firmly on his wife's frailty,17 yet I cannot put off my opinion so easily she was in his company at Page's house; and what they made 18 there, I know not. Well, I will look further into't and I have a disguise to sound Falstaff. If I find her honest, I lose not my labour; if she be otherwise, 'tis labour well bestowed. [Exit.

SCENE II. A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FALSTAFF and PISTOL.

Fal. I will not lend thee a penny.

Pist. Why, then the world's mine oyster, Which I with sword will open.

1

Fal. Not a penny. I have been content, sir, you should lay my countenance to pawn: I have grated upon 1 my good friends for three reprieves for you and your coach-fellow 2 Nym; or else you had look'd through the grate, like a geminy of baboons. I am damn'd in Hell for swearing to gentlemen my friends, you were good soldiers and tall fellows; and when Mistress Bridget lost the handle of her fan,3 I took't upon mine honour thou hadst it not.

less; sine cura. Shakespeare has it often so. So in this play, ii. 2: "Page is an ass, a secure ass." Also in iii. 2: "A secure and wilful Acton."

17 An antithesis is probably intended here between firmly and frailty; else I should be apt to think the latter an erratum for fealty, which Theobald substituted.

18 Made for did. A frequent lingual usage of the time. So, afterwards, in iv. 2, we have “what make you here" for "what are you doing here." See vol. v., page 34, note 4.

1 To grate, or to grate on or upon, is defined by Johnson "to rub hard, -to offend, as by oppression or importunity." So in 2 Henry IV., iv. 1 : "What peer hath been suborn'd to grate on you?"

2 Coach-fellow is sometimes explained a horse that draws in the same carriage with another." I suspect it meant simply companion or associate. We have pew-fellow in the same sense.

3 Fans were costly articles of ladies' outfit in the Poet's time; consisting of ostrich and other feathers fixed into handles, sometimes of gold, silver, or ivory elaborately wrought,

Pist. Didst not thou share? hadst thou not fifteen pence? Fal. Reason, you rogue, reason: think'st thou I'll endanger my soul gratis? At a word, hang no more about me, I am no gibbet for you: go; a short knife and a throng; 4 to your manor of Pickt-hatch, go.5 You'll not bear a letter for me, you rogue! you stand upon your honour! Why, thou unconfinable baseness, it is as much as I can do to keep the terms of my honour precise: I, ay, I myself sometimes, leaving the fear of God on the left hand, and hiding mine honour in my necessity, am fain to shuffle, to hedge, and to lurch; and yet you, rogue, will ensconce your rags, your cata-mountain looks, your red-lattice phrases, and your bullbaiting oaths, under the shelter of your honour! You will not do it, you!

Pist. I do relent: what wouldst thou more of man?

Enter ROBIN.

Rob. Sir, here's a woman would speak with you.

Fal. Let her approach.

Enter Mistress QUICKLY.

Quick. Give your Worship good morrow.

Fal. Good morrow, good wife.

Quick. Not so, an't please your Worship.

Fal. Good maid, then.

Quick. I'll be sworn; as my mother was, the first hour I was born.

Fal. I do believe the swearer.

What with me?

Quick. Shall I vouchsafe your Worship a word or two?

4 "Go, and cut purses in a crowd," is the meaning. Purses were then carried hanging at the belt.

5 Pickt-hatch was a district of ill repute, where the swarming of bullies made a pickt-hatch, or a half-door armed with spikes, needful for defence. 6 That is, alehouse phrases; a red lattice being the usual distinction of an alehouse.

Fal. Two thousand, fair woman; and I'll vouchsafe thee the hearing.

Quick. There is one Mistress Ford, sir: I pray, come a little nearer this ways: I myself dwell with Master Doctor Caius,

Fal. Well, one Mistress Ford, you say, —

Quick. Your Worship says very true: I pray your Worship, come a little nearer this ways.

Fal. I warrant thee, nobody hears: mine own people, mine own people.

Quick. Are they so? God bless them, and make them His servants!

Fal. Well, Mistress Ford: what of her?

Quick. Why, sir, she's a good creature. Lord, Lord! your Worship's a wanton! Well, Heaven forgive you, and all of us, I pray !·

Fal. Mistress Ford; come, Mistress Ford,

Quick. Marry, this is the short and the long of it. You have brought her into such a canaries as 'tis wonderful. The best courtier of them all, when the Court lay at Windsor, could never have brought her to such a canary. Yet there has been knights, and lords, and gentlemen, with their coaches; I warrant you, coach after coach, letter after letter, gift after gift; smelling so sweetly—all musk- and so rushling, I warrant you, in silk and gold; and in such alligant terms; and such wine and sugar of the best and the fairest, 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 honesty : — and, I warrant you, they could never get her so much as sip on a cup with the proudest of them all and yet there has

:

7 Canaries or canary is Mrs. Quickly's blunder for quandary.

been earls, nay, which is more, Pensioners; but, I warrant you, all is one with her.

Fal. But what says she to me? be brief, my good sheMercury.

Quick. Marry, she hath received your letter; for the which she thanks you a thousand times; and she gives you to notify, that her husband will be absence from his house between ten and eleven.

Fal. Ten and eleven?

Quick. Ay, forsooth; and then you may come and see the picture, she says, that you wot of: Master Ford, her husband, will be from home. Alas, the sweet woman leads an ill life with him he's a very jealousy man: she leads a very frampold life with him, good heart.

Fal. Ten and eleven. Woman, commend me to her; I will not fail her.

Quick. Why, you say well.

But I have another messenger to your Worship. Mistress Page hath her hearty commendations to you, too: and let me tell you in your ear, she'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 Windsor, whoe'er be the other: and she bade me tell your Worship that her husband is seldom from home; but she hopes there will come a time. I never knew a woman so dote upon a man: surely, I think you have charms, la; yes, in truth.

Fal. Not I, I assure thee: setting the attraction of my good parts aside, I have no other charms.

Quick. Blessing on your heart for't!

8 Alluding, probably, to Queen Elizabeth's band of Gentlemen Pensioners, as they were called, whose dress was remarkably splendid, and so would be apt to charm Mrs. Quickly.

9 Frampold is vexatious or turbulent. The word does not occur again in Shakespeare, and is very rarely met with elsewhere: but Fletcher has frampal, which is but another form of the same, in the sense of cross or peevish.

has Ford's wife and

they have not so little

Fal. But, I pray thee, tell me this, Page's wife acquainted each other how they love me? Quick. That were a jest indeed! grace, I hope : — that were a trick indeed! But Mistress Page would desire you to send her your little page, of all loves: 10 her husband has a marvellous infection to the little page; and, truly, Master Page is an honest man. Never a wife in

Windsor leads a better life than she does: do what she will, say what she will, take all, pay all, go to bed when she list, rise when she list, all is as she will: and, truly, she deserves it; for if there be a kind woman in Windsor, she is one. must send her your page; no remedy.

Fal. Why, I will.

You

Quick. Nay, but do so, then: and, look you, he may come and go between you both; and, in any case, have a nay-word,11 that you may know one another's mind, and the boy never need to understand any thing; for 'tis not good that children should know any wickedness: old folks, you know, have discretion, as they say, and know the world.

Fal. Fare thee well: commend me to them both: there's my purse; I am yet thy debtor. - Boy, go along with this woman. [Exeunt Mrs. QUICKLY and ROBIN.]—This news distracts me!

13

Pist. This punk 12 is one of Cupid's carriers : Clap on more sails; pursue; up with your fights; Give fire; she is my prize, or ocean whelm them all! [Exit. Fal. Sayest thou so, old Jack? go thy ways; I'll make more of thy old body than I have done. Will they yet look

10 A petty adjuration of the time, equivalent to for love's sake or by all

means.

11 Nay-word, it appears, was sometimes used for watchword or countersign. 12 Punk was another name for a love-broker or go-between. See page 23,

note 14.

18 Fights was a naval term for the waste-cloths hung about the ship in a fight, to keep the men from being seen by the enemy.