Mrs. Ford.
Mrs. Page.

[The women run out. Fal. I think the devil will not have me dámn'd, leit the oil that is in ine should let hell on fire ; he never would elle crois me thus.

} Away, away

S CE N E IV.
Enter Sir Hugh like a Satyr ; Quickly, and others, drejt

like Fairies, with tapers.
Quic. Fairies, black, gray, green, and white,
You moon-fhine revellers, and fhades of night,
You Ouphen heirs of fixed destiny,
Attend your office, and your quality.
Crier hobgoblin, make the Fairy o-yes.

Eva Elves, lift your names; filence, you airy toys.
Cricket, to Windfor chimneys shalt thou leap
Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths unswept;
There pinch the maids as blue as bilbery.
Our radiant Queen hates sluts and fluttery. [die.

Fal.. They're Fairies; he that speaks to them thall
I'll wink and couch; no man their works muit eye.

[Lies down upon his face. Eva. Where's Pede? go you, and where you find

a maid,
That ere the fleep hath thrice her prayers said,
Rein up the organs of her phantaly;
Sleep she as found as careleis infancy;
But those that sleep, and think not on their fins,
Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, Thoulders, fides, and

shins.
Quic. About, about;
Search Windsor castle, elves, within, and out.
Strew grod luck, ouphes, on every

sacred room,
That it may stand till the perpetual doom,
In state as whollome, as in frate 'tis fit;
Worthy the owner, as the owner it.
The several chairs of order look you scour,
With juice of balm and ev'ry precious flow'r:
Each fair intalnient coat and lev'ral crest,
With loyal blazon evermore be bleit !
VOL.I.
I i

And

And nightly.meadow-fairies, look, you fing,
Like to the garter-compass, in a ring :
Th’expressure that it bears, green let it be,
More fertile-fresh than all the field to see;
And Hony soit qui mal y pense write,
In emrold-tuffs, flow’rs purfled, blue and white,
Like saphire, pearl, in rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee;
Fairies use flow’rs for their charactery.
Away, difperfe; but, till 'tis one o'clock,
Our dance of custom round about the oak
Of Herne, the hunter, let us not forget.
Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand, yourfelves in

order set:
And twenty glow-worms shall our lanthorns be,
To guide our measure round about the tree.
But Itay, I smell a man of middle earth.

Fal. Heav'ns defend me from that Welch Fairy, lest he transform me to a piece of cheese! Eva. Vild worm, thou wast o’erlook'd ev’n 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,
It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.
Éva. A trial, come.-

[They burn him with their tapers, and pinch him. Come, with this wood take fire.

Fal. Oh, oh, oh!
Quic. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire;
About him, Fairies, sing a scornful rhime;
And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time.

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

The

S O N G
Fie on sinful phantasy,
Fie on lufi and luxury!
Luft is but i'th' blood a fire,
Kindled with unchaste desire,

Fed in heart, whole flames aspire,
As thoughts to 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 far-light, and moon-fhine, be out.
During this song, they pinch him. Doctor Caius comes

one way, and steals away a boy in green; Slender amother

way, and he takes away a boy in white ; and Fenton comes and fieals 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.

S CE N E
Enter Page, Ford, &c. They lay hold on him.
Page. Nay, do not fly; I think, we've 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

Windfor wives? See you these, husbands? do not these fair yokes Become the forest better than the town?

Ford. Now, Sir, who's a cuckold now? Mr. Brook, Falstaff's a knave, a cuckoldly knave; here are his horns, Master Brook; and, Master Brook, he hatlı enjoy'd nothing of Ford's but his buck-basket, his cucigel, 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 coulů I will never take

you

love again, but I will always count you my 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 there are not Fairios? I was three or four times in ihe thought, they were not Fairies; and yet the guiluiness of my mind, the sudden surprise of my powers, drove the groftness of the foppery into a receiv'd belief, in despight of the tecth of all rhime and reason, that li 2

they

never meet.

for my

they were Fairies. See now, how wit may be made a jack a-lent. when 'tis upon ill employment?

Eva. Sir John Falitaff, serve Got, and leave your desires. and Fairies will not pinse you.

Ford 11 ell said, fairy Hugh.
Eva And leave you your jealoufies too, I pray you.

Ford I will never miltrust my wife again, till thou art able to woo her in good English

Fal Have I laid my brain in the sun and dry'd it, that it wants matter to prevent so grofs o'er-reaching as this' am ! ridden with a Welch goat too? Shall I have a coxcomb of frize 'tis time I were choak'd with a piece of toasted cheese.

Eva Seele is not good to give puţter; your pelly is all putter.

Fal Seese and putter? have I liv'd to stand in the taunt of one, that makes fritters of English? this is enough to be the decay of luft and late-walking through the realm.

Mrs. Page. Why, Sir John, do you think, though we would have thrust virtue out of our 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 puft man

Page. Old, cold, wither'd, 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 facks, and wines, and metheglins; and to drinkings, and swearings, and starings, pribbles and prabbles ?

Fal. Well, I ain your theme; you have the start of me ;

I am dejected ; I am not able to answer the Welch fannel; ignorance itself is a plummet o’er me; use me as you will.

Ford. Marry, Sir, we'll bring you to Windsor to one Mr. Brook, that you have cozen'd of money, to whom you should have been a pander: over and above that,

you

you have suffer'd, I think, to repay that money will be a biting affliction. Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to make a

mends: Forgive that fum, and so we'll all be friends.

Ford. Well, here's my hand: all's forgiven at last.

Page. Yet be chearful, Knight; thou shalt eat a poffet to-night at my house, where I will defire thee to laugh at my wife, that now laughs at thee. Tell her, Mr. Slender hath marry'd her daughter.

Mrs. Page. Doctors doubt that; if Anne Page be my daughter, the is, by this, Doctor Caius's wife. [-Aside.

SCENE VI. Enter Slender. Slen. What hoe! hoe! father Page.

Page. Son, how now ? how now, son, have you dispatch'd ?

Slen. Dispatch’d? I'll make the best in GloucesterThire known on’t; would I were hang'd la, else.

Page. Of what, fon?

Slen. I came yonder at Eaton to marry Mistress Anne Page, and she's a great lubberly boy. If it had not been i' th' church, I would have swinge'd him, or he should have swinge'd me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never itir, 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 marry'd 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 cry'd Mum, and The cry'd Budget, as Anne and I had appointed ; and

it was not Anne, but a post-master's boy. Eva. Jeshu! Master Slender, cannot you see but marry boys?

Page 0, I am ver'd at heart. What shall I do!

Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry; I knew of your purpose, turn'd my daughter into green, and in

dced

yet