Imatges de pàgina
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Enter PAGE, FORD, Mrs. PAGE, and Mrs.
FORD. They lay hold on him.

Page. Nay, do not fly: I think we have
watch'd you now:

Will none but Herne the hunter serve your turn?

Mrs. Page. I pray you, come; hold up the jest no higher :

Now, good Sir John, how like you Windsor wives?

See you these, husband? do not these fair yokes*

Become the forest better than the town?

Ford. Now, Sir, who's a cuckold now ?Master Brook, Falstaff's a knave, a cuckoldly knave; here are his horns, master Brook: And, master Brook, he hath enjoyed nothing of Ford's but his buck-basket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds of money; which must be paid to master Brook; his horses are arrested for it, master Brook.

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Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to make amends:

Forgive that sum, and so we'll all be friends. Ford. Well, here's my hand; all's forgiven at last.

a posset to-night at my house; where I will Page. Yet be cheerful, knight: thou shalt eat desire thee to laugh at my wife, that now laughs at thee: Tell her, master Slender hath married her daughter.

Mrs. Page. Doctors doubt that: If Anne Page be my daughter, she is, by this, doctor Caius' wife. [Aside.

Enter SLENDER.

Slen. Whoo, ho! ho! father Page.
Page. Son! how now? how now, son? have

Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never meet. I will never take you you despatched?

for my love again, but I will always count youcestershire know on't; would I were hanged, la, Slen. Despatched-I'll make the best in Glov

my deer.

Fal. I do begin to perceive that I am made

an ass.

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Fal. And these are not fairies? I was three or four times in the thought they were not fairies and yet the guiltiness of my mind, the sudden surprise of my powers, drove the gross ness of the foppery into a received belief, in despite of the teeth of all rhyme and reason, that they were fairies. See now, how wit may be made a Jack-a-lent, when 'tis upon ill employment.

Eva. Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave your desires, and fairies will not pinse you. Ford. Well said, fairy Hugh.

Eva. And leave you your jealousies too, I

pray you.

Ford. I will never mistrust my wife again, till thou art able to woo her in good English. Fal. Have I laid my brain in the sun, and dried it, that it wants matter to prevent so gross o'er-reaching as this? Am I ridden with a Welsh goat too? Shall I have a coxcomb of frize? 'tis time I were choked with a piece of

toasted cheese.

Eva. Seese is not good to give putter; your pelly is all putter.

Fal. Seese and putter! Have I lived to stand at the taunt of one that makes fritters of English? This is enough to be the decay of lust and latewalking, through the realm.

else.

Page. Of what, son?

Slen. I came yonder at Eton to marry mis. tress Anne Page, and she's a great lubberly boy: If it had not been i' the church, I would have swinged him, or he should have swinged me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never stir, and 'tis a post-master's boy.

Page. Upon my life then you took the wrong. Slen. What need you tell me that? I think so, when I took a boy for a girl: If I had been married to him, for all he was in woman's apparel, I would not have had him.

Page. Why, this is your own folly: Did not I tell you, how you should know my daughter by her garments?

Slen. I went to her in white, and cried mum, and she cried budget, as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a postmaster's boy.

Eva. Jeshu! Master Slender, cannot you see but marry boys?

Page. Oh I am vexed at heart: What shall I do?

Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry: I knew of your purpose; turned my daughter into green; and, indeed, she is now with the doctor at the deanery, and there married.

Enter CAIUS.

Mrs. Page. Why, Sir John, do you think, cozened; I ha' married un garçon, a boy; un Caius. Vere is mistress Page? By gar, I am though we would have thrust virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders, and have paisan, by gar, a boy; it is not Anne Page: by given ourselves without scruple to hell, that gar, I am cozened. ever the devil could have made you our delight ?

Ford. What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of flax?
Mrs. Page. A puffed man?

Page. Old, cold, withered, and of intolerable entrails?

Ford. And one that is as slanderous as Satan?

Page. And as poor as Job?

Ford. And as wicked as his wife ?

Eva. And given to fornications, and to taverns, and sack, and wine, and metheglins, and to drinkings, and swearings, and starings, pribbles and prabbles?

Fal. Well, I am your theme: you have the start of me; I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welsh flannel; ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me: use me as you will.

Ford. Marry, Sir, we'll bring you to Windsor,

• Horns which Falstaff had.

↑ A fool's cap of Welsh materials.

Flannel was originally the manufacture of Wales.

Mrs. Page. Why did you take her in

green ?

Caius. Ay, be gar, and 'tis a boy; be gar,
I'll raise all Windsor.
[Exit CAIUS.
Ford. This is strange: Who hath got the right
Anne ?

Page. My heart misgives me: Here comes master Fenton.

Enter FENTON and ANNE PAGE.
How now, master Fenton?

Anne. Pardon, good father, good my mother,
pardon !

not with master Slender?
Page. Now, mistress? how chance you went

Mrs. Page. Why went you not with master

doctor, maid ?

Fent. You do amaze her: Hear the truth of
it.

You would have married her most shamefully,
Where there was no proportion held in love.

• Confound her by your questions.

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