4 REFERENCES DESCRIPTIVE OF THE PLATES.

weight, for the appearance he makes in the present outlines.

"He hath but a little wee face, with a little yellow beard."

"A softly sprighted man."

"But as tall a man of his hands as any between this and his head he hath fought with a warrener.”

"He holds his head up as it were, and struts in his gait."

"He plays at sword and dagger with a master of fence," for a wager.

Therefore is he neither vulgar nor awkward in his person.

He has the manners to give place to the young lady:

"Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first;"

but he has also, what are more rarely to be found, the manners

" rather to be unmannerly than troublesome."

He has the sense and consideration to send his man to wait upon his cousin, with a remark far removed from folly,

"Go, sirrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my cousin Shallow a justice of peace sometime may be beholden to his friend for a man."

And in his courtship of MISTRESS ANNE, he only shows that her beauty has made no great impression

REFERENCES DESCRIPTIVE OF THE PLATES. 5

upon him; that he would marry her to comply with the request of his cousin SHALLOW; evidently making light of matrimony, as he

"would do a greater thing than that upon your request, cousin, in any reason."

It is therefore conceived that he is not the awkward, foolish lout that he is generally represented, and, in the essay abovementioned, asserted to be, and a totally different character from Ben Jonson's MASTER STEPHEN.

Should FALSTAFF be deemed too wieldy, it is suggested that, in another play, he will have to take up from the ground on to his shoulder, Hotspur in his armour.

I.

ANNE PAGE bidding SLENDER to dinner.

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

ANNE. I may not go in without your worship: they will not sit till you come.

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."

ACT I. S. 1.

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

II.

MRS. PAGE and MRS. FORD.

"MRS. FORD. O woman, if it were not for one trifling respect, I could come to such honour!

MRS. PAGE. Hang the trifle, woman! take the honour: What is it?-dispense with trifles;—what is it?

MRS. FORD. If I would but go to hell for an eternal moment, or so, I could be knighted.

MRS. PAGE. What?-Thou liest! Sir Alice Ford!These knights will hack; and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry.

MRS. FORD. We burn daylight:-here, read, read;— perceive how I might be knighted. I shall think the worse of fat men, as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's liking:

Did you ever hear the like?

MRS. PAGE. Letter for letter; but that the name of Page and Ford differs!-To thy great comfort in this mystery of ill opinions, here's the twin-brother of thy letter."

ACT II. S. 1. (FALSTAFF, in the distance, is questioning his Page as to the delivery of the letters.)

III.

FALSTAFF and MRS. FORD.

"FAL. Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel? Why, now let me die, for I have lived long enough; this is the period of my ambition: O this blessed hour!

MRS. FORD. O, sweet sir John!

ROBIN (within). Mistress Ford, mistress Ford! here's mistress Page at the door, sweating and blowing, and looking wildly, and would needs speak with you presently.” ACT III. S. 3.

IV.

FORD, unable to find FALSTAFF, who, he has reason to suspect, is concealed in the house.

"FORD. I cannot find him: may be the knave bragg'd of that he could not compass.

MRS. FORD.

do you?

FORD. Ay, I do so.

You use me well, master Ford,

MRS. PAGE. You do yourself mighty wrong, master Ford.

FORD. Ay, ay; I must bear it.

EVANS. If there be any pody in the house, and in the chambers, and in the coffers, and in the presses, Heaven forgive my sins at the day of judgment.

CAIUS. By gar, nor I too; dere is no bodies.

PAGE. Fie, fie, master Ford! are you not ashamed? What spirit, what devil suggests this imagination? I would not have your distemper in this kind, for the wealth of Windsor Castle."

ACT III. S. 3. (The servants are seen carrying out the buck-basket, containing SIR JOHN FALSTAFF).