Enter Page, Ford, Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, and Evans.

Eva. 'Tis one of the best discretions of a 'omans, as ever I did look upon.

Page. And did he send you both these letters at an inftant?

Mrs. Page. Within a quarter of an hour.

Ford. Pardon me, wife. Henceforth do what thou wilt;

6 I rather will fufpect the fun with cold,

Than thee with wantonnefs: now doth thy honour stand, In him that was of late an heretick;

As firm as faith.

To come off, fignifies in our author, fometimes to be uttered with fpirit and volubility. In this place it seems to mean what is in our time expreffed by to come down, to pay liberally and readily. These accidental and colloquial fenfes are the difgrace of language, and the plague of commentators. JOHNSON.

To come off, is to pay. In this fenfe it is used by Maffinger, in The Unnatural Combat, act 4. fc. 2. where a wench, demanding money of the father to keep his baftard, fays-Will you come off, Sir? STEEVENS.

The phrafe is ufed by Chaucer, Friar's Tale, 338. edit. Urry. "Come off, and let me riden haftily,

"Give me twelve pence; I may no longer tarie."

T.T.

I rather will fufpe&t the fun with cold,] Thus the modern editions. The old ones read-with gold, which may mean, I rather will fufpect the fun can be corrupted by a bribe, than thy honour be betrayed to wantonnefs. Mr. Rowe filently made the change, which fucceeding editors have as filently adopted. Surely Shakespeare would rather have faid-fufpect the fun of cold-if he had defigned what is implied by the alteration. A thought of a fimilar kind occurs in Hen. IV. Part I.

"Shall the bleffed fun of heaven

"Prove a micher ?"

I have not, however, difplaced Mr. Rowe's emendation, as a zeal to preserve old readings without diftinction may sometimes prove as injurious to the author's reputation, as a defire to introduce new ones, without attention to the quaintness of phrafeology then in ufe. STEVENS.

Page..

Page. 'Tis well, 'tis well; no more. Be not as extreme in fubmiffion, as in offence, But let our plot go forward: let our wives Yet once again, to make us publick sport, Appoint a meeting with this old fat fellow, Where we may take him, and difgrace him for it. Ford. There is no better way than that they spoke of. Page. How! to fend him word they'll meet him in the park at midnight! fie, fie, he'll never come.

Eva. You fay, he hath been thrown into the rivers; and has been grievously peaten, as an old 'oman: methinks, there should be terrors in him, that he should not come; methinks, his flesh is punish'd, he fhall have no defires.

Page. So think I too.

Mrs. Ford. Devife but how you'll ufe him, when he comes,

And let us two devise to bring him thither.

Mrs. Page. There is an old tale goes, that Herne the hunter,

Sometime a keeper here in Windfor forest,
Doth all the winter-time at ftill of midnight
Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns;
And there he blafts the tree, 7 and takes the cattle;
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain
In a moit hideous and dreadful manner:

You've heard of fuch a fpirit; and well you know,
The fuperftitious idle-headed Eld

Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age,

This tale of Herne the hunter for a truth.

Page. Why, yet there want not many, that do fear In deep of night to walk by this Herne's oak: But what of this?

7-and takes the cattle ;] To take, in Shakespeare, fignifies to feize or ftrike with a disease, to blast.

So in Hamlet :

Strike her young bones,

"Ye taking airs, with lameness." JOHNSON.

Mrs.

& Mrs. Ford. Marry, this is our device ;That Falstaff at that oak fhall meet with us. We'll fend him word to meet us in the field, Difguis'd like Herne, with huge horns on his head. Page. Well, let it not be doubted, but he'll come, And in this fhape; when you have brought him thither, What fhall be done with him? what is your plot? Mrs. Page. That likewise we have thought upon,

and thus:

Nan Page (my daughter) and my little fon,
And three or four more of their growth, we'll dress
Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white,
With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads,
And rattles in their hands; upon a fudden,
As Falstaff, fhe, and I, are newly met,
Let them from forth a faw-pit rush at once
9 With some diffused fong: upon their fight,
We two, in great amazednefs, will fly :

Then let them all encircle him about,

I

And, fairy-like too, pinch the unclean knight;

Mrs. Ford. Marry, this is our device ;

That Falstaff at that oak fhall meet with us. Page. Well, let it not be doubted, but he'll come,

And in this fape; when you have brought him thither,] Thus this paffage has been tranfmitted down to us, from the time of the first edition by the players: but what was this shape, in which Falstaff was to be appointed to meet? For the women have not faid one word to afcertain it. This makes it more than fufpicious, the defect in this point must be owing to fome wife retrenchment. The two intermediate lines, which I have reftored from the old quarto, are abfolutely neceflary, and clear up the matter. THEOBALD.

With fome diffujed fong :-] A diffused fong fignifies a fong that ftrikes out into wild fentiments beyond the bounds of nature, fuch as those whofe fubject is fairy land. WARB.

By diffused fong Shakespeare may mean fuch fongs as mad people fing. Edgar in K. Lear, when he has determined to affume the appearance of a travelling lunatic, declares his refolution to diffufe bis fpeech, i. e. to give it the turn peculiar to madness. STEEVENS. And, fairy-like, To pinch the unclean knight;] The grammar requires us to read,

And, fairy-like TOO, pinch the unclean knight. WARB.

And afk him, why, that hour of fairy revel,
In their fo facred paths he dares to tread
In fhape prophane?

Mrs. Ford. And, 'till he tell the truth,
Let the supposed fairies pinch him round,
And burn him with their tapers.

Mrs. Page. The truth being known,
We'll all present ourselves; dif-horn the spirit,
And mock him home to Windfor.

Ford. The children must

Be practis'd well to this, or they'll ne'er do't.

Eva. I will teach the children their behaviours; and I will be like a jack-an-apes alfo, to burn the knight with my taber.

Ford. This will be excellent. I'll go buy them vizards.

Mrs. Page. My Nan fhall be the queen of all the fairies; finely attired in a robe of white.

Page. That filk will I go buy ;-and in that time Shall mafter Slender steal my Nan away, And marry her at Eaton.

ftraight.

[Afide.

-Go, fend to Falstaff

Ford. Nay, I'll to him again in the name of Brook : he'll tell me all his purpose. Sure, he'll come.

Mrs. Page. Fear not you that: go get us properties And tricking for our fairies.

This fhould perhaps be written to-pinch, as one word. This ufe of to in compofition with verbs, is very common in Gower and Chaucer, but must have been rather antiquated in the time of Shakespeare. See Gower De Confeffione Amantis, B. 4. fol. 7. "All to-tore is myn araie."

And Chaucer, Reeve's Tale, 1169.

-mouth and nose to-broke."

The conftruction will otherwife be very hard. T. T.

2 That filk will I go buy ;—and in that time] Mr. Theobald referring that time to the time of buying the filk, alters it to tire. But there is no need of any change: that time evidently relating to the time of the mafk with which Falstaff was to be entertained, and which makes the whole fubject of this dialogue. Therefore the common reading is right. WARB.

VOL. I.

T

Eva.

Eva. Let us about it, it is admirable pleasures, and fery honeft knaveries. [Ex. Page, Ford, and Evans. Mrs. Page. Go, mistress Ford,

Send Quickly to Sir John to know his mind.

[Exit Mrs. Ford. I'll to the doctor; he hath my good will, And none but he, to marry with Nan Page, That Slender, though well landed, is an ideot; And he my husband beft of all affects: The doctor is well-mony'd, and his friends Potent at court; he, none but he fhall have her, Though twenty thousand worthier came to crave her.

[Exit.

Hoft. What would'ft thou have, boor? what, thickfkin? fpeak, breathe, difcufs; brief, fhort, quick, fnap.

Simp. Marry, Sir, I come to speak with Sir John Falstaff, from mafter Slender.

Hoft. There's his chamber, his house, his caftle, his 3 ftanding-bed, and truckle-bed; 'tis painted about with the story of the prodigal, fresh and new: go, knock and call, he'll speak like an Anthropophaginian unto thee: knock, I fay.

Simp. There's an old woman, a fat woman gone up into his chamber; I'll be fo bold as ftay, Sir, 'till the come down: I come to speak with her, indeed.

3ftanding-bed, and truckle-bed-] The ufual furniture of chambers in that time was a standing-bed, under which was a trochle, truckle, or running bed. In the ftanding-bed lay the malter, and in the truckle-bed the fervant. So in Hall's Account of a Servile Tutor:

"He lieth in the truckle-bed,

"While his young matter lieth o'er his head." JoHNS.

Hoft.