Slen. I came yonder at Etou to marry mistress Anne Page, and she's a great lubberly boy: if it had not been i' the church, I would have swinged him, or he should have swinged me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never stir, and 'tis a post-master's boy.

Page. Upon my life, then, you took the wrong.

Slen. What need you tell me that? I think so, when I took a boy for a girl: if I had been married to him, for all he was in woman's apparel, I would not have had him.

Page. Why, this is your own folly. Did not I tell you, how you should know my daughter by her garments?

Slen. I went to her in white', and cried "mum," and she cried "budget," as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a post-master's boy.

Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry: I knew of your purpose; turned my daughter into green; and, indeed, she is now with the doctor at the deanery, and there married.

Enter Doctor CAIUS.

Caius. Vere is mistress Page? By gar, I am cozened; I ha' married un garçon, a boy; un paisan, by gar, a boy: it is not Anne Page; by gar, I am cozened.

Mrs. Page. Why, did you take her in green?

Caius. Ay, by gar, and 'tis a boy: by gar, I'll raise all Windsor. [Exit CAIUS. Ford. This is strange.-Who hath got the right Anne? Page. My heart misgives me. Here comes master Fenton.

Enter FENTON and ANNE PAGE.

How now, master Fenton !

Anne. Pardon, good father! good my mother, pardon! Page. Now, mistress; how chance you went not with master Slender ?

Mrs. Page. Why went you not with master doctor, maid ? Fent. You do amaze her: hear the truth of it. You would have married her most shamefully, Where there was no proportion held in love. The truth is, she and I, long since contracted, Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us.

- in WHITE,] The folios read, "in green;" and in the two subsequent speeches of Mrs. Page, instead of green we find “white." The corrections, which are fully justified by what has preceded, were made by Pope.

The offence is holy that she hath committed;
And this deceit loses the name of craft,

Of disobedience, or unduteous guile',
Since therein she doth evitate, and shun

A thousand irreligious cursed hours,

Which forced marriage would have brought upon her.
Ford. Stand not amaz'd: here is no remedy.-
In love the heavens themselves do guide the state:
Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate.

Fal. I am glad, though you have ta'en a special stand to strike at me, that your arrow hath glanced.

Page. Well, what remedy ?-Fenton, heaven give thee joy. What cannot be eschew'd, must be embrac❜d.

Fal. When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer are chas'd. Mrs. Page. Well, I will muse no farther.-Master Fenton, Heaven give you many, many merry days.—

Good husband, let us every one go home,
And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire;
Sir John and all.

Ford. Let it be so.-Sir John,

To master Brook you yet shall hold your word;
For he, to-night, shall lie with mistress Ford'.

[Exeunt.

Of disobedience, or unduteous GUILE,] "Guile" is title in all the folios, and we find "guile" substituted in the corr. fo. 1632. Mr. Singer could not resist this emendation, and he very becomingly confesses from whence he obtained it.

4 — a special stand to strike at me,] To take a stand, for the pupose of killing deer, was a technical expression of the chase. See the opening of A. iv. sc. 1, of "Love's Labour's Lost," Vol. ii. p. 123: the Princess there asks,

"Where is the bush Where we must stand to play the murderer in?”

and the Forester answers,

"Hereby, upon the edge of yonder coppice;

A stand where you may take the fairest shoot."

Many other authorities might be, and have been, quoted on the same point; but one is sufficient, especially when Shakespeare is his own illustrator.

For he, to-night, shall lie with mistress Ford.] In the 4to. Ford ends a longer speech with the same point :—

"All parties pleased, now let us in to feast,

And laugh at Slender, and the Doctor's jeast.
He hath got the maiden, each of you a boy

To waite upon you; so, God give you joy :
And sir John Falstaffe now shal keep your word,
For Brooke this night shall lye with mistris Ford."

Of course for "now shal keep your word" we must read “ you shal keep your word," the blunder having arisen from the fact that "you," of old, was often written and printed yow.

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

"Measure for Measure" was first printed in the folio of “Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies," 1623, where it occupies twenty-four pages, viz. from p. 61 to p. 84, inclusive, in the division of "Comedies." It was, of course, reprinted in the later folios of 1632, 1664, and 1685, and in all it is divided into Acts and Scenes.