the mind: therefore precisely, can you marry your good will to the maid? Shal. Coufin Abraham Slender, can you love her? Slen. I hope, Sir; I will do as it shall become one that would do reason. Eva. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies, you must speak poffitable, if you can carry her your defires towards her. Shal. That you must: will you, upon good dowry, marry her? Sien. I will do a greater thing than that upon your request, cousin, in any reafon. Shal. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz, what I do is to pleasure you, coz: can you love the maid? Slen. I will marry her, Sir, at your request: but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heav'n may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are marry'd, and have more occafion to know one another: I hope upon familiarity will grow more content: but if you fay, marry her, I will marry her, that I am freely diffolved, and diffolutely. Eva. It is a ferry difcretion answer; fave the fall is in th' ort diffolutely: the ort is, according to our meaning, refolutely; his meaning is good. Shal. Ay, I think my cousin meant well. Slen. Ay, or elfe I would I might be hang'd, la. Enter Mistress Anne Page. Shal. Here comes fair mistress Anne: would I were young for your fake, mistress Anne. Anne. The dinner is on the table; my father desires your worship's company. Shal. I will wait on him, fair mistress Anne. Eva, Od's pleffed will, I will not be abfence at the Grace. smouth. [Ex. Shallow and Evans. 7 Anne 4 Anne. Will't please your worship to come in, Sir? Slen. No, I thank you forfooth heartily; I am very well. Anne. The dinner attends you, Sir, Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you forsooth. Go Sirrah, for all you are my man, go wait upon my cousin Shallow: a justice of peace sometime may be beholden to his friend for a man, I keep but three men and a boy yet, 'till my mother be dead; bue what though, yet I live a poor gentleman born. Anne. I may not go in without your worship; they will not fit '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. Slen. I had rather walk here, I thank you: I bruis'd my shin th'other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence, three veneys for a dilh of stew'd prunes, and by my troth I cannot abide the smell of hot meat since. Why do your dogs bark fo? be there bears i'th' town? Anne. I think there are, Sir, I heard them talk'd of. Slen. I love the sport well, but I shall as foon quarrel at it as any man in England. You are afraid if you fee the bear loose, are you not? Anne. Ay indeed, Sir. 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 cry'd and shriekt at it, that it past: but women indeed cannot abide 'em, they are very ill-favour'd rough things. Enter Mr. Page. Page. Come, gentle Mr. Slender, come; we stay for you, Slen. I'll eat nothing, I thank you Sir. Page. By cock and pye you shall not chute, Sir, come; come. N2 Slen Slen. Nay, pray you lead the way. Page. Come on, Sir. Slen. Mistress Anne, your self shall go first. Slen. Truly I will not go first, truly-la: I will not do you that wrong. Anne. I pray you, Sir. Slen. I'll rather be unmannerly than troublesome; you do your self wrong, indeed-la. SCENE VI. Re-enter Evans and Simple. [Exeunt. Eva. 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 ringer. Simp. Well, Sir. Eva. Nay it is petter yet; give her this letter; for it is a 'oman that altogethers acquaintance with mistress Anne Page; and the letter is to defire and require her to follicit your master's defires to mistress Anne Page: I pray you be gone; I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come. Exeunt. SCENE VII. Changes to the Garter-Inn. Enter Falstaff, Host, Bardolph, Nym, Pistol and Robin. Fal. INE host of the garter. M Hoft. What says my bully rock? speak schollarly, and wifely. Fal. Truly, mine host, I must turn away fome of my followers. Hoft. Difcard, bully Hercules, cashier; let them wag rot, trot. Fal, Fal. I fit at ten pounds a week. Hoft. Thou'rt an Emperor, Cafar, Keisar and Pheazar. I will entertain Bardolph, he will draw, he will tap; faid I well, bully Hector ? Fal. Do so, good mine hoft. Hoft. I have spoke, let him follow; let me fee thee froth, and live: I am at a word; follow. [Exit Hoft Fal. Bardolph, follow him, a tapster is a good trade, an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd servingman, a fresh tapster; go, adieu. Bard. It is a life that I have defir'd: I will thrive, [Exit Bard. Pift. O base Hungarian wight, wilt thou the spigot wield? Nym. He was gotten in drink, is not the humour conceited? Fal. I am glad I am so quit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open, his filching was like an unskil ful finger, he kept not time. Nym. The good humour is to steal at a minute's reft. Pift. Convey, the wife it call: steal? foh; a fico for the phrafe. Fal. Well, Sirs, I am almost out at heels. Pift. Why then let kibes ensue. Fal. There is no remedy: I must conycatch, I must shift. Pift. Young ravens must have food. Fal. Which of you know Ford of this town? Pift. I ken the wight, he is of substance good. bout. Pift. Two yards and more. Fal. No quips now, Pistol: indeed I am in the waste two yards about; but I am now about no waste, I am about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife: I spy entertainment in her; the discourses, she carves, she gives the leer of invitation; I can construe the action of her familiar ftile, and the N 3 the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be english'd right, is, I am Sir John Falstaff's. Pift. He hath study'd her a well, and tranflated her well; out of honesty into English. Nym. The anchor is deep; will that humour pass? Fal. Now the report goes, she has all the rule of her husband's purse she hath a legion of angels. Pift. As many devils entertain; and to her, boy, fay I. Nym. The humour rises; it is good; humour me the angels. Fal. I have writ me here a letter to her; and here another to Page's wife, who even now gave me good eyes too, examin'd my parts with most judicious † 11liads; sometimes the beam of her view guilded my foot, sometimes my portly belly. Pift. Then did the fun on dung-hill shine. Fal. O fhe did so course o'er my exteriors with fuch a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did feem to fcorch me up like a burning-glass. Here's another letter to her, the bears the purse too; she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bount bounty. I will be cheaters to them both, and they shall be Exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West-Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go bear thou this letter to mistress Page; and thou this to mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive. Pift. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become; And by my fide wear steel? then Lucifer take all. Nym. I will run no base humour: here take the humour-letter, I will keep the haviour of reputation. Fal. Hold, Sirrah, bear you these letters rightly, Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores. Rogues, hence avaunt, vanish like hail-stones, go, Trudge, plod away o'th' hoof, seek shelter, pack: Falstaff will learn the honour of the age, French thrift, you rogues, my felf and skirted Page. [Ex. Falstaff and Boy. will, and translated her will. † eyelids, or oiellades, glances. Fr. SCENE |