Page This paffes

Mrs. Ford. Are you not afham'd? let the cloaths

Eva. 'Tis unreasonable;

will

you

take up your

wife's cloaths? come away.

Ford. Empty the basket, I fay.
Mrs. Ford. Why, man, why

Ford. Mafter Page, as I am a man, there was one convey'd out of my houfe yesterday in this basket; why may not he be there again? in my houfe I am fure he is; my intelligence is true, my jealoufie is reafonable; pluck me out all the linnen.

Mrs. Ford. If you find a man there, he fhall die a flea's death.

Page. Here's no man.

Shal. By my fidelity, this is not well, mafter Ford; this wrongs you.

Eva. Mafter Ford, you must pray, and not follow the imaginations of your own heart; this is jealoufies. Ford. Well, he's not here I feek for.

Page. No, nor no where else but in your brain.

Ford. Help to fearch my houfe this one time; if I find not what I feek, fhew no colour for my extremity; let me for ever be your table fport; let them fay of me, as jealous as Ford, that fearcheth a hollow wall-nut for his wife's leman. Satisfie me once more,

once more fearch with me.

Mrs. Ford. What hoa, mistress Page! come you, and the old woman down; my husband will come into the chamber.

Ford. Old woman! what old woman's that?

Mrs. Ford. Why, it is my maid's aunt of Brainford.

Ford. A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean; have I not forbid her my houfe? fhe comes of errands, does fhe? we are fimple men, we do not know what's brought

brought to pass under the profeffion of fortune-telling. She works by charms, by fpells, by th' figure; and fuch dawbry as this is beyond our element; we know nothing. Come down, you witch; you hag you, come down, I say.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, good fweet husband; good gentlemen, let him not strike the old woman.

Enter Falstaff in womens cloaths, and Mrs. Page. Mrs. Page. Come, mother Prat, come give me your hand.

Ford. I'll Prat her. Out of my door, you witch ! [Beats him.] you hag, you baggage, you poulcat, you runnion! out, out, out; I'll conjure you, I'll fortune: tell you.

[Exit Fal. Mrs. Page. Are you not asham'd? I think, you have kill'd the poor woman.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, he will do it; 'tis a goodly credit for you.

Ford. Hang her, witch.

Eva. By yea and no, I think, the 'oman is a witch indeed: I like not when a 'oman has a great peard; I fpy a great peard under her muffler.

Ford. Will you follow, gentlemen? I beseech you, follow; fee but the iffue of my jealoufie; if I cry out thus upon no trail, never truft me when I open again. Page. Let's obey his humour a little further: come, gentlemen.

[Exeunt. Mrs. Page. Trust me, he beat him most pitifully. Mrs. Ford. Nay, by th' mass, that he did not; he beat him most unpitifully, methought.

Mrs. Page. I'll have the cudgel hallow'd and hung o'er the altar; it hath done meritorious service.

Mrs. Ford. What think you? may we, with the warrant of woman-hood, and the witnefs of a good conscience, pursue him with any further revenge?

Y 4

Mrs. Page.

Mrs. Page. The spirit of wantonnefs is, fure, fcar'd out of him; if the devil have him not in fee-fimple, with fine and recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of wafte, attempt us again.

Mrs. Ford, Shall we tell our husbands how we have ferved him?

Mrs. Page. Yes, by all means; if it be but to fcrape the figures out of your husband's brain. If they can find in their hearts the poor unvirtuous fat knight fhall be any further afflicted, we two will ftill be the ministers.

Mrs. Ford. I'll warrant, they'll have him publickly fham'd; and, methinks, there would be no period to the jeft, fhould he not be publickly fham'd.

Mrs. Page. Come to the forge with it, then fhape it: I would not have things cool.

Bard.

S C E N E VI.

Changes to the Garter-Inn.

Enter Hoft and Bardolph.

[Exeunt.

IR, the German defires to have three of your horfes; the Duke himself will be to-morrow be tee of 'at court, and they are going to meet him.

Hoft. What Duke fhould that be, comes fo fecretly? I hear not of him in the court: let me fpeak with the gentlemen; they speak English?

Bard. Sir, I'll call them to you.

Hoft. They fhall have my horfes, but I'll make them pay, I'll fawce them. They have had my houfe a week at command; I have turn'd away my other guests; they must compt off; I'll fawce them, [Exeunt.

come.

2

2 they must COME off;] This can never be our Poet's or his Hoft's meaning. To come off being in other terms to go fcotfree. We must read, coMPT off, i. e. clear their reckoning.

SCENE

S CE N E VII.

Changes to Ford's House.

Enter Page, Ford, Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, and Evans. IS one of the best discretions of 'oman, as

Eva. 'Tever 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;

I rather will fufpect the fun with cold,

Than thee with wantonnefs; thy honour ftands,
In him that was of late an heretick,

As firm as faith.

Page. 'Tis well, 'tis well; no more.

Be not as extream 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 river; and has been grievously peaten, as an old 'oman; methinks, there fhould be terrors in him, that he should not come; methinks, his flesh is punifh'd, he fhall have no defires.

Page. So think I too.

Mrs. Ford. Devife but how you'll use 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

Sometime a keeper here in Windfor forest,
Doth all the winter-time at ftill of midnight
Walk round about an oak, with ragged horns;
And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle;
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and fhakes a chain
In a most 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?

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,
Disguised like Herne, with huge horns on his head.
Page. Well, let it not be doubted, but he'll come.
And in this shape when you have brought him thither,
What shall be done with him? what is your plot?
Mrs. Page. That likewife we have thought upon,

and thus:

Nan Page, (my daughter) and my little fon,
And three or four more of their growth, we'll drefs
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, the, and I, are newly met,
Let them from forth a faw-pit rufh at once
3 With fome diffufed fong: upon their fight,
We two, in great amazednefs, will fly;
Then let them all encircle him about,

And fairy-like too, pinch the unclean knight;

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

4 And fairy-like TO pinch the unclean Knight;] The Grammar requires us to read,

And fairy-like Too, pinch the unclean Knight.

And