And, as I am a gentleman, I'll give thee

Fal. Away, I say; time wears: hold up your A bandred pound in gold, more than your loss. bead, and mince. (Exit Mrs. QUICKLY.

Host. I will hear you, master Fenton ; and I will, at the least, keep your counsel.

Enter FORD. Fent. From time to time I have acquainted How now, master Brook? Master Brook, the you matter will be known to-nigbt, or never.

Be you With the dear love I bear to fair Anne Page ;

in the Park about midnight, at Herue's oak, and Wbo, mutually, hath answer'd my affection

you shall see wonders. (So far forth as herself might be her chooser,)

Ford. Went you not to her yesterday, Sir, as Even to my wisb: I bave a letter from her

you told me you bad appointed ? of such contents as you will wonder at :

Fal. ( went to ber, master Brook, as you see, The mirth whereof 80 larded with my matter,

like a poor old man : but I came from her, That neither, singly, can be manifested,

'Tbat Without the show of both ;-wherein' fat Fal- master Brook, like a poor old woman. stad

same knave, Ford her husband, bath the

finest mad devil of jealousy in bim, master Hath a great scene : the image of the jest.

I will tell (Showing the letter. Brook, that ever governed frenzy. I'll show you here at large. Hark, good mine you. He beat me grievously, in the shape of

a woman ; for in the shape of man, master host: To-night at Herne's oak, just 'twixt twelve and Brook, I fear not Goliath with a weaver's beam;

because I know also, life is a shuttle. I am one,

in haste ; go along with me; I'll tell you all, Must my sweet Nan present the fairy queen ;

master Brook. Since I plucked geese, played The purpose why, is here ;' in wbich disguise,

truant, and whipped top, I knew not what it While other jests are something rank on foot, Her father hath commanded her to slip

was to be beaten, till lately. Follow me: I'll

tell you strange things of this knave Ford : on Away with Slender, and with him at Eton

whom to-night I will be revenged, and I will Immediately to marry : she hath consented :

deliver his wife into your hand.- Follow : Strange Now, Sir,

things in hand, master Brook I follow. Her mother, even strong against that match,

(Ereunt. And firm for doctor Caius, bath appointed That he shall likewise shutne ber away, While other sports are tasking of their minds,

SCENE II.-Windsor Park. And at the deanery, where a priest attends,

Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER, Straight marry her : to this her mother's plot She, seemingly obedient, likewise bath

Page. Come, come ; we'll couch i' the castle Made promise to the doctor ;-Now, thus it ditch, till we see the light of our fairies.-Re. rests :

member, son Slender, my daughter. Her father means she shall be all in white ; Slen. Ay, forsooth; I have spoke with her, And in that habit, when Slender sees his time

and we have a nay.word,' how to know one To take her by the hand and bid ber go, another. I coine to her in white, and cry, mum ; She shall go with him :-ber mother bath in- she cries, budget ; and by that we know one tended,

another. The better to denote ber to the doctor,

Shal. That's good too : But what needs either (For they must all be mask'd and vizarded,)

your mum, or her budget ? the white will deThat, quaint in green, she shall be loose en- cipber her well enough.-It bath struck ten rob’d,

o'clock. With ribbands pendaut, flaring 'bout her bead; Page. The night is dark; light and spirits And wben the doctor spies his vantage ripe, will become it well. Heaven prosper our sport! To pinch her by the hand, and, on that token, No may means evil but the devil, and we 'sball The maid hath given consent to go with him. know him by his horns. Let's away ; follow me. Host. Which means she to deceive ? father or

[Ereunt. mother Fent. Both, my good host, to go along with

SCENE III.-The Street in Windsor. And here it rests,-that you'll procure the Enter Mrs. Page, Mrs. FORD, and Dr. vicar

Caius. To stay for me at church, 'twixt twelve and one,

Mrs. Page. Master doctor, my daughter is in And, in the lawful name of marrying,

green : when you see your time, take her by the To give our hearts united ceremony.

band, away with her to the deanery, and despatch Host. Well, husband your device ; l'll to the it quickly : Go before into the park; we two vicar:

must go together. Bring you the maid, you shall not lack a priest. Caius. I know vat I have to do ; Adieu.

Fent. So shall I evermore be bound to thee; Mrs. Page. Fare you well, Sir. (Exit CAIUS.) Besides, I'll make a present recompense. My husband will not rejoice so much at the

(Exeunt. doctor's marrying my daughter : but 'tis no

matter ; better a little chiding, than a great deal of heart-break.

Mrs. Ford. Where is Nan now, and her troop ACT V.

of fairies ? and the Welsh devil, Hugh?

Mrs. Page. They are all couched in a pit bard SCENE I.-A Room in the Garter Inn.

by Herne's oak, wiib obscured lights; which, at

the the very instant of Falstaff's and our meetEnter FALSTAFF and Mrs. QUICKLY.

ing, they will at once display to the night.

Mrs. Ford. That cannot choose but amaze Fal. Pr’ythee, no more prattling ;-go.

him. l'll hold : 1 Tbis is the third time; I hope, good Mrs. Page. If be be not amazed, he will be luck lies in odd numbers. Away, go; they say, mocked ; if he be amazed, he will every way be there is divinity in odd numbers, either in mocked. nativity, chance, or death.-Away.

Mrs. Ford. We'll betray him finely. Quick. I'll provide you a chain; and I'll do Mrs. Page. Against such lewdsters, and thet: what I can to get you a pair of horns.

lecbery,

Those that betray him do no treachery. • In the letter.

* Fantastically, • Keep to the time,

• Watch-word. 32.

me:

Mrs. Ford. The hour draws on ; To the oak, ! I'll wink and couch : No man their works must to the oak !

(Ereunt.

eye. (Lies down upon his face.

Eva. Where's Pede I-Go you, and where you SCENE IV.-Windsor Park.

find a maid,

That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said, Enter Sir Hugh Evans, and Fairies.

Raise up the organs of her fantasy, Eva. Trib, trib, fairies ; come ; and remem- Sleep sbe as sound as careless infancy, ber your parts : be pold, I pray you; follow me But those as sleep, and think pot on their sias, into the pit; and when I give the watch-'ords, Pinch them, arins, legs, back, shoulders, sides, do as I pid you ; Come, come ; trib, trib.

and shins.
[Exeunt. Quick. About, about;

Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out : SCENE V.-Another part of the Park. Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room;

That it may stand till the perpetual doom, Enter Falstaff disguised, with a buck's In state as wholesome, as in state 'tis fit; head on.

Worthy the owner and the owner it. Fal. The Windsor bell hath struck twelve ; The several chairs of order look you scour the minute draws on: Now, the bot-blooded with juice of balm, and every precious flower: gods assist me:-Remember, Jove, thou wast Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest, a bull for thy Europa; love set on thy horns. With loyal blazon, evermore be blest ! - powerful love! that, in some respects, makes And nightly, meadow-fairies, look, you sing, a beast a man; iu some other, a man a beast. Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring : -You were also, Jupiter, a swan, for the love the expressure that it bears, green let it be, of Leda ;-0 omnipotent love ! how near the More fertile-fresh than all the field to see ; god drew to the complexion of a goose !-A And, Hony soit qui mal y pense, write, fault done first in the form of a beast ;--0In emerald turfs, flowers purple, blue, and Jove, a beastly fault! and then another fault

white; in the semblance of a fowl ; think on't, Jove ; Like sapphire, pearl, and rich einbroidery, a foul fault.-When gods have hot backs, what Buckled below fair knighthood's bending koee : shall poor men

do ? For me, I am here a Fairies use flowers for their cbaractery. Windsor stag; and the fattest, I think, i' the Away; disperse : But, till 'tis one o'clock, forest : send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who Our dance of custom, round about the oak can blame me to piss my tallowľ who comes of Herue the hunter, let us not forget. bere ? my doe?

Eva. Pray you, lock band iu baud : your.

selves in order set : Enter Mrs. FORD, and Mrs. PAGE, And twenty glow-worins shall our lanterns be, Mrs. Ford. Sir John ? art thou there, iny To guide our measure round about the tree. deer? my male deer?

But stay ; I smell a mau of middle earth. Fal. My doe with the black scut ?- Let the Fal. Heavens defend me from that Welsh sky rain potatoes ; let it thunder to the tune of fairy ! lest be transform me to a piece of Green Sleeves ; hail kissing-comfits, and snow cheese! eringoes ; let there come a tempest of provoca

Pist. Vile worm, thou wast o'er-look'd even tion, I will shelter me here.

in thy birth. (Embracing her. Quick. With trial-fire touch me his anger. Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page is come with me,

end : sweetheart.

If he be chaste, the fame will back descend, Fal. Divide me like a bride-buck, each a And turn him to no pain ; bot if he start haunch; I will keep my sides to myself, my It is the flesh of a corrupted heart. shoulders for the fellow • of this walk, and my

Pist. A trial, come. horns I bequeath your husbands. Am I a wood- Eva. Come, will this wood take fire ? man? ha! Speak I like Herne the hunter 3

[They burn him with their tapers. Why, now is Cupid a child of conscience; he Pal. Ob! ob ! oh! makes restitution. As I am a true spirit, wel. Quick. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in decome !

(Noise within.

sire ! Mrs. Page. Alas! what noise?

About him fairies ; sing a scornful rhyme : Mrs. Ford. Heaven forgive our sins!

And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time. Fal. What should this be ?

Eva. It is right; indeed he is full of lecheries

and iniquity. Mrs. Page: } Away, away. (They run off Fal. I think the devil will not have me

Song, damned, lest the oil that is in me should set

Fye on sinful fantasy! hell on fire; he would never else cross me

Fye on lust and luxury ! thus.

Lust is but a bloody fire, Enter Sir Hugh Evans, like a satyr; Mrs.

Kindled with unchaste desire, QUICKLY, and Pistol ; ANNE PAGE, as the

Fed in heart ; whose flames aspire, Fairy Queen, attended by her brother and

As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher. others, dressed like fairies, with waxen ta

Pinch him, fairies, mutually, pers on their heads.

Pinch him, for his villany; Quick. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white,

Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him You moon-shine revellers, and shades of night,

about, You orphan-heirs of fixed destiny,

Till candles, and star-light, and moonshine

be oul.
Allend your office, and your quality.t-
Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy o.ges.
Pist. Elves, list your naines ; silence, you

During this song, the faries pinch FALSTAFF. airy toys.

Doctor CAIUS comes one way, and steals Cricket, to Windsor chimnies shalt thou leap :

away a fairy in green; SLENDER another Wbere fires thou fiud'st unrak'd, and beartbs

way, and takes of a fairy in white ;

and Fenron comes, and steals away Mrs. unskept, Tbere pinch the maids as blue as bilberry ; :

ANNE PAGE. A noise of hunting is made

within. Our radiant queen hates sluts and sluttery.

All the fairies run away. FAL. Fal. They are fairies; he that speaks to them

STAFP pulls off his buck's head and

rises.
shall die :
• Keeper of the forest. Fellowship,

+
i Wortleberry

• The letters.

an ass.

Enter PAGE, FORD, Mrs. PAGE, and Mrs. to one master Brook, that you have cozened of FORD. They lay hold on him.

money, to whom you should bave been a pan

der : over and above that you have suffered, Page. Nay, do not fly: I think we have I think, to repay that money will be a biting watch'd you now :

affliction. Will none but Herne the hunter serve your Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to make turn?

amends : Mrs. Page. I pray you, come; bold up the Forgive ibat sum, and so we'll all be friends. jest no bigber :

Ford. Well, here's my hand; all's forgiven at Now, good Sir Johu, bow like you Windsor

last. wives ?

Page. Yet .be cheerful, knight : thou shalt eat See you these, husband I do not these fair a posset to-night at my house ; wbere I will yokes

desire thee to laugh at my wife, that now langhs Become the forest better than the town ?

at thee : Tell her, master Slender hath married Ford. Now, Sir, who's a cuckold now ?- her daughter. Master Brook, Falstaff's a knave, a cuckoldly Mrs. Page. Doctors doubt that : If Anne Page knave ; here are his horns, inaster Brook : And, be my daughter, she is, by this, doctor Caius' master Brook, he bath enjoyed nothing of Ford's wife.

[Aside. but his buck-basket, bis cudgel, and twenty pounds of money; which must be paid to mas.

Enter SLENDER. ter Brook ; his horses are arrested for it, master Brook.

Slen. Whoo, hol bol father Page. Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck ;

Page. Son! how now? bow now, son ? have we could never meet. I will never take you you despatched ? for my love again, but I will always count you

Slen. Despatched-l'll make the best in Glov. my deer.

cestershire know on't ; would I were banged, la, Fal. I do begin to perceive that I am made else.

Page. Of what, son ? Ford. Ay, and an ox too ; both the proofs are

Slen. I came yonder at Eton to marry mis. extant.

tress Anne Page, and she's a great lubberly Fal. And these are not fairies ? I was three boy : If it bad not been i’ the church, I would or four times in the thought they were pot bave swinged bin, or he should have swinged fairies : and yet the guiltiness of my mind, the me.

if I did not thiuk it had been Anne Page, sudden surprise of my powers, drove the gross would I might never stir, and 'lis a post-master's ness of the foppery into a received belief, in boy: despite of the teeth of all rhyme and reason,

Page. Upon my life then you took the wrong. that they were fairies. See now, how wit may

Slen. What need you tell me that? I think be made a Jack-a-lent, when 'lis upon ill em. so, when I took a boy for a girl: If I bad been ployment,

married to him, for all he was in womau's apEva. Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave parel, I would not have bad bim. your desires, and fairies will not pinse you.

Page. Why, this is your own folly: Did not I Ford. Well said, fairy Hugh..

tell you, how you should know my daughter by Eva. And leave you your jealousies too, I ber garments ? pray you.

Sien. I went to ber in white, and cried mum, Ford. I will never mistrnst my wife again, and she cried budget, as Anne and I had aptill thou art able to woo ber in good English.

pointed ; and yet it was not Anne, but a post. Fal. Have I laid my brain in the sun, and master's boy. dried it, that it wants matter to preveut so

Eva. Jeshu! Master Slender, cannot you see gross o'er-reaching as this ? Am I ridden with but marry boys ? a Welsh goat too? Shall I have a coxcomb of

Page. Oh i I am vexed at heart : What sball I frize ? t 'tis time I were choked with a piece of do? toasted cheese.

Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry : 1 Eva. Seese is not good to give putter ; your knew of your purpose ; turned my daughter into pelly is all putter.

green ; and, indeed, she is now with the doctor Fal. Seese and putter! Have I lived to stand at the deanery, and there married. at the taunt of one that makes fritters of English? This is enough to be the decay of lust and late.

Enter CAIUS. walking, through the realm. Mrs.' Page. why, Sir John, do you think, cozened; I ha' married un garçon, a boy ; un

Caius. Vere is mistress Page ? By gar, I am though we would have thrust virtue out of our puisan, by gar, a boy; it is not Aune Page : by hearts by the head and shoulders, and bave given ourselves without scruple to hell, that

gar, I am cozened. ever the devil could bave made you our de

Mrs. Page. Why did you take her in light?

green? Ford. What, a hodge-pudding ? a bag of flax ?

Caius. Ay, he gar, and 'tis a boy ; be gar,

I'll raise all Windsor. Mrs. Page. A puffed nian?

[Exit Caius. Page. Old, cold, withered, and of intolerable

Ford. This is strange : Who hath got the right entrails?

Anne ? Ford. And one that is as slanderous as

Page. My heart misgives me : Here comes Satan 7

master Fenton. Page. And as poor as Job ? Ford. And as wicked as his wife ?

Enter FENTON and ANNE PAGR. Eva. And given to fornications, and to taverns, How now, master Fenton ? and sack, and wine, and metheglins, and to drinkings, and swearings, and starings, pribbles

Anne. Pardon, good father, good my molber,

pardon ! and prabbles ? Fal. Well, I am your theme : you have the not with master Slender ?

Page. Now, mistress ? how chance you went start of me; I am dejected; I am not able to

Mrs. Puge. Why went you not with master answer the Welsh fannel ; 1 ignorance itself is a

doctor, maid ? plummet o'er me : use me as you will.

Fent. You do amaze her : Hear the truth of Ford. Marry, Sir, we'll bring you to Wiudsor,

it.

You would have married her most shamefully, • Horns which Falstaff had.

Where there was no proportion held in love. 1 A fool's cap of Welah materials. $ Flanud was originally the manufacture of Wales.

• Confound her by your questions.

The truth ko, she and I, long since contracted, Page. Well what remedy? Fenton, beaven Are now so sure that nothing can dissolve us.

give thee joy! The offence is holy that she hath committed : What cannot be eschew'd, must be embrac'd. And this deceit loses the name of craft,

Fal. When pight-dogs run, all sorts of deer of disobedience, or unduteous title ;

are chas'd. Since therein she doti evitate and shun Eva. I will dance and eat plums at your A thousand irreligious cursed hours,

wedding Which forced marriage would have brought upon Mrs. Page. Well, I will must no further :her.

Master Fenton, Ford. Stand not amaz'd : there is no reme- Heaven give you many, many merry days ! dy ;

Good husband, let us every one go bome, Iu love, the heavens themselves do guide the And laugh this sport o'er by a country are ; state ;

Sir John and all.
Money huys lands, and wives are sold by fate. Ford. Let it be 80 :- Sir John,

Fal. I am glad, though you have ta'en a to inaster Brook you yet shall hold yous special stand to strike at ine, that your arrow

word; batb glanced.

For he, to-night, sball lie with Mrs. Ford.

(Ercunt. Avoid

.....

FINIS.

g