Mrs. Page. Trust me, he beat him most pitifully. Mrs. Ford. Nay, by th' mafs, that he did not; hẹ beat him moft unpitifully, methought.

Mrs. Page. I'll have the cudgel hallow'd and hung o'er the altar; it hath done meritorious fervice.

Mrs. Ford. What think you? may we with the warrant of woman-hood, and the witnefs of a good confcience, purfue him with any further revenge?

Mrs. Page. The spirit of wantonnefs is, fure, fcar'd out of him; if the devil have him not in fee-fimple, with fine and recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of waste, attempt us again.

Mrs. Ford. Shall we tell our husbands how we have ferved him?

Mrs. Page. Yea, by all means; if it be but to fcrape the figures out of your husband's brain. If they can find in their hearts the poor unvirtuous fat knight fhall be any further afflicted, we two will ftill be the minifters.

Mrs. Ford. I'll warrant they'll have him publickly sham'd; and, methinks, there would be no period to the jeft, fhould he not be publickly asham'd.

Mrs. Page. Come to the forge with it, then fhape it: I would not have things cool.

[Exeunt.

Bard.

SCEN E VI.

Changes to the Garter Inn.

STR

Enter Hoft and Bardolph.

IR, the German defires to have three of your horfes; the Duke himself will be tomorrow at court, and they are going to meet him. Hoft. What Duke fhould that be, comes fo fecretly? 1 hear not of him in the court: let me fpeak with the gentlemen; they speak English?

Bard

Bard. Sir, I'll call them to you.

Hoft. They fhall have my horses, but I'll make them pay, I'll fawce them. They have had my house week at command; I have turn'd away my othe guests; they must come off, I'll fawce them, comer [Exeunt

2

SCENE VII.

Changes to Ford's House.

Enter Page, Ford, Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, and Evans.

Eva. "T

IS one of the beft difcretions of 'oman,

as ever I did look upon.

Page. And did he fend you both thefe letters at an instant?

Mrs. Page. Within a quarter of an hour.

Ford. Pardon me, wife. Henceforth do what thou

wilt;

I rather will fufpect the fun with cold,

Than thee with wantonnefs; thy honour stands,
In him that was of late an heretick,

As firm as faith.

Page. 'Tis well, 'tis well; no more.

Be not as extreme in fubmiffion, as in offence,
But let our plot go forward; let our wives
Yet once again, to make us public sport,
Appoint a meeting with this old fat fellow,
Where we may take him, and difgrace him for it.

2 They must COME off;] This never can be our Poet's or his Hoft's meaning, To come off being in other terms to go fcot-free. We must read, COMPT off, i. e. clear their reckoning.

WARBURTON. To come off, fignifies in our authour, fometimes to be uttered

with spirit and volubility. In this place it feems to mean what is in our time expreffed by to come down, to pay liberally and readily. Thefe accidental and colloquial fenfes are the difgrace of language, and the plague of

commentators.

Ford. There is no better way than that they spoke of. Page. How? to fend him word they'll meet him in the park at midnight? fie, fie, he'll never come.

Eva. You fay, he hath been thrown into the river; and has been grievously peaten, as an old 'oman; methinks, there fhould be terrors in him, that he should not come; methinks, his flesh is punish'd, he shall have no defires.

Page. So think I too,

Mrs. Ford. Devife but how you'll ufe him, when he comes;

And let us two devife to bring him thither.

Mrs. Page. There is an old tale goes, that Herna the hunter,

Sometime a keeper here in Windfor foreft,

Doth all the winter-time at ftill of midnight
Walk round about an oak, with ragged horns;
And there he blafts the tree, and takes the cattle';
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain
In a moft hideous and dreadful manner.

You've heard of fuch a fpirit; and well you know,
The fuperftitious idle-headed Eld

Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age,

This tale of Herne the hunter for a truth.

Page. Why, yet there want not many, that do fear In deep of night to walk by this Herne's oak; But what of this?

Mrs. Ford. Marry, this is our device 4,

3 And takes the cattle.] To take in Shakespear:, fignifies to feize or strike with a disease, to blaft. So in Hamlet,

No planet takes.
So in Lear,

Strike her young limbs,
Ye taking airs, with lameness.
Mrs. Ford. Marry, this is
our Device,

That

That Falstaff at that oak fhall meet with us.
We'll fend him word to meet us in the field,
Difguis'd like Herne, with huge horns on his head.

Page. Well, let it not be doubted, but he'll come. And in this fhape when you have brought him hither, What fhall be done with him? what is your plot?

Mrs. Page. That likewise we have thought upon,

and thus:

Nan Page (my daughter), and my little fon,

And three or four more of their growth, we'll dress
Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white,
With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads,
And rattles in their hands; upon a fudden,
As Falstaff, fhe, and I, are newly met,
Let them from forth a faw-pit rush at once
5 With fome diffused fong: upon their fight,
We two, in great amazedness, will fly;
Then let them all encircle him about,

And fairy-like to pinch the unclean knight;
And ask him, why, that hour of fairy Revel,
In their fo facred paths he dares to tread
In shape prophane ?

Mrs. Ford. And 'till he tell the truth,

Let the fuppofed fairies pinch him round,

And burn him with their tapers.

Mrs. Page. The truth being known,

We'll all present ourselves; dif-horn the spirit,

Shape, in which Falftaff was to be appointed to meet? For the women have not faid one word to afcertain it. This makes it more than fufpicious, the Defect in this Point must be owing to fome wife Retrenchment. The two intermediate Lines, which I have teftored from the old Quarto, are abfolutely neceffary, and clear up the matter. THEOB. s With fome diffused fong :] A

diffused fong fignifies a long that ftrikes out into wild fentiments beyond the bounds of nature, fuch as thofe whose subject is fairy-land. WARBURTON. And fairy like TO pinch the unclean Knight;]The Grammar requires us to read,

And fairy like Too, finch the unclean Knight.

M m 4

WARBURTON.

And

And mock him home to Windfor.

Ford. The children muft.

Be practis'd well to this, or they'll ne'er do't.

Eva. I will teach the children their behaviours; and I will be like a jack-an-apes also to burn the knight with my taper.

Ford. This will be excellent. I'll go buy them vizards.

Mrs. Page. My Nan fhall be the Queen of all the fairies; finely attired in a robe of white.

Page. That filk will I go buy. And in that time" Shall Mr. Slender steal my Nan away, [Afide. And marry her at Eaton--Go, fend to Falstaff ftraight.

Ford. Nay, I'll to him again in the name of Brook; he'll tell me all his purpofe. Sure, he'll come.

Mrs. Page. Fear not you that; go get us properties and tricking for our fairies.

Eva. Let us about it, it is admirable pleasures, and ferry honeft knaveries. [Ex. Page, Ford and Evans. Mrs. Page, Go, Mrs. Ford,

Send Quickly to Sir John to know his mind.

[Exit Mrs. Ford.

I'll to the doctor, he hath my good will,
And none but he, to marry with Nan Page.
That Slender, tho' well landed, is an Ideot;
And he my husband best of all affects:
The doctor is well money'd, and his friends
Potent at court; he, none but he, fhall have her
Tho' twenty thoufand worthier came to crave her.

1 That filk will I go buy, and in that time-] Mr. Theo bald referring that time to the time of buying the filk, alters it to tire. But there is no need of any change: That time evi

[Exit.

dently relating to the time of the mask with which Falstaff was to be entertained, and which makes the whole fubject of this dialogue. Therefore the common reading is right.

WARBURTON.

SCENE