Page. The night is dark, light and fpirits will become it well; heav'n profper our fport! No man means evil but the devil, and we shall know him by his horns, Let's away; follow me. [Exeunt.

S CENÉ II.

Enter Mistress Page, Miftrefs Ford and Caius.

Mrs. Page. Mr. Doctor, my daughter is in green; when you fee your time, take her by the hand, away with her to the Deanery, and difpatch it quickly; go before into the Park; we two must go together. Caius. I know vat I have to do; adieu.

[Exit.

Mrs. Page. Fare you well, Sir. My hufband will not rejoice fo much at the abufe of Falstaff, as he will chafe at the Doctor's marrying my daughter; but 'tis no matter; better, a little chiding, than a great deal of heart-break.

Mrs. Ford. Where is Nan now, and her troop of fairies, and the Welch devil Evans'?

Mrs. Page. They are all couch'd in a pit hard by Herne's Oak, with obfcur'd lights; which, at the very inftant of Falstaff's and our meeting, they will at once difplay to the night.

Mrs. Ford. That cannot chufe but amaze him.
Mrs. Page. If he be not amaz'd, he will be mock'd;
if he be amaz'd, he will every way be mock'd.
Mrs. Ford. We'll betray him finely.

Mrs. Page. Against fuch lewdsters, and their lechery, Thofe, that betray them, do no treachery.

Mrs. Ford. The hour draws on; to the Oak, to the Oak. [Exeunt.

Enter Evans and Fairies.

Eva. Trib, trib, fairies; come, and remember your parts; be pold, I pray you; follow me into the pit; and when I give the watch-'ords, do as I pid you; come, come; trib, trib. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Enter Falstaff, with a Buck's head on.

Fal. The Windfor bell hath ftruck twelve, the minute draws on; now, the hot-blooded Gods affift me! Remember, Jove, thou waft a bull for thy Europa; love fet on thy horns. Oh powerful love! that, in fome refpects, makes a beast a man; in fome other, a man a beast: You were alfo, Jupiter, a fwan, for the Love of Leda: Oh, omnipotent love! how near the God drew to the complexion of a goofe? A fault done firft in the form of a beaft! 0 Jove, a

think

DE AND INTERNET AT THE ONE

beastly fault in the semblance of a fowl :
on't, Jove, a foul fault. When Gods have hot backs,
what shall poor men do? for me, I am here a Windfor
ftag, and the fattest, I think, i'th' foreft. Send me
a cool rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to piss
my tallow? who comes here? my Doe?

Enter Miftrefs Ford and Mistress Page.

Mrs. Ford. Sir John? art thou there, my male-deer?

deer? my

Fal. My doe with the black fcut? let the fky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green-Sleeves;

hail kiffing-comfits, and fnow eringoes; let there come a tempeft of provocation, I will shelter me here.

Mrs. Ford. Miftrefs Page is come with me, fweet heart.

7

Fal. Divide me like a bride-buck, each a haunch; I will keep my fides to myself, my fhoulders for the fellow of this walk, and my horns I bequeath your husbands. Am I a woodman, ha? Speak I like Herne the hunter? why, now is Cupid a child of confcience, he makes reftitution. As I am a true fpirit, welcome! [Noife within.

Mrs. Page. Alas! what noife?
Mrs. Ford. Heav'n forgive our fins!

Fal. What fhould this be?

Mrs. Ford.

Mrs. Page. Away, away.

}

[The women run out.

Fal. I think the devil will not have me damn'd, left the oil that is in me fhould fet hell on fire; he never would elfe cross me thus.

SCENE IV.

Enter Sir Hugh like a Satyr; Quickly, and others, dreft like Fairies, with Tapers.

Quic. Fairies, black, gray, green, and white,
You moon-fhine revellers, and fhades of night,
You Ouphen heirs of fixed deftiny,
Attend your office, and your quality,
Crier, hobgoblin, make the fairy o-yes.

7 Divide me like a brib'dBuck,] Thus all the old Copies, mistakingly: It must be bribebuck; i. e. a Buck fent for a Bribe. THEOBALD. Fellow of this walk,] Who the fellow is, or why he keeps

Eva.

his fhoulders for him, I do not understand.

9 You ORPHAN-heirs of fixed destiny.] But why Orphan-heirs? Deftiny, whom they fucceeded, was yet in being. Doubtless the Poet wrote, Nn 2

You

Eva. Elves, lift your names; filence, you airy toys Cricket, to Windfor chimneys fhalt thou leap: Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths unfwept, There pinch the maids as blue as bilbery. Our radiant Queen hates fluts and fluttery.

Fal. They're fairies; he, that speaks to them, fhall die,

I'll wink and couch; no man their works muft eye.
[Lyes down upon his face.
Eva. Where's Pede? go you, and where you find
a maid,

That, ere she sleep, hath thrice her prayers faid,
Rein up the organs of her fantafy ';
Sleep the as found as carelefs infancy;

You OUPHEN heirs of fixed deftiny.

I

i. e. you Elves, who minifter,
and fucceed in fome of the works
of destiny. They are called, in
this Play, both before and after-
wards, Ouphes; here Ouphen;
en being the plural termination
of Saxon nouns. For the word
is from the Saxon, Alpenne, la-
miæ, dæmones. Or it may be
understood to be an adjective, as
wooden, woollen, golden, &c.
WARBURTON.
RAISE up the organs of her
fantafie ;] The fenfe of this
fpeech is
that fhe, who had
performed her religious duties,
fhould be fecure againft the illu-
fion of fancy; and have her
fleep, like that of infancy, un-
disturbed by difordered dreams.
This was then the popular opi-
nion, that evil fpirits had a
power over the fancy; and, by
that means, could infpire wick-
ed dreams into thofe who, on
their going to fleep, had not re-

But

commended themselves to the protection of heaven. So ShakeSpeare makes one, on his lying down, fay,

From fairies, and the tempters of
the night,
Protect us, heav'n!

As this is the fense, let us fee how the common reading expreffes it;

Raife up the organs of her fantafie,

i. e. inflame her imagination with fenfual ideas; which is just the contrary to what the Poet would have the speaker say. We cannot therefore but conclude he wrote,

REIN up the organs of her fantafie,

i. e. curb them, that she be no more disturbed by irregular imaginations, than children in their fleep. For, he adds immediately,

Sleep fhe as found as careless infancy. So in the Tempest,

But thofe, that fleep, and think not on their fins,
Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, fhoulders, fides and
fhins.

Quic. About, about;

Search Windfor castle, elves, within and out.
Strew good luck, ouphes, on every facred room,
That it may ftand 'till the perpetual Doom,
In ftate as wholfom, as in ftate 'tis fit";
Worthy the owner, as the owner it 3.
The feveral chairs of Order look your fcour,
With juice of balm and ev'ry precious flow'r:
Each fair Inftalment Coat and fev'ral Creft,
With loyal blazon evermore be bleft!
And nightly-meadow-fairies, look, you sing,
Like to the Garter-compass, in a ring:
Th' expreffure that it bears, green let it be,
More fertile-frefh than all the field to fee;
And, Hony Soit Qui Mal y Penfe write,
In emrold-tuffs, flow'rs purple, blue and white,

Like

till the general deftruction. But
wholfom here fignifies integer.
He wishes the caftle may ftand
in its prefent flate of perfection,
which the following words plain-
ly fhew,

as in flate 'tis fit. WARBURTON. 3 Worthy the owner, AND the owner it.] And cannot be the true reading. The context will not allow it; and his court to Queen Elizabeth directs us to another,

As the owner it.
for, fure, he had more addrefs
than to content himself with wish-
ing a thing to be, which his com-
plaifance muft fuppofe actually
was, namely, the worth of the
WARBURTON.
4 In emreld-tuffs, flow'rs PUR-
Nn3

owner.

PLE

1