Enter ANNE PAGE, with wine; MISTRESS FORD and MISTRESS PAGE, following. Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within. [Exit Anne Page. Slen. O heaven! this is Mistress Anne Page. Page. How now, Mistress Ford! Fal. Mistress Ford, by my troth, you are very well met by your leave, good mistress. [Kisses her. Page. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome. Come, we have a hot venison pasty to dinner: come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness. [Exeunt all except Shal., Slen., and Evans. Slen. I had rather than forty shillings I had my Book of Songs and Sonnets here. Enter SIMPLE. 180 How now, Simple! where have you been? I must wait on myself, must I? You have not the Book of Riddles about you, have you? Sim. Book of Riddles! why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon All-hallowmas last, a fortmight afore Michaelmas? 186 Shal. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word with you, coz; marry, this, coz: there is, as 'twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by Sir Hugh here. Do you understand me? 190 Slen. Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, I shall do that that is reason. Shal. Nay, but understand me. Slen. So I do, sir. Evans. Give ear to his motions,' Master Slender: I will description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it. 196 Slen. Nay, I will do as my cousin Shallow says: I pray you, pardon me; he's a justice of peace in his country, simple though I stand here. Evans. But that is not the question: the question is concerning your marriage. Shal. Ay, there's the point, sir. 201 Evans. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to Mistress Anne Page. Slen. Why, if it be so, I will marry her upon any reasonable demands. 206 Let Evans. But can you affection the 'oman? us command to know that of your mouth or of your lips; for divers philosophers hold that the lips is parcel of the mouth. Therefore, precisely, can you carry your good will to the maid ? 211 Shal. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her? Slen. I hope, sir, I will do as it shall become one that would do reason. Evans. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies! you must speak possitable, if you can carry her your desires towards her. Shal. That you must. dowry, marry her? 217 Will you, upon good Slen. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your request, cousin, in any reason. נמי Shal. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz: what I do is to pleasure you, coz. the maid? Can you love Slen. I will marry her, sir, at your request: but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have more occasion to know one another; I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: but if you say, 'Marry her,' I will marry her; that I am freely dissolved, and dissolutely. Evans. It is a fery discretion answer; save the fall is in the ort 'dissolutely:' the ort is, according to our meaning, 'resolutely:' his meaning is good. Shal. Ay, I think my cousin meant well. Slen. Ay, or else I would I might be hanged, la! Shal. Here comes fair Mistress Anne. Re-enter ANNE PAGE. 235 Would I were young for your sake, Mistress Anne! Anne. The dinner is on the table; my father desires your worships' company. Shal. I will wait on him, fair Mistress Anne. Evans. Od's plessed will! I will not be absence at the grace. [Exeunt Shallow and Evans. Anne. Will't please your worship to come in, sir? 241 Slen. No, I thank you, forsooth, heartily; I am very well. Anne. The dinner attends you, sir. 245 Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth. Go, sirrah, for all you are my man, go wait upon my cousin Shallow. [Exit Simple.] A justice of peace sometime may be beholding to his friend for a man. I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be dead: but what though? yet I live like a poor gentleman born. 251 Anne. I may not go in without your worship: they will not sit till you come. Slen. I' faith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much as though I did. Anne. I pray you, sir, walk in. 255 Slen. I had rather walk here, I thank you. I bruised my shin th' other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence; three veneys for a dish of stewed prunes; and, by my troth, I cannot abide the smell of hot meat since. Why do your dogs bark so? be there bears i' the town? 262 Anne. I think there are, sir; I heard them talked of. Slen. I love the sport well; but I shall as soon quarrel at it as any man in England. You are afraid, if you see the bear loose, are you not? Anne. Ay, indeed, sir. 266 Slen. That's meat and drink to me, now. I have seen Sackerson loose twenty times, and have taken him by the chain; but, I warrant you, the women have so cried and shrieked at it, that it passed: but women, indeed, cannot abide 'em; they are very illfavoured rough things. 272 Re-enter PAGE. Page. Come, gentle Master Slender, come; we stay for you. Slen. I'll eat nothing, I thank you, sir. 275 Page. By cock and pie, you shall not choose, sir! come, come. Slen. Nay, pray you, lead the way. Page. Come on, sir. Slen. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first. Slen. not do 280 Truly, I will not go first; truly, la! I will you that wrong. Anne. I pray you, sir. Slen. I'll rather be unmannerly than troublesome. You do yourself wrong, indeed, la! [Exeunt. 286 Enter SIR HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE. Evans. Go your ways, and ask of Doctor Caius' house which is the way: and there dwells one Mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer. Sim. Well, sir. Evans. Nay, it is petter yet. Give her this letter; for it is a 'oman that altogether's acquaintance with Mistress Anne Page: and the letter is, to desire and require her to solicit your master's desires to |