panderly rascals! there's a knot, a ging, a pack, a conspiracy against me: Now, shall the devil be shamed. What! wife, I say! come, come forth; behold what honest clothes you send forth to bleaching. Page. Why, this passes!2 Master Ford, you are not to go loose any longer; you must be pinioned. Eva. Why, this is lunatics! this is mad as a mad dog! Shal. Indeed, master Ford, this is not well; indeed. Enter MRS. FORD. Ford. So say I too, Sir.-Come hither, mistress Ford; mistress Ford, the honest woman, the modest wife, the virtuous creature, that hath the jealous fool to her husband!-I suspect without cause, mistress, do I? Mrs. Ford. Heaven be my witness, you do, if you suspect me in any dishonesty. Ford. Well said, brazen-face; hold it out.Come forth, sirrah. [Pulls the clothes out of the basket. Page. This passes! Mrs. Ford. Are you not ashamed? let the clothes alone. you take up your Ford. I shall find you anon. Eva. 'Tis unreasonable! Will wife's clothes? Come away. Ford. Empty the basket, I say. Mrs. Ford. Why, man, why? Ford. Master Page, as I am a man, there was one conveved out of my house yesterday in this basket: Why may not he be there again? In my house I am sure 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 shall die a flea's death. Page. Here's no man. Shal. By my fidelity, this is not well, master Ford; this wrongs you. Eva. Master Ford, you must pray, and not follow the imaginations of your own heart: this is jea lousies. Ford. Well, he's not here I seek for. Page. No, nor no where else, but in your brain. Ford. Help to search my house this one time; if I find not what I seek, show no colour for my extremity, let me for ever be your table-sport; let them say of me, As jealous as Ford, that searched a hollow walnut for his wife's leman.4 Satisfy me once more; once more search 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 is 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 house? She comes of errands, does she? We are simple men; we do not know what's brought to pass under the profession of fortune-telling. She works by charms, by spells, by the figure, and such daubery' as this is; beyond our element; we know nothing.Come down; you witch, you hag you; come down, I say. Mrs. Ford. Nay, good, sweet husband;-good Mrs. Page. Come, mother Pratt, come, give me your hand. Ford. I'll prat her:2 -Out of my door, you wich! [beats him] you rag, you baggage, you pole1 Gang. 2 Surpasses, or goes beyond all bounds. 3. e. 'This is below your character, unworthy of you.' 4 Lover. 5 Falsehood, imposition. 6 Means much the same as scall or scab, from Rogneuse, Fr. cat, you ronyon! out! out! I'll conjure you, I'll 7 Expressions taken from the chase. Trail is the scent left by the passage of the game. To cry out is to open, or bark. 8 Ritson remarks that Shakspeare had been long enough in an attorney's office to know that fee-simple is the largest estate, and fine and recovery the strongest assurance, known to English Law.' How Mrs. Page Mrs. Ford. Nay, he will do it ;-'Tis a goodly credit for you. Ford. Hang her, witch! witch indeed: I like not when a 'oman has a great Eva. By yea and no, I think, the 'oman is a peard; I spy a great peard under her muffler. Ford. Will you follow, gentlemen? I beseech you, follow; see but the issue of my jealousy; if I cry out thus upon no trail, never trust me when I open again. Come, gentlemen. [Exeunt PAGE, FORD, SHALLOW, and EVANS. Mrs. Page. Trust me, he beat him most pitifully. Mrs. Ford. Nay, by the mass that he did not; he beat him most unpitifully, methought. Mrs. Page. I'll have the cudgel hallowed, and hang o'er the altar; it hath done meritorious service. Mrs. Ford. What think you? May we, with the warrant of woman-hood, and the witness of a good conscience, pursue him with any further revenge? 8 I Mrs. Page. The spirit of wantonness is, sure, scared out of him; if the devil have him not in feesimple, with fine and recovery, he will never, think, in the way of waste, attempt us again. Mrs. Ford. Shall we tell our husbands how we have served him? scrape the figures out of your husband's brains. If Mrs. Page. Yes, by all means; if it be but to they can find in their hearts, the poor unvirtuous fat knight shall be any further afflicted, we two will still be the ministers. shamed: and, methinks, there would be no periodo it: I would not have things cool. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A room in the Garter Inn. Enter Bard. Sir, the Germans desire to have three of your horses: the duke himself will be to-morrow at court, and they are going to meet him. Host. What duke should that be comes so secretly? I hear not of him in the court: Let me speak with the gentlemen; they speak English? Bard. Ay, sir, I'll call them to you. 11 Host. They shall have my horses; but I'll make them pay, I'll sauce them they have had my house a week at command; I have turned away my other guests: they must come off; I'll sauce them; Come. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Room in Ford's House. Enter PAGE, FORD, MRS. PAGE, MRS. FORD, and SIR HUGH EVANS. Eva. 'Tis one of the pest discretions of a 'oman as ever I did look upon. Page. And did he send you both these letters at an instant? Mrs. Page. Within a quarter of an hour. I rather will suspect the sun with cold,12 In him that was of late an heretic, acquired her knowledge of these terms he has not in- 9 This is another forensic expression. Mr. Steevens says that the meaning of the passage is," he will not make further attempts to ruin us by corrupting our virtue and destroying our reputation." 10 i. e. right period, or proper catastrophe. 11 To come off is to pay, to come down (as we now say,) with a sum of money. It is a phrase of frequent occurrence in old plays. 12 The reading in the text was Mr. Rowe's. The old copies read I rather will suspect the sun with gold', Page. 'Tis well, 'tis well; no more. But let our plot go forward: let our wives Page. How! to send him word they'll meet him in the park at midnight! fie, fie; he'll never come. Eva. You say, he has been thrown into the rivers; and has been grievously peaten, as an old 'oman; methinks there should be terrors in him, that he should not come; methinks, his flesh is punished, he shall have no desires. Page. So think I too. Mrs. Ford. Devise but how you'll use him when he comes, that Herne And let us two devise to bring him thither. Sometime a keeper here in Windsor forest, chain In a most hideous and dreadful manner : The truth being known, Mrs. Page. The children must Be practised well to this, or they'll ne'er do't. Eva. I will teach the children their behaviours; and I will be like a Jack-an-apes also, to burn the knight with my taber. Ford. That will be excellent. I'll go buy them vizards. Mrs. Page. My Nan shall be the queen of all the fairies, Finely attired in a robe of white. Page. That silk will I go buy ;-and in that time Ford. Nay, I'll to him again in name of Brook: And tricking for our fairies. Eva. Let us about it: It is admirable pleasures, and fery honest knaveries. [Exeunt PAGE, FORD, and EVANS. You have heard of such a spirit; and well you know, And none but he, to marry with Nan Page. Page. Why, yet there want not many, that do fear Mrs. Ford. Marry, this is our device; What shall be done with him? what is your plot? Nan Page my daughter, and my little son, Mrs. Ford. 1 To take signifies to seize or strike with a disease, ness.' And in Hamlet, Act. i. Sc. 1: "No planets strike, No fairy takes, no witch has power to charm." "Of a horse that is taken. A horse that is bereft of his feeling, moving, or stirring, is said to be taken, and in sooth so he is, in that he is arrested by so villanous a disease: yet some farriers, not well understanding the ground of the disease, conster the word taken to be stricken by some planet, or evil spirit, which is false." -C. vii. Markham on Horses, 1595. Thusalso in Hor. man's Vulgaria, 1519. "He is taken, or benomed. Attonitus est." 4 Elf, hobgoblin. 5 Some diffused song, appears to mean some obscure That Slender, though well landed, is an idiot; [Exit. SCENE V. A Room in the Garter Inn. Enter HOST and SIMPLE. Host. What would'st thou have, boor? what, thick-skin? speak, breathe, discuss; brief, short, quick, snap. Sim. Marry, sir, I come to speak with Sir John Falstaff from master Slender. Host. There's his chamber, his house, his castle, his standing-bed, and truckle-bed; 'tis painted about with the story of the prodigal, fresh and new: Go, knock and call; he'll speak like an Anthropophaginian1o unto thee: Knock, I say. Sim. There's an old woman, a fat woman, gone up into his chamber; I'll be so bold as stay, sir, till she come down: I come to speak with her, in deed. Host. Ha! a fat woman! the knight may be robbed: I'll call.-Bully knight! Bully Sir John! speak from thy lungs military: Art thou there? it is thine host, thine Ephesian, calls. Fal. [above.] How now, mine host? Host. Here's a Bohemian-Tartar tarries the coming down of thy fat woman: Let her descend, bully, let her descend; my chambers are honourable: Fye! privacy? fye! occurs in this sense: "speak you Welsh to him: I doubt not but thy speech shall be more diffuse to him, than his French shall be to thee." Cotgrave explains diffused by the French diffus, espars, obscure, and in Cooper's Dictionary, 1594, I find obscurum interpreted obscure, difficult, diffusé, hard to understand. Skelton uses diffuse several times for strange or obscure; for instance, in the Crown of Laurel: "Perseus pressed forth with problems diffuse." 6 To-pinch to has here an augmentative sense, like be has since had: all was generally prefixed, Spenser has all to-torn, all to-rent, &c. and Milton in Comus all to-ruled. 7 Sound, for soundly, the adjective used as an adverb. 8 Properties are little incidental necessaries to a thea. tre: tricking is dress or ornament. 9 The usual furniture of chambers, at that time, was a standing-bed, under which was a trochle, truckle, ot running bed: from trochlea, a low wheel or castor. In the standing bed lay the master, in the truckle the ser vant. 10 i. e. a cannibal: mine host uses these fustian words strange song. In Cavendish's Life of Wolsey the word to astonish Simple. Enter FALSTAFF. Fal. There was, mine host, an old fat woman even now with me; but she's Sim. Pray you, sir, was't not the wise woman of Brentford? gone. Fal. I would all the world might be cozened; for I have been cozen'd and beaten too. If it should come to the ear of the court, how I have been transformed, and how my transformation hath been washed and cudgeled, they would melt me out of my fat, drop by drop, and liquor fishermen's boots me; I warrant they would whip me with their Sim. My master, sir, my master Slender, sent fine wits, till I were as crest-fallen as a dried pear. to her, seeing her go through the streets, to know, I never prospered since I forswore myself at Prisir, whether one Nym, sir, that beguiled him of amero. Well, if my wind were but long enough to chain, had the chain, or no. say my prayers, I would repent. Fal. Ay, marry, was it, muscle-shell; What would you with her? Fal. I spake with the old woman about it. Fal. Marry, she says, that the very same man that beguiled master Slender of his chain, cozened him of it. Sim. I would I could have spoken with the woman herself; I had other things to have spoken with her too, from him. Fal. What are they? let us know. Sim. I may not conceal them, sir. Sim. Why, sir, they were nothing but about mistress Anne Page; to know if it were my master's fortune to have her, or no. Fal. 'Tis, 'tis his fortune. Sim. What, sir? with Enter MRS. QUICKLY. Now! whence come you? Quick. From the two parties, forsooth. Fal. The devil take one party, and his dam the other, and so they shall be both bestowed! I have suffered more for their sakes, more than the villanous inconstancy of man's disposition is able to bear. Quick. And have not they suffered? Yes, I warrant, speciously one of them; mistress Ford, good heart, is beaten black and blue, that you cannot see a white spot about her. Fal. What tell'st thou me of black and blue! I was beaten myself into all the colours of the rainbow, and I was like to be apprehended for the witch of Brentford; but that my admirable dexterity of wit, my counterfeiting the action of an old woman deliver'd me, the knave constable had set me i' the Fal. To have her,-or no: Go; say, the woman stocks, i' the common stocks, for a witch. told me so. Sim. May I be so bold to say so, sir? Fal. Ay, Sir Tike; who more bold? Quick. Sir, let me speak with you in your chamber; you shall hear how things go; and, I warrant, to your content. Here is a letter will say somewhat. Sim. I thank your worship: I shall make my Good hearts, what ado here is to bring you tomaster glad with these tidings. [Exit SIMPLE.gether! Sure, one of you does not serve heaven Host. Thou art clerkly,2 thou art clerkly, Sir John: Was there a wise woman with thee? Fal. Ay, that there was, mine host; one that hath taught me more wit than ever I learned before in my life and I paid nothing for it neither, but was paid for my learning Enter BARDOLPH. Bard. Out, alas, sir! cozenage! mere cozenage! Host. Where be my horses? speak well of them, varletto. Bard. Run away with the cozeners: for so soon as I came beyond Eton, they threw me off, from behind one of them, in a slough of mire; and set spurs, and away, like three German devils, three Doctor Faustuses. well, that you are so crossed. Fal. Come up into my chamber. [Exeunt Host. Master Fenton, talk not to me; my mind is heavy, I will give over all. Fent. Yet hear me speak: Assist me in my pur And, as I am a gentleman, I'll give thee Fent. From time to time I have acquainted you men. Enter SIR HUGH EVANS. Eva. Where is mine host? Host. What is the matter, sir? Eva. Have a care of your entertainments: there is a friend of mine come to town, tells me, there is three cousin germans, that has cozened all the hosts of Readings, of Maidenhead, of Colebrook, of horses and money. I tell you for good-will, look you: you are wise, and full of gibes and vlouting-stogs; and it is not convenient you should be cozened: Fare [Exit. you well. Enter DOCTOR CAIUS. Caius. Vere is mine Host de Jarterre. Host. Here, master doctor, in perplexity, and doubtful dilemma. Caius. I cannot tell vat is dat : but it is tell-a me, dat you make grand preparations for a duke de Jarmany: by my trot, dere is no duke, dat the court is know to come; I tell you for good vill: adieu. [Exit. Host. Hue and cry, villain, go:-assist me, knight; I am undone :-fly, run, hue and cry, villain! I am undone ! [Exeunt Host and BARDOLPH. 1 He calls poor Simple muscle-shell, because he stands with his mouth open. 2 i. e. Scholar-like. 3 To pay, in Shakspeare's time, signified to beat; in which sense it is still not uncommoйi in familiar lan Even to my wish: I have a letter from her' Her mother, even strong against that match, 4 Primero was the fashionable game at cards in Shakspeare's time. In the letter. To take her by the hand, and bid her go, Host. Which means she to deceive? father or Shal. That's good too: But what needs either your mum, or her budget; the white will decipher her well enough.-It hath struck ten o'clock. 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 Fent. Both, my good host, to go along with me:green; when you see your time, take her by the And here it rests, that you'll procure the vicar To stay for me at church, 'twixt twelve and one, And, in the lawful name of marrying, To give our hearts united ceremony. hand, away with her to the deanery, and despatch it quickly: Go before into the park; we two must go together. Host. Well, husband your device; I'll to the vicar: Bring you the maid, you shall not lack a priest. ACT V. Caius. I know vat I have to do; Adieu. Mrs. Page. Fare you well, sir. [Exit CAIUS.] My husband will not rejoice so much at the aluse of Falstaff, as he will chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter: but 'tis no matter; better a little chiding, than a great 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 bak, with obscured lights; which at the very instant of Falstaff's and our meeting, they wil SCENE I. A Room in the Garter Inn. Enter at once display to the night. -I'll Fal. Pr'ythee, no more prattling ;-go.- Quick. I'll provide you a chain; and I'll do what head and mince.3 How now, master Brook? Master Brook, the mat- Ford. Went you not to her yesterday, sir, as you told me you had appointed? Mrs. Ford. That cannot choose but amaze Lim. Mrs. Page. If he be not amazed, he will be mocked; if he be amazed, he will every way be Mrs. Ford. We'll betray him finely. mocked. Mrs. Page. Against such lewdsters, and their Those that betray them do no treachery. lechery, Mrs. Ford. The hour draws on; To the oak, to the oak! [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Windsor Park. Enter SIR HUGH Eva. Tribh, trib, fairies; come; and remember Fal. I went to her, master Brook, as you see, like a poor old man: but I came from her, master Brook, like a poor old woman. That same knave, Ford, her husband, hath the finest mad devil of jea-minute draws on: Now, the hot-bloeded gods assist lousy in him, master Brook, that ever governed frenzy. I will tell you.-He beat me grievously, in the shape of a woman; for in the shape of man, master Brook, I fear not Goliath with a weaver's beam; because I know also, life is a shuttle. I am in haste; go along with me; I'll tell you all, master Brook. Since I plucked geese, played truant, and whipped top, I knew not what it was to be beaten, till lately. Follow me: I'll tell you strange things of this knave Ford: on whom to-night I will be revenged, and I will deliver his wife into your hand.-Follow: Strange things in hand, master Brook! follow. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Windsor Park. Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER. Page. Come, come; we'll couch i'the castle-ditch, till we see the light of our fairies.-Remember, son Slender, my daughter. Slen. Av, forsooth; I have spoke with her, and we have a nay-word how to know one another. I come to her in white, and cry, mum; she cries, budget; and by that we know one another. 1 Quant, here, may mean neatly, or elegantly, which were ancient acceptations of the word, and not fantastically: but either sense will suit. 2 Keep to the time. 3 i. e. walk: to mince signified to walk with affected delicacy. An allusion to the Book of Job, c. vii. v. 6. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle. 5 To strip a wild goose of its feathers was formerly an act of puerile barbarity. 6 Watchword. 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, Jupi ter, a swan, for the love of Leda;-0, cmnipctent love! how near the god drew to the complexion of a goose?-A fault done first in the form of a beast ;-O Jove, a beastly fault! 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? 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 Sleeves; hail kissing-comfits, and snow eringoes; rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green let there come a tempest of provocation, I will shelter me here. [Embracing her. 7 Page indirectly alludes to Falstaff, who was to have horns on his head. 8 This is technical. "During the time of their rut the harts live with small sustenance.-The red mushroome helpeth well to make them pysse their greace they are then in so vehement heat."-Turberville's Book ej Hunting, 1575. 9 The sweet potato was used in England as a delica. cy long before the introduction of the common potato by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1586. It was imported in considerable quantities from Spain and the Canaries, and Mrs. Ferd. Mistress Page is come with me, | And, Hony soit qui mal y pense, write, sweetheart. Fal. Divide me like a bride-buck,' each a haunch: Mrs. Page. Alas! What noise? 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. Pist. Elves, list your names; silence, you airy toys. swept, There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry: Fal. They are fairies; he, that speaks to them, fil wink and couch: No man their works must eye." [Lies down upon his face. Eva. Where's Pede ?-Go you, and where you That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said, But those as sleep, and think not on their sins, and shins. Quick. About, about; Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out: juice of balm, and every precious flower :" Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest, With loyal blazon, evermore be blest! And nightly, meadow-fairies, look, you sing, was supposed to possess the power of restoring decayed 1 i. e. like a buck sent as a bribe. 2 The keeper. The shoulders of the buck were among his perquisites. In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue and white; Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand; yourselves And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be, Quick. With trial fire touch me his finger-end : Eva. Come, will this wood take fire? Quick. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire! SONG. Fye on sinful fantasy! As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher. Pinch him for his villany; Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about, Caius comes one way, and steals away a fairy Enter PAGE, FORD, MRS. PAGE, and MRS. FORD. no higher : Now, good Sir John, how like you Windsor wives? Pliny informs us that the Romans did so to drive away 8Charactery, is a writing by characters, or by strange marks."-Bullokar's English Expositor, 12 mo. 1636. 9 By this term is merely meant a mortal man, in contradistinction to a spirit of the earth or of the air, such as a fairy or gnome. It was in use in the north of Scotland a century since, and appears borrowed from the Saxon Middan Eard. The woodman was an attendant on the forester. It here however used in a wanton sense, for one who Chooses female game for the object of his pursuit. 4 The old copy reads orphan-heirs. Warburton reads phen, and not without plausibility; ouphes being 10 By o'er-looked is here meant bewitched by an evil entioned before and afterward. Malone thinks it eye, the word is used in that sense in Glanvilli Saddubeans mortals by birth, but adopted by the fairies: or- cismi Triumphatus, p. 95. Steevens erroneously inter2 in respect of their real parents, and now only de-prets it Slighted as soon as born.' See note on the dent on destiny herself. $ Profession. 51.e. elevate her fancy, and amuse her tranquil mind th some delightful vision, though she sleep as soundas an infant. 7k was an article of ancient luxury to rub tables, &c. aromatic herbs. So, in the Baucis and Philemon f Ovid, Met. viii. -mensam aequatam Mentha abstersere virenti. Merchant of Venice, Act iii. Sc. 2. "Beshrew your eyes, They have o'er-looked me 11 The extremities of yokes for oxen, as still used in several counties of England, bent upwards, and rising very high, in shape resemble horns. In Cotgrave's Dictionary, voce Jouelles, we have Arched or yoked vines; vines so under propped or fashioned that one may go under the middle of them. See also Hutton's Latin, Greek, and English Lexicon, 1585, in voce ju |