Host. Discard, bully Hercules; cashier; let them wag; trot, trot.

Fal. I sit at ten pounds a week.

Host. Thou'rt an emperor, Cæsar, Keisar,' and
Pheezar, I will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw,
he shall tap: said I well, bully Hector?
Fal. Do so, good mine host.

Host. I have spoke; let him follow: Let me sec
thee froth, and lime:2 I am at a word; follow.
[Exit Host.
Fal. Bardolph, follow him; a tapster is a good
trade: an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a with-
ered serving-man, a fresh tapster: Go; adieu.
Bard. It is a life that I have desired; I will
thrive.
[Exit BARD.
Pist. O base Gongarian wight! wilt thou the
spigot wield?

Nym. He was gotten in drink: Is not the humour conceited? His mind is not heroic, and there's the humour of it.

Fal. I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder-box; his thefts were too open: his filching was like an unskilful singer, he kept not time.

Nym. The good humour is, to steal at a minute's

rest.

Pist. Convey, the wise it call: Steal! foh; a fico for the phrase!

Fal. Well, sirs, I am almost out at heels.
Pist. Why then let kibes ensue.

Fal. There is no remedy; I must coney-catch;
I must shift.

Pist. Young ravens must have food.

Fal. Which of you know Ford of this town?
Pist. I ken the wight; he is of substance good.
Fal. My honest lads, I will tell you what I am

about.

Pist. 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 style, and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be English'd rightly, is, I am Sir John Falstaff's. Pist. He hath studied her well, and translated her well; out of honesty into English.

Nym. The anchor is deep: will that humour pass?

Fal. Now, the report goes, she has all the rule of her husband's purse; she hath legions of angels. Pist. As many devils entertain; and, To her, boy, say I.

Nym. 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, examined my parts with most judicious eyliads: sometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, sometimes my portly belly.

1 Keysar old spelling for Cesar, the general word for an emperor. Kings and Keysars is an old phrase in very common use, Pheezar, a made word from Pheeze, in the Induction to Taming of a Shrew.

2 To froth beer and to lime sack were tapster's tricks. Mr. Steevens says the first was done by putting soap in the bottom of the tankard; the other by mixing lime with the wine to make it sparkle in the glass. 2 A fico for the phrase.' See K. Henry IV. Part 2.

A. S.

4 It seems to have been a mark of kindness when a lady carved to a gentleman. So, in Vittoria Corombona: "Your husband is wondrous discontented. Vit. I did nothing to displease him, I carved to him at supper time."

5 Gold coin.

6 Qeillades. French. Ogles, wanton looks of the eyes. Cotgrave translates it, to cast a sheep's eye.'

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! Here's another letter to her: she bears the purse too: she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. 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. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become, And by my side wear steel? then, Lucifer take all! Nym. I will run no base humour; here, take the humour-letter; I will keep the 'haviour of reputa

tion.

Fal. Hold, sirrah [to ROB.,] bear you these letters tightly;10

11

Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores.-
Rogues, hence avaunt! vanish like hailstones, 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.
[Exeunt FALSTAFF and ROBIN.
Pist. Let vultures gripe thy guts!12 for gourd and
fullam13 holds,

And high and low beguile the rich and poor:
Tester 4 I'll have in pouch, when thou shalt lack,
Base Phrygian Turk!

Nym. I have operations in my head, which be humours of revenge.

I

Pist. Wilt thou revenge?

Num. By welkin, and her star!

Pist. With wit, or steel?

Nym. With both the humours, I:

will discuss the humour of this love to Page. Pist. And I to Ford shall eke unfold,

How Falstaff, varlet vile,

His dove will prove, his gold will hold,

And his soft couch defile.

Nym. My humour shall not cool: I will incense11 Page to deal with poison; I will possess him with yellowness,16 for the revolt of mien is dangerous: that is my true humour.

Pist. Thou art the Mars of malcontents: I second thee; troop on.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. A Room in Dr. Caius' House. Enter Mrs. QUICKLY, SIMPLE, and RUGBY.

Quick. What; John Rugby-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 abusing of God's patience, and the king's English. find any body in the house, here will be an old Rug. I'll go watch. [Erit RUGBY.

night, in faith, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire. Quick. Go; and we'll have a posset for't soon at

10 Cleverly, adroitly.

11 A pinnace was a light vessel built for speed, and was also called a Brigantine. Under the words Cata scopium and Celor in Hutton's Dictionary, 1583, we have a Brigantine or Pinnace, a light ship that goeth to espie.' Hence the word is used for a go-between. In Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, Justice Overdo says of the pig-woman, "She has been before me, punk, pinnace, and bawd, any time these two and twenty years."

12 A burlesque on a passage in Tamburlaine, or the Scythian Shepherd:

and now doth ghastly death With greedy talons gripe my bleeding heart, And like a harper tyers on my life."

Again, ibid,

"Griping our bowels with retorted thoughts," 13 In Decker's Bellman of London, 1640, among the false dice are enumerated a bale of fullams '-'a bale 7 What distinguishes the languages of Nym from that of gordes, with as many high men as low men for pasof the other attendants on Falstaff is the constant repeti- sage.' The false dice were chiefly made at Fulham, tion of this phrase. In the time of Shakspeare such an heuce the name. The manner in which they were affectation seems to have been sufficient to mark a char-made is described in The Complete Gamester, 1676, acter. Some modern dramatists have also thought so. 8 i. e. attention.

9 Escheatour, an officer in the Exchequer.

12mo.

14 Sixpence I'll have in pocket.
16 Jealousy.

15 Instigate.

Quick. Good master, be content.

An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall | Villany? larron! [Pulling Simplo out.] Rugby, come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-my rapier. tale, nor no breed-bate: his worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is something peevish that way: but nobody but has his fault-but let that pass. Peter Simple, you say, your name is? Sim. Ay, for a fault of a better.

Quick. And master Slender's your master?
Sim. Ay, forsooth.

Quick. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover's paring knife?

3

Sum. No, forsooth: he hath but a little wee face, with a little yellow beard; a Cain-coloured beard.4 Quick. A softly-sprighted man, is he not?

Sim. Ay, forsooth: but he is as tall a man of his bands, 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.

Quick. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse fortune? Tell master parson Evans, I will do what I can for your master: Anne is a good girl, and I wish

a-green-a box.

Quick. Ay, forsooth, I'll fetch it you. I am glad
he went not in himself; if he had found the young
man, he would have been horn-mad. [Aside.
Caius. Fe, fe, fe, fe! mai foi, il fait fort chaud.
Je m'en vais a la Cour,-la grande affaire.
Quick. Is it this, sir?

Carus. Ouy; mette le au mon pocket; Depeche,
quickly:-Vere is dat knave Rugby?
Quick. What, John Rugby! John!
Rug. Here, sir.

Caus. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby; Come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to de court.

Rug. 'Tis ready, sir, here in the porch. Caius. By my trot, I tarry too long:-Od's me! Qu'ay-'oublie? dere is some simples in my closet, dai I vill not for the varld I shall leave behind. Quick. Ah me! he'll find the young man there, and be mad.

Caius. O diable, diable! vat is in my closet?— 1 i. e. breeder of debate, maker of contention. 2 Foolish. Mrs. Quickly possibly blunders, and would say precise.

3 See a Note on K. Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 6. And what a beard of the general's cut.' 4 It is said that Cain and Judas in old pictures and tapestry were constantly represented with yellow beards. In an age when but a small part of the nation could read, ideas were frequently borrowed from these representations. One of the copies reads a cane-coloured heard, i. e. of the colour of cane, and the reading of the 40, a whey-coloured beard favours this reading.

Caius. Verefore shall I be content-a?
Quick. The young man is an honest man.
Caius. Vat shall de honest man do in my closet?
dere is no honest man dat shall come in my closet.
Quick. I beseech you, be not so flegmatic; hear
the truth of it: He came of an errand to me from
parson Hugh.
Caius. Vell.

Sim. Ay, forsooth, to desire her to-
Quick. Peace, I pray you.

Caius. Peace-a your tongue :-Speak-a your tale. Sim. To desire this honest gentlewoman, your maid, to speak a good word to mistress Anne Page for my master, in the way of marriage.

Quick. This is all, indeed, la; but I'll ne'er put my finger in the fire, and need not.

Caius. Sir Hugh send-a you ?-Rugby, baillez me some paper:-Tarry you a little-awhile. [Writes. Quick. I am glad he is so quiet: if he had been thoroughly moved, you should have heard him so loud, and so melancholy;-But notwithstanding, man, I'll do your master what good I can: and the very yea and the no is, the French Doctor, my master,-I may call him my master, look you, for I keep his house; and I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the beds, and do all myself;

Sim. 'Tis a great charge, to come under one body's hand.

Quick. Are you avis'd o' that? you shall find it a great charge: and to be up early, and down late -but notwithstanding (to tell you in your ear; would have no words of it ;) my master himself is in love with mistress Anne Page: but notwithstanding that,--I know Anne's mind,-that's neither here nor there.

Hugh; by gar, it is a shallenge: I vill cut his
Caius. You jack'nape; give-a dis letter to Sir
troat in de park; and I vill teach a scurvy jack-a-
nape priest to meddle or make :--you may be gone;
it is not good you tarry here:-by gar, I vill cut all
his two stones; by gar, he shall not have a stone to
trow at his dog.
[Exit SIMPLE.

Quick. Alas, he speaks but for his friend.

Caius. It is no matter-a for dat :-do not you tell-a me dat I shall have Anne Page for myself? -by gar, I vill kill de Jack priest; and I have appointed mine host of de Jarterre to measure our weapon:-by gar, I vill myself have Anne Page.

Quick. Sir, the maid loves you, and all shall be well: we must give folks leave to prate: What, the good-jer!?

Caius. Rugby, come to the court vid me ;-By gar, if I have not Anne Page, I shall turn your head out of my door :-Follow my heels, Rugby.

[Exeunt CAIUS and RUGBY. Quick. You shall have An fools-head of your own. No, I know Anne's mind for that: never a woman in Windsor knows more of Anne's mind

tall will also explain the expression a tall fellow, or a tall inan, wherever it occurs. Mercutio ridicules it as one of the affected phrases of the fantasticos of his age, a very good blade,' a very tall man!-Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. Sc. 4.

6 The keeper of a warren.
7 Scolded, reprimanded.

8 It has been thought strange that Shakspeare should take the name of Caius for his Frenchman, as an eminent physician of that name, founder of Caius College, But ShakOxford, flourished in Elizabeth's reign. speare was little acquainted with literary history, and without doubt, from this unusual name, supposed him The character to have been some foreign quack. might however be drawn from the life, for in Jack Do. ver's Quest of Enquirie, 1604, a story called the Foole of Windsor,' turns upon a simple outlandish Doctor of Physicke.

5 This phrase has been very imperfectly explained by the commentators, though they have written about it, and about it.' Malone's quotation from Cotgrave was near the mark, but missed it: "Haut a la main, Homme a la main, Homme de main. A man of his hands; a man of execution or valour; a striker, like enough to lay about him; proud, surlie, sullen, stubborn." So says this truly valuable old dictionary: from which it is evident that a tall man of his hands 9 The goujere, i. e. morbus Gallicus. The good. was only a free version of the French Homme haut a jer and good yeare were common corruptions of this la main. This equivocal use of the words Haut and phrase.

than I do; nor can do more than I do with her, I weighed behaviour hath this Flemish drunkard thank heaven.

Fent. [Within.] Who's within there, ho? Quick. Who's there, I trow? Come near the house, I pray you.

Enter FENTON.

picked (with the devil's name) out of my conver sation, that he dares in this manner assay me? Why, he hath not been thrice in my company!What should I say to him ?-I was then frugal of my mirth :-heaven forgive me !-Why, I'll exhi bit a bill in the parliament for the putting down of fat men. How shall I be revenged on him? for

Fent. How now, good woman: how dost thou? Quick. The better, that it pleases your good wor-revenged I will be, as sure as his guts are made of ship to ask.

Fent. What news? how does pretty Mistress Anne?

puddings.

Enter Mistress FORD.

Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page! trust me,

Quick. In truth, sir, and she is pretty, and honest, and gentle; and one that is your friend, I can telling to your house. you that by the way; I praise heaven for it. Fent. Shall I do any good, thinkest thou? Shall I not lose your suit?

Quick. Troth, sir, all is in his hands above: but notwithstanding, master Fenton, I'll be sworn on a book, she loves you :-Have not your worship a wart above your eye?

I was go

Mrs. Puge. And, trust me, I was coming to you. You look very ill.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, I'll ne'er believe that; I have to

show to the contrary.

Mrs. Page. 'Faith, but you do, in my mind. Mrs. Ford. Well, I do then; yet, I say, I could show you to the contrary: O, mistress Page, give me some counsel!

Mrs. Page. What's the matter, woman? 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;

Fent. Yes, marry, have I; what of that? Quick. Well, thereby hangs a tale ;-good faith, it is such another Nan:-but, I detest' an honest maid as ever broke bread:-We had an hour's talk of that wart ;-I shall never laugh but in that maid's company!-But, indeed, she is given too much to allicholly2 and musing: But for you-what is it? Well, go to.

Fent. Well, I shall see her to-day: Hold, there's money for thee; let me have thy voice in my behalf: if thou seest her before me, commend meQuick. Will I? i'faith, that we will: and I will tell your worship more of the wart, the next time we have confidence; and of other wooers.

Fent. Well, farewell; I am in great haste now. [Exit. Quick. Farewell to your worship.-Truly, an honest gentleman; but Anne loves him not; for I know Anne's mind as well as another does: Out upon't! what have I forgot? [Exit.

ACT II.

3

Enter

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 should'st not alter the article of thy gentry.

Mrs. Ford. We burn day-light: 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: And yet he would not swear; praised woman's modesty: and gave such orderly and well behaved reproof to all uncomeliness, that I would have sworn his disposition would have gone to the truth of his words: but they do no more adhere and keep place together, than the hundredth psalm to the tune of Green sleeves. What tempest, I trow, threw this whale, with so many Mis-shall I be revenged on him? I think, the best way tuns of oil in his belly, ashore at Windsor? How were to entertain him with hope, till the wicked fire of lust have melted him in his own grease.-Did you ever hear the like?

SCENE I-Before PAGE's House.
tress PAGE, with a letter.
Mrs. Page. What! have I 'scaped love-letters
in the holy-day time of my beauty, and am I now
a subject for them? Let me see:
[Reads.
Ask me no reason why I love you; for though love
use reason for his precisian, he admits him not for his
counsellor: You are not young, no more am I; go
to then, there's sympathy: you are merry, so am 1;
Ha ha! then there's more sympathy: you love sack,
and so do I; would you desire better sympathy? Let
it suffice thee, mistress Page (at the least, if the love
of a soldier can suffice,) that I love thee. I will not
say, pity me, 'tis not a soldier-like phrase; but I say
love me. By me,

3 The meaning of this passage is at present obscure. Dr. Johnson conjectured, with much probability, that Shakspeare wrote Physician, which would render the

sense obvious.

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: but let thine inherit first; for, I protest, mine never shall. I warrant he hath a thousand of these letters, writ with blank space for dif ferent names, (sure more,) and these are of the second edition: He will print them out of doubt: for he cares not what he puts into the press, when he would put us two. I had rather be a giantess, and lie under mount Pelion. Well, I will find you twenty lascivious turtles, ere one chaste man.

Mrs. Ford. Why, this is the very same; the very hand, the very words: What doth he think of us? Mrs. Page. Nay, I know not: It makes me almost ready to wrangle with mine own honesty. I'll entertain myself like one that I am not acquainted withal; for, sure, unless he know some strain in me, that I know not myself, he would never have boarded me in his fury.

will soon become so hackneyed that your honour will not be increased by becoming one."

5 A proverb applicable to superfluous actions in geperal.

6 Mrs. Page, who does not seem to have been intended in any degree for a learned lady, is here without the least regard to propriety made to talk like an author 4 To huck was the appropriate term for chopping off about the press and printing. The translations of the the spurs of a knight when he was to be degraded. Classics, as Warton judiciously observes, soon in The meaning therefore appears to be :-" these knights undated our poetry with pedantic allusions to ancient will degrade you for an unqualified pretender." Another table, often introduced as incongruously as the mention explanation has been offered; supposing this to be a of Pelion here. The nautical allusions in the succeedcovert reflection upon the prodigal distribution of the ing passages are not more appropriate. But Shakspears honour of knighthood by King James. "These knights | does not often err in this way.

Mrs. Ford. Boarding, call you it? I'll be sure to keep him above deck.

Mrs. Page. So will I; if he come under my hatches, I'll never to sea again. Let's be revenged on him: let's appoint him a meeting; give him a show of comfort in his suit; and lead him on with a fine-baited delay, till he hath pawn'd his horses to mine Host of the Garter.

Mrs. Ford. How now, sweet Frank? why art thon melancholy?

Ford. I melancholy! I am not melancholy.Get you home, go.

Mrs. Ford. 'Faith thou hast some crotchets in thy head now.-Will you go, mistress Page? Mrs. Page. Have with you.-You'll come to dirner, George ?-Look, who comes yonder: she Mrs. Ford. Nay, I will consent to act any vil-shall be our messenger to this paltry knight. lany against him, that may not sully the chariness! of our honesty. O, that my husband saw this letter! it would give eternal food to his jealousy.

Mrs. Page. Why, look, where he comes; and my good man too: he's as far from jealousy, as I am from giving him cause; and that, I hope, is un unmeasurable distance.

Mrs. Ford. You are the happier woman. Mrs. Page. Let's consult together against this greasy knight: Come hither. [They retire.

Enter FORD, PISTOL, PAGE, and NYм.

[Aside to MRS. FORD. Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY.

Mrs. Ford. Trust me, I thought on her: she'll

fit it.

Mrs. Page. You are come to see my daughter Anne ?

Quick. Ay, forsooth; And, I pray, how does good mistress Anne?

Mrs. Page. Go in with us, and see; we have an hour's talk with you.

[Exeunt MRS. PAGE, MRS. FORD, and MRS. QUICKLY.

Page. How now, master Ford? Ford. You heard what this knave told me; did you not?

Page. Yes; and you heard what the other told

Pist. He woos both high and low, both rich and me?

Away, Sir corporal Nym.—

Ford. Do you think there is truth in them? Page. Hang'em, slaves! I do not think the knight would offer it: but these that accuse him in his intent towards our wives, are a yoke of his discarded men; very rogues, now they be out of service. Ford. Were they his men?

Page. Marry, were they.

Ford. I like it never the better for that.-Does he lie at the Garter?

Page. Av, marry, does he. If he should intend this voyage towards my wife, I would turn her loose to him; and what he gets more of her than sharp words, let it lie on my head.

Ford. I do not misdoubt my wife; but I would Believe it, Pare; he speaks sense. [Exit PISTOL.be loath to turn them together: A man may be too Ford. I will be patient; I will find out this. Nym. And this is true. [To PAGE.] I like not the humour of Iving. He hath wronged me in some humours; I should have borne the humoured letter to her: but I have a sword, and it shall bite upon my necessity. He loves your wife; there's the short and the long. My name is corporal Nym; I speak, and I avouch. 'Tis true:-my name is Nym, and Falstaff loves your wife.-Adieu! I love not the humour of bread and cheese; and there's the humour of it. Adieu. [Exit NYM. Page. The humour of it, quoth'a! here's a fellow frights humour out of his wits. Frd, I will seck out Falstaff.

confident: I would have nothing lie on my head; I cannot be thus satisfied.

Page. Look, where my ranting host of the Garter comes: there is either liquor in his pa'e, or money in his purse, when he looks so merrily.How now, mine host?

Enter HOST and SHALLOW.

Host. How now, bully-rook? thou'rt a gentleman: cavalero-justice, I say.

Shal. I follow mine host, I follow.-Good even, and twenty, good master Page! Master Page, will you go with us? we have sport in hand.

Host. Tell him, cavalero-justice; tell him, bully

Page. I never heard such a drawling, affecting rook,

rogne.

5 The liver was anciently supposed to be the inspiter of amorous passions. Thus in an old Latin distich: Cor ardet, pulmo loquitur, fel commovet iras Splen ridere facit, cogit amare jecur. 6The first folio reads-English. The abuse of this word humour by the coxcombs of the age had been admirably satirized by Ben Jonson. After a very pertinent disquisition on the real meaning and true application of the word, he concludes thus:

Shal. Sir, there is a fray to be fought, between Sir Hugh the Welsh priest, and Caius the French doctor. Ford. Good mine host o' the Garter, a word with you.

IIost. What say'st thou, bully-rook?

[They go aside.

Asp. But that a rook by wearing a pied feather,
The cable hatband, or the three-piled ruff,

A yard of shoe-tie, or the Switzers knot
On his French garters, should affect a humour,
O'tis worse than most ridiculous.

Cor. He speaks pure truth; and now if an idiot
Have but an apish or fantastic strain,
It is his humour.—

Induction to Every Man Out of his Humour. Steevens quotes an Epigram from Humours Ordinarie, 1607, to the same effect.

7 i. e. a Chinese, Calala, Cathay, being the name given to China by the old travellers, some of whom have mentioned the dexterous thieving of the people there; hence a sharper or thief was sometimes called a Cataian.

9 This and the two preceding speeches are soliloquies of Ford, and have no connection with what Page says, who is also making comments on what had pas sed without attending to Ford.

Shal. Will you [to PAGE] go with us to behold self sometimes, leaving the fear of heaven on the it? my merry host hath had the measuring of their left hand, and hiding mine honour in my necessity, weapons; and, I think he hath appointed them am fain to shuffle, to hedge, and to lurch; and yet, contrary places: for, believe me, I hear the parson you, rogue, will ensconce your rags, your cal-ais no jester. Hark, I will tell you what our sport mountain looks, your red-lattice 10 phrases, and your bold-beating oaths, under the shelter of your honour! You will not do it, you?

man?

Rob. Sir, here's a woman would speak with you
Fal. Let her approach.

Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY.

Quick. Give your worship good-morrow.
Fal. Good-morrow, good wife.
Quick. Not so, an't please your worship.
Fal. Good maid, then.

Quick. I'll be sworn; as my mother
hour I was born.

was, Fal. I do believe the swearer: What with me? Quick. Shall I vouchsafe your worship a word or two?

Fal. Two thousand, fair woman; and I'll vouchsafe thee the hearing."

Quick. There is one Mistress Ford, sir ;-I pray, come a little nearer this ways:-I myself dwell with master doctor Caius.

Fal. Well, on: Mistress Ford, you say,Quick. Your worship says very true: I pray your worship, come a little nearer this ways. Ful. I warrant thee, nobody hears;-mine own people, mine own people.

Quick. Are they so? Heaven bless them, and make them his servants!

Fal. Well: mistress Ford :-what of her? Quick. Why, sir, she's a good creature. Lord, Lord! your worship's a wanton: Well, heaven forgive you, and all of us, I pray!

Fal. Mistress Ford:-come, mistress Ford,Quick. Marry, this is the short and the long of it: Fal. Not a penny. I have been content, sir, you you have brought her into such a canaries as 'tis should lay my countenance to pawn: I have grated wonderful. The best courtier of them all, when the upon my good friends for three reprieves for you and court lay at Windsor, could never have brought her your coach-fellow Nym; or else you had looked to such a canary. Yet there has been knights, and through the grate like a geminy of baboons. I am lords, and gentlemen, with their coaches; I warrant damned in hell, for swearing to gentlemen my friends, you, coach after coach, letter after letter, gift after you were good soldiers, and tall fellows: and when gift; smelling so sweetly (all musk,) and so rushmistress Bridget lost the handle of her fan, I took'tling, I warrant you, in silk and gold; and in such upon mine honour, thou hadst it not.

Pist. Didst thou not share? hadst thou not fif-best, and the fairest, that would have won any woteen pence?

Fal. Reason, you rogue, reason: Think'st thou, I'll endanger my soul gratis? At a word, hang no more about me, I am no gibbet for you:-go.-A short knife and a throng;-to your manor of Pickthatch, go.-You'll not bear a letter for me, you rogue! you stand upon your honour!-Why, thou unconfinable baseness, it is as much as I can do to keep the terms of my honour precise. I, I, I my