Like urchins,1ouphes, and fairies, green and white,
With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads,
And rattles in their hands; upon a sudden,
As Falstaff, she, and I, are newly met,
Let them from forth a saw-pit rush at once
With some diffused 3 song; upon their sight,
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 so sacred paths he dares to tread,
In shape profane.

Mrs. Ford.

And till he tell the truth,

Let the supposed fairies pinch him sound,

And burn him with their tapers.

Mrs. Page.

The truth being known,

We'll all present ourselves; dis-horn the spirit,
And mock him home to Windsor.

The children must

Ford.
Be practised well to this, or they'll neʼer do't.

Evans. I will teach the children their behaviours; and I will be like a jack-an-apes 5 also, to burn the knight with my taber.

Ford. That will be excellent.

vizards.

I'll go buy them

'Hedge-hogs.

2 Elves.

3 Wild.

+ The pleonasm of 'to,' in the composition of verbs, is very common in our early English poets.

5 An ape.

Mrs. Page. My Nan shall be the queen of all the

fairies,

Finely attired in a robe of white.

Page. That silk will I go buy ;—and in that time Shall master Slender steal my Nan away, [aside. And marry her at Eton.Go, send to Falstaff straight.

Ford. Nay, I'll to him again in name of Brook : He'll tell me all his purpose. Sure, he'll come. Mrs. Page. Fear not you that. Go, get us properties,1

And tricking for our fairies.

Evans. Let us about it: it is admirable pleasures, and fery honest knaveries.

[Exeunt Page, Ford, and Evans.

Mrs. Page. Go, mistress 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, though well landed, is an idiot;
And he my husband best of all affects :
The doctor is well money'd, and his friends

Potent at court: he, none but he, shall have her,
Though twenty thousand worthier come to crave her.

[Exit.

Little incidental necessaries appertaining to a theatre. 2 Fit dresses.

SCENE V.

A room in the Garter Inn.

Enter HOST and SIMPLE.

Host. What wouldst thou have, boor? what, thick-skin? speak, breathe, discuss; brief, short, quick, snap.

Sim. Marry, sir, I come to speak with sir John Falstaff from master Slender.

Host. There's his chamber, his house, his castle, his standing-bed, and truckle-bed; 1 'tis painted about with the story of the prodigal, fresh and new. Go, knock and call; he'll speak like an Anthropophaginian unto thee. Knock, I say.

2

Sim. There's an old woman, a fat woman, gone up into his chamber; I'll be so bold as stay, sir, till she come down: I come to speak with her, indeed.

Host. Ha! a fat woman! the knight may be robbed I'll call.-Bully knight! Bully sir John! speak from thy lungs military. Art thou there? it is thine host, thine Ephesian,3 calls.

Fal. [above.] How now, mine host?

Host. Here's a Bohemian-Tartar tarries the coming down of thy fat woman. Let her descend,

A bed that runs on wheels; on which servants were accustomed to sleep. 2 Cannibal.

This was a cant term of the time.

+ Probably in allusion to the wild appearance of Simple. Gipsies are called Bohemians.

bully; let her descend; my chambers are honorable. Fie! privacy? fie!

Enter FALSTaff.

Fal. There was, mine host, an old fat woman even now with me; but she's gone.

Sim. Pray you, sir, was 't not the wise woman of Brentford?

Fal. Ay, marry, was it, muscle-shell. What would you with her?

Sim. My master, sir, my master Slender, sent to her, seeing her go thorough the streets, to know, sir, whether one Nym, sir, that beguiled him of a chain, had the chain, or no.

Fal. I spake with the old woman about it.
Sim. And what says she, I pray, sir?

Fal. Marry, she says, that the very same man, that beguiled master Slender of his chain, cozened him of it.

Sim. I would, I could have spoken with the woman herself. I had other things to have spoken with her too, from him.

Fal. What are they? let us know.

Host. Ay, come; quick.

Sim. I may not conceal them, sir.

Fal. Conceal them, or thou diest.

Sim. Why, sir, they were nothing but about

He calls Simple muscle-shell,' because he stood openmouthed.

mistress Anne Page; to know, if it were my master's

fortune to have her, or no.

Fal. "Tis, 'tis his fortune.

Sim. What, sir?

Fal. To have her,- —or no. Go; say, the woman told me so.

Sim. May I be so bold to say so, sir?

Fal. Ay, sir Tike; who more bold?

Sim. I thank your worship: I shall make my master glad with these tidings. [Exit Simple. Host. Thou art clerkly, thou art clerkly, sir John. Was there a wise woman with thee?

Fal. Ay, that there was, mine host; one, that hath taught me more wit than ever I learned before in my life and I paid nothing for it neither, but was paid for my learning.

Enter BARDolph.

Bar. Out, alas, sir! cozenage! mere cozenage! Host. Where be my horses? speak well of them, varletto.

Bar. Run away with the cozeners: for so soon as I came beyond Eton, they threw me off, from behind one of them, in a slough of mire ; and set spurs, and away, like three German devils, three Doctor Fau

stuses.

Host. They are gone but to meet the duke, vil

1 Scholar-like.