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Mrs. Page. O, you are a flattering boy; now, I fee, you'll be a courtier.

Enter Ford.

Ford. Well met, mistress Page; whither go you? Mrs. Page. Truly, fir, to fee your wife; is the at home? Ford. Ay, and as idle as she may hang together for want of company; I think, if your husbands were dead, you two would

marry.

Mrs. Page. Be fure of that, two other husbands.

Ford. Where had you this pretty weather-cock?

Mrs. Page. I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of: what do you call your knight's name, firrah? Rob. Sir John Falstaff.

Ford. Sir John Falstaff?

Mrs. Page. He, he; I can never hit on's name; there is fuch a league between my good man and he. Is your wife at home, indeed?

Ford. Indeed, fhe is.

Mrs. Page. By your leave, fir; I am fick 'till I fee her.

[Exeunt Mrs. Page and Robin.

SCENE V.

Ford. Has Page any brains? hath he any eyes? hath he any thinking? fure, they fleep; he hath no use of them. Why, this boy will carry a letter twenty mile as easy as a cannon will shoot point-blank twelve-score: he pieces out his wife's inclination; he gives her folly motion, and advantage; and now she's going to my wife, and Falstaff's boy with her. A man may hear this shower fing in the wind: and Falstaff's boy with her! good plots; they are lay'd, and our revolted wives share damnation together. Well, ■will take him, then torture my wife, pluck the borrowed veil of modefty from the so seeming mistress Page, divulge Page himself for a fecure and wilful Acteon, and to thefe violent proceedings all my neighbours shall cry aim. The clock gives me my cue, and my affurance bids me search; there I shall find Falstaff: I fhall

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be rather praised for this than mocked; for it is as positive as the earth is firm, that Falstaff is there: I will go.

SCENE VI.

To him, Enter Page, Shallow, Slender, Hoft, Evans, and Caius.

Shal. Page, &c. Well met, mafter Ford.

Ford. Truft me, a good knot: I have good cheer at home, and, pray you all, go with me.

Shal. I must excuse myself, master Ford.

Slen. And so muft I, fir; we have appointed to dine with mistress Anne, and I would not break with her for more money than I'll speak of.

Shal. We have linger'd about a match between Anne Page and my confin Slender, and this day we shall have our answer.

Slen. I hope, I have your good will, father Page.

Page. You have, master Slender, I stand wholly for you: but my wife, master doctor, is for you altogether.

Caius. Ay, by gar, and de maid is love-a me: my nursh-a Quickly tell me fo mush.

Hoft. What fay you to young master Fenton? he capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holy-day, he smells April and May; he will carry't, he will carry't; 'tis in his buttons, he will carry't.

Page. Not by my confent, I promise you: the gentleman is of no having, he kept company with the wild prince and Poinz: he is of too high a region, he knows too much; no, he shall not knit a knot in his fortunes with the finger of my substance. If he take her, let him take her fimply; the wealth I have waits on my confent, and my confent goes not that way.

Ford. I beseech you heartily, some of you go home with me to dinner; befides your cheer you fhall have fport; I will show you a monster. Master doctor, you fhall go; fo fhall you, master Page; and you, fir Hugh.

Shal. Well, fare you well: we shall have the freer wooing at mafter Page's.

Caius. Go home, John Rugby; I come anon.

Hoft. Farewel, my hearts; I will to my honeft knight Falstaff, and drink canary with him.

Ford. I think, I fhall drink in pipe-wine firft with him, I'll make him dance. Will you go, gentles?

All. Have with you to fee this monster.

[Exeunt.

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Enter mistress Ford, miftrefs Page, and fervants with a basket.

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Mrs. Ford. I warrant. What, Robin, I fay!

Mrs. Page. Come, come, come.

Mrs. Ford. Here, fet it down.

Mrs. Page. Give your men the charge; we must be brief. Mrs. Ford. Marry, as I told you before, John, and Robert, be ready here hard-by in the brew-house; and, when I fuddenly call you, come forth, and, without any pause, or staggering, take this basket on your fhoulders; that done, trudge with it in all hafte, and carry it among the whitfters in Datchet-mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch close by the Thames 'fide. Mrs. Page. You will do it?

Mrs. Ford. I ha' told them over and over; they lack no direction. Be gone, and come when you are call'd. Mrs. Page. Here comes little Robin.

Enter Robin.

Mrs. Ford. How now, my eyas-musket, what news with you? Rob. My mafter fir John is come in at your back-door, mistress Ford, and requests your company.

Mrs. Page. You little jack-a-lent, have you been true to us?

Rob

Rob. Ay, I'll be fworn; my master knows not of your being here, and hath threaten'd to put me into everlasting liberty, if I tell you of it; for, he fwears, he'll turn me away.

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

Mrs. Ford. Do fo; 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, hifs me.

[Exit miftrefs Page.

Mrs. Ford. Go to then; we'll use this unwholsome humidity, this grofs watry pumpion, — we'll teach him to know turtles from jays.

SCENE VIII.

Enter Falstaff.

Fal. Have I caught thee, my heav'nly jewel? why, now let me die; for I have liv'd long enough: this is the period of my ambition: o this bleffed hour!

Mrs. Ford. O fweet fir John!

Fal. Mistress Ford, I cannot cog, I cannot prate, mistress Ford: now fhall I fin in my wifh. I would, thy hufband were dead, I'll speak it before the beft lord, I would make thee my lady. Mrs. Ford. I your lady, fir John? alas, I fhould be a pitiful lady.

Fal. Let the court of France fhow me fuch another; I see how thine eye would emulate the diamond: thou haft the right arched bent of the brow, that becomes the fhip-tire, the tire-valiant, or any tire of Venetian addition.

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

Fal. Thou art a tyrant to fay fo; thou would'st make an absolute courtier, and the firm fixure of thy foot would give an

a 'Tis probable this fhould be tire-volant or voilant, and that both this and the fhip-tire were names given to women's head-dreffes by the Venetians from whom the fine ladies heretofore took their fashions, as the lace then moft in efteem was the Point de Venise.

excellent

excellent motion to thy gait in a femi-circled farthingale. I fee 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 perfuade thee there's fomething extraordinary in thee. Come, I cannot cog, and say, thou art this and that, like many of these lifping haw-thorn buds, that come like women in men's apparel, and smell like BucklersBury in fimpling-time; I cannot: but I love thee, none but thee; and thou deferveft it.

Mrs. Ford. Do not betray me, fir; I fear, you love mistress Page. Fal. Thou might'ft as well fay, I love to walk by the countergate, which is as hateful to me as the reek of a lime-kiln.

Mrs. Ford. Well, heav'n 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, fweating, and blowing, and looking wildly, and would needs fpeak with you presently.

Fal. She fhall not fee me; I will enfconce me behind the arras.
Mrs. Ford. Pray you, do fo; she's a very tattling woman.

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Enter miftrefs Page.

What's the matter? how now?

Mrs. Page. O mistress Ford, what have you done? you're fam'd, y'are overthrown, you are undone for ever.

Mrs. Ford. What's the matter, good mistress Page? Mrs. Page. O well-a-day, miftrefs Ford! having an honest man to your husband, to give him fuch cause of fufpicion ! Mrs. Ford. What cause of fufpicion ?

Mrs. Page. What cause of suspicion ? out upon you; how am Imiftook in you!

Mrs.

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