SCENE Dr. Caius's house. IV. Enter Mrs. Quickly, Simple, and John Rugby. [Act 1. Scene 4. Caius. Fe, fe, fe, fe! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. Je m'en vai à la Cour, la grande affaire. Quic. Is it this, Sir? Quic. What; John Rugby!-I pray thee, go 5 quickly:-Vere is dat knave Rugby? Caius. Ouy, mettez le au mon pocket; Depechez, to the cafement, and see if you can fee my master, master Doctor Caius, coming: if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the house, here will be an old abusing of God's patience, and the king's English. Rug. I'll go watch. Quic. What, John Rugby! John! Rugby: Come, take-a your rapier, and come after Caius. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack 10 my heel to de court. Rug. 'Tis ready, Sir, here in the porch. Quic. Go; and we'll have a posset for 't foon at [Exit Rugby. night, in faith, at the latter end of a fea-coal fire'. An honeft, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, 15 Quic. Ah me! he'll find the young man there, Caius. By my trot, I tarry too long:-Od's me! dat I vill not for the varld I shall leave behind. Qu'ay j'oublie? dere is some simples in my closet, no tell-tale, nor no breed-bate2: his worst fault and be mad. is, that he is given to prayer; he is something peevish 3 that way: but no body but has his fault; -but let that pass. Peter Simple, you say your name is? Villaine, Larron! Rugby, my rapier. [Pulls Simple out of the closet. 20 Sim. Ay, for fault of a better. Quic. Good master, be content. Quic. And master Slender's your master? Sim. Ay, forfooth. Quic. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover's paring-knife? Sim. No, forfooth: he hath but a little wee 4 face, with a little yellow beard; a 5 Cain-colour'd beard. Quic. A foftly-fprighted man, is he not? 25 Quic. The young man is an honest man. Caius. Vat shall de honeft man do in my closet? dere is no honest man dat shall come in my closet. Quic. I beseech you, be not so flegmatic; hear parfon Hugh. the truth of it. He came of an errand to me from Caius. Vell. Sim. Ay, forfooth, to defire her to Sim. Ay, forfooth: but he is as tall a man of his 30 Quic. Peace, I pray you. Hands, as any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a warrener. Quic. How fay you?-oh, I should remember him; Does he not hold up his head, as it were? and strut in his gait? Sim. Yes, indeed, does he. Quic. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse fortune! Tell master parson Evans, I will do what I can for your master: Anne is a good girl, and I wish Re-enter Rugby. Rug. Out, alas! here comes my master. Caius. Peace-a your tongue: Speak-a your tale. Sim. To defire this honest gentlewoman, your maid, to fpeak a good word to mistress Anne Page for my master in the way of marriage. 35 Quic. This is all, indeed-la; but I'll never put my finger in the fire, and need not. Caius. Sir Hugh send-a you?-Rugby, baillez me fome paper: Tarry you a little while. Quic. We shall all be shent 7: Run in here, good young man; go into this closet. [Shuts Simple in the clofet.] He will not stay long. What, John 45 for I keep his house; and I wash, wring, brew, Quica I am glad he is so quiet: if he had been 40 thoroughly moved, you should have heard him fo loud, and so melancholy;-but notwithstanding, man, I'll do for your master what good I can : and the very yea and the no is, the French doctor, my master, I may call him my master, look you, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the beds, and do all myself. Sim. "Tis a great charge, to come under one body's hand. 50 Quic. Are you avis'd o' that? you shall find it Caius. You jack'nape; give-a dis letter to Sir That is, when my master is in bed. tention. 3 Foolish. 2 Bate is an obfolete word, signifying strife, con4 Wee, in the northern dialect, signifies very little. in the tapestries and pictures of old, were represented with yellow beards. to the jockey measure, fo many bands bigb, used by grooms when speaking of horses. 5 Cain and Judas, fcolded. 6 Probably an allufion 8 To deceive her master, she sings as if at her work. 7 That is, 9 Boitier, in French, signifies a cafe of furgeons instruments. throat throat in de park; and I vill teach a scurvy jack2-nape prieft to meddle or make you may be gone; it is not good you tarry here: -by gar, I vili cut all his two stones; by gar, he shall not have a stone to trow at his dog. Quic. In truth, sir, and she is pretty, and honeft, and gentle, and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by the way, I praise heaven for it. Fent. Shall I do any good, thinkest thou? shall [Exit Simple. 5 I not lose my fuit? Quic. Alas, he speaks but for his friend. Caius. It is no matter-a for dat: do you not tell-a me dat I shall have Anne Page for myself?by gar, I vill kill de jack priest; and I have appointed mine host of de Farterre to measure our Ic weapon;-by gar, I vill myself have Anne Page. Quic. Sir, the maid loves you, and all shall be ) well: we must give folks leave to prate: What, the goujere. Quic. Troth, fir, all is in his hands above; but notwithstanding, master Fenton, I'll be sworn on a book, she loves you: - Have not your worship a wart about your eye? Fent. Yes, marry, have I; what of that? Quic. Well, thereby hangs a tale: -good faith, it is such another Nan, but I detest, an honest maid as ever broke bread :- We had an hour's talk of that wart;-I shall never laugh but in that maid's Caius. Rugby, come to the court vit me: 15 company! - But indeed she is given too much By gar, if I have not Anne Page, I shall turn your head out of door:-Follow my heels, Rugby. [Ex. Caius and Rugby. Quit. You shall have An fools-head of your own. No, I know Anne's mind for that: never a wo-20 man in Windfor knows more of Anne's mind than I do; nor can do more than I do with her, I thank heaven. to allicholly and musing: But for you-Well go to. Fent. Well, I shall see her to-day: Hold, there's money for thee; let me have thy voice in my behalf: if thou seest her before me, commend me Quic. Will I? ay, faith, that we will: and I will tell your worship moe of the wart, the next Fent. [Within.] Who's within there, ho? time we have confidence; and of other wooers. Quir. Who's there, I trow? come near the 25 Fent. Well, farewell; I am in great haste now. house, I pray you. Enter Mr. Fenton. Fent. How now, good woman; how dost thou? Quic. The better that it pleases your good worfhip to afk. Fant. Whatnews? how does pretty mistress Anne? [Exit. Quic. Farewell to your worship. Truly, an honeft gentleman; but Anne loves him not; I know Anne's mind as well as another does: Out 30 upon't! what have I forgot? [Exist ! SCENE I. ACT Before Page's boufe. Mitrefs Page. WHAT, have I 'scap'd love in the holy-day-time of my beauty, and am I now a subject for them? Let me fee: Ask me no reason why I love you; for though love use reason for his precisian, be admits bim not for his cuunfelior: You are not young, no more am I; gs to then, there's sympathy: you are merry, fo am I; Ha! II. What a Herod of Jewry is this?-O wicked, 40 wicked world! - one that is well nigh worn to pieces with age, to shew himself a young gallant! What an unweigh'd behaviour has this Flemish drunkard pick'd (with the devil's name) out of my converfation, that he dares in this manner afsay 45 me? Why, he hath not been thrice in my company? - What should I say to him?-I was then frugal of my mirth: -heaven forgive me! Why, I'll exhibit a bill in the parliament for the putting down of men. How shall I be reveng'd on him? bal then there's more sympathy: you love fack, and 50 for reveng'd I will be, as sure as his guts are made That is, morbus Gallicus. 2 The meaning is, though love permit reason to tell what is fit to be done, be seldom follows its advice. By precifian, is meant one who pretends to a more than ordinary degree of virtue and fanctity. 3 Meaning, at all times. shew you to the contrary: O, mistress Page, give me fome counsel! Mrs. Page. What's the matter, woman? Mrs. Ford. O woman, if it were not for one trifling respect, I could come to such honour! Mrs. Page. Hang the trifle, woman; take the honour: What is it? dispense with trifles; what is it? Mrs. Ford. If I would but go to hell for an eternal moment, or fo, I could be knighted. Mrs. Page. What?-thou lieft! Sir Alice Ford! -These knights will hack; and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry 1. la fine baited delay, till he hath pawn'd his horses to mine Hoft of the Garter. Mrs. Ford. Nay, I will consent to act any villainy againft him that may not fully the chariness 5 of our 5 honesty. Oh, that my husband saw this letter! it would give eternal food to his jealoufy. Mrs. Page. Why, look, where he comes; and my good man too: he's as far from jealousy, as I am from giving him cause; and that, I hope, is an un10 measurable distance. Mrs. Ford. You are the happier woman. Enter Ford with Pistol, Page with Nym. Mrs. Ford. We burn day-light2: here, read, read;-perceive how I might be knighted.-I shall 15 think the worse of fat men, as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's liking: And yet he would not swear; prais'd women's modefty; and gave such orderly and well-behav'd reproof to all uncomeliness, that I would have sworn his difpofi- 20 Both young and old, one with another, Ford; tion would have gone to the truth of his words: but they do no more adhere, and keep place together, than the hundredth psalm to the tune of Green Sleeves 3. What tempeft, I trow, threw this whale, with so many tuns of oil in his belly, ashore at Windfor? How shall I be reveng'd on him? I think, the best way were to entertain him with hope, till the wicked fire of luft have melted him in his own greafe. Did you ever hear the like? [poor, Ford. Why, fir, my wife is not young. He loves thy gally-mawfry7; Ford, perpend. Pift. With liver burning hot: Prevent, or go thou, Like Sir Actæon he, with Ringwood at thy heels 250, odious is the name! Ford. What name, fir? Take heed; have open eye; for thieves do foot by Mrs. Page. Letter for letter; but that the name 30 Take heed, ere summer comes, or cuckoo-birds do of Page and Ford differs! To thy great comfort in this mystery of ill opinions, here's the twin-bro ther of thy letter: but let thine inherit first: for a thousand of these letters, writ with blank space 35 Nym. [Speaking to Page.] And this is true; Ilike I protest, mine never shall. I-warrant, he hath Fort. I will be patient; I will find out this. for different names, (fure more) and these are of the second edition: He will print them out of doubt; for he cares not what he puts into the 4 press, when he would put us two. I had rather be a giantess, and lie under mount Pelion. Well, I will find you 40 the short and the long. My name is corporal Nym, not the humour of lying. He hath wrong'd me in fome humours: I should have borne the humour'd letter to her; but I have a fword, and it shall bite upon my neceffity. He loves your wife; there's twenty lafcivious turtles, ere one chafte man. Mrs. Ford. Why, this is the very fame; the very hand, the very words: What doth he think of us? Mrs. Page. Nay, I know not: It makes me al I fpeak, and I avouch. 'Tis true; - my name is most ready to wrangle with mine ownhonesty. I'll 45 Page. The bumour of it, quoth a'! here's a fellow entertain myself like one that I am not acquainted withal; for, fure, unless he knew fome strain in me, that I know not myself, he would never have boarded me in this fury. Mrs. Ford. Boarding, call you it? I'll be füre to 50 keep him above deck. Mrs. Page. So will I; if he come under my hatches, I'll never to sea again. Let's be reveng'd on him: let's appoint him a meeting; give him a show of comfort in his fuit; and lead him on with 55 frights humour out of its wits. Ford. I will feek out Falstaff. Page. I never heard fuch a drawling, affecting rogue. Ford. If I do find it, well. Page. I will not believe fuch a Catalan 8, though the priest o'the town commended him for a true man. Ford. 'Twas a good fenfible fellow: Well. To back, is an expreffion used in another scene of this play, to fignify to do mischief. The sense of this paffage may therefore be, These knights are a riotous, diffolute fort of people, and on that account thou shouldit not wish to be of the number. 2 That is, we have more proof than we want. 3 A popular ballad of those times. 4 Press is used here ambiguously, for a press to print, and a press to squeeze. 5 That is, the caution which ought to attend on it. 6 Persons not qualified to keep a greyhound cut off his tail, and then he is termed a lurcher; yet feldom lets his game scape. S. A. 1 A medley. • By a Cataian, fome kind of sharper was probably meant. Mrs. Quic. Ay, forsooth: And, I pray, how does good mistress Anne? Mrs. Page. Go in with us, and fee; we have an hour's talk with you. Hoft. Hast thou no fuit against my knight, my guest-cavalier? Ford. None, I protest: but I'll give you a pottle of burnt fack to give me recourse to him, and tell him, my name is Brook, only for a jest. Hoft. My hand, bully: thou shalt have egrefs and regrefs; faid I well? and thy name shall be [Ex. Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, and Mrs. Quickly. 20 Brook: It is a merry knight. Will you go anPage. How now, master Ford? Ford. You heard what this knave told me; did heirs 2? Shal. Have with you, mine hoft, Page. I have heard, the Frenchman hath good skill in his rapier. Sbal. Tut, fir, I could have told you more: In these times you stand on distance, your passes, stoccado's, and I know not what: 'tis the heart, mafter Page; 'tis here, 'tis here. I have feen the time, with my long sword 3, I would have made you four 30 tall fellows skip like rats. Ford. I like it never the better for that. Does he lie at the Garter? Page. Ay, marry, does he. If he should intend his voyage towards my wife, I would turn her 35 so firmly on his wife's frailty 4, yet I cannot put off Hoft, Here, boys, here, here! shall we wag? Page. Have with you:-I had rather hear them scold than fight. [Exeunt Host, Shallow and Page. Ford. Though Page be a fecure fool, and stand loofe to him; and what he gets more of her than my opinion fo easily: She was in his company at Page's house; and, what they made there, I know not. Well, I will look further into 't: and I have a disguise to found Falstaff: If I find her ho I cannot be thus fatisfied. 'tis labour well bestow'd, [Exit he loth to turn them together: A man may be too confident: I would have nothing lie on my head: 40 nest, I lose not my labour; if the be otherwife, pook! Sbal. Sir, there is a fray to be fought between 55 I am damn'd in hell, for swearing to gentlemen, 3 Before the 1 That is, cheats. * This passage is evidently obscure. Mr. Steevens proposes to read, Will you go on, hearts? in confirmation of which conjecture, he observes, that the Host calls Dr. Caius Heart of Elder; and adds, in a subsequent scene of this play, Farewell, my bearts. introduction of rapiers, the swords in use were of an enormous length. Shallow here censures the innovation of lighter weapons. 4 To ftand on any thing, signifies to infift on it. To Ford, who is jealous, all chaftity in women appears as frailty. 5 Dr. Gray supposes Shakspeare to allude to an old proverb, "The mayor of Northampton opens oysters with his dagger:" that is, to keep them at a fufficient distance from his nose, that town being fourscore miles from the fea. conjectures the meaning of this to be, I will pay you again in stolen goods; and his opinion is confirmed by that of Mr. Farmer. Pif. Didst thou not share? hadst thou not fifteen 5 pence? Fal. Reason, you rogue, reason: Think'st thou, I'll endanger my foul gratis? At a word, hang no more about me, I am no gibbet for you :-go.A short knife and a thong, to your manor of 10 her to such a canary. Yet there has been knights, Fal. Mistress Ford; come, mistress Ford,Quic. Marry, this is the short and the long of it; you have brought her into such a canaries, , as 'tis wonderful. The best courtier of them all, when the court lay at Windsor, could never have brought Pickt-hatch 3, go. You'll not bear a letter for me, you rogue!-you stand upon your honour! Why, thou unconfinable baseness, it is as much as I can do, to keep the terms of my honour precife. I, I, I myself sometimes leaving the fear of hea-15 ven on the left hand, and hiding mine honour in my neceffity, am fain to fhuffle, to hedge, and to lurch; and yet you, rogue, will ensconce 4 your rags, your cat-a-mountain looks, your red-lattice 5 phrafes, and your bold-beating oaths, under the 20 all angels, (in any such sort as they say) but in the and lords, and gentlemen, with their coaches; I warrant you, coach after coach, letter after letter, gist after gift; smelling so sweetly, (all musk) and so rusling, I warrant you, in filk and gold; and in such alligant terms; and in such wine and sugar of the best, and the faireft, that would have won any woman's heart; and, I warrant you, they could never get an eye-wink of her. I had myself twenty angels given me this morning: but I defy man? Enter Robin. way of honesty :-and, I warrant you, they could never get her so much as fip on a cup with the proudest of them all: and yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, penfioners 7; but, I warrant shelter of your honour! You will not do it, you? Pift. I do relent: what wouldst thou more of Rob. Sir, here's a woman would speak with you. 25 you, all is one with her. Enter Mistress Quickly. Quic. Give your worship good-morrow. Fal. Good-morrow, good wife. Quic. Not fo, an't please your worship. Fal. Good maid, then. Quic. I'll be sworn; as my mother was, the first hour I was born. Fal. I do believe the swearer: What with me? two? Fal. Two thousand, fair woman; and I'll vouchsafe thee the hearing. Quic. There is one mistress Ford, fir;-I pray, Fal. But what says she to me? be brief, my good the Mercury. Quic. Marry, the hath receiv'd your letter; for the which the thanks you a thousand times: and 30 she gives you to notify, that her husband will be abfonce from his house between ten and eleven. Fal. Ten and eleven. Quic. Ay, forfooth; and then you may come and fee the picture, she says, that you wot of; 35-master Ford, her husband, will be from home. Alas! the sweet woman leads an ill life with him; he's a very jealousy man; the leads a very frampold life with him, good heart. Fal. Ten and eleven: Woman, commend me come a little nearer this ways:-I myself dwell 40 to her; I will not fail her. with mafter doctor Caius. Fal. I warrant thee, nobody hears;-mine own 45 wife, and one (I tell you) that will not miss you Quic. Why, you say well: But I have another messenger to your worship: Mistress Page has her hearty commendations to you too; and let me tell you in your ear, she's as fartuous a civil modest people, mine own people. Quic. Are they so? Heaven bless them, and make them his servants! morning nor evening prayer, as any is in Windfor, whoe'er be the other: and the bade me tell your worship, that her husband is seldom from home, 3 A noted A tall fellow, in the time of our author, meant, a stout, bold, or courageous perfon. & Fans, in Shakspear's time, were more costly than they are at present, as well as of a different construction. They confifted of ostrich feathers, (or others of equal length and flexibility) which were stuck into handles. The richer fort of these were composed of gold, silver, or ivory of curious workmanship. The fum of forty pounds was sometimes given for a fan in the time of queen Elizabeth. place for thieves and pickpockets. Pickt-batch probably is derived from the pickes placed upon the batches of the doors of the bawdy-houses of those times; a precaution which perhaps the unseasonable and obstreperous irruptions of the gallants of that age might render necessary. 4 A fconce is a petty fortification: to enfconce, therefore, is to protect as with a fort. 5 Your ale-house conversation. Red lattice at the doors and windows, were formerly the external infignia of an ale-house. Hence the present chequers; and it is very remarkable, that shops, with the sign of the chequers, were common among the Romans. 6 This is the name of a brifk light dance, and not therefore improperly used in vulgar language for any hurry or perturbation: perhaps, however, it is not improbable, that canaries is only a mistake of Mrs. Quickly's for quandaries. 7 A penfioner, in those times, meant a gentleman always attendant upon the person of the prince. 9 Ray says, that frampald, or frampard, signifies fretful, peevish, cross, froward, 8 To wot is to know, |