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'Queen Elizabeth was so well pleased with the admirable character of Falstaff in the Two Parts of Henry IV. that, as Mr. Rowe informs us, she commanded Shakspeare to continue it for one play more, and to shew him in love. To this command we owe The Merry Wives of Windsor: which, Mr. Gildon says, he was very well assured our author finished in a fortnight. This is the first of sundry instances in our poet, where a parson is called sir; upon which it may be observed, that anciently it was the common designation both of one in holy orders and a knight. The Star-chamber had a right to take cognizance of routs and riots. Probably intended for a corruption of Custos Rotulorum. The luce is a pike or jack. This passage is also supposed to point at Sir Thomas Lucy, who was the cause of Shakspeare's leaving Stratford."

Shal

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 Falstaff 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.

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Shal. The council shall hear it; it is a riot. Eva. It is not meet the council hear of a riot;10] 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' in that.

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

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

Slen. Mistress Anne Page? she has brown hair, and speaks small like a woman.

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Eva. It is that very person for all the 'orld, as just as you will desire; and seven hundred pounds of monies, and gold, and silver, is her grandsire, 25 upon his death's-bed, (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. Slen. Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pounds?

Era. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny.

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 wish'd your venison better; it was ill kill'd:-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.
Slen. How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I
heard say he was out-run on Cotsale 2.
Page. It could not be judg’d, sir.

Slen. You'll not confess, you'll not confess. Shal. That he will not;-tis your fault, 'tis your fault:-Tis 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?

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

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

Shal. If it be confess'd, it is not redress'd; is not that so, master Page? He hath wrong'd me;-indeed, he hath ;-at a word, he hath ;-believe me; 30-Robert Shallow, esquire, saith, he is wrong'd. Page. Here comes Sir John.

Slen. I know the young gentlewoman; she has 35 good gifts.

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

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

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Enter Sir John Falstaff, Bardolph, Nym,and Pistol. Fal. Now, master Shallow; you'll complain of me to the king?

Shal. Knight, you have beaten my men, kill'd my deer, and broke open my lodge.

Fel. But not kiss'd your keeper's daughter?
Shal. Tut, a pin! this shall be answer'd.

Fal. I will answer it strait;--I have done all this:-That is now answer'd.

Shal. The council shall know this. Fal. "Twere better for you, if 'twere known in counsel; you'll be laughed at.

Eva. Pauca verba, sir John; good worts.

Fal. Good worts! good cabbage:-Slender, I broke your head; What matter have you against me?

Slen. Marry, sir, I have matter in my head against you; and against your coney-catching ' rascals, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol. Bar. You Banbury cheese! Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

1 Advisement is now an obsolete word. 2 He means Cotswold, in Gloucestershire; where in the beginning of the reign of James the First, by permission of the king, Dover, a public-spirited attorney of Barton on the Heath, in Warwickshire, instituted on the hills of Cotswold an annual celebration of games, consisting of rural sports and exercises. These he constantly conducted in person, well mounted, and accoutred in a suit of his majesty's old cloaths; and they were frequented above forty years by the nobility and gentry for sixty miles round, till the grand rebellion abolished every liberal establishment. The games were, chiefly, wrestling, leaping, pitching the bar, handling the pike, dancing of women, various kinds of hunting, and particularly coursing the hare with greyhounds. 3 Falstaff here probably quibbles between council and counsel; the latter signifies secrecy; and his meaning seems to be, 'Twere better for you if it were known only in secrecy, i. e. among your friends. Worts was the ancient name of all the cabbage kind. "A concy-catcher was, in the time of Elizabeth, a common name for a cheat or sharper. ⚫ This alludes to the thin carcase of Slender.

Pist.

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

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

Slen. Where's Simple, my man? can you tell, 5 cousin?

Era. 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; 10 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 15 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 20 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 2,25 and two Edward shovel-boards; that cost me two shilling and two-pence a-piece of Yead Miller, by these gloves.

Fal. Is this true, Pistol?

Era. No; it is false, if it is a pick-purse.
Pist. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner!-Sir John,
and master mine,

I combat challenge of this latten bilboe:
Word of denial in thy labras here '.
Word of denial: froth and scum, thou ly'st.

Slen. By these gloves, then, 'twas he.
Nym. Be advis'd, Sir, and pass good humours:
I will say, marry trap', with you, if you run the
nut-hook's humour on me; that is the very note

of it.

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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, cashier'd; and so conclusions pass'd the careires. Slen. Ay, you spake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter: I'll never be drunk whilst I live again,

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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.

Eva. So Got 'udge me, that is a virtuous mind. Fal. You hear all these matters deny'd, gentlemen; you hear it.

Enter mistress Anne Page with wine; mistress
Ford and mistress Page following.
drink within.
Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll
[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 met: by your leave, good mistress.

[Kissing her.

Page. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome:---Come, we have a hot venison pasty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope, we shall drink down ali unkindness. [Exe. all but Shal. Slend. 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? I must wait on myself, must I? You have not the book of riddles about you, have you?

Sim. 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 'twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by sir Hugh here;—do you understand me? Slen. Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if 35 it be so, I shall do that that is reason. Shal. Nay, but understand me. Slen. So I do, sir.

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Era. Give ear to his motions, master Slender: I will description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it.

Slen. Nay, Iwill 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.

Eva. 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.

Eva. But can you affection the 'oman? let us command to know that of your mouth, or of your lips; for divers philosophers hold, that the lips is

'The name of a spirit or familiar, in the old story-book of Sir John Faustus, or Joan Faust, and in those times a cant phrase of abuse. 2 Mill'd sixpences were used by way of counters to cast up money. 3 These were the broad shillings of Edward VI., and at that time used at the play of shovel-board. • Mr. Theobald is of opinion, that by latten bilboe Pistol, seeing Slender such a slim, puny wight, would intimate, that he is as thin as a plate of that compound metal which is called latten; whilst Mr. Steevens thinks, that latten bilboe means no more than a blade as thin as a lath. "That is, hear the word of denial in my lips. Thou ly'st. We often talk of giving the lie in a man's teeth, or in his throat. Pistol chooses to throw the word of denial in the lips of his adversary. "When a man was caught in his own stratagem, the exclamation of insult probably was marry trap! "Nuthook was a term of reproach in cant strain; and, if you run the nuthook's humour on me, is in plain English, if you say I am a thief.

A military phrase.

parcel

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Shal. That you must: Will you, upon good 10 dowry, marry her?

Sten. 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 15| love the maid?

Slen. 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 marry'd, and have more occasion to 20 know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: but if you say, marry her, I will marry her, that I am freely dissolved, and dissolutely.

Era. It is a fery discretion answer; save, the 25 faul' is in the 'ort dissolutely: the 'ort is, according to our meaning, resolutely;—his meaning is good. Shal. Ay, I think my cousin meant well. Slen. Ay, or else I would I might be hang'd, 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 grace. [Ex. Shul. and Exans.

Anne. Will 't please your worship to come in, sir? Sten. No, I thank you, forsooth, heartily; I am very well.

Anne. The dinner attends you, sir.

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Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth: -Go, sirrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my cousin Shallow: [Exit Simple.] A justice of peace sometime may be beholden to his friend 45 for a man :—I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be dead: But what though?" yet l 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.

your dogs bark so? be there bears i' the town? Anne. I think there are, sir; I heard them talk'd of.

Slen. I love the sport well; 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.

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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 cry'd and shriek'd at it, that it pass'd 3:-but women, indeed, cannot abide’em; they are very ill-favour'd rough things. Re-enter Page.

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

Slen. I'll eat nothing, I thank you, sir.
Page. By cock and pye, you shall not choose,
sir: come, come.

Slen. Nay, pray you, lead the way.
Page. Come on, sir.

Slen. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first.
Anne. Not I, sir; pray you, keep on.
Sten. Truly, I will not go first; truly-la; I will
not do you that wrong.

Anne. I pray you, sir.

Slen. I'll rather be unmannerly, than troublesome: you do yourself wrong, indeed-la. [Exeunt. SCENE

II.

Enter Evans and Simple.

Era. Go your ways, and ask of Dr. Caius' 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.

Simp. Well, sir.

Eva. Nay, it is petter yet:-give her this letter; for it is a'oman that altogether's acquaintance with mistress Anne Page; and the letter is, to desire and require her to solicit your master's desires to mistress Anne Page: I pray you be gone; I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come. [Exeunt severally. SCENE III. The Garter inn. Enter Falstaff, Host, Bardolph, Nym, Pistol, and Robin.

Fal. Mine host of the Garter,

Host. What says my bully-rook? speak schol50 larly, and wisely.

Sten. I had rather walk here, I thank you: I bruis'd my shin the other day with playing at sword 55 and dagger with a master of fence, three veneys' for a dish of stew'd pruens; and, by my troth, I cannot abide the smell of hot meat since. Why do

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Fal. Truly, mine host, I must turn away some of my followers.

Host. Discard, bully Hercules; cashier: let them wag; trot, trot.

Fal. I sit at ten pounds a week.

Host. Thou'rt an emperor, Cæsar, Keisar, and Pheezar. I will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he shall tap: said I well, bully Hector?

That is, three different set-to's, bouts, a technical term from the French, venue.

2 The name of

a bear. Menning, that it passed all expression. A popular adjuration of those times. Cock is no more than a corruption of the Sacred Name, as appears from cock's wounds, cock's bones, and cock's mother, and some other exclamations which occur in the old Moralities and Interludes. The pye is a table in the old Roman offices, shewing how to find out the service which is to be read on each day.

Fal.

Fal. Do so, good mine host. Host. I have spoke; let him follow: Let me see the froth, and lime1; I am at a word; follow. [Exit Host.

Fal. Bardolph, follow him; a tapster is a good 5 trade: An old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd serving-man, a fresh tapster: Go; adieu. Bard. It is a life that I have desir'd: I wil thrive. [Exit Bard. Pist. O base Gongarian wight! wilt thou the spigot wield?

Nym. He was gotten in drink: Is not the humour conceited? His mind is not heroic, and there's the humour of it.

Ful. I am glad, I am so acquit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open: his filching was like an unskilful singer, he kept not time.

Nym. The good humour is, to steal at a minute's rest.

eyes too; examin'd my parts with most judicious
eyliads; sometimes the beam of her view gilded
my foot, sometimes my port!, belly.

Pist. Then did the sun on dung-hill shine.
Nym. I thank thee for that humour.

Fal. O, she did so course o'er my exteriors with such a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did seem to scorch me up like a burning-glass! Here's another letter to her: she bears the purse 1000; she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be cheater to them both, and they shall be exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to mistress Page; and thou 15this to mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will

Pist. Convey, the wise it call; Steal! foh; a 20 fico for the phrase!

Fal. Well, sirs, I am almost out at heels.
Pist. Why then, let kibes ensue.

Fal. There is no remedy; I must cony-catch,
I must shift.

Pist. Young ravens must have food 1.

Fal. Which of you know Ford of this town? Pist. I ken the wight; he is of substance good. Fal. My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about.

Pist. Two yards, and more.

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Fal. No quips now, Pistol: Indeed, I am in the waist two yards about: but I am now about no waste; I ain about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife; I spy entertainment in 35 her; she discourses, she carves, she gives the leer of invitation: I can construe the action of her familiar stile; and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be English'd rightly, is, I am sir John Falstaff's.

Pist. He hath study'd her will, and translated her will; out of honesty into English.

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Nym. The anchor is deep: will that humour pass? Ful. Now, the report goes, she has all the rule of her husband's purse; she hath a legion of angels. Pist. As many devils entertain; and, To her, boy, say I.

Nym. The humour rises; it is good: humour me the angels.

thrive.

Pist. Shall I sir Pandares of Troy become, And by my side wear steel? then, Lucifer take all ! Nym. I will run no base humour: here, take the humourletter; I will keep thehaviour of reputation. Fal. Hold, sirrah, bear you these letters tightly"; Sail like my pinnace" to these golden shores.

[To Robin. Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go; Trudge, plod, away, o'the hoof; seek shelter, pack! Falstaff will learn the humour of this age. French thrift, you rogues; myself and skirted page. [Exeunt Falstaff and Bog. Pist. Let vultures gripe thy guts! for gourd, and fullam holds; And high and low beguiles the rich and Tester I'll have in pouch, when thou shalt lack, Base Phrygian Turk!

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poor:

Nym. I have operations in my head, which be

humours of revenge.

Pist. Wilt thou revenge?
Nym. By welkin, and her star!
Pist. With wit, or steel?

Nym. With both the humours, I:

40I will discuss the humour of this love to Ford. Pist. And I to Page shall eke unfold,

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How Falstaff, varlet vile,

His dove will prove, his gold will hold,
And his soft couch defile.

Nym. My humour shall not cool: I will incense Ford to deal with poison; I will possess him with yellowness +, for the revolt of mien is dangerous: that is my true humour.

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Pist. Thou art the Mars of malecontents: IseFal. I have writ me here a letter to her: and here 50cond thee; troop on. another to Page's wife who even now gave me good

[Exeunt.

This alludes to the tricks of frothing beer and liming sack, practised in the time of Shakspeare. The first was done by putting soap into the bottom of the tankard when they drew the beer; the other, by mixing lime with the sack (i. e. sherry) to make it sparkle in the glass. 2 This is a parody on a line taken from one of the old bombast plays. ing is to do it in the shortest time possible. Nym means to say, that the perfection of steal4 A proverb. In those times the young of both sexes were instructed in carving, as a necessary accomplishment. That is, explained. The old quarto reads: As many devils attend her! Probably from oeillades, French. ? That is, eagerness of desire. 10 By this is meant eschetour, an officer in the Exchequer, in no good repute

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with the common people. "Perhaps we should read rightly. have signified a small vessel or sloop, attending on a larger. 12 A pinnace anciently seems to boat. At present it signifies only a man of war's "Fullam is a cant term for false dice, high and low. Gourd was another instrument of gaming. 14 That is, jealousy. fects he has just been ascribing to jealousy. 15 Revolt of mien means change of countenance, one of the ef

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