"his nurse, or his dry-nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, or his wringer!" What a perfect specimen she is of a fussy, busy-bodying old woman! That foolish carrion, Mrs. Quickly," as Mrs. Page calls her; making herself necessary to all, by reason of her fussiness; and conspicuous, by reason of her folly. A large family -the race of the Quicklies! Our Mrs. Quickly, the type of the whole breed, meddles and "trepots" in every one's affairs with the seriousness and sincere dealing of a diplomatist, she acts the go-between for Falstaff with the two merry wives; she courts Anne Page for her master, undertaking the same office for Slender. She favours the suit of Fenton; and if the Welsh parson had turned an eye of favour upon the yeoman's pretty daughter, she would have played the hymeneal Hebe to him too. Her whole character for mere busy-bodying, and not from any active kindness of heart-for they who are sweet to all alike have no principle worth a button-her whole character is comprised in that one little speech in the 4th scene of the 3d act, when Fenton gives her the ring for his " sweet Nan." After he has gone out, she says:

"Now heaven send thee good fortune! [She would have uttered the same benediction for Slender.] A kind heart he hath; a woman would run through fire and water for such a kind heart. But yet, I would my master had Mistress Anne; or I would Master Slender had her; or, in sooth, I would Master Fenton had her. I will do what I can for them all three: for so I have promised, and I will be as good as my word; but speciously for Master Fenton."

He was the last applicant to, and had paid her. CHARLES COWDEN CLARKE: Shakespeare Characters.

Anne Page is but an average specimen of discreet, placid, innocent mediocrity, yet with a mind of her own,

in whom we can feel no such interest as a rich father causes to be felt by those about her. In her and Fenton a slight dash of romance is given to the play; their love forming a barely audible undertone of poetry in the grand chorus of comicalities, as if on purpose that while the sides are shaken the heart may not be left altogether untouched.

HUDSON: The Works of Shakespeare.

We do not wish Anne Page to have been married to Slender, but in their poetical alliance they are inseparable. With regard to the under-plot of Fenton and Anne Page-the scheme of Page to marry her to Slender -the counter-plot of her mother, "firm for Doctor Caius "—and the management of the lovers to obtain a triumph out of the devices against them-it may be sufficient to point out how skilfully it is interwoven with the Herne's Oak adventure of Falstaff. Though Slender went to her in white, and cried mum, and she cried budget, yet it was not Anne, but a postmaster's boy"; though Caius did "take her in green," he "ha' married un garçon, a boy, un paisan"; but Anne and Fenton

66

"long since contracted,

Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve them."

KNIGHT: Pictorial Shakspere.

THE

Merry Wives of Windsor.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

SIR JOHN FALSTAFF.

FENTON, a gentleman.

SHALLOW, a country justice.
SLENDER, Cousin to Shallow.

FORD,
PAGE,

}

two gentlemen dwelling at Windsor.

WILLIAM PAGE, a boy, son to Page.
SIR HUGH EVANS, a Welsh parson.
DOCTOR CAIUS, a French physician.
Host of the Garter Inn.

MISTRESS FORD.

MISTRESS Page.

ANNE PAGE, her daughter.

MISTRESS QUICKLY, servant to Doctor Caius.

Servants to Page, Ford, etc.

SCENE: Windsor and the neighbourhood.