hell on fire; he would never else cross me But, stay; I smell a man of middle-earth. thus.

Enter SIR HUGH EVANS, like a Satyr; PISTOL as
Hobgoblin; ANNE PAGE, as the Fairy Queen,
altended by her Brother and Others, as Fairies,
with waxen tapers on their heads.

Anne. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white,
You moonshine revellers, and shades of night,44
You orphan heirs of fixed destiny,
Attend your office and your quality.
Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy oyes.

Pist. Elves, list your names: silence, you
airy toys!

48

Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap:
Where fires thou find'st unrak'd and hearths
unswept,

There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry:
Our radiant queen hates sluts and sluttery. 52
Fal. They are fairies; he that speaks to them
shall die:

I'll wink and couch: no man their works must
[Lies down upon his face.
Eva. Where's Bede? Go you, and where you

eye.

72

Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out:
Strew good luck, ouphs, on every sacred room,
That it may stand till the perpetual doom, 64
In state as wholesome as in state 'tis fit,
Worthy the owner, and the owner it.
The several chairs of order look you scour
With juice of balm and every precious flower: 68
Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest,
With loyal blazon, ever more be blest!
And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing,
Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring:
The expressure that it bears, green let it be,
More fertile-fresh than all the field to see;
And, Honi soit qui mal y pense write
In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white;
Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery, 77
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee:
Fairies use flowers for their charactery.
Away! disperse! 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; your
selves in order set;

Fal. Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy, lest he transform me to a piece of cheese! Pist. Vile worm, thou wast o'erlook'd even

in thy birth.

Anne. 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.
Pist. A trial! come.

Eva.

92

Come, will this wood take fire? [They burn him with their tapers.

Fal. Oh, oh, oh!

Anne. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire!

96

About him, fairies, sing a scornful rime;
And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time.

SONG.

Fie on sinful fantasy!
Fie on lust and luxury!
Lust is but a bloody fire,
Kindled with unchaste desire,

Fed in heart, whose flames aspire,

As thoughts do blow them higher and higher. 104
Pinch him, fairies, mutually;

Pinch him for his villany;

Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about,
Till candles and star-light and moonshine be out.

During this song,the Fairies pinch FALSTAFF.
DOCTOR CAIUS comes one way, and steals
away a Fairy in green; SLENDER another
way, and takes off a Fairy in white; and
FENTON comes, and steals away ANNE
PAGE. A noise of hunting is heard within.
The Fairies run away. FALSTAFF pulls
off his buck's head, and rises.

See you these, husband? do not these fair yokes
Become the forest better than the town?

Ford. Now sir, who's a cuckold now? Master Brook, Falstaff's a knave, a cuckoldly knave; 80 here are his horns, Master Brook: and, Master Brook, he hath enjoyed nothing of Ford's but his buck-basket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds of money, which must be paid too, Master Brook; his horses are arrested for it, Master Brook. 121

And twenty glow-worms shall our lanthorns be,
To guide our measure round about the tree. 85

Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never meet. I will never take you for

my love again, but I will always count you my over and above that you have suffered, I think, deer. 125 to repay that money will be a biting affliction. Fal. I do begin to perceive that I am made Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to make amends;

an ass.

Forgive that sum, and so we'll all be friends. 184 Ford. Well, here's my hand: all is 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 laughs at thee. Tell her, Master Slender hath married her daughter.

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 grossness of the foppery into a received belief, in despite of the teeth of all rime and reason, that they were fairies. See now how wit may be Mrs. Page. [Aside.] Doctors doubt that: if made a Jack-a-lent, when 'tis upon ill employ-Anne Page be my daughter, she is, by this Doctor Caius' wife.

ment!

Eva. Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave your desires, and fairies will not pinse you. 140 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.145 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 piece of toasted cheese.

Eva. Seese is not goot to give putter: your pelly is all putter. 153 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 late-walking through the realm. 157 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 puffed man? 164 Page. Old, cold, withered, and of intolerable entrails?

168

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 metheglins, and to drinkings and swearings and starings, pribbles and prabbles? 173 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 plummet o'er me: use me as you will. 177 Ford. Marry, sir, we'll bring you to Windsor, to one Master Brook, that you have cozened of money, to whom you should have been a pander:

Enter SLENDER.

193

Enter FENTON and ANNE PAGE. How now, Master Fenton!

Anne. Pardon, good father! good my mother, pardon!

240

Page. Now, mistress, how chance you went not with Master Slender?

Mrs. Page. Why went you not with Master Doctor, maid?

244

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.
The truth is, she and I, long since contracted, 248
Are now so sure that nothing can dissolve us.
The offence is holy that she hath committed,
And this deceit loses the name of craft,
Of disobedience, or unduteous title,
Since therein she doth evitate and shun

Page. 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.
264
Mrs. Page. Well, I will muse no further.
Master Fenton,

Heaven give you many, many merry days!
Good husband, let us every one go home,
And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire; 268
Sir John and all.
Ford.
Let it be so. Sir John,

To Master Brook you yet shall hold your word; 252 For he to-night shall lie with Mistress Ford. 272 [Exeunt.

Enter DUKE, ESCALUS, Lords, and Attendants. There is a kind of character in thy life,

We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice 24 Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.