Imatges de pàgina
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spurs, and away, like three German devils, three | together! Sure, one of you does not serve heaven Doctor Faustuses. well, that you are so crossed.

Host. They are gone but to meet the duke, vilin: do not say, they be fled; Germans are honest

men.

Enter Sir HuGH EVANS.

Esa. Where is mine host?
Host. What is the matter, sir?

Era. Have a care of your entertainments: there is a friend of mine come to town, tells me, there is three couzin germans, that has cozened all the hosts of Readings, of Maidenhead, of Colebrook, of horses and money. I tell you for good-will, look you: you are wise, and full of gibes and vlouting-stogs; and 'tis not convenient you should be cozened: Fare you well. [Erit.

Enter Dr. CAIUS.

Cains. Vere is mine Host de Jarterre? Hest. Here, master doctor, in perplexity, and doubtful dilemma.

Caius. I cannot tell vat is dat: But it is tell-a me, dat you make grand preparation for a duke | de Jarmany: by my trot, dere is no duke, dat de court is know to come: I tell you for good vill: adieu. [Exit. Host. Hue and cry, villain, go:-assist me, kright; I am undone: fly, run, hue and cry, villain! I am undone !

[Exeunt Host and BARDOLPH. Fa I would, all the world might be cozened; for I have been cozened, and beaten too. If it should tase to the ear of the court, how I have been transformed, and how my transformation hath been washed and cudgeled, they would melt me out of my fat, drop by drop, and liquor fishermen's boots with me; I warrant, they would whip me with their fine wits, till I were as crest-fallen as a dried pear. I never prospered since I forswore myself at primer. Well, if my wind were but long enough to sy my prayers, I would repent.

Enter Mistress QUICKLY.

Now! whence come you?

Quick. From the two parties, forsooth. Fal. The devil take one party, and his dam the other, and so they shall be both bestowed! I have suffered more for their sakes, more, than the villainous inconstancy of man's disposition is able to bear.

Quick. And have not they suffered? Yes, I warrent; speciously one of them; mistress Ford, good heart, is beaten black and blue, that you cannot see a white spot about her.

Fal. What tell'st thou me of black and blue? I was beaten myself into all the colours of the rainbow; and I was like to be apprehended for the witch of Brentford; but that my admirable dexterity of wit, my counterfeiting the action of an old woman, deliver'd me, the knave constable had set me i' the stocks, i' the common stocks, for a witch

Quick. Sir, let me speak with you in your chamber: you shall hear how things go; and, I warrant, to your content. Here is a letter will say somewhat, Good hearts, what ado here is to bring you

Fal. Come up into my chamber.

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[Exeunt.

Another Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FENTON and Host.

Host. Master Fenton, talk not to me; my mind is heavy, I will give over all.

Fent. Yet hear me speak: Assist me in my pur

pose,

And, as I am a gentleman, I'll give thee
A hundred pound in gold, more than your loss.
Host. I will hear you, master Fenton; and I
will, at the least, keep your counsel.

Fent. From time to time I have acquainted you
With the dear love I bear to fair Anne Page;
Who, mutually, hath answer'd my affection
(So far forth as herself might be her chooser,)
Even to my wish: I have a letter from her
Of such contents as you will wonder at;
The mirth whereof so larded with my matter,
That neither, singly, can be manifested,
Without the show of both; wherein fat Falstaff
Hath a great scene: the image of the jest

I'll show you here at large.
To-night at Herne's oak,

one,

[Showing the letter. Hark, good mine host: just 'twixt twelve and

Must my sweet Nan present the fairy queen:
The purpose why, is here; in which disguise,
While other jests are something rank on foot,
Her father hath commanded her to slip
Away with Slender, and with him at Eton
Immediately to marry: she hath consented:
Now, sir,

Her mother, even strong against that match,
And firm for doctor Caius, hath appointed
That he shall likewise shuffle her away,
While other sports are tasking of their minds,
And at the deanery, where a priest attends,
Straight marry her: to this her mother's plot
She, seemingly obedient, likewise hath
Made promise to the doctor; - Now thus it rests:
Her father means she shall be all in white;
And in that habit, when Slender sees his time
To take her by the hand, and bid her go,
She shall go with him: her mother hath intended,
The better to denote her to the doctor,
(For they must all be mask'd and vizarded,)
That, quaint in green, she shall be loose enrob'd,
With ribbands pendant, flaring 'bout her head;
And when the doctor spies his vantage ripe,
To pinch her by the hand, and, on that token,
The maid hath given consent to go with him.
Host. Which means she to deceive? father or
mother?

Fent. Both, my good host, to go along with me: And here it rests, that you'll procure the vicar To stay for me at church, 'twixt twelve and one, And, in the lawful name of marrying, To give our hearts united ceremony.

Host. Well, husband your device; I'll to the .

vicar:

Bring you the maid, you shall not lack a priest.

Fent. So shall I ever more be bound to thee; Besides, I'll make a present recompense. [Exeunt,

ACT V.

SCENE I.A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FALSTAFF and Mrs. QUICKLY. Fal. Pr'ythee, no more prattling :-go. -I'll hold: This is the third time; I hope, good luck lies in odd numbers. Away, go; they say, there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death.Away.

Quick. I'll provide you a chain: and I'll do what I can to get you a pair of horns.

Fal. Away, I say; time wears: hold up your head, and mince. [Exit Mrs. QUICKLY.

Enter FORD.

How now, master Brook? Master Brook, the matter will be known to-night, or never. Be you in the Park about midnight, at Herne's oak, and you shall see wonders.

Ford. Went you not to her yesterday, sir, as you told me you had appointed?

Fal. I went to her, master Brook, as you see, like a poor old man: but I came from her, master Brook, like a poor old woman. That same knave, Ford her husband, hath the finest mad devil of jealousy in him, master Brook, that ever governed frenzy. I will tell you. He beat me grievously, in the shape of a woman; for in the shape of man, master Brook, I fear not Goliath with a weaver's beam; because I know also, life is a shuttle. I am in haste; go along with me; I'll tell you all, master Brook. Since I pluck'd geese, play'd truant, and whipp'd top, I knew not what it was to be beaten, till lately. Follow me: I'll tell you strange things of this knave Ford: on whom to-night I will be revenged, and I will deliver his wife into your hand. · Follow: Strange things in hand, master Brook! follow. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Windsor Park.

Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and Slender. Page. Come, come; we'll couch i' the castleditch, till we see the light of our fairies. Remember, son Slender, my daughter.

Slen. Ay, forsooth; I have spoke with her, and we have a nay-word, how to know one another. I come to her in white, and cry, mum; she cries budget; and by that we know one another.

Shal. That's good too: but what needs either your mum, or her budget? the white will decipher her well enough. It hath struck ten o'clock.

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

SCENE III. - The Street in Windsor. Enter Mrs. PAGE, Mrs. FORD, and Dr. Caius. Mrs. Page. Master Doctor, my daughter is in green when you see your time, take her by the hand, away with her to the deanery, and despatch it quickly: Go before into the park; we two must go together.

Cuius. I know vat I have to do; Adieu.

Mrs. Page. Fare you well, sir. [Exit CAIUS. My husband will not rejoice so much at the abuse 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, Hugh?

Mrs. Page. They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's oak, with obscured lights; which, at the very instant of Falstaff''s and our meeting, they will at once display to the night.

Mrs. Ford. That cannot choose but amaze him. Mrs. Page. If he be not anazed, he will be mocked; if he be amazed, he will every way be mocked.

Mrs. Ford. We'll betray him finely.
Mrs. Page. Against such lewdsters, and thei
lechery,

Those that betray them do no treachery.
Mrs. Ford. The hour draws on; To the oak, to
the oak!
[Exeunt

SCENE IV.-Windsor Park.

Enter Sir HUGH EVANS, and Fairies. Eva. Trib, trib, fairies; come; and remembe your parts: be pold, I pray you; follow me int the pit; and when I give the watch-'ords, do as pid you; Come, come; trib, trib.

me:

[Exeunt

SCENE V. - Another part of the Park. Enter FALSTAFF disguised, with a buck's head on. Fal. The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; th minute draws on: Now, the hot-blooded gods assi - Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for th Europa; love set on thy horns. - O powerful love that, in some respects, makes a beast a man; i some other, a man a beast. -You were also, Jupite a swan, for the love of Leda: -0, omnipoter love! how near the god drew to the complexion a goose? A fault done first in the form of a beast

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O Jove, a beastly fault! and then another fau in the semblance of a fowl; think on't, Jove; foul fault. When gods have hot backs, what sha poor men do? For me, I am here a Windsor stag and the fattest, I think, i' the forest: Send me cool rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to pi my tallow? Who comes here? my doe?

Enter Mrs. FORD and Mrs. PAGE.

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

Fal. My doe with the black scut? Let the s rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Gre Sleeves; hail kissing-comfits, and snow eringoe let there come a tempest of provocation, I wi shelter me here. [Embracing he

Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page is come with m sweetheart.

Fal. Divide me like a bribe-buck, each a haunc I will keep my sides to myself, my shoulders for t fellow of this walk, and my horns I bequeath yo husbands. Am I a woodman ? ha! Speak I li Herne the hunter? - Why, now is Cupid a child

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Fal. I think, the devil will not have me damned, lest the oil that is in me should set hell on fire; he would never else cross me thus.

Enter Sir HUGH EVANS, like a satyr; Mrs. QUICKLY, and PISTOL; ANNE PAGE, as the Fairy Queen, attended by her brother and others, dressed like fairies, with waxen tapers on their heads.

Quick. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white,
You moon-shine revellers, and shades of night,
You orphan-heirs of fixed destiny,

Attend your office, and your quality.
Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy o-yes.

Pist. Elves, list your names; silence, you airy toys.

Cricket, to Windsor chimnies shalt thou leap: Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths uñswept,

There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry:
Our radiant queen hates sluts and sluttery.

Fal. They are fairies; he, that speaks to them, shall die:

I'll wink and couch: no man their works must eye. [Lies down upon his face. Era. Where's Pede?-Go you, and where you find a maid,

That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said,
Raise up the organs of her fantasy,

Sleep she as sound as careless infancy;

But those as sleep, and think not on their sins, Finch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, sides, and

shins.

Quick. About, about;

Search Windsor-castle, elves, within and out:
Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room;
That it may stand till the perpetual doom,
In state as wholesome, as in state 'tis fit;
Worthy the owner, and the owner it.
The several chairs of order look you scour
With juice of balm, and every precious flower:
Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest,
With loyal blazon, evermore be blest!
And nightly, meadow-fairies, look, you sing,
Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring:
The expressure that it bears, green let it be,
Mare fertile-fresh than all the field to see;
And, Hony soit qui mal y pense, write,

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Is emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white:
Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair knight-hood's bending knee:
Fairies use flowers for their charactery.
Away; disperse: But, till 'tis one o'clock,
Our dance of custom, round about the oak
Of Herne the hunter, let us not forget.
Eza. Pray you, lock hand in hand; yourselves

in order set:

And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be,
To guide our measure round about the tree.
But, stay: I smell a man of middle earth.

Fal. Heavens defend me from that Welch fairy! last he transform me to a piece of cheese!

Put. Vile worm, thou wast o'erlook'd even in thy birth.

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Fye on sinful fantasy!
Fye on lust and luxury!
Lust is but a bloody fire,
Kindled with unchaste desire,

Fed in heart; whose flames aspire,

As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher.
Pinch him, fairies, mutually;

Pinch him for his villainy;

Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about, Till candles, and star-light, and moon-shine be out. During this song, the fairies pinch Falstaff. Doctor Caius comes one way, and steals away a fairy in green; Slender another way, and takes off a fairy in white; and Fenton comes, and steals away Mrs. Anne Page. A noise of hunting is made within. All the fairies run away. Falstaff pulls off his

buck's head, and rises.

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 buckbasket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds of money; which must be paid to master Brook; his horses are arrested for it, master Brook.

Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never meet. I will never take you for my love again, but I will always count you my deer. Fal. I do begin to perceive that I am made an

ass.

Ford. Ay, and an ox too; both the proofs are

extant.

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 surprize of my powers, drove the grossness 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'erreaching as this? Am I ridden with a Welch 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.

Mrs. Page. Why, sir John, do you think, though we would have thrust virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders, and have given ourselves without scruple to hell, that 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 Welch flannel: ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me; use me as you will.

Ford. Marry, sir, we'll bring you to Windsor, to one master Brook, that you have cozened of money, to whom you should have been a pander: over and above that you have suffered, I think, to repay that money will be a biting affliction.

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.

Page. Yet be cheerful, knight: thou shalt eat a posset to-night at my house; where I will 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 you despatched?

Slen. Despatched!-I'll make the best in Glocestershire know on't; would I were hanged, la, else. Page. Of what, son?

Slen. I came yonder at Eton to marry mistress 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 tell you, how you should know my daughter by he garments?

Slen. I went to her in white, and cry'd mum and she cry'd budget, as Anne and I had appointed and yet it was not Anne, but a post-master's boy. Eva. Jeshu! Master Slender, cannot you see bu marry boys?

Page. O, I am vexed at heart: What shall I do Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry: I kne of your purpose; turned my daughter into green and, indeed, she is now with the doctor at th deanery, and there married.

Enter CAIUS.

Caius. Vere is mistress Page? By gar, I a cozened; I ha' married un garçon, a boy; un pa san, by gar, a boy; it is not Anne Page: by gar, am cozened.

raise all Windsor.

Mrs. Page. Why, did you take her in green? Caius. Ay, be gar, and 'tis a boy: be gar, I' [Exit CAI Ford. This is strange: Who hath got the rig Anne? Page. My heart misgives me: Here comes ma ter Fenton.

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

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

Page. Now, mistress? how chance you went n with master Slender?

Mrs. Page. Why went you not with master do

tor, 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. The truth is, she and I, long since contracted, Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us. The offence is holy, that she hath committed: And this deceit loses the name of craft, Of disobedience, or unduteous title; Since therein she doth evitate and shun A thousand irreligious cursed hours, Which forced marriage would have brought up her.

Ford. Stand not amaz'd: here is no remedy:In love, the heavens themselves do guide the state Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate.

Fal. I am glad, though you have ta'en a speci stand to strike at me, that your arrow hath glance Page. Well, what remedy? Fenton, heaven gi

thee joy!

What cannot be eschew'd, must be embrac❜d.
Fal. When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer a

chas'd.

Eva. I will dance and eat plums at your weddin Mrs. Page. Well, I will muse no further:

Master Fenton,

Heaven give you many, many merry days! —
Good husband, let us every one go home,
And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire;
Sir John and all.

Ford. Let it be so :- Sir John,
To master Brook you yet shall hold your word;
For he, to-night, shall lie with mistress Ford.
[Erev

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ST TOBY BELCH, uncle of Olivia. Sir ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK. MALVOLIO, Steward to Olivia.

Lords, Priests, Sailors, Officers, Musicians, and other Attendants.

SCENE, A City in ILLYRIA; and the Sea-coast near it.

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ACT I.

SCENE I. - An Apartment in the Duke's Palace.
Enter DUKE, CURIO, Lords; Musicians attending.
Duke. If musick be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again;—it had a dying fall:
0, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Enough; no more;
Stealing, and giving odour.
'Tis not so sweet now, as it was before.
O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou!
That, notwithstanding thy capacity

Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soever,
But falls into abatement and low price,

Even in a minute! so full of shapes is fancy,
That it alone is high-fantastical.

Car. Will you go hunt, my lord?
Drake.

Cur.

What, Curio?

The hart.

Duke. Why, so I do, the noblest that I have:

0, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,

Methought, she purg'd the air of pestilence;
That instant was I turn'd into a hart;
And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,

E'er since pursue me.- How now? what news from her?

Enter VALENtine.

Val. So please my lord, I might not be admitted, But from her handmaid do return this answer: The element itself, till seven years' heat, Shall not behold her face at ample view; But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk, And water once a day her chamber round With eye-offending brine: all this, to season A brother's dead love, which she would keep fresh, And lasting, in her sad remembrance.

Duke. O, she, that hath a heart of that fine frame, To pay this debt of love but to a brother, How will she love, when the rich, golden shaft, Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else That live in her! when liver, brain, and heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill'd, (Her sweet perfections,) with one self king! Away before me to sweet beds of flowers; Love-thoughts lie rich, when canopied with bowers.

SCENE II. The Sea-coast.
Enter VIOLA, Captain, and Sailors.

Vio. What country, friends, is this?
Cap.

[Exeunt.

Illyria, lady.

Vio. And what should I do in Illyria? F

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