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 difgrace 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! fie, fie; he will never come.

Eva. You fay, he hath been thrown into the rivers; and hath been grievously peaten, as an old'oman: methinks, there fhould be terrors in him, that he should not come; methinks, his flesh is punifh'd, he shall have no defires.

Page. So think I too.

Mrs. Ford. Devife but how you'll ufe him when he comes,

And let us two devife to bring him hither.

Mrs. Page. There is an old tale goes, that Herne
the hunter,

Sometime a keeper here in Windfor foreft,
Doth all the winter time, at ftill midnight,
Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns;

ther will fufpect the fun can be a thief, or be corrupted by a bribe, than thy honour can be betrayed to wantonnefs. Mr. Rowe filently made the change, which fucceeding editors have as filently adopted. A thought of a fimilar kind occurs in Hen. IV. Part I:

"Shall the blefied fun of heaven prove a micher ?" I have not, however, difplaced Mr. Rowe's emendation; as a zeal to preferve old readings without diftinction, may fometimes prove as injurious to the author's reputation, as a defire to introduce new ones, without attention to the quaintnefs of phrafeology then in ufe. STEEVENS.

And

And there he blafts the tree, and takes the cattle; And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain In a moft hideous and dreadful manner :

You have heard of fuch a spirit; and well you know, The fuperftitious idle-headed eld 5

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;

That Falftaff 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,

4

What

and takes the cattle;] To take, in Shakespeare, fignifies to feize or strike with a difeafe, to blaft. So, in Lear:

64 Strike her young bones,

"Ye taking airs, with lamenefs." JOHNSON.

So, in Markham's Treatife of Horfes, 1595, chap. . "Of a horse that is taken. A horfe that is bereft of his feeling, mooving, or ftyrring, is faid to be taken, and in footh fo hee is, in that he is arrefted by fo villanous a difeafe; yet fome farriors, not well underftanding the ground of the difeafe, confter the word taken, to be ftriken by fome planet or evil-fpirit, which is falfe, &c." Thus our poet :

"No planets frike, no fairy takes." TOLLET.

5 -idle-headed eld] Eld feems to be ufed here, for what our poet calls in Macbeth- -the olden time. It is employed in Measure for Meafure, to exprefs age and decrepitude:

66

doth beg the alms

"Of palfied eld." STEEVENS.

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 flape; 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

23

fai d

What fhall be done with him? what is your plot? Mrs. Page. That likewife we have thought upon,

and thus:

Nan Page my daughter, and my little fon,

And three or four more of their growth, we'll dress
Like urchins 7, ouphes, and fairies, green and white,
With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads,
And rattles in their hands; upon a sudden,
As Falstaff, fhe, and I, are newly met,

Let them from forth a faw-pit rush at once

8

" With fome diffufed fong: upon their fight,
We two in great amazednefs will fly :
Then let them all encircle him about,

? And, fairy-like, to-pinch the unclean knight;

And

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 reítored from the old quarto, are absolutely neceffary, and clear up the matter

THEOBALD.

7-urchins, ouphes,-] The primitive fignification of urchin is a hedge-hog. In this fenfe it is ufed in the Tempest. Hence it comes to fignify any thing little and dwarfish. Ouph is the Teutonic word for a fairy or goblin. STEEVENS.

8

With fome diffufed fong:] A diffufed fong fignifies a fong that frikes out into wild fentiments beyond the bounds of nature, fuch as those whofe fubject is fairy land. WARBURTON,

Diffufed may mean confufed. So in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 553: "Rice, quoth he, (i. e. Cardinal Wolfey,) fpeak you Welch to them: I doubt not but thy fpeech fhall be more diffuse to him, than his French fhall be to thee." TOLLET.

By diffufed fong, Shakespeare may mean fuch irregular fongs as mad people fing. Edgar, in K. Lear, when he has determined to affume the appearance of a travelling lunatic, declares his refolution to diffuse his fpeech, i. e. to give it the turn peculiar to madness. STEEVENS.

9 And, fairy-like, TO pinch the unclean knight;] The grammar requires us to read:

And, fairy-like Too, pinch the unclean knight. WARE. This fhould perhaps be written to-pinch, as one word. This ufe of to in compofition with verbs, is very common in Gower and Chaucer, but must have been rather antiquated in the time of Shakefpcare. See, Gower, De Confeffione Amantis, B. iv. fol. 7: All to-tore is myn araie."

And

And ask him, why, that hour of fairy revel,
In their fo facred paths he dares to tread

In fhape prophane?

Mrs. Ford. And till he tell the truth,
Let the fuppofed fairies pinch him found',
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 must

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-an-apes alfo, to burn the knight with my taber.

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 time

And Chaucer, Reeve's Tale, 1169:

66

-mouth and nose to-broke."

Shall

The construction will otherwise be very hard. TYRWHITT. I add a few more inftances to fhew that this ufe of the prepofition to was not entirely antiquated. Spenfer's F. 2. b. iv. c. 7: "With briers and bushes all to-rent and fcratched."

Again, b. v. c. 8:

"With locks all loose, and raiment all to-tore."

Again, b. v. c. 9:

"Made of strange stuffe, but all to-tvorne and ragged,
"And underneath the breech was all to-torne and jagged."

Again, in the Three Lords of London, 1590:

"The poft at which he runs, and all to-burns it."

Again, in Arden of Feverfham, 1592:

"A watchet fattin doublet, all to-torn." STEEVENS. pinch him found,] i. e. foundly. The adjective ufed as -round. STEEVENS. an adverb. The modern editors read

That filk will I go buy ;—and, in that time] Mr. Theobald, referring that time to the time of buying the filk, alters it to tire. But

24

there

Shall mafter Slender fteal my Nan away,

[Afide. And marry her at Eaton.Go, fend to Falstaff ftraight.

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 properties3 And tricking for our fairies.

Eva. Let us about it: It is admirable pleasures, and fery honeft knaveries. [Ex. Page, Ford, and Evans, Mrs. Page. Go, mistress Ford,

Send Quickly to fir John, to know his mind.

[Exit Mrs. Ford,
I'll to the doctor; he hath my good will,
And none but he, to marry with Nan Page.
That Slender, though well landed, is an ideot;
And he my hufband beft of all affects:
The doctor is well money'd, and his friends
Potent at court;, he, none but he fhall have her,
Though twenty thoufand worthier come to crave her.

[Exit.

there is no need of any change; that time evidently relating to the time of the mafk with which Falstaff was to be entertained, and which makes the whole fubject of this dialogue. Therefore the common reading is right. WAR Burton.

3properties] Properties are little incidental neceffaries to a theatre, exclufive of fcenes and dreffes. So, in the Taming the Shrew: -a fhoulder of mutton for a property." STEEVENS.

4

in Milton:

66

tricking for our fairies.] To trick, is to drefs out. So,

"Not trick'd and frounc'd as she was wont,

"With the Attic boy to hunt;

"But kerchief'd in a homely cloud." STEEVENS.

SCENE