Clap on more fails; purfue; up with your fights; Give fire; fhe is my prize, or ocean whelm them all! [Exit Pistol.

Fal. Say'st thou fo, old Jack? go thy ways-I'll make more of thy old body, than I have done—will they yet look after thee? Wilt thou, after the expence of fo much mony, be now a gainer? Good body, I thank thee; let them fay, 'tis grofly done; fo it be fairly done, no matter.

Bard, Sir John, there's one master Brook below would fain speak with you, and be acquainted with you; and hath fent your worship a morning's draught of fack. Fal. Brook, is his name?

Bard. Ay, Sir.

Fal. Call him in; [Exit Bardolph.] fuch Brooks are welcome to me, that o'erflow with fuch liquor. Ah! ah! mistress Ford and miftrefs Page, have I encompafs'd you? go to, via!

This PINK, this painted foift,

this cockle boat, To hang her fights out, and defy me, Friends!

A well-known man of warAs to the word fights, both in the text and in the quotation, it was then, and, for aught I know, may be now, a common featerm. Sir Richard Hawkins in his voyages, p. 66. says,

For once we cleared her deck, and had we been able to have spared but a dozen men, doubtless we had done with her what we would; for fhe had no clofe FIGHTS, i. e. if I understand it right, no small arms. So that by fights is meant any manner of defence, either fmall arms or cannon. So Dryden, in his tragedy of Amboyna,

Up with your FIGHTS,

And your nettings prepare, &c. But, not confidering this, I led the Oxford Editor into a filly con jecture, which he has done me the honour of putting into his text, which is indeed a proper place for it.

Up with YOND' FRIGAT.

WARBURTON.

The quotation from Dryden might at least have raised a sufpicion that fights were neither small arms, nor cannon. Fights and nettings are properly joined. Fights, I find, are cloaths hung round the fhip to conceal the men from the enemy, and clofefights are bulkheads, or any other fhelter that the fabrick of a ship affords.

Re

Re-enter Bardolph, with Ford difguis'd.

Ford. Blefs you, Sir.

Fal. And you, Sir; would you speak with me? Ford. I make bold to prefs with fo little preparation. upon you.

Fal. You're welcome; what's your will? give us leave, drawer. [Exit Bardolph. Ford. Sir, I am a gentleman that have spent much; my name is Brook.

Fal. Good mafter Brook, I defire more acquaintance. of you.

*

Ford. Good Sir John, I fue for yours; not to charge you, for I must let you understand, I think myfelf in better plight for a lender than you are, the which hath › fomething embolden'd me to this unfeafon'd intru-: fion; for they fay, if mony go before, all ways do lye

open.

Fal. Mony is a good foldier, Sir, and will on.

Ford. Troth, and I have a bag of mony, here, troubles me; if you will help me to bear it, Sir John, take all, or half, for eafing me of the carriage.

Fal. Sir, I know not how I may deferve to be your porter.

Ford. I will tell you, Sir, if you will give me the hearing.

Fal. Speak, good mafter Brook, I fhall be glad to be your fervant.

Ford. Sir, I hear, you are a fcholar (I will be brief with you); and you have been a man long known to me, tho' I had never fo good means, as defire, to make myself acquainted with you: I fhail difcover a thing to you, wherein I must very much lay open mine own imperfections; but good Sir John, as you have one eye upon my follies, as you hear them unfolded, turn another into the register of your own,

not to charge you,] That ting you to expence, or being

is, not with a purpose of put- burthenfome.

that

that I may pass with a reproof the cafier; fith you yourself know, how eafy it is to be fuch an offender. Fal. Very well: Sir, proceed.

Ford. There is a gentlewoman in this town, her bufband's name is Ford.

Fal. Well, Sir.

Ford. I have long lov'd her; and, I proteft to you, bestow'd much on her; follow'd her with a doating obfervance; engrofs'd opportunities to meet her; fee'd every flight occafion, that could but niggardly give me fight of her; not only bought many presents to give her, but have given largely to many, to know what fhe would have given: briefly, I have purfued her, as love hath purfu'd me, which hath been on the wing of all occafions. But whatsoever I have merited, either in my mind, or in my means; meed, I am sure, I have received none; unless experience be a jewel; That I have purchas'd at an infinite rate, and That hath taught me to say this;

"Love like a fhadow flies, when fubftance love purfues;

Purfuing That that flies, and flying what purfues. Fal. Have you receiv'd no promife of fatisfaction at her hands?

Ford: Never.

Fal. Have you importun'd her to fuch a purpose?
Ford. Never.

Fal. Of what quality was your love then?

Ford. Like a fair houfe built upon another man's ground; fo that I have loft my edifice, by mistaking the place where I have erected it.

Fal. To what purpose have you unfolded this to

Ford. When I have told you that, I have told you all. Some fay, that tho' fhe appear honeft to me, yet in other places fhe enlargeth her mirth fo far, that there is fhrewd construction made of her. Now, Sir John, here is the heart of my purpofe: You are a gentleman

of

of excellent breeding, admirable discourse, of great admittance, authentick in your place and perfon, generally allow'd for your many war-like, court-like, and learned preparations.

Fal. O Sir!

Ford. Believe it, for you know it: there is mony, spend it, spend it; fpend more, spend all I have, only give me fo much of your time in exchange of it, as to lay an amiable siege to the honefty of this Ford's wife; ufe your art of wooing, win her to confent to you; if any man may, you may as foon as any.

Fal.. Would it apply well to the vehemence of your affection, that I fhould win what you would enjoy? methinks, you prefcribe to yourself very prepofterously.

Ford. O, understand my drift; fhe dwells fo fecurely on the excellency of her honour, that the folly of my foul dares not prefent itself; fhe is too bright to be look'd againft. Now, could I come to her with any detection in my hand, my defires had inftance and argument to commend themselves; I could drive her then from the ward of her purity, her reputation, her marriage-vow, and a thoufand other her defences, which now are too strongly embattel'd against me. What fay you to't, Sir John?

Fal. Mafter Brook, I will firft make bold with your mony; next, give me your hand; and last, as I am a gentleman, you fhall, if you will, enjoy Ford's wife. Ford. O good Sir!

Fal. Mafter Brook, I fay you fhall.

Ford. Want no mony, Sir John, you shall want

none.

Fal. Want no miftrefs Ford, mafter Brook, you fhall want none. I fhall be with her, I may tell you, by her own appointment. Even as you came in to me, her affiftant, or go-between, parted from me; I

7 Inftance and argument.] Inftance is example.

fay, I fhall be with her between ten and eleven; for at that time the jealous rafcally knave, her husband, will be forth. Come you to me at night, you fhall know how I fpeed.

Ford. I am bleft in your acquaintance. Do you know Ford, Sir?

Fal. Hang him, poor cuckoldly knave, I know him not yet I wrong him, to call him poor; they fay, the jealous wittolly knave hath maffes of mony, for the which his wife feems to be well-favour'd. I will ufe her as the key of the cuckoldly-rogue's coffer; and there's my harvest-home.

Ford. I would you knew Ford, Sir, that you might avoid him, if you faw him.

Fal. Hang him, mechanical falt-butter rogue: I will flare him out of his wits; I will awe him with my cudgel; it fhall hang like a meteor o'er the Cuckold's horns. Mafter Brook, thou fhall know, I will predominate over the peafant; and thou fhalt lye with his wife. Come to me foon at night. Ford's a knave, and I will aggravate his ftile: thou, mafter Brook, fhalt know him for knave and cuckold.-Come to me foon at night. [Exit.

SCENE X.

Ford. What a damn'd Epicurean rafcal is this! my heart is ready to crack with impatience. Who fays, this is improvident jealoufy? my wife hath fent to him, the hour is fixt, the match is made; would any man have thought this? fee the hell of having a falfe woman! my bed fhall be abus'd, my coffers ranfack'd, my reputation gnawn at; and I fhall not only receive this villainous wrong, but ftand under the adoption of abominable terms, and by him that does me the wrong, Terms, names; Amaimon founds well; Lucifer, well; Barbajin, well; yet they are devils' additions, the

names