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INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

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The first edition of this play was published in 1602. The comedy as it now stands first appeared in the folio of 1623; and the play in that edition contains very nearly twice the number of lines that the original edition contains. The succession of scenes is the same in both copies, except in one instance; but the speeches of the several characters are greatly elaborated in the amended copy, and several of the characters not only heightened, but new distinctive features given to them. Rightly to appreciate this comedy, it is, we conceive, absolutely necessary to dissociate it from the historical plays of Henry IV.' and 'Henry V.' Whether Shakspere produced the original sketch of The Merry Wives of Windsor' before those plays, and remodelled it after their appearance,—or whether he produced both the original sketch and the finished performance when his audiences were perfectly familiar with the Falstaff, Shallow, Pistol, Nym, Bardolph, and Mistress Quickly of 'Henry IV. and 'Henry V.—it is perfectly certain that he did not intend The Merry Wives' as a continuation. It is impossible, however, not to associate the period of the comedy with the period of the hisLories. But at the same time we must suffer our minds to slide into the belief that the manners of the times of Henry IV. had sufficient points in common with those of the times of Elizabeth to justify the poet in taking no great pains to distinguish between them. The characters speak in the language of truth and nature, which belongs to all time; and we must forget that they sometimes use the expressions of a particular time to which they do not in strict propriety belong.

The critics have been singularly laudatory of this comedy. Warton calls it "the most complete specimen of Shakspere's comic powers." Johnson says, "This comedy is remarkable for the variety and number of the personages, who exhibit more characters appropriated and discriminated than perhaps can be found in any other play." We agree with much of this; but we certainly cannot agree with Warton that it is "the most complete specimen of Shakspere's comic powers." We cannot forget As You Like It,' and Twelfth Night,' and 'Much Ado about Nothing. Of those qualities which put Shakspere above all other men that ever existed, 'The Merry Wives of Windsor' exhibits few traces. Some of the touches, however, which no other hand could give, are to be found in Slender, and we think in Quickly.

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The principal action of this comedy—the adventures of Falstaff with the Merry Wives--sweeps on with a rapidity of movement which hurries us forward to the dénouement as irresistibly as if the actors were under the influence of that destiny which belongs to the empire of tragedy. No reverses, no disgraces, can save

| Falstaff from his final humiliation. The net is around him, but he does not see the meshes;—he fancies himself the deceiver, but he is the deceived. The real jealousy of Ford most skilfully helps on the merry devices of his wife; and with equal skill does the poet make him throw away his jealousy, and assist in the last plot against the "unclean knight."

The movement of the principal action is beautifully contrasted with the occasional repose of the other scenes. The Windsor of the time of Elizabeth is presented to us, as the quiet country town, sleeping under the shadow of its neighbour the castle. Amidst its gabled houses, separated by pretty gardens, from which the elm and the chestnut and the lime throw their branches across the unpaved road, we find a goodly company, with little to do but gossip and laugh, and make sport out of each other's cholers and weaknesses. We see Master Page training his "fallow greyhound;" and we go with Master Ford "a-birding." We listen to the "pribbles and prabbles" of Sir Hugh Evans and Justice Shallow with a quiet satisfaction; for they talk as unartificial men ordinarily talk, without much wisdom but with good temper and sincerity. We find ourselves in the days of ancient hospitality, when men could make their fellows welcome without ostentatious display, and half a dozen neighbours “could drink down all unkindness” over "a hot venison pasty." The more busy inhabitants of the town have time to tattle, and to laugh, and be laughed at. Mine Host of the Garter is the prince of hosts; he is the very soul of fun and good temper. His contrivances to manage the fray between the furious French doctor and the honest Welsh parson are productive of the happiest situations. Caius waiting for his adversary-" De herring is no dead so as I vill kill him"-is capital. But Sir Hugh, with his

"There will we make our peds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies,

To shallow

Mercy on me! I have a great dispositions to cry,”—is inimitable.

With regard to the under-plot of Fenton and Anne Page-the scheme of Page to marry her to Slender— the counterplot of her mother, "firm for Dr. 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. Over all the misadventures of that night, when "all sorts of deer were chas'd,” Shakspere throws his own tolerant spirit of forgiveness and content:

"Good husband, let us every one go home,
And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire;
Sir John and all."

C

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

PERSONS

REPRESENTED.

SIR JOHN FALSTAFF.

4pears, Act I. se. 1; sc. 3. Act II. se. 2. Act III. . 3; sc. 5. Act IV. sc. 2; sc. 5. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 5.

FENTON.

Appears, Act I. se. 4. Act III. sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 6. Act V. sc. 5.
SHALLOW, a country justice.
Appears, Act I. st. 1. Act II. se 1; sc. 3.
Act III. sc. 1;
se. 2; sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 2. Act V. sc. 2.
SLENDER, Cousin to Shallow.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. se. 3. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4.
Act V se. 2; sc. 3.

MR. FORD, a gentleman dwelling at Windsor. Appears, Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act III. sc. 2; se. 3; sc. 5. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 5.

Aet IV. sc. 2; se. 4.

MR. PAGE, a gentleman dwelling at Windsor. Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 1; se. 3. Act III. sc. 1: sc. 2; sc. 3; sc. 4. Act IV. sc. 2; sc. 4. Act V. sc. 2; sc. 5. WILLIAM PAGE, a boy, son to Mr. Page. Appears, Act IV. sc. 1.

SIR HUGH EVANS, a Welsh parson. Amen, Act i. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act Ii. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4: sc. 5. Act V. sc. 4; sc. 5. DR. CAIUS, a French physician.

Appears, Act I. sc. 4. Act II. sc. 3. Act III. sc. 1; sc 2; sc. 3. Act IV. sc. 2; sc. 5. Act V. sc. 3; sc. 5.

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BARDOLPH, a follower of Falstaff.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act II. sc. 2. Act II. et E.
Act IV. sc. 3; sc. 5.

NYM, a follower of Falstaff.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act II. sc. 1.
PISTOL, a follower of Falstaff.

Appears, Act 1. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act .
ROBIN, page to Falstaff.

Appears, Act I sc. 3. Act II. sc. 2. Act III. sc. 2; sc. 3
SIMPLE, servant to Slender.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1: se. 2; sc. 4.

Act IV. sc. 5.

Act III. sc. 1.

RUGBY, servant to Dr. Cains.

Appears, Act I. se 4.

Act II. se. 3. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2
MRS. FORD.

Appears. Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 1. Act III. sc. 3.
Act IV. sc. 2; sc. 4. Act V. sc. 3; sc.5.
MRS. PAGE.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. se. 1. Act III. se 2; sc. 3; ac. 4.
Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4. Act V. sc. 3; sc. 5.
MRS. ANNE PAGE, daughter to Mrs. Page.
Appears, Act I. sc. 1.

Act III. se. 4. Act V. sc. 5.

MRS. QUICKLY, servant to Dr. Caius. Appears, Act I. sc. 4. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act III. sc. 4; sc. Act IV. sc. 1: sc. 5. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 5.

SCENE,--WINDSOR.

Servants to Page, Ford, &c.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Windsor. Garden Front of Page's

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Shal. Ay, cousin Slender, and Cust-alorum. Slen. Ay, and ratolorum too; and a gentleman born, master parson; who writes himself armigero; in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, armigero.

Shal. Ay, that I do; and have doned any time these three hundred years.

Slen. All his successors, gone before him, have done 't; and all his ancestors, that come after him, may: they may give the dozen white luces in their coat.

Shal. It is an old coat.

Eta. The dozen white louses do become an old coat well; it agrees well, passant: it is a familiar beast to nan, and signifies love.

We find several instances in Shakspere of a priest being exiled Sir; as, Sir Hugh in this comedy; Str Oliver in As You Lake It Sir Tupas in Twelfth Night;' and Sir Nathaniel în 'Love's Labour's Lost.'

+ Cut-alorum is meant for an abridgment of Custos Rotulorum. Sender, not understanding the abbreviation, adds, "and rato forum too."

The justice signed his attestations, "jurat' coram me. Roberto Shallow, arm gero."

4 Have done-we have done.

Shal. The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old coat.a

Slen. I may quarter, coz?

Shal. You may, by marrying.

Eva. It is marring, indeed, if he quarter it.
Shal. Not a whit.

Eva. Yes, py 'r lady; if he has a quarter of your coat there is but three skirts for yourself, in my simple conjectures: but that is all one: If sir John Falstafi have committed disparagements unto you, I am of the church, and will be glad to do my benevolence, to make atonements and compromises between you

Shal. The council shall hear it; it is a riot.

Eva. It is not meet the council hear a riot; there is no fear of Got in a riot: the council, look you, shall desire to hear the fear of Got, and not to hear a riot; take your vizaments b in that.

Shal. Ha! o' my life, if I were young again the sword should end it.

Eva. It is petter that friends is the sword, and end it and there is also another device in my prain, which, peradventure, prings goot discretions with it: There is Anne Page, which is daughter to master George Page, which is pretty virginity.

It is pretty clear that "the dozen white lures" apply to the arms of the Lucy family. In Ferne's 'Blazon of Gentry.' 1586, we have. "signs of the coat should something agree with the name. It is the coat of Geffray Lord Lucy. He did bear gules, three lucies lariant argent." The luce is a pike,-"the fresh tish; not the familiar beast to man." So far is clear; bu why"the salt fish is an old coat" is not so intelligible. b Vizament advisements.

Slen. Mistress Anne Page? She has brown hair, and sreaks small like a woman.

Eva. It is that fery person for all the 'orld, as just as you will desire; and seven hundred pounds of moneys, and gold, and silver, is her grandsire upon his death'sbed (Got deliver to a joyful resurrections!) give, when she is able to overtake seventeen years old: it were a goot motion if we leave our pribbles and prabbles, and desire a marriage between master Abraham and mistress Anne Page.

Shal. Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?

Eva. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny. Shal. I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts.

Eva Seven hundred pounds, and possibilities, is goot gifts.

Shal. Well, let us see honest master Page: Is Falstail there?

Eva. Shall I tell you a lie? I do despise a liar as I do despise one that is false; or as I despise one that is not true. The knight, sir John, is there; and, I beseech you, be ruled by your well-willers. I will peat the door [knocks] for master Page. What, hoa! Got pless your house here!

Enter PAGE.

Page. Who's there?

:

Eva. Here is Got's plessing, and your friend, and justice Shallow and here young master Slender; that, peradventures, shall tell you another tale, if matters grow to your likings.

Page. I am glad to see your worships well: I thank you for my venison, master Shallow.

Shal. Master Page, I am glad to see you; Much good do it your good heart! I wished your venison better; it was ill killed:-How doth good mistress Page?-and I thank you always with my heart, la; with my heart.

Page. Sir, I thank you.

Shal. Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, I do. Page. I am glad to see you, good master Slender.

Fal. "T were better for you if it were known in counsel; you'll be laughed at.

Eva. Pauca verba, sir John, goot worts. Fal. Good worts! good cabbage."-Slender, I broke your head; What matter have you against me?

b

Slen. Marry, sir, I have matter in my head against you; and against your coney-catching rascals, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol. [They carried me to the tavern and made me drunk, and afterwards picked my pocket.]

Bard. You Banbury cheese!

Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Pist. How now, Mephostophilus?
Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Nym. Slice, I say! pauca, pauca; slice! that 's my humour.

Slen. Where's Simple, my man?-can you tell, cousin?

Eva. Peace: I pray you! Now let us understand: There is three umpires in this matter, as I understand: that is-master Page, fidelicet, master Page; and there is myself, fidelicet, myself; and the three party is, lastly and finally, mine host of the Garter.

Page. We three, to hear it and end it between them.

Eva. Fery goot: I will make a prief of it in my note-book; and we will afterwards 'ork upon the cause with as great discreetly as we can.

Fal. Pistol

Pist. He hears with ears.

Eva. The tevil and his tam! what phrase is this, "He hears with ear"? Why, it is affectations.

Fal. Pistol, did you pick master Slender s purse? Slen. Ay, by these gloves, did he, (or I would I might never come in mine own great chamber again else,) of seven groats in mill-sixpences, and two Edward shovelboards, that cost me two shilling and two pence a-piece of Yead Miller, by these gloves.

Fal. Is this true, Pistol?

Eva. No; it is false, if it is a pick-purse.

Pist. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner-Sir John and master mine,

Slen. How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I heard | I combat challenge of this latten bilbo :

say he was outrun on Cotsall.

Page. It could not be judged, sir.

Slen. You'll not confess, you'll not confess.

Shal. That he will not:-'t is your fault, 't is your fault:-T is a good dog.

Page. A cur, sir.

Shal. Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog; Can there be more said? he is good, and fair. Is sir John Falstaff here?

Page. Sir, he is within; and I would I could do a good office between you.

Eva. It is spoke as a christians ought to speak.
Shal. He hath wronged me, master Page.
Page. Sir, he doth in some sort confess it.

Shal. If it be confessed it is not redressed; is not that so, master Page? He hath wronged me; indeed, he hath ;-at a word he hath ;-believe me; Robert Shallow, esquire, saith he is wronged.

Page. Here comes sir John.

Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, NY, and PISTOL.

Fal. Now, master Shallow; you '11 complain of me to the king?

Shal. Knight, you have beaten my men, killed my leer, and broke open my lodge.

Fal. But not kissed your keeper's daughter.
Shal. Tut, a pin! this shall be answered.

Fal. I will answer it straight;-I have done all this:
That is now answered.

Shal. The council shall know this.

Word of denial in thy labras d here;

Word of denial: froth and scum, thou liest!

Slen. By these gloves, then 't was he.

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Nym. Be advised, sir, and pass good humours; I will say, marry trap," with you, if you run the nuthook's humour on me: that is the very note of it.

Slen. By this hat, then, he in the red face had it: for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass.

Fal. What say you, Scarlet and John? Bard. Why, sir, for my part, I say, the gentleman had drunk himself out of his five sentences.

Eva. It is his five senses: fie, what the ignorance is. Bard. And being fap,' sir, was, as they say, cashiered; and so conclusions passed the careers.8

Slen. Ay, you spake in Latin then too; but 't is no matter: I'll ne'er be drunk whilst I live again, but in honest, civil, godly company, for this trick: if I be drunk, I'll be drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves.

a Worts was the generic name of cabbages; we have still cole-wort.

Coney-catcher was synonymous with sharper.

Bilbo is a sword; a latten bilbo-a sword made of a thin latten plate.

Labras-lips; "word of denial in thy labras" is equiva lent to "the lie in thy teeth."

The nuthook was used by the thief to hook portable commo dities out of a window,-and thus Nym, in his queer fashion, means, "if you say I'm a thief."

Fap-a cant word for drunk.

& Careers. In the manege to run a career was to gal'op a horse vio.ently backwards and forwards.

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Enter MISTRESS ANNE PAGE, with wine; MISTRESS
FORD and MISTRESS PAGE following.

withm.

Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink [Exit ANNE PAGE. Slen. O Heaven! this is mistress Anne Page. Page. How now, mistress Ford? Fal. Mistress Ford, by my troth, you are very well [Kissing her. met: by your leave, good mistress. Page. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome: Come, we have a hot venison pasty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.

[Exeunt all but SHAL., SL.EN., and EVANS. Slen. I had rather than forty shillings, I had my book of Songs and Sonnets here:

Enter SIMPLE.

How now, Simple! Where have you been? wait on myself, must I? You have not the Riddles' about you, have you?

I must
Book of

Sun. Book of Riddles? why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas ?

Shal. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word with you, coz: marry, this, coz; There is, as 't were, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by sir Hugh here:-Do you understand me?

Slea. Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be
so, I shall do that that is reason.
Shal. Nay, but understand me.
Slen. So I do, sir.

Eca. Give ear to his motions, master Slender: I will description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it. Slen. Nay, I will do as my cousin Shallow says: I pray you, pardon me; he's a justice of peace in his country, simple though I stand here.

Era. But that is not the question; the question is concerning your marriage.

Shal. Ay, there's the point, sir.

Eva. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to mistress Anne Page.

Slen. Why, if it be so I will marry her, upon any reasonable demands.

Let us

Era. But can you affection the 'oman? command to know that of your mouth or of your lips; for divers philosophers hold that the lips is parcel of the mouth :-Therefore, precisely, can you carry your good will to the maid?

Skal. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her? Slen. I hope, sir,-I will do as it shall become one that would do reason.

Era. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies, you must speak possitable, if you can carry her your desires towards her.

Shal. That you must: Will you, upon good dowry, marry her?

Slen. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your request, cousin, in any reason.

Shal. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz; what I do is to pleasure you, coz: Can you love the maid?

Sien. I will marry her, sir, at your request; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet Heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have more occasion to know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt; but if you say, marry her," I will marry her, that I a freely dissolved. and dissolutely.

66

a

• Contem, ". The folio reads content-the word which Slender But the poor soul was thinking of his copy-book sage too much familiarity breeds contempt."

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Eva. It is a fery discretion answer; save, the faul' 19
good.
in the 'ort dissolutely: the 'ort is, according to our
meaning, resolutely;-his meaning

Shal. Ay, I think my cousin meant well.
Slen. Ay, or else I would I might be hanged, la.

Re-enter ANNE PAGE.

Shal. Here comes fair mistress Anne:-Would I were young for your sake, mistress Anne!

Anne. The dinner is on the table; my father desires your worship's company.

Shal. I will wait on him, fair mistress Anne. Eva. Od's plessed will! I will not be absence at the [Exeunt SHAL. and SIR H. EVANS. grace. Anne. Will 't please your worship to come in, sir? Slen. No, I thank you, forsooth, heartily; I am very

well.

Anne. The dinner attends you, sir.

Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth. Go, sirrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my cousin peace sometime Shallow [Exit SIMPLE.] A justice of may be beholden to his friend for a man:-I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be dead: But what though? yet I live like a poor gentleman born.

Anne. I may not go in without your worship: they will not sit till you come.

Slen. I' faith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much as though I did.

Anne. I pray you, sir, walk in.

Slen. I had rather walk here, I thank you; I bruised my shin the other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence, three veneys for a dish of stewed prunes; and, by my troth, I cannot abide the smell of hot meat since. Why do your dogs bark so? be there bears i' the town.

Anne. I think there are, sir; I heard them talked of. Slen. I love the sport we'l; but I shall as soon quarrel at it, as any man in England :-You are afraid if you see the bear loose, are you not?

Anne. Ay, indeed, sir.

Slen. That's meat and drink to me now: I have seen Sackerson loose twenty times; and have taken him by the chain: but, I warrant you, the women have so cried and shrieked at it, that it passed: -but women, indeed, cannot abide 'em; they are very ill-favoured rough things.

Re-enter PAGE.

Page. Come, gentle master Slender, come; we wait for you.

Slen. I'll eat nothing, I thank you, sir.

Page. By cock and pye, you shall not choose, sir :

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SCENE II.-The same.

[Exeunt.

Enter SIR HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE. Eva. Go your ways, and ask of b Doctor Cains house, which is the way: and there dwells one mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer.

a It passed-it surpassed; or, it passed expression—a comn.on mode of referring to something extraordinary.

b Of Dr. Caius' house-ask for Dr. Caius' house-ask whet is the way.

Laundry. Sir Hugh means to say launder, or laundress.

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