Enter Shallow, Slender, and Mrs. Quickly.

Shal. Break their talk, Mistress Quickly; my kinfman fhall speak for himself.

Slen. I'll make a fhaft or a bolt on't; 'd'flid, 'tis but venturing.

Shal. Be not difmay'd.

Slen. No, fhe fhall not difmay me: I care not for that, but that I am affeard.

Quic. Hark

with you.

ye, Mr. Slender would fpeak a word

Ann. I come to him.

O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults

Look handfome 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. a father!

O boy, thou hadst

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

Shal. Miftrefs Ann, my coufin loves you.

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

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

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

Ann. 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.

Ann. Now, mafter Slender.

Slen. Now, good mistress Ann.

Ann. What is your will?

Slen. My will? od's-heart-lings, that's a pretty jeft

N 3

inded,

indeed, I ne'er made my will yet, I thank heav'n; I am not such a fickly creature, I give heav'n praise.

Ann. I mean Mr. Slender, what would you with me?

Sien. Truly, for my 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 1 can; you may afk your father; here he comes.

Enter Page, and Mistress Page.

Page. Now, after Slender: love him, daughter Ann. -Why how now? what does mafter Fenton here?

You wrong me, Sir, thus ftill to haunt

my houfe: I told you, Sir, my daughter is difpofed of.

Fent. Nay, mafter Page, be not impatient,

Mrs. Page. Good mafter Fenton, come not to my child.. Page. She is no match for you.

Fent. Sir, will you hear me?

Page. No, good mafter Fenton.

Come, mafter Shallow; come, fon Slender, in.

Knowing my mind, you wrong me, mafter Fenton.

[Exeunt Page, Shallow, and Slender..

Quic. Speak to miftrefs Page.

Fent. Good miftrefs 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.

Ann. Good mother, do not marry me to yon fool. Mrs. Page. I mean, it not, I feek you a better hufband.

Quic. That's my master, mafter Doctor.

Ann. Alas, I had rather be fet quick i'th' earth, And bowl'd to death with turneps.

Mrs. Page. Come, trouble not yourself, good master Fenton.

I will not be your friend nor enemy:

My daughter will I queftion how the loves you,

And

And as I find her, so am I affected.
"Till then, farewel, Sir; she must needs go in,
Her father will be angry. [Exe. Mrs. Page and Ann.
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 sweet Nan this ring: there's for thy pains.

[Exit. Quic. Now heav'n fend thee good fortune! A kind heart he hath, a woman would run through fire and water for such a kind heart. But yet, I would my mafter had miftrefs Ann, 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 fo I have promis'd and I'll be as good as my word, but fpeciously for Mr. Fenton. Well, I muft of another errand to Sir John Falstaff from my two miftreffes; what a beast am I to flack it? [Exit.

Fal.

SCENE changes to the Garter-Inn.

B

Enter Falstaff and Bardolph.

Ardolph, I fay.

Bard. Here, Sir.

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 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 (20) as they

would

(20) As they would have drown'd a blind bitch's puppies.] I have ventur'd to transpose the adjective here, againft the authority of the printed copies. I know, in horses, a colt from a blind ftallion lofes much of the value it might otherwife have; but are puppies ever drown'd the fooner, for coming from a blind bitch? Two other paffages in our Author countenance the transposition I have made.

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 bottom were as deep as hell, I should down. I had been drown'd, but that the fore was fhelvy and fhallow; a death that I abhor; for the water fwells a man; and what a thing Ghould I have been, when I had been fwell'd? I fhould have been a mountain of mummy.

Enter Bardolph.

Now, is the fack brew'd?

Bard. Here's Mrs. Quickly, Sir, to speak with you. Fal. Come, let me pour in fome fack to the Thameswater; for my belly's as cold as if I had fwallow'd fnow-balls, for pills to cool the reins. Call her in. Bard. Come in woman.

Enter Miftrefs Quickly.

Quic. By your leave: I cry you mercy. Give your worship good morrow.

Fal. Take away thefe challices; go brew me a pottle of fack finely.

Bard. With eggs, Sir?

Fal. Simple of itfelf: I'll no pullet-fperm in my brewage. How now?

Quic. Marry, Sir, I come to your worship from miftrefs Ford.

Fal. Miftrefs Ford? I have had Ford enough; I was thrown into the Ford; I have my belly full of Ford.

Quic. Alas the day! good heart, that was not her fault: fhe does fo take on with her men; they mistook their erection.

Fal. So did I mine, to build on a foolish woman's promife.

I aurce, in 2 Gent. of Verna.

-One, that I fav'd from drowning, when three or four of his blind brothers and fifters went to it.

And, lago, in Othello:

Come, be a man; drown thyfelf? drown cats and blind puppies.

Quic. Well, fhe laments, Sir, for it, that it would yarn your heart to see it. Her husband goes this morning a birding; fhe defires you once more to come to her between eight and nine, I muft carry her word quickly; fhe'll make you amends, I warrant you.

Fal. Well, I will vifit her; tell her fo, and bid her think, what a man is: let her confider his frailty, and then judge of my merit.

Quic, I will tell her.

Fal. Do fo. Between nine and ten, say't thou?
Quic. Eight and nine, Sir.

Fal. Well, begone; I will not miss her.

Quic. Peace be with you, Sir.

[Exit.

Fal. I marvel, I hear not of mafter Brook; he fent

me word to ftay within: I like his money well. Oh, here he comes.

Enter Ford.

Ford. Blefs you, Sir.

Fal. Now, mafter Brook, you come to know what hath pafs'd between me and Ford's wife.

Ford. That, indeed, Sir John, is my business.

Fal. Mafter Brook, I will not lye to you; I was at her house, the hour fhe appointed me.

Ford. And you fped, Sir?

Fal. Very ill-favour'dly, mafter Brook,

Ford. How, Sir, did the change her determination ? Fal. No, mafter Brook; but the peaking cornuto her husband, mafter Brook, dwelling in a continual Jarum of jealoufy, comes me in the inftant of our encounter; after we had embraced, kifs'd, protested, and as it were fpoke the prologue of our comedy; and at his heels a rabble of his companions, thither provok'd and inftigated by his diftemper, and, forfooth, to fearch his houfe for his wife's love.

Ford. What, while you were there?

Fal. While I was there.

Ford. And did he fearch for you, and could not find you?

Fal. You fhall hear. As good luck would have it, N 5

comes