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Mrs. Ford. Nay, I'll ne'er believe that; I have to fhew to the contrary.

Mrs. Page. 'Faith, but you do, in my mind.

Mrs. Ford. Well, I do then; yet, I fay, I could fhew you to the contrary: O, miftrefs Page, give me fome counfel!

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Mrs. Page. What's the matter, woman?

Mrs. Ford. O woman, if it were not for one trifling refpect, I could come to fuch honour!

Mrs. Page. Hang the trifle, woman; take the honour: What is it?-difpenfe with trifles; what is it?

Mrs. Ford. If I would but go to hell for an eternal moment, or fo, I could be knighted,

Mrs. Page. What?-thou lieft!-Sir Alice Ford!— *These knights will hack; and fo thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry.

a

Mrs. Ford. We burn day-light:-here, read, read;perceive how I might be knighted.-I fhall think the worfe of fat men, as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's liking: And yet he would not fwear; prais'd women's modesty; and gave such orderly and wellbehaved reproof to all uncomeliness, that I would have fworn his difpofition would have gone to the truth of his words: but they do no more adhere, and keep pace together, than the hundredth pfalm to the tune of Green Sleeves. What tempeft, I trow, threw this whale, with so many tuns of oil in his belly, afhore at Windfor? How shall I be reveng❜d on him? I think, the best way were to entertain him with hope, 'till the wicked fire of luft have melted him in his own grease. Did you ever hear the like?

2 Thefe knights will back;]-will not pafs mufter, they will be treated as recreants, and have their spurs backed off; or they will foon become hackney'd, cheap and vulgar-a fneer poffibly at King James's profufion of these titles we'll back-degrade.

We burn day-light:]-We do but trifle all this while.

Mrs.

Mrs. Page. Letter for letter; but that the name of Page and Ford differs! To thy great comfort in this mystery of ill opinions, here's the twin-brother of thy letter: but let thine inherit firft; for, I proteft, mine never fhall. I warrant, he hath a thousand of these letters, writ with blank space for different names, (fure more) and these are of the second edition: He will print them out of doubt; for he cares not what he puts into the prefs, when he would put us two. I had rather be a giantefs, and lie under mount Pelion. Well, I will find you twenty lascivious turtles, ere one chafte man.

Mrs. Ford. Why, this is the very fame; the very hand, the very words: What doth he think of us?

Mrs. Page. Nay, I know not: It makes me almost ready to wrangle with mine own honefty. I'll entertain myself like one that I am not acquainted withal; for, fure, unless he knew fome "ftrain in me, that I know not myself, he would never have boarded me in this fury.

Mrs. Ford. Boarding, call you it? I'll be fure to keep him above deck.

Mrs. Page. So will I; if he come under my hatches, I'll never to fea again. Let's be reveng'd on him: let's appoint him a meeting; give him a fhow of comfort in his fuit; and lead him on with a fine baited delay, till he hath pawn'd his horfes to mine Hoft of the Garter,

To thy great comfort in this mystery of ill opinions,]-To relieve thee under thy perplexity concerning this vile adventure, and it's authoramidst this mass of evil furmises about Falstaff.

d

the prefs,]-quibble betwixt print and squeeze.

ftrain-wrench, defect-ftain.

"With what encounter fo uncurrent I
"Have ftrained to appear thus ?"

WINTERS TALE, A& III, S. 2. Her,
"a noble nature

"May catch a wrench.”

TIMON OF ATHENS, A& II, S. 2.

Flav.

Mrs.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, I will confent to act any villainy against him, that may not fully the charinefs of our honefty. Oh,' that my husband faw this letter! it would give eternal food to his jealoufy.

Mrs. Page. Why, look, where he comes; and my good man too: he's as far from jealoufy, as I am from giving him caufe; and that, I hope, is an unmeasurable distance, Mrs. Ford. You are the happier woman.

Mrs. Page. Let's confult together against this greafy knight: Come hither.

[They retire.

Enter Ford with Piftol, Page with Nym.

Ford. Well, I hope, it be not fo.

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Pift. Hope is a curtail-dog in fome affairs:

Sir John affects thy wife.

Ford. Why, Sir, my wife is not young.

Pift. He wooes both high and low, both rich and poor, young and old, one with another, Ford

Both

h

;

He loves thy gally-mawfry; Ford, perpend.

Ford. Love my wife?

Pist. With liver burning hot: Prevent, or go thou, Like Sir Acteon he, with Ring-wood at thy heels :Q, odious is the name!

Ford. What name, Sir?

Pift. The horn, I fay: Farewell.

Take heed; have open eye; for theives do foot by night: Take heed, ere summer comes, or cuckoo-birds do fing.

the chariness of our honefty.]-that scrupulous attention we ought to pay to our characters.

f

that my husband faw]-if my husband should see it.

a curtail-dog]-worthlefs, with a cut-tail.

h thy gally-mawfry;]-the medley, the whole sex.

i perpend. confider well-perpend.

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Perpend my words, O fignieur Dew, and mark."
HENRY V, A& IV, S. 4. Pift.

j Sir Ataon he,1-A ftag.

Away,

Away, fir corporal Nym.――

* Believe it, Page; he speaks fense.

[Exit Piftol. Ford. I will be patient; I will find out this. Nym. [Speaking out to Page.] And this is true; I like not the humour of lying. He hath wrong'd me in fome humours: I fhould have borne the humour'd letter to her; but I have a fword, and 'it fhall bite upon my neceffity. He loves your wife; there's the fhort and the long. My name is corporal Nym; I speak, and I avouch. 'Tis true :-my name is Nym, and Falstaff loves your wife.— Adieu! I love not " the humour of bread and cheese; and there's the humour of it. Adieu. [Exit Nym. "Page. The humour of it, quoth a'! here's a fellow frights humour out of its wits.

Ford. I will feek out Falstaff.

Page. I never heard fuch a drawling, affecting rogue. Ford. If I do find it, well.

Page. I will not believe fucha Cataian, though the priest o' the town commended him for a true man. Ford. 'Twas a good fenfible fellow; Well.

Page, How now, Meg?

Mrs. Page. Whither go you, George?-Hark you. Mrs. Ford. How now, fweet Frank? why art thou melancholy?

Ford. I melancholy! I am not melancholy.-Get you home, go.

Mrs. Ford. Faith, thou haft fome crotchets in thy head now.-Will you go, mistress Page?

Believe it,]-What Nym had privately told him, while Pistol had been talking to Ford concerning his wife.-Believe it, Page, be fpeaks-Page, believe what he says.

it fhall bite upon my neceffity. ]-be ufed, when my occafions call it forth. the bumour of bread and cheefe ;]-of living thereon.

a Page and Ford speak afide from Nym's exit, to " How now, Meg ?" affecting]-affected, affecting strange phrafes.

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Pa Cataian,]-romancer, fharper-the Chinese were famous for the arts of deceit.

Mrs.

Mrs. Page. Have with you.-You'll come to dinner, George?-Look, who comes yonder: fhe fhall be our meffenger to this paltry knight. [Afide to Mrs. Ford.

Enter Mistress Quickly.

Mrs. Ford. Trust me, I thought on her: fhe'll fit it. Mrs. Page. You are come to fee my daughter Anne? Quic. Ay, forfooth; And, I pray, how does good miftrefs Anne?

Mrs. Page. Go in with us, and fee; we have an hour's talk with you.

[Ex. Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, and Mrs. Quickly. Page. How now, master Ford?

Ford. You heard what this knave told me; did
not?
Page. Yes; And you heard what the other told me?
Ford. Do you think there is truth in them?

you

Page. Hang 'em, flaves! I do not think the knight would offer it: but thefe, that accuse him in his intent towards our wives, are a yoke of his difcarded men; very rogues, now they be out of fervice.

Ford. Were they his men?

Page. Marry, were they.

Ford. I like it never the better for that.-Does he lie at the Garter?

Page. Ay, marry, does he. If he fhould intend his voyage towards my wife, I would turn her loofe to him; and what he gets more of her than fharp words, let it lie on my head.

Ford. I do not misdoubt my wife; but I would be loth to turn them together: A man may be too confident: 'I would have nothing lie on my head: I cannot be thus fatisfied.

very rogués,]-mere vagabond cheats.

I would have nothing lie on my head:]-no horns there.
VOL. I.
O

Page.

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