mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch, close by the Thames side.

Mrs. Page. You will do it?

Mrs. Ford. I have told them over and over; they lack no direction. Be gone, and come when you are called. [Exeunt Servants.

Mrs. Page. Here comes little Robin.

Enter ROBIN.

Mrs. Ford. How now, my eyas-musket?1 what news with you?

Rob. My master sir John is come in at your backdoor, mistress Ford, and requests your company. Mrs. Page. You little Jack-a-lent, have you been true to us?

2

Rob. Ay, I'll be sworn. My master knows not of your being here; and hath threatened to put me into everlasting liberty, if I tell you of it; for, he swears, he 'll turn me away.

Mrs. Page. Thou 'rt a good boy; this secresy of thine shall be a tailor to thee, and shall make thee a new doublet and hose.-I'll go hide me.

Mrs. Ford. Do so.-Go, tell thy master, I am alone. Mistress Page, remember you your cue.

[Exit Robin.

Mrs. Page. I warrant thee: if I do not act it, hiss me. [Exit Mrs. Page.

Eyas-musket is a young, unfledged sparrow-hawk.
A puppet thrown at in Lent, like shrove cocks.

Mrs. Ford. Go to then; we 'll use this unwholesome humidity, this gross watery pumpion;—we'll teach him to know turtles from jays.

Enter FALStaff.

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!

Fal. Mistress Ford, I cannot cog,1 I cannot prate, mistress Ford. Now shall I sin in my wish: I would thy husband were dead; I'll speak it before the best lord, I would make thee my lady.

Mrs. Ford. I your lady, sir John! alas, I should be a pitiful lady.

Fal. Let the court of France show me such another. I see how thine eye would emulate the diamond: thou hast the right arched bent of the brow, that becomes the ship-tire, the tire-valiant, or any tire of Venetian admittance.?

Mrs. Ford. A plain kerchief, sir John: my brows become nothing else; nor that well neither.

Fal. By the Lord, thou art a traitor 3 to say so: thou wouldst make an absolute courtier; and the firm fixture of thy foot would give an excellent motion to thy gait, in a semicircled farthingale.♦

1 Flatter. + Hoop.

2 Fashion.

i. e. to thy own merit.

I see what thou wert, if fortune thy foe were not; nature is thy friend. Come, thou canst not hide it. Mrs. Ford. Believe me, there's no such thing in me.

Fal. What made me love thee? let that persuade thee, there's something extraordinary in thee. Come, I cannot cog, and say, thou art this and that, like a many of these lisping hawthorn-buds, that come like women in men's apparel, and smell like Bucklersbury in simple-time; I cannot but I love thee; none but thee; and thou deservest it. Mrs. Ford. Do not betray me, sir; I fear, you love mistress Page.

1

Fal. Thou mightst as well say, I love to walk by the Counter-gate; which is as hateful to me as the reek 2 of a lime-kiln.

Mrs. Ford. Well, Heaven knows, how I love you; and you shall one day find it.

Fal. Keep in that mind; I'll deserve it.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, I must tell you, so you do; or else I could not be in that mind.

Rob. [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.

Fal. She shall not see me; I will ensconce 3 behind the arras.4

me

1 Bucklersbury, in our author's time, was chiefly inhabited by druggists, who sold all kinds of herbs, green as well as dry.

2 Vapor.

3 Hide.

4 Tapestry.

Mrs. Ford. Pray you,

do so

woman.

; she's a very tattling [Falstaff hides himself.

Enter MRS. PAGE and ROBIN.

What's the matter? how now?

Mrs. Page. O mistress Ford, what have you done? You're shamed, you are overthrown, you are undone for ever.

Mrs. Ford. What's the matter, good mistress Page?

Mrs. Page. O well-a-day, mistress Ford! having an honest man to your husband, to give him such cause of suspicion !

Mrs. Ford. What cause of suspicion ?

Mrs. Page. What cause of suspicion ?-Out upon you! how am I mistook in you?

Mrs. Ford. Why, alas! what's the matter?

Mrs. Page. Your husband's coming hither, woman, with all the officers in Windsor, to search for a gentleman, that, he says, is here now in the house, by your consent, to take an ill advantage of his absence. You are undone.

Mrs. Ford. Speak louder.-[aside.]—'Tis not so, I hope.

Mrs. Page. Pray Heaven it be not so, that you have such a man here; but 'tis most certain your husband's coming with half Windsor at his heels, to search for such a one. I come before to tell you. If you know yourself clear, why I am glad of it; but if you have a friend here, convey, convey

him out. Be not amazed; call all your senses to you; defend your reputation, or bid farewell to your good life for ever.

Mrs. Ford. What shall I do?-There is a gentleman, my dear friend; and I fear not mine own shame so much as his peril: I had rather than a thousand pound, he were out of the house.

Mrs. Page. For shame! never stand 'you had rather,' and 'you had rather;' your husband's here at hand; bethink you of some conveyance: in the house you cannot hide him. O, how have you deceived me!-Look, here is a basket; if he be of any reasonable stature, he may creep in here; and throw foul linen upon him, as if it were going to bucking.1 Or, it is whiting-time; 2 send him by your two men to Datchet mead.

Mrs. Ford. He's too big to go in there. What shall I do?

Re-enter FALstaff.

Fal. Let me see 't, let me see 't! O, let me see 't! I'll in, I'll in ;-follow your friend's counsel I'll in. Mrs. Page. What! sir John Falstaff! Are these your letters, knight?

Fal. I love thee, and none but thee; help me away: let me creep in here; I'll never

[he goes into the basket; they cover him with foul linen.

1 To the wash.

2 Bleaching-time.