But thus upon no trail, never trust me when I open again. Page. Let's obey his humour a little further: come, gentlemen. [Exeunt. Mrs. Page. Trust me, he beat him moft pitifully. Mrs. Ford. Nay, by th' mafs, 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 fervice.

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

Mrs. Page. The fpirit 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 hufbands how we have ferved him?

Mrs. Page. Yes, by all means; if it be but to scrape the figures out of your husband's brain. If they can find in their hearts the poor unvirtuous fat Knight fhail be any further afflicted, we two will still be the minifters. 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. [Exeunt.

SCENE changes to the Garter-Inn.

Bard. Sh

Enter Hoft and Bardolph.

IR, the German defires to have three of your horfes; the Duke, himself will be to-morrow

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 fpeak Englife?

either of indolence, or ignorance. The two firft Folio's have it rightly, trayle; which is a hunting term, and correfponds with ery out, and open. Our Author ufes the word again twice in his Hamlet. Or elfe this brain of mine hunts not the trayle of policy, &c. How chearfully on the falfe trayle they cry!

Bard.

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 house a week at command; I have turn'd away my other guefts; (22) they must compt off; I'll fawce them, [Exeunt,

come.

SCENE changes to Ford's House.

Enter Page, Ford, Miftrefs Page, Mistress Ford, and

Eva, 'T

Evans.

IS one of the beft difcretions of a o'man, as ever I did look upon.

Page. And did he fend 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 of faith.

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 fport,
Appoint a meeting with this old fat fellow,
Where we may take him, and disgrace 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? fy, fy, he'll never come.

Eva. You fay, he hath been thrown into the river; and has been grievously peaten, as an old o'man; methinks, there fhould be terrors in him, that he

(22) they must come off.] This can never be our Poet's, or bis Hoft's, meaning to come off, is in other terms, to go fcot-free; but these Germans had taken up the Hoft's houfe, and he was refolv'd to make them pay for it. We must certainly, therefore, read, they must compt off: i. e. they must pay off the accompt, or, as we now fay, down with their pence. Mr. Warburton.

fhould

Thould 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 Windsor foreft,

Doth all the winter time at ftill of midnight
Walk round about an oak, with ragged horns;
And there he blafts 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, (23) 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 shall be done with him? what is your plot ? Mrs. Page. That likewife we have thought upon,

and thus:

(23) Mrs. Ford. Marry, this is our device, That Falftaff at that oak fhall meet with us.

Page. Well, let it not be doubted, but he'll come.

And in this fhape 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 fhape, 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 reftor'd from the old Quarto, are abfolutely neceffary, and clear up the matter.

Nan

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 Falftaff, the, and I, are newly met, Let them from forth a faw-pit rufh at once With fome diffused fong: upon their fight, We two, in great amazedness, will fly; Then let them all encircle him about, And fairy-like to pinch the unclean Knight; And ask him why, that hour of fairy revel, 'In their fo facred paths he dares to tread In fhape profane?

Mrs. Ford. And 'till he tell the truth, Let the fuppofed 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 muft

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-anapes alfo, to burn the Knight with my taper.

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 tire (24) [Afide Shall Mr. Slender steal my Nan away, And marry her at Eaton. Go, fend to Falstaff straight.

(24) That filk will I go buy, and in that time

Shall Mr. Slender fleal, &c.] What! muft Slender fteal Mrs. An while her father goes to buy the filk fhe was to be drefs'd in? This was no part of the fcheme. Her garb was to be the fignal for Slender to know her by. The alteration of a fingle letter gives us the Poet's reading. Tire is as common with our Poet, and other Writers of his age, as attire; to fignify, drefs. And my emendation is clearly juftified, by what Fenton afterwards tells the Hoft.

Her father means the shall be all in white,
And in that dress, when Slender fees his time
To take her by the hand, &c.

Ford.

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

Mrs. Page. Fear not you that; go get us properties and tricking for our Fairies.

Eva. Let us about it, it is admirable pleasures, and ferry honeft knaveries [Exe. Page, Ford and Evans.

Mrs. Page. Go, Mrs. Ford,
Send Quickly to Sir John, to know his mind. (25)

[Exit Mrs. Ford.

-I'll to the doctor; he hath my good will,
And none but he, to marry with Nan Page.
That Slender, tho' well landed, is an ideot;
And he my husband best of all affects:

The doctor is well mony'd, and his friends
Potent at court; he, none but he shall have her;
Tho' twenty thousand worthier came to crave her.

Hoft.

[Exit.

SCENE, changes to the Garter-Inn.

WH

Enter Hoft and Simple.

'HAT would't thou have, boor? what thick-fkin; fpeak, breathe, difcufs; brief, fhort, quick, fnap.

Simp. Marry, Sir, I come to fpeak with Sir John Falstaff, from Mr. Slender.

Hoft. There's his chamber, his houfe, his castle, his ftanding-bed and truckle-bed; 'tis painted about with the ftory of the prodigal, fresh and new; go, knock and call; he'll speak like an anthropophaginian unto thee: knock, I say.

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.

(25) Send quickly to Sir John, to know his mind.] The whole fet of printed copies downwards have funk our messenger here into an adverb. Dame Quickly is the perfon intended to be fent to Sir John; and accordingly when we next find her with him, he tells him, he comes from the two parties; via. Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page.

Hoft.