[Exeunt. Mrs. Ford. The hour draws on; To the oak, I'll wink and couch: No man their works must to the oak! eye. [Lies down upon his face. Eva. Where's Pede t-Go you, and where you find a maid, 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 [Exeunt. SCENE V.-Another part of the Park. Enter FALSTAFF disguised, with a buck's head on. Quick. 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. Fal. The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; The several chairs of order look you scour the minute draws on: Now, the hot-blooded With juice of balm, and every precious flower: gods assist me :-Remember, Jove, thou wast Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest, a bull for thy Europa; love set on thy horns. With loyal blazon, evermore be blest! -O powerful love! that, in some respects, makes And nightly, meadow-fairies, look, you sing, a beast a man; in some other, a man a beast. Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring: -You were also, Jupiter, a swan, for the love The expressure that it bears, green let it be, of Leda ;-0 omnipotent love! how near the More fertile-fresh than all the field to see; god drew to the complexion of a goose !-A And, Hony soit qui mal y pense, write, fault done first in the form of a beast ;-0 | In emerald turfs, flowers purple, blue, and Jove, a beastly fanlt! 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 ? Fal. Divide me like a bride-buck, each a Mrs. Page. Alas! what noise? 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. Quick. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white, Pist. Elves, list your names; silence, you airy toys. white; Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery, And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be, Fal. Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy! lest he transform me to a piece of cheese! Pist. Vile worm, thou wast o'er-look'd even Quick. With trial-fire touch me his finger- Eva. Come, will this wood take fire? Quick. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in de- About him fairies; sing a scornful rhyme : 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 turu? 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 yokes fair to one master Brook, that you have cozened of money, to whom you should have been a pander over and above that you have suffered, I think, to repay that money will be a biting affliction. Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to make amends: Forgive that sum, and so we'll all be friends. Ford. Well, here's my hand; all's forgiven at last. : 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 langhs at thee: Tell her, master Slender hath married Mrs. Page. Doctors doubt that: If Anne Page be my daughter, she is, by this, doctor Caius' wife. [Aside. Become the forest better than the town? Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never meet. I will never take you Enter SLENDER. Slen. Whoo, ho! ho! father Page. Page. Son! how now? how now, son? have you despatched? for my love again, but I will always count youcestershire know on't; would I were hanged, la, Slen. Despatched-I'll make the best in Gloumy deer. Fal. I do begin to perceive that I am made an ass. 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 gross ness 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. Eva. And leave you your jealousies too, I pray you. 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 pi.ce of toasted cheese. Eva. Seese is not good to give putter; your pelly is all putter. Fal. Seese and putter! Have I lived to stand at the taunt of one that makes fritters of English? This is enough to be the decay of lust and latewalking, through the realm. else. Page. Of what, son? 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. Page. Upon my life then you took the wrong. 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 ap pointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a postmaster's boy. Eva. Jeshu! Master Slender, cannot you see but marry boys? Page. Oh I am vexed at heart: What shall I do? Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry: I knew of your purpose; turned 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 Mrs. Page. Why, Sir John, do you think, cozened; I ha' married un garçon, a boy; un though we would have thrust virtue out of our paisan, by gar, a boy; it is not Anne Page: by 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 puffed man? Page. Old, cold, withered, 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? Eva. And given to fornications, and to taverns, and sack, and wine, and metheglius, 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 answer the Welsh flannel; ignorance itself is a pluummet o'er me: use me as you will. Ford. Mai., Sir, we'll bring you to Windsor, Horns which Falstaff had, + A fuol's cap of Welsh materials. 1 Flannd was originally the manufacture of Wales. gar, I am cozened. Mrs. Page. Why did you 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. • Confound her by your chest in Pagc. Well what remedy? Fenton, heaven give thee joy! What cannot be eschew'd, must be embrac'd. Fal. When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer are chas'd. Eva. I will dance and eat plums at your wedding Mrs. Page. Well, I will must no further:— Heaven give you many, many merry days! Ford. Let it be so:-Sir John, To master Brook you yet shall hold your word: For he, to-night, shall lie with Mrs. Ford. [Ezennt. FINIS. |