and Fenton comes, and steals away Mrs. Ann Page. A noife of hunting is made within. All the Fairies run away. Falstaff pulls off bis Buck's head, and rifes. SCENE V, Enter Page, Ford, &c. They lay hold on him. Page. Nay, do not fly; I think, we've watcht you now; Will none but Herne the hunter ferve your turn? Mrs. Page. I pray you, come; hold up the jeft no higher. Now, good Sir John, how like you Windfor wives? See you thefe, husbands? do not these fair Yoaks Become the Forest better than the Town? Ford. Now, Sir, who's a cuckold now? mafter Brook, Falstaff's a knave, a cuckoldly knave, here are his horns, master Brook ; and, master Brook, he hath enjoy'd nothing of Ford's but his buck-basket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds of mony, which muft be paid to mafter Brook; his horfes are arrested for it, mafter Brook. Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never meet. I will never take you for my love again, but I will always count you my deer. Fal. I do begin to perceive, that I am made an afs. ? See you thefe, hufbands? Do not these fair Oaks Become the Foreft better than the Town?] What Oaks, in the Name of Nonfenfe, do our fagacious Editors make Mrs. Page talk of The Oaks in the Park? But there was no Intention of tranfplanting them into the Town.Talis infcitiæ me quidem pudet, pigetque. The firft Folio reads, as the Poetintended,Yoaks: and Mrs. Page's Meaning is this, She speaks it to her own, and Mrs. Ford's Husband, and asks them, if they fee the Horns in Falstaff's Hand; and then, alluding to them as the Types of Cuckoldom, puts the Queftion, whether thofe Yoaks are not more proper in the Forefts than in the Town, i. e. than in their Families, as a Reproach to them. THEOBALD Ford Ford. Ay, and an ox too: both the proofs are ex tant Fal. And thefe are not fairies? I was three or four times in the thought, they were not fairies; and yet the guiltinefs of my mind, the fudden furprize of my powers, drove the grofsnefs of the foppery into a receiv'd belief, in defpight of the teeth of all rhime and reason, that they were fairies. See now, how wit may be made a jack-a-lent, when 'tis upon ill imployment! Eva. Sir John Falstaff, ferve Got, and leave your defires, and fairies will not pinfe you. Ford. Well faid, fairy Hugh. Eva. And leave you your jealoufies too, I pray you, Ford. I will never miftruft my wife again, 'till thou art able to woo her in good English. Fal. Have I laid my brain in the fun and dry'd it, that it wants matter to prevent fo grofs o'er-reaching as this? am I ridden with a Welch goat too? fhall I have a coxcomb of frize? 'tis time, I were choak'd with a piece of toasted cheese. Eva. Seefe is not good to give putter; your pelly is all putter.. Fal. Seefe and putter? have I liv'd to stand in the taunt of one, that makes fritters of English? this is enough to be the decay of luft and late-walking, through the Realm. Mrs. Page. Why, Sir John, do you think, though we would have thrust virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders, and have given ourselves without fcruple to hell, that ever the devil could have made you our delight? Ford. What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of flax? Mrs. Page. A puft man? Page. Old, cold, wither'd, and of intolerable en trails? Ford. And one that is as flanderous as Satan? Page, And as poor as Job? Ford. Ford. And as wicked as his wife? Eva. And given to fornications, and to taverns, and facks, and wines, and metheglins, and to drinkings, and fwearings, and starings, pribbles and prabbles? Fal. Well, I am your theme; you have the start of me; I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welch flannel; ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me; ufe me as you will. Ford. Marry, Sir, we'll bring you to Windsor to one Mr. Brook, that you have cozen'd of money, to whom you should have been a pander: over and above that you have fuffer'd, I think, to repay that money will be a biting affliction. Mrs. Ford. Nay, hufband, let that go to make Forgive that Sum, and fo we'll all be Friends. Ford. Well, here's my hand; all's forgiven at last. Page. Yet be cheerful, Knight; thou shalt eat a poffet to night at my houfe, where I will defire thee to laugh at my wife, that now laughs at thee. Tell her, Mr. Slender hath marry'd her daughter. Mrs. Page. Doctors doubt that; if Anne Page be my daughter, she is, by this, Doctor Caius' wife. [Afide. - ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me;] Though this be perhaps not intelligible, yet it is an odd way of confeffing his dejection. I should wish to read, ignorance itself has a plume o' me. That is, I am fo depreffed that ignorance itself plucks me, and decks itself with the fpoils of my weakness. 2 Mrs. Ford. Nay, Husband,] This and the following little Speech I have inferted from the old Quarto's. The Retrench ment, I prefume, was by the 3 The two plors are excel- SCENE Slen. What hoe! hoe! father Page. Page. Son, how now? how now, fon, have dispatch'd? you Slen. Difpatch'd? I'll make the best in Gloucestershire know on't would I were hang'd la, elfe. Page. Of what, fon? Slen. I came yonder at Eaton to marry mistress Anne Page, and fhe's a great lubberly boy. If it had not been i'th' church, I would have fwing'd him, or he fhould have fwing'd me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never stir, and 'tis a poftmaster's boy. Page. Upon my life, then you took the wrong. Slen. What need you tell me that? I think so, when I took a boy for a girl: if I had been marry'd to him, for all he was in woman's apparel, I would not have had him. Page. Why, this is your own folly. Did not I tell you, how you should know my daughter by her garments? Slen. I went to her in white and cry'd mum, and the cry'd budget, as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a post-master's boy. Eva. Jefhu! Mafter Slender, cannot you fee but marry boys? Page. O, I am vext at heart. What fhall I do? Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry; I knew of. your purpose, turn'd my daughter into green, and, indeed, fhe is now with the Doctor at the Deanery, and there married, SCENE SCENE VII. Enter Caius. Caius. Ver is mistress Page? by gar, I am cozen'd; I-ha' marry'd one garfoon, a boy; one peasant, by gar; a boy; it is not Anne Page; by gar, I am cozen'd. Mrs. Page. Why? did you not take her in green? Caius. Ay, be gar, and 'tis a boy; be gar, I'll raise all Windfor. Ford. This is ftrange! who hath got the right Anne? Page. My heart milgives me; here comes Mr, Fenton. Enter Fenton and Anne Page. How now, Mr. Fenton? Anne. Pardon, good father; good my mother, pardon. Page. Now, miftrefs, how chance you went not with Mr. Slender? Mrs. Page. Why went you not with Mr. Doctor, maid? Fent. You do amaze her: Hear the truth of it. Which forced marriage would have brought upon her. Fal. |
