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Eva. This is well; he has made us his vlouting-stog. -I desire you, that we may be friends; and let us knog our prains together, to be revenge on this same scall, scurvy, cogging companion, the host of the Garter.

Caius. By gar, vit all my heart: he promise to bring me vere is Anne Page: by gar, he deceive me too. Eva. Well, I will smite his noddles :-Pray you, fol. low. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Street in Windsor. Enter Mrs. PAGE and ROBIN. Mrs. Page. Nay, keep your way, little gallant; you were wont to be a follower, but now you are a leader : Whether had you rather, lead mine eyes, or eye your master's heels?

Rob. I had rather, forsooth, go before you like a man, than follow him like a dwarf.

Mrs. Page. O you are a flattering boy; now, I see, you'll be a courtier.

Enter FORD.

Ford. Well met, mistress Page: Whither go you? Mrs. Page. Truly, sir, to see your wife: Is she at home? Ford. Ay; and as idle as she may hang together, for want of company : I think, if your husbands were dead, you two would marry.

Mrs. Page. Be sure of that,-Two other husbands.
Ford. Where had you this pretty weather-cock ?

Mrs. Page. I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of: What do you call your knight's name, sirrah ?

Rob. Sir John Falstaff.

Ford. Sir John Falstaff!

Mrs. Page. He, he; I can never hit on's name.There is such a league between my good man and he! -Is your wife at home, indeed?

Ford. Indeed, she is.

Mrs. Page. By your leave, sir ;-I am sick, till I see her. [Exeunt Mrs. PAGE and ROBIN. Ford. Has Page any brains? hath he any eyes? hath he any thinking? Sure, they sleep; he hath no use of them. Why, this boy will carry a letter twenty miles, as easy as a cannon will shoot point-blank twelve score. He pieces out his wife's inclination; he gives her folly

motion, and advantage and now she's going to my wife, and Falstaff's boy with her. A man may hear this shower sing in the wind!-and Falstaff's boy with her!--Good plots-they are laid; and our revolted wives share damnation together. Well I will take him, then torture my wife, pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the so seeming Mrs. Page, divulge Page himself for a secure and wilful Actæon: and to these violent proceedings all my neighbours shall cry aim.3 [Clock strikes.] The clock gives me my cue, and my assurance bids me search; there I shall find Falstaff: I shall be rather praised for this, than mocked; for it 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, &c. Well met, master Ford.

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.

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, by gar; and de maid is love-a me; my nursh-a Quickly tell me so mush.

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

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[3] To cry aim signifies to consent to, or approve of any thing. The phrase was taken, originally, from archery When any one had challenged another to shoot at the butts, (the perpetual diversion, as well as exercise, of that time.) the standers-by used to say one to the other, Cry aim, i. e. accept the challenge. WARBURTON.

[4] To speak holyday must mean to speak out of the common road, superior to the vulgar; alluding to the better dress worn on such days. RITSON

[5] Alluding to an ancient custom among the country fellows, of trying whether they shall succeed with their mistresses, by carrying the bachelor's buttons, (a plant of the Lychnis kind, whose flowers resemble a coat button in form) in their pockets. And they judged of their good or bad success, by their growing or not growing there. SMITH.

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 substance: if he take her, let him take her simply; the wealth I have waits on my consent, and my consent goes not that way.

Ford. I beseech you, heartily, some of you go home with me to dinner: besides your cheer, you shall have sport; I will shew you a monster.-Master Doctor, you shall go;-so shall you, master Page;-and you, sir Hugh.

Shal. Well, fare you well:-we shall have the freer wooing at master Page's. [Exe. SHAL. and SLEN. Caius. Go home, John Rugby; I come anon. [Ex. RUG. Host. Farewell, my hearts: I will to my honest knight Falstaff, and drink canary with him. [Exit Host. 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 Mrs. FORD and Mrs. PAGE.

Mrs. Ford. What, John! what, Robert!

Mrs. Page. Quickly, quickly: Is the buck-basket--
Mrs. Ford. I warrant:- -What, Robin, I say.

Enter Servants with a basket.

Mrs. Page. Come, come, come.

Mrs. Ford. Here, set it down.

Mrs. Page. Give your men the charge; we must be brief.

Mrs. Ford. Marry, as I told you before, John, and Robert, be ready here hard by in the brew-house; 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 whitsers in Datchet mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch, close by the Thames side.

Mrs. Page. You will do it?

[6] The jest here lies in a play of words. "I'll give him pipe-wine, which shall make him dance." Edinburgh Magazine, Nov 1786. STEEVENS.

Mrs. Ford. I have told them over and over; they lack no direction: Begone, and come when you are called. [Exeunt Servants.

Mrs. Page. Here comes little Robin.

Enter ROBIN.

Mrs. Ford. How now, my eyas-musket? what news with you?

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 ever lasting 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 a new dou blet and hose.-I'll go hide me.

Mrs. Ford. Do so-Go tell thy master, I am alone. -Mistress Page, remember you your cue. [Exit ROBIN. Mrs. Page. I warrant thee; if I do not act it, hiss me. [Exit Mrs. PAGE.

Mrs. Ford. Go to then; we'll use this unwholesome humidity, this gross watry pumpion ;-we'll teach him to know turtles from jays.

Enter FALSTAFF.

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!

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.

[7] Eyas is a young unfledged hawk; I suppose from the Italian Niaso, which originally signified any young bird taken from the nest unfledged, afterwards a young hawk. The French, from hence, took their niais, and used it in both those significations; to which they added a third, metaphorically, a silly fellow; un gar. con fort niais, un niais. Musket signifies a sparrow hank, or the smallest species of hawks. This too is from the Italian Muschetto, a small bawk, as appears from the original signification of the word, namely, a troublesome stinging fly, So that the Bumour of calling the little page an eyas-musket is very intelligible.

WARBURTON.

[8] This sentiment, which is of sacred origin, is here indecently introduced. It appears again, with somewhat less of profaneness, in the Winter's Tale, Act IV. and in Othello, Act II STEEVENS.

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

Fal. Let the court of France show me such another; I see how thine eye would emulate the diamond: Thou hast the right arched bent 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. 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 is thy friend: Come, thou canst not hide it.

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 haw-thorn buds, that come like women in men's apparel, and smell like Bucklers-bury in simpletime; I cannot but I love thee; none but thee; and thou deservest it.

Mrs. Ford. Do not betray me, sir; I fear, you love mistress Page.

Fal. Thou might'st 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. Well, heaven knows, how I love you; and you shall one day find it.

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. Fal. She shall not see me; I will ensconce me behind the arras.

Mrs. Ford. Pray you, do so; she's a very tattling [FALSTAFF hides himself

woman.

[9] The ship-tire was an open head dress, with a kind of scarf depending from bes hind. Its name of ship-tire was, I presume, from its giving the wearer some resemblance of a ship (as Shakespeare says) in all her trim: with all her pendants out, and flags and streamers flying. WARB.

[1] Bucklers-bury in the time of Shakespeare was chiefly inhabited by druggists who sold all kinds of herbs, green as well as dry.

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VOL. I.

STEEVENS.

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