Enter Mrs. Quickly, Simple, and John Rugby. [Act 1. Scene 4. Caius. Fe, fe, fe, fe! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. quickly:-Vere is dat knave Rugby? Caius. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby: Come, take-a your rapier, and come after 10my heel to de court. Rug. I'll go watch. [Exit Rugby. Quic. Go; and we'll have a poffet for 't foon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a fea-coal fire '. An honeft, willing, kind fellow, as ever fervant fhall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, 15 no tell-tale, nor no breed-bate 2: his worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is fomething| peevish 3 that way: but no body but has his fault; but let that país. Peter Simple, you fay your name is ? Quic. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover's paring-knife? Sim. No, forfooth: he hath but a little wee 4 face, with a little yellow beard; a 5 Cain-colour'd beard. Quic. A foftly-fprighted man, is he not? 20 25 Sim. Ay, forfooth: but he is as tall a man of his 30 Mands, as any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a warrener. Quic. How fay you?oh, I fhould remember him; Does he not hold up his head, as it were? and strut in his gait? Sim. Yes, indeed, does he. Quic. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse fortune! Tell mafter parfon Evans, I will do what I can for your master: Anne is a good girl, and I wish-anti Re-enter Rugby. 35 Rug. 'Tis ready, Sir, here in the porch. Caius. By my trot, I tarry too long:-Od's me! Qu'ay j'oublie? dere is fome fimples in my closet, Quic. Ah me! he'll find the young man there, dat I vill not for the varld I fhall leave behind. and be mad. Caius. O diable, diable! vat is in my closet?- Caius. Verefore fhall I be content-a? Quic. The young man is an honeft man. Caius. Vat fhall de honest man do in my closet? dere is no honest man dat shall come in my closet. Quic. I beseech you, be not fo flegmatic; hear the truth of it. He came of an errand to me from parfon Hugh. Caius. Vell. Quic. Peace, I pray you. Caius. Peace-a your tongue: Speak-a your tale. Sim. To defire this honeft gentlewoman, your maid, to fpeak a good word to mistress Anne Page for my master in the way of marriage. Quic. This is all, indeed-la; but I'll never put my finger in the fire, and need not. Caius. Sir Hugh fend-a you?-Rugby, baillex me fome paper: Tarry you a little while. Quic. I am glad he is fo quiet: if he had been 40 thoroughly moved, you should have heard him fo loud, and fo melancholy;-but notwithstanding, man, I'll do for your mafter what good I can : and the very yea and the no is, the French doctor, for I keep his houfe; and I wash, wring, brew, my mafter, I may call him my master, look you, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the beds, and do all myself. Rug. Out, alas! here comes my master. Quic. We shall all be shent?: Run in here, good young man; go into this closet. [Shuts Simple in the clofet.] He will not stay long.-What, John 45 Rugby! John, what, John, I fay!-Go, John, go enquire for my mafter; I doubt, he be not well, that he comes not home:-and down, down, a-down-a3, &c. Enter Doctor Cains. [Sings. Caius. Vat is you fing? I do not like defe toys; Pray you, go and vetch me in my closet un buitier verd; a box, a green-a box; do intend vat I fpeak? a green-a box. Quick. Ay, forfooth, 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. [Afides Sim. 'Tis a great charge, to come under one body's hand. Quic. Are you avis'd o' that? you fhall find it a great charge: And to be up early, and down late;-but notwithstanding, (to tell you in your ear; I would have no words of it) my master himfelfis in love with miftrefs Anne Page: but not55 withstanding that, I know Anne's mind,that's neither here nor there. Caius. You jack'nape; give-a dis letter to Sir Hugh; by gar, it is a fhallenge: I vill cut his 6 That is, when my mafter is in bed. tention. 3 Foolish. 2 Bate is an obfolete word, fignifying ftrife, con4 Wee, in the northern dialect, fignifies very little. in the tapestries and pictures of old, were represented with yellow s Cain and Judas, to the jockey measure, fo many bands bigb, used by grooms when fcolded. O Probably an allufion 8 To deceive her mafter, the fings as if at her work. 7 That is, cafe of furgeons instruments. 9 Boitier, in French, fignifies a beards. throat throat in de park; and I vill teach a scurvy jacka-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 ftone to trow at his dog. [Exit Simple. 5 Quic. Alas, he speaks but for his friend. Caius. It is no matter-a for dat:do you not tell-a me dat I shall have Anne Page for myself?— by gar, I vill kill de jack priest; and I have appointed mine hoft of de Farterre to measure our Ic weapon;-by gar, I vill myself have Anne Page. Quic. Sir, the maid loves you, and all fhall be well: we must give folks leave to prate: What, the goujere '. Quic. In truth, fir, and she is pretty, and honest, and gentle, and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by the way, I praise heaven for it. Fent. Shall I do any good, thinkest thou? shall I not lofe my fuit? Quic. Troth, fir, all is in his hands above; but notwithstanding, master Fenton, I'll be sworn on a book, the loves you:Have not your worship a wart about your eye? Fent. Yes, marry, have I; what of that? Quic. Well, thereby hangs a tale :-good faith, it is fuch another Nan,but I deteft, an honest maid as ever broke bread :-We had an hour's talk of that wart;-I fhall never laugh but in that maid's 15 company!-But indeed she is given too much to allicholly and mufing: But for you-Wellgo to. Caius. Rugby, come to the court vit me: By gar, if I have not Anne Page, I fhall turn your head out of door :-Follow my heels, Rugby. [Ex. Caius and Rugby. Quic. You shall have An fools-head of your own. No, I know Anne's mind for that: never a wo-20 man in Windsor knows more of Anne's mind than I do; nor can do more than I do with her, I thank heaven. Fent. [Within.] Who's within there, ho? Quic. Who's there, I trow? come near the 25 Fent. Well, farewell; I am in great haste now. houfe, I pray you. Enter Mr. Fenton. Fent. How now, good woman; how doft thou? Quic. The better that it pleases your good worfhip to afk. Font.What news? how does pretty mistress Anne?] [Exit. Quic. Farewell to your worship.-Truly, an honeft gentleman; but Anne loves him not; I know Anne's mind as well as another does: Out 30upon't! what have I forgot? [Exiti ACT II. Enter Miftrefs Page with a letter. Mißtrefs Page. WHAT, have I 'scap'd love letters in the holy-day-time of my beauty, and am I now a fubject for them? Let me fee: What a Herod of Jewry is this?- -O wicked, 40 wicked world!-one that is well nigh worn to pieces with age, to fhew himself a young gallant! What an unweigh'd behaviour has this Flemish drunkard pick'd (with the devil's name) out of my converfation, that he dares in this manner affay 45 me? Why, he hath not been thrice in my com pany?What should I fay to him?-I was then frugal of my mirth :-heaven forgive me!-Why, I'll exhibit a bill in the parliament for the putting down of men. How fhall I be reveng'd on him? for reveng'd I will be, as fure as his guts are made of puddings. Ask me nɔ reason why I love you; for 2 though love ufe reafon for his precifian, he admits him not for bis counsellor: You are not young, no more am I; g to then, there's fympathy: you are merry, fo am I; Ha! ba! then there's more fympathy: you love fack, and 50 So do I: Would you defire better fympathy? let it fuffice thee, miftrefs Page, (at the leaft, if the love of a faldier can fuffice) that I love thee. I will not say, pity me, 'tis not a foldier-like phrafe; but I fay, love me. By me, Thine own true knight, Or kind of light, any With all bis might, That is, morbus Gallicus. 55 John Falstaff. 60 2 The meaning is, though love permit reafon to tell what is fit to be done, be feldom follows its advice. By precifian, is meant one who pretends to a more than ordinary degree of virtue and fanctity. * Meaning, at all times. I a Thew shew you to the contrary: O, mistress Page, givel Mrs. Page. What's the matter, woman? Mrs. Page. Hang the trifle, woman; take the ho- Mrs. Ford. If I would but go to hell for an eternal moment, or fo, I could be knighted. Mrs. Page. What?-thou lieft!-Sir Alice Ford! -Thefe knights will hack; and fo thou shouldft not alter the article of thy gentry': [Act 2. Scene 1. Ja fine baited delay, till he hath pawn'd his horfes to mine Hoft of the Garter. Mrs. Ford. Nay, I will confent to act any villainy against him that may not fully the charinefs 5 of our 5 honefty. Oh, that my husband faw 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 an un10 meafurable distance. Mrs. Ford. We burn day-light2:-here, read, read;-perceive how I might be knighted.-I fhall 15 think the worfe of fat men, as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's liking: And yet he would not fwear; prais'd women's modefty; and gave fuch orderly and well-behav'd reproof to all uncomeliness, that I would have fworn his difpofi-20 tion would have gone to the truth of his words: but they do no more adhere, and keep place together, than the hundredth pfalm to the tune of Green Sleeves 3. What tempeft, I trow, threw this whale, with so many tuns of oil in his belly, afhore at Windfor? How fhall I be reveng'd on him? I think, the best way were to entertain him with hope, till the wicked fire of luft have melted him in his own greafe.- -Did you ever hear the like? Mrs. Ford. You are the happier woman. Enter Ford with Piftol, Page with Nym. 6 Pift. Hope is a curtail-dog in fome affairs: Sir John affects thy wife. [poor, Ford. Why, fir, my wife is not young. 250, odious is the name! Ford. What name, fir? Pift. The horn, I fay: Farewell. Take heed; Take heed, ere fummer comes, or cuckoo-birds do have night: fing. open eye; for thieves do foot by Away, fir corporal Nym.- Mrs. Page. Letter for letter; but that the name 30 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 proteft, mine never fhall. I-warrant, he hath a thousand of thefe letters, writ with blank fpace 35 for different names, (sure more) and these are of the fecond edition: He will print them out of doubt; for he cares not what he puts into the 4 prefs, when he would put us two. I had rather be a giantefs, and lie under mount Pelion. Well, I will find you 40 the fhort and the long. twenty lafcivious turtles, ere one chaste man. Mrs. Ford. Why, this is the very fame; the very hand, the very words: What doth he think of us? Mrs. Page. Nay, I know not: It makes me almoft ready to wrangle with mine own honefty. I'll 45 entertain myself like one that I am not acquainted withal; for, fure, unless he knew fome strain in me, that I know not myself, he would never have boarded me in this fury. Mrs. Ford. Boarding, call you it? I'll be fure to 50 keep him above deck. Mrs. Page. So will I; if he come under my hatches, I'll never to sea again. Let's be reveng'd on him: let's appoint him a meeting; give him a show of comfort in his fuit; and lead him on with 55 Nym. [Speaking to Page.] And this is true; I like For. I will be patient; I will find out this. [Exit Piftol not the humour of lying. He hath wrong'd me in fome humours: I should have borne the humour'd My name is corporal Nym, letter to her; but I have a fword, and it shall bite upon my neceffity. He loves your wife; there's I fpeak, 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 Page. The humour of it, quoth a'! here's a fellow humour of it. Adieu. [Exit Nym. frights humour out of its wits. Ford. I will feek out Falstaff. Page. I never heard fuch a drawling, affecting rogue. Ford. If I do find it, well. Page. I will not believe fuch a Cataian, though the priest o'the town commended him for a true man. Pages How now, Meg? To back, is an expreffion used in another fcene of this play, to fignify to do mischief. The fenfe of this paffage may therefore be, Thefe knights are a riotous, diffolute fort of people, and on that account thou fhouldit not wish to be of the number. want. 3 A popular ballad of thofe times. and a press to fqueeze. 2 That is, we have more proof than we fied to keep a greyhound cut off his tail, and then he is termed a lurcher; yet feldom lets his game 5 That is, the caution which ought to attend on it. 4 Prefs is ufed here ambiguously, for a prefs to print, 6 Perfons not quali8 By a Cataian, fome kind of fharper was probably meant, capc. S. A. 1 A medley. Mrs. Page. Whither go you, George?-Hark you. Mrs. Ford. How now, sweet Frank? why art thou melancholy? Ford. I melancholy! I am not melancholy.-Get you home, go. Mrs. Ford. Faith, thou haft fome crotchets in thy head now. Will you go, mistress Page? Mrs. Page. Have with you.-You'll come to dinner, George?-Look, who comes yonder: fhe shall be our meffenger to this paltry knight. [Afide to Mrs. Ford. Enter Mrs. Quickly. Mrs.Ford. Truft me, I thought on her: fhe'll fit it. Mrs. Page. You are come to fee my daughter Anne? Quic. Ay, forfooth: And, I pray, how does good miftrefs Anne ? Mrs. Page. Go in with us, and fee; we have an hour's talk with you. 15 [Ex. Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, and Mrs. Quickly. 20 Page. How now, mafter Ford? Ford. You heard what this knave told me; did you not? Page. Yes; and you heard what the other told me? Ford. Do you think there is truth in them? Page. Hang'em, flaves! I do not think the knight would offer it: but thefe, that accufe him in his intent towards our wives, are a yoke of his difcarded men; very rogues 1, now they be out of fervice. Ford. Were they his men? Page. Marry, were they. Ferd. I like it never the better for that.-Does he lie at the Garter? 25 Heft. Haft thou no fuit against my knight, my gueft-cavalier? Ford. None, I protest: but I'll give you a pottle of burnt fack to give me recourse to him, and tell him, my name is Brook, only for a jeft. Hoft. My hand, bully: thou fhalt have egrefs and regrefs; faid I well? and thy name fhall be Brook: It is a merry knight.Will you go anheirs 2? Shal. Have with you, mine hoft, Page. I have heard, the Frenchman hath good kill in his rapier. Sbal. Tut, fir, I could have told you more: In thefe times you stand on distance, your paffes, ftoccado's, and I know not what: 'tis the heart, master Page; 'tis here, 'tis here. I have feen the time, with my long fword 3, I would have made you four 30 tall fellows skip like rats. Page. Ay, marry, does he. If he fhould intend his voyage towards my wife, I would turn her 35 loofe to him; and what he gets more of her than sharp words, let it lie on my head. Ford. I do not mifdoubt my wife; but I would be loth to turn them together: A man may be too confident: I would have nothing lie on my head:40 I cannot be thus fatisfied. Page. Look, where my ranting host of the Garter comes: there is either liquor in his pate, or money in his purfe, when he looks fo merrily.How, now, mine hoft? Enter Heft and Shallow. Heft. How, now, bully-rook? thou'rt a gendeman: cavalero-juftice, I fay. 451 Sbal. I follow, mine hoft, I follow. Good even, and twenty, good mafter Page! Mafter 50 Page, will you go with us? we have fport in hand. Hoft, Here, boys, here, here! fhall we wag? Page. Have with you :-I had rather hear them fcold than fight. [Exeunt Heft, Shallow and Page. Ford. Though Page be a fecure fool, and ftand fo firmly on his wife's frailty4, yet I cannot put off my opinion fo eafily: She was in his company at Page's houfe; and, what they made there, I know not. Well, I will look further into 't: and I have a difguife to found Falstaff: If I find her honeft, I lofe not my labour; if the be otherwife, 'tis labour well bestow'd [Exit Enter Falstaff and Pifto!. Fal. I will not lend thee a penny. Pift. Why, then the world's mine oyster 5, which I with fword will open. I will retort the fum in equipage. Fal. Not a penny. have been content, ar, you should lay my countenance to pawn: I have grated upon my good friends for three reprieves for you and your coach-fellow, Nym; or else you had look'd through the grate, like a geminy of baboons. Shel. Sir, there is a fray to be fought between 551 am damn'd in heil, for fwearing to gentlemen, Hoft. Tell him, cavalero-justice; tell him, bullyrook! I That is, cheats. 2 This paffage is evidently obfcure. Mr. Steevens propofes to read, Will you go on, hearts? in confirmation of which conjecture, he observes, that the Host calls Dr. Caius 3 Before the Heart of Elder; and adds, in a subsequent scene of this play, Farewell, my hearts. introduction of rapiers, the fwords in ufe were of an enormous length. Shallow here censures the innovation of lighter weapons. 4 To stand on any thing, fignifies to infift on it. To Ford, who is jealous, all chastity in women appears as frailty. 5 Dr. Gray fuppofes Shakspeare to allude to an old proverb, "The mayor of Northampton opens cyfters with his dagger:" that is, to keep them at a fufficient diftance from his nofe, that town being fourfcore miles from the fea. conjectures the meaning of this to be, I will pay you again in stolen goods; and his opinion is confirmed by that of Mr. Farmer. 3 6 Dr. Warburton my my friends, you were good foldiers,and tall' fellows :{ and when mistress Bridget loft the handle of her fan2, I took 't upon mine honour, thou hadft it not. Pift. Didft thou not share? hadft thou not fifteen pence? 5 Fal. Well: miftrefs Ford;-what of her? Quic. Why, fir, fhe's a good creature. Lord, lord! your worship's a wanton: Well, heaven forgive you, and all of us, I pray ! Fal. Miftrefs Ford;-come, mistress Ford,— Quic. Marry, this is the fhort and the long of it; you have brought her into fuch a canaries", as 'tis wonderful. The best courtier of them all, when the court lay at Windfor, could never have brought Fal. Reafon, you rogue, reason: Think'ft thou, I'll endanger my foul gratis? At a word, hang no more about me, I am no gibbet for you :-go.A fhort knife and a thong,-to your manor of 10 her to fuch a canary. Yet there has been knights, Pickt-hatch 3, go.-You'll not bear a letter for me, you rogue! you ftand upon your honour!Why, thou unconfinable baseness, it is as much as I can do, to keep the terms of my honour precife. I, I, I myself sometimes leaving the fear of hea-15 ven on the left hand, and hiding mine honour in my neceffity, am fain to fhuffle, to hedge, and to lurch; and yet you, rogue, will enfconce 4 your rags, your cat-a-mountain looks, your red-lattice 5 phrafes, and your bold-beating oaths, under the 20 fhelter of your honour! You will not do it, you? Pift. I do relent: what wouldst thou more of man? Enter Robin. and lords, and gentlemen, with their coaches; I warrant you, coach after coach, letter after letter, git after gift; fmelling so sweetly, (all musk) and fo ruling, I warrant you, in filk and gold; and in fuch alligant terms; and in fuch wine and sugar of the beft, and the faireft, that would have won any woman's heart; and, I warrant you, they could never get an eye-wink of her.-I had myself twenty angels given me this morning: but I defy all angels, (in any such sort as they say) but in the way of honefty:-and, I warrant you, they could never get her fo much as fip on a cup with the proudest of them all: and yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, penfioners; but, I warrant Rob. Sir, here's a woman would speak with you. 2 5 you, all is one with her. Enter Miftrefs Quickly. Quic. Give your worship good-morrow. Fal. Good-morrow, good wife. Quic. Not fo, an't please your worship. Fal. Good maid, then. Quic. I'll be fworn; as my mother was, the firft hour I was born. Fal. I do believe the fwearer: What with me? Quic. Shall I vouchsafe your worship a word or two? Fal. Two thousand, fair woman; and I'll vouchfafe thee the hearing. Fal. But what fays fhe to me? be brief, my good the Mercury. Quic. Marry, the hath receiv'd your letter; for the which the thanks you a thousand times: and 30 he gives you to notify, that her husband will be abfence from his house between ten and eleven. Fal. Ten and eleven. Quic. Ay, forfooth; and then you may come and fee the picture, fhe fays, that you wot of; 35-master Ford, her husband, will be from home. Alas! the fweet woman leads an ill life with him; he's a very jealousy man; she leads a very frampold Life with him, good heart, Quic. There is one mistress Ford, fir;-I pray, come a little nearer this ways:—I myself dwell 4c with mafter doctor Caius. Fal. Well, on: Miftrefs Ford, you say,--Quic. Your worship fays very true: I pray your worship, come a little nearer this ways. Fal. I warrant thee, nobody hears;-mine own 45 people, mine own people. Quic. Are they fo? Heaven blefs them, and make them his fervants! Fal. Ten and eleven: Woman, commend me to her; I will not fail her. Quic. Why, you fay well: But I have another meffenger to your worship: Mistress Page has her hearty commendations to you too ;--and let me tell you in your ear, fhe's as fartuous a civil modest wife, and one (I tell you) that will not miss you morning nor evening prayer, as any is in Windfor, whoe'er be the other: and the bade me tell your worship, that her husband is feldom from home; A tall fellow, in the time of our author, meant, a stout, bold, or courageous perfon. 2 Fans, in Shakspear's time, were more costly than they are at prefent, as well as of a different construction. They confifted of oftrich feathers, (or others of equal length and flexibility) which were stuck into handles. The richer fort of these were compofed of gold, filver, or ivory of curious workmanship. The fum of forty pounds was fometimes given for a fan in the time of queen Elizabeth. 3 A noted place for thieves and pickpockets. Pickt-batch probably is derived from the pickes placed upon the batches of the doors of the bawdy-houses of those times; a precaution which perhaps the unfeasonable and obftreperous irruptions of the gallants of that age might render necessary. 4 A fcence is a petty fortification: to ensconce, therefore, is to protect as with a fort. 5 Your ale-house conversation. Red lattice at the doors and windows, were formerly the external infignia of an ale-house. Hence the prefent chequers; and it is very remarkable, that shops, with the fign of the chequers, were common among the Romans. This is the name of a brifk light dance, and not therefore improperly used in vulgar language for any hurry or perturbation: perhaps, however, it is not improbable, that canaries is only a mistake of Mrs. Quickly's for quandaries. always attendant upon the perfon of the prince. or frampard, fignifies fraful, peevish, croft, froward, 7 A perfoner, in those times, meant a gentleman 8 To wor is to know. 9 Ray fays, that frempald, |