Fal. What made me love thee? let that persuade | Mrs. Page. For shame, never stand, you had rathee, there's something extraordinary in thee. Come, ther, and you had rather; your husband's here at I cannot cog, and say thou art this and that, like a haud, bethink you of some conveyance: in the house many of these lisping hawthorn buds, that come like you cannot hide him.-O, how have you deceived women in men's apparel, and smell like Bucklers-me!-Look, here is a basket; if he be of any reabury 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. Fal. Thou might'st as well say, I love to walk by the Counter-gate; which is as hateful to me as the reek 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 me behind the arras.4 Mrs. Ford. Pray you, do so; she's a very tattling [FALSTAFF hides himself. woman. Enter MISTRESS PAGE and ROBIN. What's the matter? how now? Mrs. Page. O mistress Ford, what have you done? You're ashamed, 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. sonable stature, he may creep in here; and throw foul linen upon him, as if it were going to bucking: Or, it is whiting-time", 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! Olet 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 Robin; Re-enter Servants.] Enter FORD, PAGE, CAIUS, and SIR HUGH Ford. Pray you, come near: if I suspect without cause, why then make sport at me, then let me be your jest; I deserve it.-How now? whither bear you this? Serv. To the laundress, forsooth. Mrs. Ford. Why, what have you to do whither they bear it? You were best meddle with buckwashing. Ford. Buck? I would I could wash myself of the buck! Buck! buck! buck? Ay, buck? I warrant you, buck; and of the season foo, it shall appear. [Exeunt Servants with the basket.] Gentlemen, I have dreamed to-night; I'll tell you my dream. Here, here, here be my keys: ascend my chambers, search, seek, find out: I'll warrant we'll unkennel the fox:-Let me stop this way first ;-So, now uncape. 10 Page. Good master Ford, be contented: you wrong yourself too much. Ford. True, master Page.-Up, gentlemen; you shall see sport anon: follow me, gentlemen. [Erit. Eva. This is fery fantastical humours, and jealousies. Caius. By gar, 'tis no de fashion of France: it is Mrs. Ford. What shall I do?-There is a gen-not jealous in France. tleman, 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. 1 Formerly chiefly inhabited by druggists, who sold all kinds of herbs green as well as dry. 2 The Counter as a prison was odious to Falstaff. 3 So, in Coriolanus Whose breath I hate As reek o' the rotten fens." The name of this prison was a frequent subject of jocularity with our ancestors. Shakspeare has availed himself of it in the Comedy of Errors. My old acquaintance Baret records one pleasantly enough in his Alvearie, 1573.-"We saie merrily of him who hath been in the Counter or such like places of prison: He can sing his counter-tenor very well. And in anger we say, I will make you sing a counter-tenor for this geare: meaning imprisonment." 4 The spaces leit between the walls and wooden frames on which the tapestry was hung, were not more commodious to our ancestors, than to the authors of ancient dramatic pieces. 5 Bleaching time. 6 These words, which are characteristic, and spoken to Mrs. Page aside, deserve to be restored from the old quarto. He had used the same words before to Mrs. Ford. Page. Nay, follow him, gentlemen, see the issue of his search. [Exeunt EVANS, PAGE, and CAIUS. Mrs. Page. Is there not a double excellency in this? Mrs. Ford. I know not which pleases me better, that my husband is deceived, or Sir John. 7 A staff used for carrying a cowl or tub with two handles to fetch water in. "Bicollo, a cowle-staffe to carie behind and before with, as they use in Italy to carie two buckets at once."-Florio's Dictionary, 1598. 8 To drumble and drone meant to move sluggishly. To drumble, in Devonshire, means to mutter in a sullen and inarticulate voice. A drumble drone, in the western dialect signifies a drone or humble-bee. That master genius of modern times, who knows so skilfully how to adapt his language to the characters and manners of the age in which his fable is laid, has adopted this word in The Fortunes of Nigel,' vol. ii. p. 298 :-"Why how she drumbles-I warrant she stops to take a sip on the road." 9 Dennis observes that, it is not likely Falstaff would suffer himself to be carried to Datchet mead, which is half a mile from Windsor; and it is plain that they could not carry him, if he made any resistance.' uncape had the same signification. It means, at any 10 Hanmer proposed to read uncouple; but, perhaps, rate, to begin the hunt after him, when the holes for escape had been stopped. Mrs. Page. What a taking was he in, when your | SCENE IV. A Room in Page's House. Enter husband asked who was in the basket! Mrs. Page. I am half afraid he will have need of washing; so throwing him into the water will do him a benefit. Mrs. Page. Hang him, dishonest rascal! I would all of the same strain were in the same distress. Mrs. Ford. I think my husband hath some special suspicion of Falstaff's being here; for I never saw him so gross in his jealousy till now. Mrs. Page. I will lay a plot to try that: And we will yet have more tricks with Falstaff: his dissolute disease will scarce obey this medicine. Mrs. Ford. Shall we send that foolish carrion, mistress Quickly, to him, and excuse his throwing into the water; and give him another hope, to betray him to another punishment? Mrs. Page. We'll do it; let him be sent for tomorrow eight o'clock to have amends. Re-enter FORD, PAGE, CAIUS, and SIR HUGH Ford. I cannot find him: may be the knave brag- FENTON and MISTRESS ANNE PAGE. Therefore, no more turn me to him, sweet Ńan. Fent. I see, I cannot get thy father's love; Anne. Alas! how then? Fent. Why, thou must be thyself. Albeit, I will confess, thy father's wealth2 Gentle master Fenton, Yet seek my father's love: still seek it, sir: Mrs. Ford. Ay, ay, peace :-You use me well, Cannot attain it, why then-Hark you hither. master Ford, do you? Ford. Ay, I do so. [They converse apart. Mrs. Ford. Heaven make you better than your Enter SHALLOW, SLENDER, and MRS. QUICKLY. thoughts? Ford. Amen. Mrs. Page. You do yourself mighty wrong, master Ford. Ford. Ay, ay; I must bear it. Eva. 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. Ford. 'Tis my fault, master Page: I suffer for it. Eva. You suffer for a pad conscience: your wife is as honest a 'omans as I will desires among five thousand, and five hundred too. Caius. By gar, I see 'us an honest woman. Fard. Well-I promised you a dinner :-Come, come, walk in the park: I pray you, pardon me; I will hereafter make known to you, why I have done this.-Come, wife ;-Come, mistress Page; I pray you pardon me; pray heartily, pardon me. Page. Let's go in, gentlemen; but, trust me, we'll mock him. I do invite you to-morrow morning to my house to breakfast; after, we'll a birding together; I have a fine hawk for the bush: Shall it be so? Ford. Any thing. Eva. If there is one, I shall make two in the company. Caius. If there be one or two, I shall make-a de turd. Eva. In your teeth: for shame. Ford. Pray you go, master Page. Eva. I pray you now remembrance to-morrow, on the lousy knave, mine host. Caius. Dat is good; by gar, vit all my heart. Eva. A lousy knave; to have his gibes, and his [Exeunt. mockeries. I Ritso i thinks we should read what. This emendation is supported by a subsequent passage, where Falstaff says: "the jealous kuave asked them once or twice that was in the basket." It is remarkable that Ferd asked no such question. 2 Some light may be given to those who shall endeaTour to calculate the increase of English wealth, by obBerving that Latymer, in the time of Edward VI. mentions it as a proof of his father's prosperity, "that though but a yeoman, he gave his daughters five pounds each for their portion." At the latter end of Elizabeth, seven hundred pounds were such a temptation to court ship, as made all other motives suspected. Congreve makes twelve thousand pounds more than counter balance to the affection of Belinda. No poet will now fy his favourite character at less than fifty thousand. Below we have: Shal. Break their talk, mistress Quickly; my kinsman shall speak for himself. Slen. I'll make a shaft or a bolt on't: slid, tis but venturing. Shal. Be not dismay'd. for that, but that I am afeard. Slen. No, she shall not dismay me: I care not Quick. Hark ye; master Slender would speak a word with you. O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults Aside. Pray you, a word with you. Shal. She's coming, to her, coz. O boy, thou hadst a father! Slen. I had a father, mistress Anne ;-my uncle tell mistress Anne the jest, how my father stole two can tell you good jests of him :--Pray you, uncle, geese out of a pen, good uncle. Shal. Mistress Anne, my cousin loves you. Slen. Ay, that I do; as well as I love any wo man in Gloucestershire. Shal. He will maintain you like a gentlewoman. under the degree of a 'squire. Slen. Ay, that I will, come cut and long tail, Shal. He will make you a hundred and fifty pounds jointure. Anne. Good master Shallow, let him woo for himself. Shal. Marry, I thank you for it; I thank you for that good comfort. She calls you, coz: I'll leave you. Anne. Now, master Slender. Sten. My will? od's heartlings, that's a pretty jest, indeed! I ne'er made my will yet, I thank heaven; am not such a sickly creature, I give heaven praise. Anne. I mean, master Slender, what would you with me? O, what a world of vile ili favour'd faults Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year! 3 A shaft was a long arrow, and a bolt a thick short one. The proverb probably means "I'll make something or other of it.-I will do it by some means or other." with me, under the degree of a squire." Cut and long. 4 The sense is obviously "Come who will to contend tail means all kinds of curtail curs, and sporting dogs, and all others. It is a phrase of frequent occurrence in hended under cut and long tail, every rank of people in writers of the period; every kind of dog being compre. the expression when metaphorically used. Slen. Truly, for mine own part, I would little or | shelvy and shallow; a death that I abhor; for the nothing with you: Your father, and my uncle, have water swells a man; and what a thing should I made motions; if it be my luck, so: if not, happy have been, when I had been swelled! I should have man be his dole ! They can tell you how things been a mountain of mummy. go, better than I can: You may ask your father; here he comes. Enter PAGE and MISTRESS PAGE. Why, how now! what does master Fenton here? Fent. Nay, master Page, be not impatient. Quick. That's my master, master doctor. Mrs. Page. Come, trouble not yourself: Good I will not be your friend, nor enemy. [Exeunt MRS. PAGE and ANNE. Fent. Farewell, gentle mistress; farewell, Nan. Quick. This is my doing, now :-Nay, said I, will you cast away your child on a fool, and a physician? Look on master Fenton:-this is my doing. Fent. I thank thee; and I pray thee, once tonight Give my sweet Nan this ring: There's for thy pains. SCENE V. A Room in the Garter Inn. Enter Ful. Bardolph, I say,- Bard. Here, sir. ހ Re-enter BARDOLFH, with the wine. Bard. Here's mistress Quickly, sir, to speak with you. Fal. Come, let me pour in some sack to the Thames water; for my belly's as cold, as if I had swallowed snow-balls for pills to cool the reins. Call her in. Bard. Come in, woman. Enter MRS. QUICKLY. Quick. By your leave; I cry you mercy: Give your worship good-morrow. Fal. Take away these chalices: Go brew me a pottle of sack finely. Bar. With eggs, sir? Ful. Simple of itself; I'll no pullet-sperm in my brewage.-[Exit BARDOLPH.]-How now? Quick. Marry, sir, I come to your worship from mistress Ford. Fal. Mistress Ford! I have had ford enough: I was thrown into the ford: I have my belly full of ford. Quick. Alas the day! good heart, that was not her fault; she does so take on with her men; they mistook their erection. Fal. So did I mine, to build upon a foolish woman's promise. Quick. Well, she laments, sir, for it, that it would yearn your heart to see it. Her husband morning a birding; she desires you once more to come to her between eight and nine: I must carry her word quickly: she'll make you amends, I war rant you. Fal. Do so. Between nine and ten say'st thou? [Exil. Fal. Well, be gone: I will not miss her. Fal. Now, master Brook? you come to know Fal. Very ill-favouredly, master Brook. Ford. How So, sir? Did she change her determi nation? Fal. No, master Brook; but the peaking cornuto, her husband, master Brook, dwelling in a continual [Exit.'larum of jealousy, comes me in the instant of our encounter, after we had embraced, kissed, protested, and, as it were, spoke the prologue of our comedy; and at his heels a rabble of his companions, thither provoked and instigated by his distemper, and, forsooth, to search his house for his wife's love. Ford. What, while you were there? Fal. While I was there. Fal. Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in't. [Exit BARD.] Have I lived to be carried in a basket, like a harrow of butcher's offal; and to be thrown into the Thames? Well; if I be served such another trick, I'll have my brains ta'en out, and butter'd, and give them to a dog for a new year's gift. The rogues slighted me into the river with as little remorse, as they would have drowned a bitch's blind puppies, fifteen i' the litter and you may know by my size, that I have a kind of alacrity in sinking; if the bottom were as deep as hell, I should down. I had been drowned, but that the shore was 1 This is a proverbial expression of frequent occur. rence. The apparent signification here is: 'Happiness be his portion who succeeda best,' but the general mean. ing of the plurase may be interpreted: Let his portion Ford. And did he search for you, and could not find you? Fal. You shall hear. As good luck would have it, comes in one mistress Page; gives intelligence of Ford's approach; and, by her invention, and Ford's wife's distraction," they conveyed me into a buckbasket. or lot be happy man.' Dole is the past participle and past tense of the A. S. verb Dælan, to deal, to divide, to distribute. 2 i. e. some time to-night. 3 Specially. 4 Neglect 5 Pity. 6 Cups. 7 M. Mason proposes to read direction, but perhaps the change is not necessary. C Ford. A buck-basket? Fal. By the Lord, a buck-basket: rammed me in with foul shirts and smocks, socks, foul stockings, and greasy napkins; that, master Brook, there was the rankest compound of villanous smell, that ever offended nostril. Ford. And how long lay you there? Fal. Nay, you shall hear, master Brook, what I have suffered to bring this woman to evil for your good. Being thus crammed in a basket, a couple of Ford's knaves, his hinds, were called forth by their mistress, to carry me in the name of foul clothes to Datchet-lane: they took me on their shoulders; met the jealous knave their master in the door; who asked them once or twice what they had in their basket: I quaked for fear, lest the lunatic knave would have searched it; but Fate, ordaining he should be a cuckold, held his hand. Well; on went he for a search, and away went I for foul clothes. But mark the sequel, master Brook: I suffered the pangs of three several deaths; first, an intolerable fight, to be detected with a jealous rotten bellwether: next, to be compassed like a good bilbo,2 in the circumference of a peck, hilt to point, heel to head: and then, to be stopped in, like a strong distillation, with stinking clothes that fretted in their own grease: think of that, a man of my kidney,-think of that; that am as subject to heat as butter; a man of contmual dissolution and thaw; it was a miracle to 'scape suffocation. And in the height of this bath, when I was more than half stewed in grease, like a Dutch dish, to be thrown into the Thames, and cooled, glowing hot, in that surge, like a horse-shoe; think of that;-hissing hot,-think of that, master Brook. Ford. In good sadness, sir, I am sorry that for my sake you have suffered all this. My suit then is desperate; you'll undertake her no more. Fal. Master Brook, I will be thrown into Etna, as I have been into Thames, ere I will leave her thus. Her husband is this morning gone a birding: I have received from her another embassy of meeting; 'twixt eight and nine is the hour, master Brook. Ford. "Tis past eight already, sir. Fal. Is it? I will then address me to my appointment. Come to me at your convenient leisure, and you shall know how I speed; and the conclusion shall be crowned with your enjoying her: Adieu. You shall have her, master Brook; master Brook, you shall cuckold Ford. [Exit. Ford. Hum! ha! is this a vision? is this a dream? do I sleep? Master Ford, awake; awake, master Ford; there's a hole made in your best coat, master Ford. This 'tis to be married! this 'us to have linen, and buck-baskets!-Well, I will proclaim myself what I am: I will now take the lecher; he is at my house he cannot 'scape me; 'tis impossible he should; he cannot creep into a halfpenny purse, por into a pepper-box: but, lest the devil that guides him should aid him, I will search impossible places. Though what I am I cannot avoid, yet to be what I would not, shall not make me tame: if I have horns to make one mad, let the proverb go with me, I'll be [Exit. horn mad. ACT IV. SCENE I-The Street.-Enter MRS. PAGE, MRS. QUICKLY, and WILLIAM. | bring my young man here to school: Look, where his master comes; 'tis a playing-day, I sec. Enter SIR HUGH EVANS. How now, Sir Hugh? no school to-day? Eva. No; master Slender is let the boys leave to play. Quick. Blessing of his heart! Mrs. Page. Sir Hugh, my husband says, my son profits nothing in the world at his book; I pray you, ask him some questions in his accidence. Eva. Come hither, William; hold up your head; come. Mrs. Page. Come on, sirrah; hold up your head; answer your master, be not afraid. Eva. William, how many numbers is in nouns ? Will. Two. Quick. Truly, I thought there had been one number more; because they say, od's nouns, Eva. Peace your tattlings. What is fair, William ? Will. Pulcher. Quick. Pouleats! there are fairer things than poulcats, sure. Eva. You are a very simplicity 'oman; I pray you perce. What is lapis, William ? Will. A stone. Eva. And what is a stone, William? Eva. No, it is lapis; I pray you remember in your prain. Will. Lapis. Eva. That is good, William. What is he, William, that does lend articles? be thus declined, Singulariter, nominativo, húc, hac, Will. Articles are borrowed of the pronoun; and hoc. Eva. 'Oman, forbear. Mrs. Page. Peace. Eva. What is your genitive case plural, William? Till. Genetivo,-horum, harum, horum. Quick. You do ill to teach the child such words: he teaches him to hick and to hack, which they'll do fast enough of themselves; and to call horum:-fie upon you! Eva. 'Oman, art thou lunatics? hast thou no understandings for thy cases, and the numbers of the genders? Thou art as foolish christian creatures as I would desires. Mrs. Page. Pr'ythee hold thy peace. Eva. Show me now, William, some declensions of your pronouns. Will. Forsooth, I have forgot. Eva. It is ki, kæ, cod; if you forget your kies, your kes, and your cods, you must be preeches. Mrs. Page. Is he at master Ford's already, think'st Go your ways, and play, go. thou? Quick. Sure, he is by this; or will be presently:sions, has this very phrase-detected with, for impeachbut truly, he is very courageous4 mad, about his ed with, or held in suspicion by :throwing into the water. Mistress Ford desires you to come suddenly. Mrs. Page. I'll be with her by and by; I'll but 1 With, by, and of were used indiscriminately with thuch licence by our ancestors. Thus in a subsequent passage of this play we have: 'I sooner would suspect the sun with cold.' Detected appears to have been used in the sense of suspected, impeached. Cavendish, in his Metrical Vi "What is he of our bloode that wold not be sory To heare our names with vile fame sa detected," Detected must have the same meaning here, for Falstaff was not discovered, but suspected by the jealous Ford. Some modern editors have unwarrantably substituted by for with. 2 A Bilbo is a Spanish blade remarkable for its temper and flexibility. The best were made at Bilboa, a town in Biscay, 4 Outrageous 3 Make myself ready. 5 Breeched, i. e. flogged. Mrs. Page. He is a better scholar than I thought he was. Eva. He is a good sprag1 memory. Farewell, mistress Page. Mrs. Page. Adieu, good Sir Hugh. [Exit SIR HUGH.] Get you home, boy.-Come, we stay too long. [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Room in Ford's House. Enter FALSTAFF and MRS. FORD. Fal. Mistress Ford, your sorrow hath eaten up my sufferance: I see, you are obsequious" in your love, and I profess your requital to a hair's breadth; not only, mistress Ford, in the simple office of love, but in all the accoutrement, complement, and ceremony of it. But are you sure of your husband now? Mrs. Ford. He's a birding, sweet Sir John. Mrs. Page. [within.] What hoa, gossip Ford! what hoa! Mrs. Ford. Step into the chamber, Sir John. [Exit FALSTAFF. Enter MRS. PAGE. Mrs. Page. How sweatheart? who's at now, home beside yourself? Mrs. Ford. Why, none but mine own people. Mrs. Ford. No, certainly;-speak louder. [Aside. Mrs. Page. Truly, I am so glad you have nobody here. Mrs. Ford. Why? Mrs. Page. Why, woman, your husband is in his old lunes again: he so takes on yonder with my husband; so rails against all married mankind; so curses all Eve's daughters, of what complexion soever; and so buffets himself on the forehead, crying, Peer out, peer out! that any madness, I ever yet beheld, seemed but tameness, civility, and patience, to this his distemper he is in now: I am glad the fat knight is not here. Mrs. Ford. Why, does he talk of him? Mrs. Page. Of none but him; and swears, he was carried out, the last time he searched for him, in a basket: protests to my husband he is now here; and hath drawn him and the rest of their company from their sport, to make another experiment of his suspicion but I am glad the knight is not here; now he shall see his own foolery. Mrs. Ford. How near is he, mistress Page? Mrs. Page. Hard by; at street end; he will be here anon. Mrs. Ford. I am undone !--the knight is here. Mrs. Page. Why, then you are utterly shamed, and he's but a dead man. What a woman are you? -Away with him, away with him, better shame than murder. Mrs. Ford. Which way should he go? how should I bestow him? Shall I put him into the basket again? Re-enter FALSTAFF. Mrs Ford. There they always used to discharge their birding-pieces: Creep into the kiln-hole. Fal. Where is it? Fal. No, I'll come no more i' the basket: May I not go out, ere he come ? Mrs. Ford. He will seek there on my word. Neither press, coffer, chest, trunk, well, vault, but he hath an abstract for the remembrance of such places, and goes to them by his note: There is no hiding you in the house. Mrs. Page. Alas, three of master Ford's brothers watch the door with pistols, that none shall issue out; otherwise you might slip away ere he came. But what makes you here? Fal. I'll go out then. you die, Sir John. Unless you go out disguised,Mrs. Page. If you go out in your own semblance, Mrs. Ford. How might we disguise him? Fal. What shall I do?-I'll creep up into the chimney. 1 Quick, alert. The word is sprack. no woman's gown big enough for him; otherwise, Mrs. Page. Alas the day, I know not. There is he might put on a hat, a muffler, and a kerchief, and so escape. 2 So, in Hamlet; To do obsequious sorrow." The epithet obsequions refers, in both instances, to the seri. ousness with which obsequies are performed. 3 i. e. lunacy, frenzy. 4 Shakspeare refers to a sport of children, who thus call on a snail to push forth his horns: tremity, rather than a mischief. Fal. Good hearts, devise something: any ex Mrs. Ford. My maid's aunt, the fat woman of Brentford," has a gown above. Mrs. Page. On my word, it will serve him; she's as big as he is: and there's her thrum'd hat, and her muffler too: Run Sir John. up, Mrs. Ford. Go, go, sweet Sir John: mistress Page and I will look some linen for your head. Mrs. Page. Quick, quick; we'll come dress you straight: put on the gown the while. [Exit FALSTAFF. Mrs. Ford. I would my husband would meet him in this shape: he cannot abide the old woman of Brentford; he swears, she's a witch; forbade her my house, and hath threatened to beat her. "Peer out, peer out, peer out of your hole, Or else I'll beat you as black as a coal." 5 This is one of Shakspeare's anachronisms: he has also introduced pistols in Pericles, in the reign of Antiochus, two hundred years before Christ. 6 This phrase has been already noticed. It occurs again in As You Like It, in the sense of do: 'Now, sir, what make you here?" It also occurs in Hamlet, Othello, and Love's Labour's Lost. Mrs. Page. Heaven guide him to thy husband's cudgel; and the devil guide his cudgel afterwards! Mrs. Ford. But is my husband coming? of the basket too, howsoever he hath had intelliMrs. Page. Ay, in good sadness, is he; and talks gence. Mrs. Ford. We'll try that; for I'll appoint my men to carry the basket again, to meet him at the door with it, as they did last time. let's go dress him like the witch of Brentford. Mrs. Page. Nay, but he'll be here presently: shall do with the basket. Go up, I'll bring lineu Mrs. Ford. I'll first direct my men, what they for him straight. Ezit. Mrs. Page. Hang him, dishonest varlet! we cannot misuse him enough. We'll leave a proof, by that which we will do, [Erit. Enter FORD, PAGE, SHALLOW, CAIUS, and SIR HUGH EVANS. Ford. Ay, but if it prove true, master Page, have you any way then to unfool me again?-Set down the basket, villain:-Somebody call my wife: You, youth in a basket, come out here!-O, you 7 i. e. a list, an inventory, or short note of. S In the early 4to. it is: "My maid's aunt Gillian of Brentford." 9 A hat composed of the weaver's tufts or thrums, or of very coarse cloth. A muffler was a part of female at tire which only covered the lower part of the face. 10 This old witch Jyl or Gillian of Brentford seems to have been a character well known in popular story at the time. Jyl of Brentford's Testament' was printed by Copland long before, and Laneham enumerates it as in the collection of Capt. Cox, the mason, now well known to all, from the mention of him in the romance of Kenilworth. |