صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

Bard. Sir, I'll call them to you.

Hoft. They fhall have my horfes, but, I'll make them pay, I'll fawce then. They have had my house a week at command; I have turn'd away my other guefts; (22) they muft compt off; I'll fawce them,

come.

SCENE changes to Ford's Houfe.

[Exeunt.

Enter Page, Ford, Miftrefs Page, Miftrefs Ford, and

Eva.

[ocr errors]

Evans.

IS one of the best difcretions of a 'oman, as ever I did look upon.

Page. And did he fend you both these letters at an inftant ?

Mrs. Page. Within a quarter of an hour.
Ford. Pardon me, wife.

wilt;

Henceforth do what thou

I rather will fufpect the fun with cold,

Than thee with wantonefs; thy honour stands,
In him that was of late an heretick,

As firm as faith.

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 public sport,
Appoint a meeting with this old fat fellow,
Where we may take him, and disgrace 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? fy, fy, he'll never come.

Eva. You fay he hath been thrown into the river; and has been grievously peaten, as an old o'man ; methinks, there fhould be terrors in him, that he

(22) - they must come off.] This can never be our Poet's, or his Hoft's, meaning: to come off, is in other terms, to go fcot-free; but thefe Germans had taken up the Hoft's houfe, and he was refolv'd to make them pay for it. We must certainly, therefore, read, they must compt off: i. e. they must pay off the accompt, or, as we now fay, down with their pence. Mr. Warburton.

fhould

fhould not come; methinks, his flesh is punish'd, he fhall have no defires.

Page. So think I too.

Mrs. Ford. Devise but how you'll use him when he

comes;

And let us two devise to bring him thither.

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

Sometime a keeper here in Windfor forest,
Doth all the winter time at ftill of midnight
Walk round about an oak, with ragged horns;
And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle ;
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain
In a most hideous and dreadful manner.

You've heard of fuch a fpirit; and well
The fuperftitious idle-headed Eld
Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age,

This tale of Herne the hunter for a truth.

you know,

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, (23)
That Falstaff 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, What shall be done with him? what is your plot ?

Mrs. Page. That likewife we have thought upon,

and thus:

(23) Mrs. Ford, Marry, this is our device,
That Falstaff at that oak fball meet with us.
Page. Well, let it not be doubted, but be'll come.

And is this fhape when you have brought him thither,] Thus this paffage has been transmitted 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 faid one word to ascertain 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 reftored from the old Quarto, are abfolutely neceffary, and clear up the matter.

Nan Page, (my daughter) and my little fon,
And three or four more of their growth, we'll dress
Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white,
With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads,
And rattles in their hands; upon a sudden,
As Falstaff, the, and I, are newly met,
Let them from forth a faw-pit rush at once
With fome diffus'd fong: upon their fight,
We two, in great amazedness, will fly;
Then let them all encircle him about,
And fairy-like to pinch the unclean Knight;
And ask him why, that hour of fairy revel,
In their fo facred paths he dares to tread
In fhape profane?

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

Be practis'd well to this, or they'll ne'er do't.

Eve. I will teach the children their behaviours; and I will be like a jack-anapes also, to burn the Knight with my taper.

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.

[ocr errors]

Page. That filk will I go buy, and in that tire (24) Shall Mr. Slender fteal my Nan away, [Afide. And marry her at Eaton. Go, fend to Falstaff straight.

(24) That filk will I go buy, and in that time

Shall Mr. Slender freal, &c.] What! muft Slender steal Mrs. Ann, while her father goes to buy the filk fhe was to be dress'd in ? This was no part of the fcheme. Her garb was to be the fignal for Slender to know her by. The alteration of a fingle letter gives us the Poet's reading. Tire is as common with our Poet, and other Writers of his age, as attire; to fignify, drefs. And my emendation is clearly justified, by what Fenton afterwards tells the Hoft.

Her father means fhe fhall be all in white,
And in that drefs, when Slender fees his time
To take her by the hand, &c.

Ford.

Ford. Nay, I'll to him again in the name of Brook ; he'll tell me all his purpose. Sure, he'll come.

Mrs. Page. Fear not you that; go get us properties and tricking for our Fairies.

Eva. Let us about it, it is admirable pleafures, and ferry honeft knaveries. [Exe. Page, Ford, and Evans.

Mrs. Page. Go, Mrs. Ford,
Send Quickly to Sir John, to know his mind. (25)

[Exit. Mrs. Ford.

I'll to the doctor; he hath my good will,
And none but he to marry with Nan Page.
That Slender, tho' well landed is an ideot;
And he my husband best of all affects :

The doctor is well mony'd, and his friends
Potent at court; he, none but he shall have her;
Tho' twenty thousand worthier came to crave her.

SCENE changes to the Garter-Inn.

Enter Hoft and Simple.

[Exit.

Hoft. W thick-fkin; fpeak, breathe, difcufs; brief,

HAT would'ft thou have, boor? what,

fhort, quick, fnap.

Simp. Marry, Sir, I come to fpeak with Sir John Falftaff, from Mr. Slender.

Hoft. There's his chamber, his houfe, his caftle, his standing-bed and truckle-bed; 'tis painted about with the ftory of the prodigal, fresh and new; go, knock and call; he'll speak like an anthropophaginian unto thee: knock, I fay.

Simp. There's an old woman, a fat woman gone up into his chamber; I'll be fo bold as ftay, Sir, 'till the come down; I come to speak with her, indeed.

(25) Send quickly to Sir John, to know his mind.] The whole set of printed copies downwards have funk our messenger "here into an adverb. Dame Quickly is the perfon intended to be fent to Sir John; and accordingly when we next find her with him, fhe tells him, he comes from the two parties; viz. Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page.

Hoft.

Hoft. Ha! a fat-woman? the Knight may be robb'd: I'll call. Bully-Knight! bully-Sir John! speak from thy lungs military: art thou there? it is thine Hoft, thine Ephefian calls.

Falstaff, above.

Fal. How now, mine Hoft?

Hoft. Here's a Bohemian-Tartar tarries the coming down of thy fat woman: let her defcend, bully, let her defcend; my chambers are honourable. Fy, privacy? fy.

Enter Falftaff.

Fal. There was, mine Hoft, an old fat woman even now with me, but she's gone.

Simp. Pray you, Sir, was't not the wife woman of Brainford?

Fal. Ay, marry was it, muffel-fhell, what would you with her?

Simp. My mafter, Sir, my mafter Slender fent to her, feeing her go thro' the ftreet, to know, Sir, whether one Nym, Sir, that beguil'd him of a chain, had the chain or no.

Fal. I fpake with the old woman about it.
Simp. And what fays fhe, I pray Sir?

Fal. Marry, fhe fays, that the very fame man, that beguil'd mafter Slender, of his chain, cozen'd him of it. Simp. I would, I could have spoken with the woman herfelf; I had other things to have spoken with her too, from him.

Fal. What are they? let us know.
Hoft. Ay, come; quick.

Simp. I may not conceal them, Sir.

Fal. Conceal them, or thou dy'ft.

Simp. Why, Sir, they were nothing but about miftrefs Ann Page; to know, if it were my master's fortune to have her or no.

Fal. "Tis, 'tis his fortune.

Simp. What, Sir?

Fal. To have her or no: go; fay, the old woman told me fo.

« السابقةمتابعة »