Eva. A trial, come [They burn him with their tapers, and pinch him. Come, will this wood take fire? Fal. Oh, oh, oh! Quic. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in defire; About him, fairies, fing a fcornful rhyme: And as you trip, ftill pinch him to your time. Eva. (31) It is right, indeed, he is full of lecheries and iniquity. The SONG. Fy on finful phantafy: Fed in heart whofe flames afpire, As thoughts do blow them higher and higher. Pinch him for his villainy: Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about, (32) During this fong, they pinch him. Dector Caius comes one way, and steals away a boy in green; Slender, another way, and he takes away a boy in white; and Fenton comes, and steals away Mrs. Ann Page. A noife of bunting is made within. All the Fairies run away. Falstaff pulls off his Back's head, and rifes. Enter Page, Ford, &c. They lay hold on him. Page. Nay, do not fly; I think, we've watcht you now;, Will none But Herne the hunter ferve your turn? Mrs. Page, I pray you come; hold up the jeft no higher. Now, good Sir John, how like you Windfor wives? (31) Eva. It is right, indeed :] This fhort fpeech, which is very, much in character for Sir Hugh, I have inferted from the old Quarte (32) During this Jung,] This direction I thought proper to infert from the old Quartos, as it is neceffary to explain wirat is in action on ̧ The Scene: and on whith a part of the ratafiropbe of the fable depends. See you thefe, hufbands? do not these fair yoaks (33) Become the foreft better than the town? Ford. Now, Sir, who's a cuckold now? mafler Brook, Falfaff's a knave, a cuckoldly knave, here are his horas, mafter Brook; and mafter Brook, he hath enjoy'd nothing of Ford's but his buck-bafket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds of money, which must be paid to mafter Brook; his horfes are arrefted for it, mafter Brook. Mrs. Ford. Sir Jahn, 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 deer. Fal. I do begin to perceive, that I am made an afs. Ford. Ay, and an ox too: both the proofs are extant, 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 fudden furprize of my powers, drove the grofsnefs of the foppery into a receiv'd belief, in despite of the teeth of all rhime and reason, that they were fairies. See now, how wit may be made a jack-a-lent, when 'tis upon ill employment. Eva. Sir John Falstaff, ferve Got, and leave your defires, and fairies will not pinle you. Ford. Well faid, fairy Hugh. Eva. And leave you your jealoufies too, I pray you.. Ford. I will never miftruft my wife again, 'till thou art able to woo her in good English. Fal. Have I laid my brain in the fun and dry'd it, that it wants matter to prevent fo grofs o'er-reaching as this? am I ridden with a Welch goat too? fhall I havea coxcomb of frize? 'tis time, I were choak'd with a piece of toasted cheese. (33) See you thefe bufbands? Do not these fair oaks Become the foreft better than the town?] What oaks, in the name of nonfenfe, do our fagacious Editors make Mrs. Page talk of ?› The oaks in the park 2 But there was no invention of tranfplanting: them into the town. •Me quidem pudet, pigerque. The first Folio reads, as the Poet intended, yoaks: and Mrs. Page's meaning is this. She speaks to her own, and Mrs, Ford's hutband, and 'aiks them, if they fee the borns in Falftaff's hand; and then alluding to them ag the types of cuckoldom, puts the queftion, whether thofe yoaks are not more proper in the fore than in the rotun: i, e. than in their Fanilies, as a reproach to them. Eva. Seefe is not good to give putter; your pelly is all putter. Fal. Seefe and putter? have I liv'd to ftand 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 thruft virtue out of our hearts by the head and fhoulders, and have given ourselves without fcruple to hell, that ever the devil could have made you our delight? Ford. What, a hodge-pudding a bag of flax? (34). Page. Old, cold, wither'd, and of intolerable entrails? 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 fwearings, and starings, pribbles and prabbles? Fal. Well, I am your theme; you have the ftart of I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welch, flannel; ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me; ufe me as you will. Ford. Marry, Sir, we'll bring you to Windfor to one Mr. Brook, that you have cozen'd of money, to whom you fhould have been a pander: over and above that you have fuffer'd, I think, to repay that money will be a biting affliction. (35) Mrs. Ford. Nay, hufband, let that go to make arends: Forgive that fum, and fo we'll all be friends. the (34) What, a hog's pudding] Mr. Pope has help'd us to this hog's-pudding; all the other editions, which I have feen, have it rightly bodge pudding, as it is vulgarly written and pronounc'd; French call, to shake, or jumble together, bocher and they have à dish call'd, un boche-pot, which is a mixture of feveral forts of meats rook'd up together. They likewise call it, un pot, pourri: (fays, Richelet) a dish, made up of feveral meats macerated: and fuch a gullimaufry, does Ford mean, is Falkeff (35) Mrs. Ford. Nay, busband,] This and the following little speech I have inserted from the old Quarto's. The retrenchment, L prefumex Ford. Well, here's my hand; all's forgiven at laft. Page. Yet be cheerful, Knight; thou shalt eat a poffet to-night at my houfe, 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 Ann Page be my daughter, he is, by this, Doctor Caius's wife. [Afide. Enter Slender. Slen. What hoe! hoe! father Page? Page. Son, how now? how now, fon, have you. difpatch'd? Slen. Difpatch'd? I'll make the best in Gloucestershire know on't; would I were hang'd la, else. Page. Of what, fon? Slen. I came yonder at Eaton to marry mistress Ann Page, and fhe's a great lubberly boy. If it had not been i' th' church, I would have fwing'd him, or he fhould have fwing'd me. If I did not think it had been Ann Page, would I might never ftir, and 'tis a postmafter's-boy. Page. Opon my life, then you took the wrong. Slen. What need you tell me that? I think fo, 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 fhould know my daughter by her gar ments? Slen, I went to her in white and cry'd mum, and the cry'd budget, as Ann and I had appointed, and yet it was not Ann, but a poft-master's boy. Eva. Jefhu! mafter Slender, cannot you fee but marry boys? prefume, was by the Players;, and an injudicious one, in my opinion. Sir John Falstaff is defign'd the favourite character in the play. His vices are the fubject of all the pleafantry: and he is fufficiently punish'd, in being disappointed and expos'd. The expectation of his being perfecuted for the twenty pounds, gives the conclufion too. tragical a turn. Befides, it is poetick juftice that Ford should sustajn this lofs, as a fine for his unreafonable jealousy, Page. O, I am vext at heart. What fhall I do? Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry; I knew of your purpofe, turn'd my daughter into green, and, indeed, the is now with the Doctor at the Deanry, and there married. Enter Caius Caius. Ver is miftrefs Page? by går, I am cozen'd'; I ha' marry'd one garfoon, a boy; one peafant, by gar.. A boy; it is not Ann Page; by gar, I am cozen'd. Mrs. Page. Why? did you not take her in green? Caius. Ay, be gar, and 'tis a boy; be gar, I'll raileall Windfor. Ford. This is ftrange! who hath got the right Ann? Page. My heart mifgives me; here comes Mr. Fenton. Enter Fenton, and Ann Page.. How now Mr. Fenton? Ann. Pardon, good father; good my mother, pardon. Page. Now, miftrefs, how chance you went not with Mr. Slender. Mrs. Page. Why went you not with Mr. Doctor, maid? Which forced marriage would have brought upon her.. |