cried, Mum," and she cried "Budget," as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a post-master's boy. 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? [it. Fent. You do amaze her: hear the truth of 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 her. [remedy. Ford. Stand not amaz'd: here is no In love, the heavens themselves do guide the Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry: ITo master Brook knew of your purpose; turned my daughter word; Let it be so.-Sir John, you yet shall hold your into green; and, indeed, she is now with the For he, to-night, shall lie with mistress Ford. doctor at the deanery, and there married. [Exeunt. ACT I. Lords, Officers, Citizens, Boy, and Attend SCENE,-Vienna. SCENE I.-An Apartment in the Duke's Palace. Are not thine own so proper, as to waste Enter Duke, Escalus, Lords, and Attendants. Duke. Of government the properties to un- touch'd, [course, But to fine issues; nor nature never lends Would seem in me t'affect speech and dis- The smallest scruple of her excellence, Since I am put to know that your own science But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice Herself the glory of a creditor.- [speech My strength can give you then no more re- Both thanks and use. But I do bend my mains, [able; To one that can my part in him advertise; But that to your sufficiency, as your worth is Hold, therefore, Angelo: And let them work. The nature of our people, Our city's institutions, and the terms For common justice, you're as pregnant in As art and practice hath enriched any That we remember. There is our commission, From which we would not have you warp.-Take thy commission. Call hither, I say, bid come before us Angelo.- [Exit an Attendant. Look where he comes. Duke. Angelo, There is a kind of character in thy life, [Tendering his commission. Ang. Duke. [have I not? 1 Gent. I think I have done myself wrong, 2 Gent. Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art tainted, or free. With any scruple: your scope is as mine own, of thine own confession, learn to begin thy Lucio. Behold, behold, where madam Mitigation comes! I have purchased as many diseases under her roof, as come to- 2 Gent. To what, I pray? Lucio. Judge. 2 Gent. To three thousand dollars a year. 1 Gent. Ay, and more. Lucio. A French crown more. Escal. Lead forth, and bring you back in Ang. 'Tis so with me. Let us withdraw of thee. Escal. I'll wait upon your honour. SCENE II.-A Street. Enter Mistress Overdone. 1 Gent. How now! Which of your hips has the most profound sciatica? Mrs. Ov. Well, well; there's one yonder arrested and carried to prison, was worth five thousand of you all. 2 Gent. Who's that, I pray thee? Mrs. Ov. Marry, sir, that's Claudio, signior Claudio. 1 Gent. Claudio to prison! 'tis not so. Mrs. Ov. Nay, but I know 'tis so: I saw 1 Gent. Heaven grant us its peace, but not him arrested; saw him carried away; and, 2 Gent. Amen. [the king of Hungary's! which is more, within these three days his Lucio. Thou concludest like the sanctimoni-head is to be chopped off. ous pirate, that went to sea with the ten commandments, but scraped one out of the table. 2 Gent. "Thou shalt not steal?" Lucio. Ay, that he razed. Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so. Art thou sure of this? Mrs Ov. I am too sure of it; and it is for getting madam Julietta with child. Lucio. Believe me, this may be he promised to meet me two hours since, and he was ever precise in promise-keeping. I Gent. Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain and all the rest from their functions: they put forth to steal. There's not a soldier of us all, that, in the 2 Gent. Besides, you know, it draws somethanksgiving before meat, doth relish the peti-thing near to the speech we had to such a tion well that prays for peace. 2 Gent. I never heard any soldier dislike it. Lucio. I believe thee; for I think thou never wast where grace was said. 2 Gent. No? a dozen times at least. I Gent. What, in metre? [guage. Lucio. In any proportion, or in any lan1 Gent. I think, or in any religion. Lucio. Ay; why not? Grace is grace, despite of all controversy: as, for example, thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all grace. [between us. I Gent. Well, there went but a pair of shears Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet thou art the list. 1 Gent. And thou the velvet : thou art good velvet; thou art a three-piled piece, I warrant thee. I had as lief be a list of an English kersey, as be piled, as thou art piled, for a French velvet. Do I speak feelingly now? Lucio. I think thou dost ; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy speech: I will, out purpose. [proclamation. I Gent. But most of all, agreeing with the Lucio. Away! let's go learn the truth of it. [Exeunt Lucio and Gentlemen. Mrs. Ov. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom-shrunk. Enter Clown. How now! what's the news with you? Mrs. Ov. But what's his offence? Clo. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river. Mrs. Ov. What, is there a maid with child by him? Clo. No; but there's a woman with maid by him. You have not heard of the proclaniation, have you? Mrs. Ov. What proclamation, man? Clo. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down. |