is as positive as the earth is firm that Falstaff is there: I will go.

Enter PAGE, Shallow, Slender, Host, SIR HUGH EVANS, CAIUS, and RUGBY.

Shal., Page, etc. Well met, Master Ford.

41

45

Ford. Trust me, a good knot: I have good cheer at home; and I pray you all go with me. Shal. I must excuse myself, Master Ford. Slen. And so must I, sir: we have appointed to dine with Mistress Anne, and I would not break with her for more money than I'll speak of.

Shal. We have lingered about a match between Anne Page and my cousin Slender, and this day we shall have our answer.

51

Slen. I hope I have your good will, father Page. Page. You have, Master Slender; I stand wholly for you:- but my wife, master doctor, is for you altogether.

Caius. Ay, be-gar; and de maid is love-a me: my nursh-a Quickly tell me so mush.

56

Host. What say you to young Master Fenton ? he capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holiday, he smells April and May he will carry't, he will carry't; 'tis in his buttons; he will carry't.

60

Page. Not by my consent, I promise you. The gentleman is of no having: he kept company with the wild prince and Poins; he is of too high a

region; he knows too much. No, he shall not knit a knot in his fortunes with the finger of my sub stance: if he take her, let him take her simply; the wealth I have waits on my consent, and my consent goes not that way.

67

Ford. I beseech you heartily, some of you go home with me to dinner: besides your cheer, you shall have sport; I will show you a monster. Master doctor, you shall go;

so shall

you,

Master

71

Shal. Well, fare you well: we shall have the freer wooing at Master Page's. [Exeunt Shal. and Slen. Caius. Go home, John Rugby; I come anon.

Host.

[Exit Rugby.

Farewell, my hearts: I will to my honest knight Falstaff, and drink canary with him.

[Exit.

Ford. [Aside I think I shall drink in pipe-wine

first with him; I'll make him dance.

Will you go,

gentles?

All. Have with you to see this monster. [Exeunt.

SCENE III. A room in FORD's house.

Enter MISTRESS FORD and MISTRESS PAGE.

Mrs. Ford. What, John! - What, Robert!
Mrs. Page. Quickly, quickly! - is the buck.

Mrs. Ford. I warrant. What, Robin, I say!

Enter Servants, with a basket.

Mrs. Page. be brief. Mrs. Ford.

Give your men the charge; we must

Marry, as I told you before, John and Robert, be ready here hard by in the brewhouse; and when I suddenly call you, come forth, and, without any pause or staggering, take this basket on your shoulders: that done, trudge with it in all haste, and carry it among the whitsters in Datchet-mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch close by the Thames side.

Mrs. Page. You will do it?

13

Mrs. Ford. I ha' told them over and over; they lack no direction. - Be gone, and come when you [Exeunt Servants. 16

are called.

Mrs. Page. Here comes little Robin.

Mrs. Ford.

news with you?

Enter ROBIN.

How now, my eyas-musket! what

Rob. My master, Sir John, is come in at your back-door, Mistress Ford, and requests your company. Mrs. Page. You little Jack-a-Lent, have you

been true to us?

Rob. Ay, I'll be sworn. My master knows not of your being here, and hath threatened to put me into everlasting liberty if I tell you of it; for he swears he'll turn me away.

Mrs. Page. Thou'rt a good boy: this secrecy of

thine shall be a tailor to thee, and shall make thee

[Exit.

Mrs. Page. I warrant thee; if I do not act it, hiss me. Mrs. Ford. Go to, then: we'll use this unwholesome humidity, this gross watery pumpion; we'll teach him to know turtles from jays.

Enter FALSTAFF.

35

Fal. "Have I caught' thee, 'my heavenly jewel?' Why, now let me die, for I have lived long enough this is the period of my ambition: O this blessed hour!

:

Mrs. Ford. O sweet Sir John!

39

Fal. Mistress Ford, I cannot cog, I cannot prate, Mistress Ford. Now shall I sin in my wish: I would thy husband were dead: I'll speak it before the best lord; I would make thee my lady.

Mrs. Ford. I your lady, Sir John! alas, I should be a pitiful lady!

45

Fal. Let the court of France show me such another. I see how thine eye would emulate the diamond: thou hast the right arched beauty of the brow that becomes the ship-tire, the tire-valiant, or any tire of Venetian admittance.

Mrs. Ford. A plain kerchief, Sir John: my brows become nothing else; nor that well neither.

Fal. By the Lord, thou art a traitor to say so: thou wouldst make an absolute courtier; and the firm fixture of thy foot would give an excellent motion to thy gait in a semicircled farthingale. I see what thou wert, if Fortune thy foe were not, Nature thy friend. Come, thou canst not hide it.

57

Mrs. Ford. Believe me, there's no such thing in me. Fal. What made me love thee? let that persuade thee there's something extraordinary in thee. Come, I cannot cog, and say thou art this and that, like a many of these lisping hawthorn-buds, that come like women in men's apparel, and smell like Bucklersbury in simple time; I cannot: but I love thee; none but thee; and thou deservest it.

Do not betray me, sir. I fear you

Mrs. Ford. love Mistress Page.

65

Fal. Thou mightst as well say I love to walk by the Counter-gate, which is as hateful to me as the reek of a lime-kiln.

Mrs. Ford.

and

Well, heaven knows how I love you;

you shall one day find it.

70

Fal. Keep in that mind; I'll deserve it. Mrs. Ford. Nay, I must tell you, so you do; or else I could not be in that mind.

Rob. [Within] Mistress Ford, Mistress Ford! here's Mistress Page at the door, sweating, and blowing, and looking wildly, and would needs speak with you presently.