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Page. Let's go in, gentlemen; but trust me, we'll mock him. I do invite you to morrow morning to my house to break faft; after, we'll a birding together; I have a fine hawk for the bush. Shall it be fo? Ford. Any thing.

Eva. If there is one, I fhall make two in the company.

Caius If there be one or two, I fhall make-a de turd.

Eva. In your teeth, for shame.

Ford. Pray you go, Mr. Page.

Eva. I pray you now, remembrance to morrow on the loufy knave, mine Hoft.

Caius. Dat is good, by gar, with all my heart. Eva. A loufy knave, to have his gibes, and his mockeries. [Exeunt.

Fent.

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SCENE XII.

Changes to Page's House.

Enter Fenton and Mistress Anne Page.
See, I cannot get thy father's love;

Therefore no more turn me to him, fweet
Nan.

Anne. Alas! how then?

Fent. Why, thou must be thyself.

He doth object, I am too great of birth;

And that my ftate being gall'd with my expence,
I feek to heal it only by his wealth.

Befides thefe, other bars he lays before me,

My riots paft, my wild focieties:

And tells me, 'tis a thing impoffible

I fhould love thee, but as a property.
Anne. May be, he tells you true.

Fent. No, heav'n fo-speed me in my time to come!
Albeit, I will confefs, thy father's wealth.
N 4

Was

Was the firft motive that I woo'd thee, Anne:
Yet wooing thee, I found thee of more value
Than ftamps in gold, or fums in fealed bags;
And 'tis the very riches of thyfelf
That now I aim at.

Anne. Gentle Mr. Fenton,

Yet feek my father's love: ftill seek it, Sir;
If opportunity and humbleft fuit

Cannot attain it, why then-hark you hither.
[Fenton and Mistress Anne go apart.

Shal.

SCENE XIII.

Enter Shallow, Slender, and Mistress Quickly.

REAK their talk, miftrefs Quickly; my kins

Bman hall fpeak for himself.

Slen. I'll make a shaft or a bolt on't: 'd'slid, 'tis but venturing.

Shal. Be not dismay'd.

Slen. No, fhe fhall not difmay me? I care not for that, but that I am affear'd.

Quic. Hark ye, Mr. Slender would speak a word with you,

Anne. I come to him.-This is my father's choice. O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults

Look handsome in three hundred pounds a year! Quic. And how does good mafter Fenton? pray you, a word with you.

Shal. She's coming; to her, coz.

hadft a father!

O, boy, thou

Slen. I had a father, Mrs. Anne; my uncle can tell you good jefts of him. Pray you, uncle, tell Mrs. Anne the jeft, how my father stole two geefe out of a pen, good uncle.

Shal. Miftrefs Anne, my cousin loves you.

Slen. Ay, that I do, as well as I love any woman in Gloucestershire.

Shal.

Shal. He will maintain you like a gentlewoman. Slen. Ay, that I will, come cut and long-tail, under the degree of a Squire.

Shal. He will make you a hundred and fifty pounds jointure,

Anne. Good mafter Shallow, let him woo for himfelf.

Shal. Marry, I thank you for it; I thank you for that. Good comfort; fhe calls you, coz: I'll leave you.

Anne. Now, mafter Slender.

Slen. Now, good miftrefs Anne.

Anne. What is your will?

Slen. My will? od's heart-lings, that's a pretty jeft, indeed, I ne'er made my Will yet, I thank heav'n; I am not fuch a fickly creature, I give heav'n praise. Anne. I mean, Mr. Slender, what would you with

me?

Ι

Slen. Truly, for mine own part, I would little or nothing with you; your father and my uncle have made motions; if it be my luck, fo; if not, happy man be his dole! they can tell you how things go, better than I can; you may ask your father; here

he comes.

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Enter Page, and miftrefs Page.

OW, mafter Slender: love him, daughter

Page. NOW

Anne.

-Why, how now? what does master Fenton here? You wrong me, Sir, thus ftill to haunt my house: I told you, Sir, my daughter is difpos'd of.

Fent. Nay, mafter Page, be not impatient.

Mrs. Page. Good Master Fenton, come not to my child.

Page. She is no match for you.

N 5

Fent.

Fent. Sir, will you hear me?

Page. No, good master Fenton.

Come, mafter Shallow; come, fon Slender, in. Knowing my mind, you wrong me, master Fenton. [Exeunt Page, Shallow, and Slender.

Quic. Speak to mistress Page.

Fent. Good mistress Page, for that I love your daughter

In fuch a righteous fashion as I do,

Perforce, against all checks, rebukes and manners,
I must advance the colours of my love,

And not retire. Let me have your good will.
Anne. Good mother, do not marry me to yon fool.
Mrs. Page. I mean it not, I seek you a better huf-
band.

Quic. That's my mafter, mafter Doctor.

* Anne. Alas, I had rather be fet quick i'th' earth. Quic. And bowl'd to death with turnips. Mrs. Page Come, trouble not yourself; good mafter Fenton,

I will not be

your

friend nor enemy:

My daughter will I queftion how she loves you,
And as I find her, so am I affected.

'Till then, farewel, Sir; fhe muft needs go in.
Her father will be angry. [Exe. Mrs. Page and Anne.
Fent. Farewel, gentle miftrefs; farewel, Nan.

Quic. This is my doing now. Nay, faid I, will you caft away your child on a fool, and a physician? look on mafter Fenton: this is my doing..

Fent. I thank thee; and I pray thee, once to night Give my fweet Nan this ring: there's for thy pains. [Exit.

Anne. Alas, I had rather be fet quick i'th' earth,

And bowl'd to death with turnips.

Can we think the speaker would thus ridicule her own imprecation? We may be fure the laft Line fhould be given to the Procurels, Quickly, who would mock the young Woman's Averfion for her Mafter the Doctor.

Quic. Now heav'n fend thee good fortune! A kind heart he hath, a woman would run through fire and water for fuch a kind heart. But yet, I would my master had mistress Anne, or I would Mr. Slender had her; or, in footh, I would Mr. Fenton had her. I will do what I can for them all three, for so I have promis'd; and I'll be as good as my word, but fpecioufly for Mr. Fenton. Well, I muft of another errand to Sir John Falstaff from my two mistresses ; what a beast am I to flack it?

SCENE XV.

Changes to the Garter-Inn.

Enter Falstaff and Bardolph.

Fal. BARDOLPH, I say.

Bard. Here, Sir.

[Exit.

Fal. Go fetch me a quart of fack, put a toaft in't. [Exit Bard.] Have I liv'd to be carry'd, in a basket, like a barrow of butchers' offal, and to be thrown into the Thames? well, if I be ferv'd fuch another trick, I'll have my brains ta'en out and butter'd, and give them to a dog for a new-year's gift. The rogues flighted me into the river with as little remorfe as they would have drown'd a bitch's blind puppies, fifteen i'th'litter; and you may know, by my fize, that I have a kind of alacrity in finking: if the bot tom were as deep as hell, I fhould down. I had been drown'd, but that the shore was shelvy and shallow; a death that I abhor; for the water fwells a man and what a thing should I have been, when I had been fwell'd? I fhould have been a mountain of mummy.

Enter Bardolph.

Now, is the Sack brew'd?

Bard. Here's Mrs. Quickly, Sir, to speak with you.

N 6

Ful.

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