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der; that, peradventures, shall tell you another tale, understand: that is, master Page, fidelicet, master if matters grow to your likings. Page; and there is myself, fidelicet, myself; and the three party is, lastly and finally, mine host of

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 1 and I love you always with my heart, la ; with my heart.

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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 wrong'd me, master Page.
Page. Sir, he doth in some sort confess it.

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 affectatious.

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 shovel-boards," that cost me two shilling and two pence apiece of Yead Miller, by these gloves.

I

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,

combat challenge of this latten bilbo :*
Word of denial in thy labras here;
Word of denial; froth and scum, thou liest.
Slen. By these gloves, then 'twas he.

I

Nym. Be advised, sir, and pass good humours will say, marry trap, with you, if you run the

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 ;-nuthook's humour on me; that is the very note of it. Robert Shallow, esquire, saith, he is wrong'd. Page. Here comes Sir John.

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, killed my deer, and broke open my lodge.

Fal. But not kiss'd your keeper's daughter. Shal. Tut, a pin! this shall be answer'd. Fal. I will answer it straight;-I have done all this:-that is now answer'd.

Shal. The council shall know this. Fal. "Twere better for you, if it were known in counsel: you'll be laugh'd at.

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, cashier'd; and so conclusions pass'd the careires.

Slen. Ay, you spake in Latin then too; but 'tis 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.

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

Ev. Pauca verba, Sir John, good worts. Fal. Good worts!2 good cabbage.-Slender, I broke your head; what matter have you against Enter Mistress Anne Page with wine; Mistress me?

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.

Br. You Banbury cheese!4
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?

Ford and Mistress Page following.

Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within." [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 all unkindness.

[Exeunt all but Shal. Slend. and Evans. Eva. Peace, I pray you! Now let us under- Slen. I had rather than forty shillings, I had my stand: there is three umpires in this matter, as I book of songs and sonnets here:

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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?1

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 Hagh here ;-do you understand ine?
Slen. 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.

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

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 Shallow: [Exit Simple. A justice o. peace sometime 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. Piaith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much as though I did.

Anne. I pray you, sir, walk in.

Sten. 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 Slen. Nay, I will do as my cousin Shallow says: veneys for a dish of stewed prunes; and, by my I pray you, pardon me; he's a justice of peace in troth, I cannot abide the smell of hot meat since. his country, simple though I stand here.

Why do your dogs bark so? be there bears i' the

Eva. But that is not the question; the question town? 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 parcel of the mouth;-therefore, precisely, can you carry your good will to the maid?

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

Eva. Nay, Go'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?

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 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 am freely dissolved, and dissolutely.

Eva. It is a fery discretion answer; save, the 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 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 worships' company.

Shal. I will wait on him, fair mistress Anne. Eva. Od's plessed will! I will not be absence at the grace.

Ereunt Shal. and Sir H. Evans.

An intended blunder.
Three set-to's, boute or hits.

Anne. I think there are, sir; I heard them talked 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.

Slen. That's meat and drink to me now: I have seen Sackerson3 loose, twenty times; and have taken him by the chain: but, I warrant you, the women have so cried and shriek'd at it, that it pass'd:-but women, indeed, cannot abide 'em ; they are very ill-favoured 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.

Slen. 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.

SCENE II.-The same.

[Exeunt.

Enter Sir Hugh Evans

and Simple.

Eva. Go your ways, and ask of Doctor 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.

Sim. 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 Ann Page: I pray you, be gone; I will make an end of my dinner: there's pippins and cheese to come. [Exeunt.

(S. The name of a bear exhibited at Paris-Gar den, in Southwark

(4) Surpassed all expression.

SCENE III-A room in the Garter Inn. Enter gilded my foot, sometimes my portly belly.
Falstaff, Host, Bardolph, Nym, Pistol, and
Robin.

Fal. Mine host of the Garter,

Host. What says my bully-rook? Speak scholarly, and wisely.

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?

Fal. Do so, good mine host.

Host. I have spoke; let him follow: let me see thee froth, and lime: I am at a word; follow. [Exit Host. Fal. Bardolph, follow him; a tapster is a good trade: an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a withered serving-man, a fresh tapster: go; adieu. Bard. It is a life that I have desired; I will thrive. [Exit Bard. Pist. O base Gongarian1 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.

Fal. 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.

Pist. Convey, the wise it call: steal! foh; a fico2 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 coney-catch; I must shift.

Pist. Young ravens must have food.

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.

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

Pist. He hath studied her well, and translated her well; out of honesty into English. Nym. The anchor is deep: will that humour pass?

Fal. Now, the report goes, she has all the rule of her husband's purse; she hath legions of angels,

Pist. As many devils entertain; and, To her, boy, say I. Nym. The humour rises; it is good: humour me the angels.

Fal. I have writ me here a letter to her: and here another to Page's wife; who even now gave me good eyes too, examin'd my parts with most judicious eyliads: sometimes the beam of her view

(1) For Hungarian. (2) Fig. (3) Gold coin.
(4) Escheatour, an officer in the Exchequer.
(5) Cleverly. (6) False dice.

I

Pist. Then did the sun on dunghill shine. Nym. I thank thee for that humour. Fal. O, she did so course o'er my exteriors with did seem to scorch me up like a burning-glass! such a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye Here's another letter to her: she bears the purse too: she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West will be cheater to them both, and they shall be Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive. thou this letter to mistress Page; and thou this to Pist. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become, And by my side wear steel? then, Lucifer, take all! Nym. I will run no base humour; here, take the humour letter; I will keep the 'haviour of reputation.

Fal. Hold, sirrah, [to Rob.] bear you these letSail like my pinnace to these golden shores.ters tightly; Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hail-stones, go; Trudge, plod, away, o' the hoof; seek shelter, Falstaff will learn the humour of this age, pack! French thrift, you rogues; myself, and skirted page. [Exeunt Falstaff and Robin. Pist. Let vultures gripe thy guts! for gourd and fullam holds,

And high and low beguile the rich and poor: Tester I'll have in pouch," when thou shalt lack, Base Phrygian Turk!

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,

I will discuss the humour of this love to Page.
Pist. And I to Ford shall eke unfold,
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' Page to deal with poison; I will possess him with yellowness, for the revolt of mien is dangerous: that is my true humour.

9

Pist. Thou art the Mars of malcontents: I second thee; troop on.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-A room in Dr. Caius' house. Enter
Mrs. Quickly, Simple, and Rugby.

Quick. What: John Rugby!-I pray thee, go
to the casement, and see if you can see my master,
master Doctor Caius, coming: if he do, i'faith, and
find any body in the house, here will be an old
abusing of God's patience, and the king's English.
Rug. I'll go watch.
[Exit Rugby.

Quick. Go; and we'll have a posset for't soon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire. An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale, nor no breed-bate: 10 his worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is something peevish1 that way; but nobody but has his fault;-but let that pass. Peter Simple, you say your name is? Sim. Ay, for fault of a better.

Quick. And master Slender's your master?

(7) Sixpence I'll have in pocket.
(8) Instigate. (9) Jealousy.
(11) Foolish.

(10) Strife.

Sim. Ay, forsooth.

Quick. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover's paring-knife?

for my master, in the way of marriage.
Quick. This is all, indeed, la; but I'll ne'er put
my finger in the fire, and need not.
Caius. Sir Hugh send-a you?-Rugby, baillez
me some paper:-Tarry you a little-a while.

Sim. No forsooth: he hath but a little wee face, with a little yellow beard; a Cain-coloured beard. Quick. A softly-sprighted man, is he not? [writes. Sim. Ay, forsooth: but he is as tall a man of Quick. I am glad he is so quiet: if he had been his hands, as any is between this and his head: he thoroughly moved, you should have heard him so hath fought with a warrener.2 loud, and so melancholy ;-but notwithstanding, Quick. How say you ?-O, I should remember man, I'll do your master what good I can: and, him; does he not hold up his head, as it were ? and the very yea and the no is, the French doctor, my strut in his gait? master, I may call him my master, look you, for I keep his house; and I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the beds, and do all myself;

Sim. Yes, indeed, does he.

Quick. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse fortune! Tell master parson Evans, I will do what I can for your master: Anne is a good girl, and I wish

Re-enter Rugby.

Enter Doctor Caius.

Sim. 'Tis a great charge, to come under one body's hand.

Quick. Are you advis'd o' that? you shall find it a great charge: and to be up early, and down late ;but notwithstanding (to tell you in your ear I would have no words of it;) my master himself is in love with mistress Anne Page: but notwithstanding that, I know Anne's mind,-that's neither here nor there.

Rug. Out, alas! here comes my master. Quick. We shall all be shent: run in here, good young man; go into this closet. [Shuts Simple in the closet.] He will not stay long.-What, John Rugby! John, what, John, I say!-Go, John, go Caius. You jack'nape; give-a dis letter to sit inquire for my master; I doubt, he be not well, Hugh; by gar, it is a shallenge: I vill cut his troat that he comes not home and down, down, in de park; and I vill teach a scurvy jack-a-nape adown-a, &c. [Sings. priest to meddle or make-you may be gone; it is not good you tarry here:-by gar, I will cut all his two stones; by gar, he shall not have a stone to trow at his dog. [Exit Simple. Quick. Alas, he speaks but for his friend. Caius. It is no matter-a for dat:-do not you tell-a me dat I shall have Anne Page for myself? -by gar, I vill kill de Jack priest; and I have apQuick. Ay, forsooth, I'll fetch it you. I am glad pointed mine host of de Jarterre to measure our he went not in himself; if he had found the young weapon:-by gar, I vill myself have Anne Page. man, he would have been horn-mad. Quick. Sir, the maid loves you, and all shall be Caius. Fe, fe, fe, fe! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. well: we must give folks leave to prate: What, Je m'en vais à la cour,-la grand affaire. the good-jer!

Caius. Vat is you sing? I do not like dese toys; Pray you, go and vetch me in my closet un boitier verd; a box, a green-a box; do intend vat I speak? a green-a box

Quick. Is it this, sir?

[Aside.

Caius. Ouy; mette le au mon pocket; depeche,
quickly:-Vere is dat knave Rugby!
Quick. What, John Rugby! John!
Rug. Here, sir.

Caius. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby: come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to de court.

Rug. 'Tis ready, sir, here in the porch.

Caius. By my trot, I tarry too long:-Od's me! Qu'ay j'oublié dere is some simples in my closet, dat I vill not for the varld I shall leave behind.

Quick. Ah me! he'll find the young man there, and be mad.

Caius. O diable, diable! vat is in my closet?Villany! larron! [Pulling Simple out.] Rugby, my rapier.

Quick. Good master, be content. Caius. Verefore shall I be content-a? Quick. The young man is an honest man. Caius. Vat shall de honest man do in my closet? dere is no honest man dat shall come in my closet. Quick. I beseech you, be not so flegmatic; hear the truth of it: he came of an errand to me from parson Hugh.

Caius. Vell.

Sim. Ay, forsooth, to desire her to
Quick. Peace, I pray you.

Caius. Peace-a your tongue:-Speak-a your tale. Sim. To desire this honest gentlewoman, your maid, to speak a good word to mistress Anne Page,

(1) Brave. (2) The keeper of a warren. (3) Scolded, reprimanded.

Caius. Rugby, come to the court vit me;-by gar, if I have not Anne Page, I shall turn your head out of my door:-Follow my heels, Rugby. [Exeunt Caius and Rugby.

Quick. You shall have An fools-head of your own. No, I know Anne's mind for that: never a woman in Windsor knows more of Anne's mind than I do; nor can do more than I do with her, I thank heaven.

Fent. [Within.] Who's within there, ho? Quick. Who's there, I trow? Come near the house, I pray you.

Enter Fenton.

Fent. How now, good woman; how dost thou ? Quick. The better, that it pleases your good worship to ask.

Fent. What news? how does pretty mistress Anne?

Quick. In truth, sir, and she is pretty, and honest, and gentle; and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by the way; I praise heaven for it. Fent. Shall I do any good, thinkest thou? Shall I not lose my suit?

Quick. Troth, sir, all is in his hands above: but notwithstanding, master Fenton, I'll be sworn on a book, she loves you:-Have not your worship a wart above your eye?

Fent. Yes, marry, have I; what of that?
Quick. Well, thereby hangs a tale ;-good faith,

(4) The goujere, what the pox!

it is such another Nan:-but, I detest, an honest show you to the contrary: O, mistress Page, give maid as ever broke bread:-We had an hour's me some counsel !

talk of that wart;-I shall never laugh but in that Mrs. Page. What's the matter, woman? maid's company.-But, indeed, she is given too Mrs. Ford. O woman, if it were not for one mich to allicholly2 and musing: but for you- trifling respect, I could coine to such honour! Well, go to. Mrs. Page. Hang the trifle, woman; take the Fent. Well, I shall see her to-day: hold, there's honour: what is it?-dispense with trifles;-what money for thee; let me have thy voice in my be- is it?

half: if thou seest her before me, commend me- Mrs. Ford. If I would but go to hell for an Quick. Will I? i'iaith, that we will: and I will eternal moment, or so, I could be knighted. tell your worship more of the wart, the next time Mrs. Page. What ?-thou liest !-Sir Alice we have confidence; and of other wooers. Ford!These knights will hack; and so thou

ACT II.

[Exit.

SCENE I-Before Page's house. Enter Mistress Page, with a letter.

Fent. Well, farewell; I am in great haste now. shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry. [Exit. Mrs. Ford. We burn day-light-here, read, Quick. Farewell to your worship.-Truly, an read;-perceive how I might be knighted.-I shall honest gentleman; but Anne loves him not; for think the worse of fat men, as long as I have an eye to I know Anne's mind as well as another does :- make difference of men's liking: and yet he would Out upon't! what have I forgot? not swear; praised women's modesty: and gave such orderly and well-behaved reproof to all uncomeliness, that I would have sworn his disposition would have gone to the truth of his words: but they do no more adhere and keep place together, than the hundredth psalm to the tune of Green Sleeves. What tempest, I trow, threw this whale, with so many tuns of oil in his belly, ashore at Windsor ? How shall I be revenged on him? I think the best Mrs. Page. What! have I 'scaped love-letters fire of lust have melted him in his own grease. Did way were to entertain him with hope, till the wicked in the holy-day time of my beauty, and am I now a subject for them? Let me see: Ask me no reason why I love you; for though of Page and Ford differs!-To thy great comfort Mrs. Page. Letter for letter; but that the name love use reason for his precisian, he admits him in this mystery of ill opinions, here's the twin not for his counsellor: You are not young, no brother of thy letter: but let thine inherit first; for, more am I; go to then, there's sympathy: you I protest, mine never shall. I warrant, he hath a are merry, so am I; ha! ha! then there's more thousand of these letters, writ with blank space for sympathy: you love sack, and so do I would different names (sure more,) and these are of the you desire better sympathy? Let it suffice thee, second edition: he will print them out of doubt: mistress Page (at the least, if the love of a soldier for he cares not what he puts into the press, when can suffice,) that I love thee. I will not say, pity he would put us two. me, 'lis not a soldier-like phrase; but I say, love and lie under mount Pelion. Well, I will find you I had rather be a giantess, me. By me, twenty lascivious turtles, ere one chaste man.

Thine own true knight,

By day or night,

Or any kind of light,
With all his might,
For thee to fight,

[reads. You ever hear the like?

John Falstaff.

Mrs. Ford. Why, this is the very same; the very hand, the very words: what doth he think of us?

Mrs. Page. Nay, I know not: it makes me almost ready to wrangle with mine own honesty. I'll entertain myself like one that I am not acquainted withal; for, sure, unless he know some strain in me, that I know not myself, he would never have boarded me in this fury.

What a Herod of Jewry is this !-O wicked, wicked world!-one that is well nigh worn to pieces with age, to show himself a young gallant! Mrs. Ford, Boarding, call you it? I'll be sure What an unweighed behaviour hath this Flemish to keep him above deck, drunkard picked (with the devil's name) out of my Mrs. Page. So will I; if he come under my conversation, that he dares in this manner assay hatches, I'll never to sea again. Let's be revenged me? Why, he hath not been thrice in my compa- on him let's appoint him a meeting: give him a ny!-What should I say to him?-I was then show of comfort in his suit; and lead him on with frugal of my mirth :-heaven forgive me !-Why, a fine-baited delay, till he hath pawn'd his horses I'll exhibit a bill in the parliament for the putting to mine host of the Garter. down of men. How shall I be revenged on him? Mrs. Ford. Nay, I will consent to act any vil. for revenged I will be, as sure as his guts are made lany against him, that may not sully the chariness of puddings. of our honesty. O, that my husband saw this letter! it would give eternal food to his jealousy.

Enter Mistress Ford.

Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page! trust me, I was going to your house.

Mrs. Page. And, trust me, I was coming to you. You look very ill.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, I'll ne'er believe that; I have to show to the contrary.

Mrs. Page. 'Faith, but you do, in my mind.
Mrs. Ford. Well, I do then; yet, I say, I could

She means, I protest. (2) Melancholy.
Most probably Shakspeare wrote Physician.1

Mrs. Page. Why, look, where he comes; and my good man too: he's as far from jealousy, as I am from giving him cause; and that, I hope, is an

unmeasurable distance.

Mrs. Ford. You are the happier woman.
Mrs. Page. Let's consult together against this
greasy knight: come hither. [They retire,

Enter Ford, Pistol, Page, and Nym.
Ford. Well, I hope, it be not so.
(4) Caution.

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