Enter ANNE PAGE, R. with Wine. Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within. Slen. O, heaven! this is Mistress Anne Page. Page. Come, we have a hot venison pasty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkind ness. [Exeunt all but SHALLOW, SLENDER, and EVANS, R.-Before PISTOL, NYM, BARDOLPH exeunt, Slen. (L.) I had rather than forty shillings I had my book of songs and sonnets here : Enter SIMPLE, L. How now, Simple! I must wait on myself, must I? Shal. (c.) Come, coz; a word with you, coz: there is, as 'twere, a kind of tender, made afar off, by Sir Hugh, here; do you understand me? Slen. (c.) Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, I shall do that that is reason. Eva. (L.) 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: he's a justice of peace in his country, simple though I stand here. Eva. (L. c.) 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'll marry her on 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 goodwill to the maid? Shal. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her? and 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, 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 "I will marry her, that I amı you say, marry her," 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. Enter ANNE PAGE, R. Anne. The dinner is on the table; my father desires your worships' company. Shal. I will wait on him, fair mistress Anne. [Exit, R. Eva. Od's plessed will! I will not be absence at the grace. [Crosses and exit, R. Anne. (c.) Will't please your worship to come in, sir? Slen. (L. c.) 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. [SIMPLE Crosses to R. and exit. 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; 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. 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. Enter PAGE, K. 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. Anne. Come on, sir. Slen. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first. Anne. Not I, sir; pray you, keep on. [Exit, R. 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 : [Crosses to R.] you do yourself wrong, indeed, la. [Exeunt, R. SCENE II.-A Room in Page's House. Eva. (R. c.) 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. Sim. (L.) 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, begone. [Exit SIMPLE, L.] I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to coine. [Exit, R. SCENE III.-The Garter Inn. Enter FALSTAFF, PISTOL, NYм, and ROBIN, R.— ROBIN keeps at back of the Stage. Fal. Which of you know Ford, of this town? B Pist. I ken the wight; he is of substance good. Fal. (R.c.) My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about. Pist. (L. C.) 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 smile; and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be English'd rightly, is, “I am Sir John Falstaff's." 66 Pist. [To NYм.] He hath studied her well; and translated her well, out of honesty into English. Fal. Now, the report goes, she has all the rule of her husband's purse; she hath a legion of angels. Nym. (c.) 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 eyelids; sometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, sometimes my portly belly. 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 such a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did seem to scorch me up like a burning-glass!-She bears the purse too; she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. (c.) 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 this to Mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive. Pist. (L. c.) Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become, And by my side wear steel? Then, Lucifer, take all. [Crosses to R. Nym. (R. C.) I will run no base humour: here, take the humour letter. [Crosses to L. Fal. Hold, sirrah, [To Roв. who advances L.] bear you these letters tightly: Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores. [Exit ROBIN, L. Rogues, hence! avaunt! vanish like hail-stones, 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. Nym. (c.) I have operations in my head. Pist. (R.) Wilt thou revenge? Nym. By welkin, and her star! Nym. With both: [Exit, L. I will discuss the humour of this love to Page. His dove will prove, his gold will hold, And his soft couch defile. [Exeunt, L. SCENE IV.-Dr. Caius's House. Enter Mrs. QUICKLY, with a Letter, and SIMPLE, R. S. E. Quick. (c.) What, John Rugby ! Enter RUGBY, L. 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 the king's English. Rug. I'll go watch. Quick. Go; and we'll have a posset for't soon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire. [Exit RUGBY, L.] An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale: 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? Quick. A softly-sprighted man, is he not? Sim. Ay, forsooth; but he is as tall a man of his hands, as any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a warrener. Quick. How say you?-O, I should remember him: Does he not hold up his head, as it were? and strut in his gait? Sim. Yes, indeed, does he. |