Quick. And how does good Master Fenton? 'Pray you, a word with you. Shal. She's coming; to her, coz. O boy, thou hadst a father! Slen. I had a father, Mistress Anne ;-my uncle can tell you good jests of him?-'Pray you, uncle, tell Mistress Anne the jest, how my father stole two geese out of a pen, good uncle. Shal. Mistress Anne, my cousin loves you. Slen. Ay, that I do; as well as I love any woman in Glostershire. Shal. He will maintain you like a gentlewoman. Slen. Ay, that I will, come cut and long-tail, under the degree of a 'squire. Shal. He will make you a hundred and fifty pounds jointure. Anne. Good Master Shallow, let him woo for himself. Shal. Marry, I thank you for it; thank you for that good comfort. She calls you, coz: I'll leave you. [Exit SHALLOW. Anne. Now, Master Slender. Slen. My will? od's heartlings, that's a pretty jest, indeed! I ne'er made my will yet, I thank Heaven; I am not such a sickly creature, I give Heaven praise. Anne. I mean, Master Slender, what would you with me? Slen. Truly, for mine own part, I would little or nothing with you: Your father, and my uncle, have made motions: if it be my luck, so; if not, happy man be his dole! They can tell you how things go, better than I can: You may ask your father; here he comes. Enter PAGE, MRS. PAGE, and SHALLOW. Page. Now, Master Slender :-Love him, daughter Why how now! what does Master Fenton here? Fent. Nay, Master Page, be not impatient. Mrs. Page. Good Master Fenton, come not to my child. Page. She is no match for you. Page. No, good Master Fenton. Come, Master Shallow ;-come, son Slender; in:— Knowing my mind, you wrong me, Master Fenton. [Exeunt PAGE, SHALLOW, and Slender. Quick. Speak to Mistress Page. Fent. Good Mistress Page, for that I love your daughter In such a righteous fashion as I do, Anne. Good mother, do not marry me to yon' fool. Quick. That's my master, Master Doctor. Anne. Alas, I had rather be set quick i' the earth. I will not be your friend, nor enemy; My daughter will I question, how she loves you, Till then, farewell, sir :-She must needs go in; [Exeunt MRS. PAGE, and ANNE. Fent. Farewell, gentle mistress; farewell, Nan. Quick. This is my doing now; Nay, said I, will you cast away your child on a fool, and a physician? Look on Master Fenton: this is my doing. Fent. I thank thee; and I pray thee, once to-night give my sweet Nan this ring: There's for thy pains. [Exit FENTON. Quick. Now Heaven send thee good fortune! 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 promis'd, and I'll be as good as my word; but speciously for Master Fenton. Well, I must of another errand to Sir John Falstaff from my two mistresses: What a beast am I to slack it! [Exit. SCENE V. The Garter Inn. Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH. Fal. Bardolph, I say.— Bard. Here, sir. Fal. Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in't. [Exit BARDOLPH.] Have I liv'd to be carried in a basket, like a barrow of butcher's offal; and to be thrown into the Thames? Well; if I be serv'd such another trick, I'll have my brains ta'en out, and butter'd, and give them to a dog for a new year's gift. The rogues slighted me into the river with as little remorse as they would have drown'd a bitch's blind puppies, fifteen i' the litter and you may know by my size, that I have a kind of alacrity in sinking: if the bottom were as deep as hell, I should down. I had been drown'd, but that the shore was shelvy and shallow ; a death that I abhor; for the water swells a man; : and what a thing should I have been, when I had been swell'd! I should have been a mountain of mummy. Enter BARDOLPH, with the Sack. Bard. Here's Mistress Quickly, sir, to speak with you. Fal. Come, let me pour in some sack to the Thames water; for my belly's as cold, as if I had swallow'd snow-balls.- -Call her in. Bard. Come in, woman. Enter MRS. QUICKLY. Quick. By your leave ;-I cry you mercy :-Give your worship good-morrow. Fal. Go, brew me a pottle of sack finely. Bard. With eggs, sir? Fal. Simple of itself. [Erit BARDOLPH.] HOW now? Quick. Marry, sir, I come to your worship from Mistress Ford. Fal. Mistress Ford! I have had ford enough: I was thrown into the ford; I have my belly full of ford. Quick. Alas the day! good heart, that was not her fault she does so take on with her men,-they mistook their erection. Fal. So did I mine, to build upon a foolish woman's promise. Quick. Well, she laments, sir, for it, that it would yearn your heart to see it. Her husband goes this morning a-birding; she desires you once more to come to her between eight and nine: I must carry her word quickly she'll make you amends, I warrant you. Fal. Well, I will visit her: Tell her so; and bid her think, what a man is: let her consider his frailty, and then judge of my merit. Quick. I will tell her. Fal. Do so. Between nine and ten, say'st thou ? Fal. Well, be gone: I will not miss her. Quick. Peace be with you sir! [Exit MRS. QUICKLY. Fal. I marvel, I hear not of Master Brook; he sent me word to stay within: I like his money well.-0, here he comes. Enter FORD, disguised. Ford. 'Bless you, sir! Fal. Now, Master Brook, you come to know what hath pass'd between me and Ford's wife-? Ford. That, indeed, Sir John, is my business. Fal. Master Brook, I will not lie to you; I was at her house the hour she appointed me. Ford. And you sped, sir, Fal. Very ill-favour'dly, Master Brook. Ford. How, sir? Did she change her determination? Fal. No, Master Brook: but the peaking cornuto her husband, Master Brook, dwelling in a continual 'larum of jealousy, comes me in the instant of our encounter, after we had embrac'd, kiss'd, protested, and, as it were, spoke prologue of our comedy; and at his heels a rabble of his companions, thither provok'd and instigated by his distemper, and, forsooth, to search his house for his wife's love. Ford. What, while you were there? Fal. While I was there. Ford. And did he search for you, and could not find you? |