Enter FORD, PAGE, SHALLOW, CAIUS, and Sir HUGH EVANS.

Ford. Ay, but if it prove true, master Page, have you any way then to unfool me again?-Set down the basket, villain.-Somebody call my wife.-Youth in a basket!-O you panderly rascals! there's a knot, a ging', a pack, a conspiracy against me: now shall the devil be shamed.-What, wife, I say! Come, come forth: behold what honest clothes you send forth to bleaching.

Page. Why, this passes! Master Ford, you are not to go loose any longer; you must be pinioned.

Eva. Why, this is lunatics: this is mad as a mad dog.

Shal. Indeed, master Ford, this is not well; indeed.

Enter Mrs. FORD.

Ford. So say I too, sir.-Come hither, mistress Ford; mistress Ford, the honest woman, the modest wife, the virtuous creature, that hath the jealous fool to her husband!—I suspect without cause, mistress, do I? Mrs. Ford. Heaven be my witness, you do, if you suspect me in any dishonesty.

Ford. Well said, brazen-face; hold it out.-Come forth, sirrah. [Pulls the Clothes out of the Basket.

Page. This passes!

Mrs. Ford. Are you not ashamed? let the clothes alone.

Ford. I shall find you anon.

6 Youth in a basket !] So the folio; but Malone introduced, from the quartos, "You, youth in a basket, come out here!" which forms part of a subsequent speech by Ford there, and is no portion of what he says when first he meets the loaded servants. The reading of the folio, 1623, is both natural and intelligible.

7 - there's a knot, a GING,] The folio, 1623, has it gin, which is corrected to "ging" in the folio, 1632. It is the same as the more modern gang, and was in frequent use in the time of Shakespeare. Milton has "ging," but afterwards gang was commonly substituted.

Era. "Tis unreasonable.

wife's clothes? Come away.

Will you take up your

Ford. Empty the basket, I say.
Mrs. Ford. Why, man, why,-

Ford. Master Page, as I am a man, there was one conveyed out of my house yesterday in this basket: why may not he be there again? In my house I am sure he is my intelligence is true; my jealousy is reasonable.-Pluck me out all the linen.

Mrs. Ford. If you find a man there, he shall die a flea's death.

Page. Here's no man.

Shal. By my fidelity, this is not well, master Ford; this wrongs you.

Era. Master Ford, you must pray, and not follow the imaginations of your own heart: this is jealousies. Ford. Well, he's not here I seek for.

Page. No, nor no where else, but in your brain.

Ford. Help to search my house this one time: if I find not what I seek, show no colour for my extremity, let me for ever be your table-sport; let them say of me, "As jealous as Ford, that searched a hollow walnut for his wife's leman"." Satisfy me once more; once more search with me.

Mrs. Ford. What hoa! mistress Page! come you, and the old woman, down; my husband will come into the chamber.

Ford. Old woman! What old woman's that?

Mrs. Ford. Why, it is my maid's aunt of Brentford. Ford. A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean! Have I not forbid her my house? She comes of errands, does she? We are simple men; we do not know what's brought to pass under the profession of fortune-telling. She works by charms, by spells, by

- for his wife's LEMAN.] i. e. lover: it was applied to women as well as to men-more frequently to the former. See Vol. iii. p. 353; and Mr. Way's edition of the " Promptorium," p. 295.

the figure, and such daubery as this is; beyond our element we know nothing.-Come down, you witch, you hag you; come down I say.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, good, sweet husband.-Good gentlemen, let him not strike the old woman'.

Enter FALSTAFF in Women's Clothes, led by Mrs. PAGE. Mrs. Page. Come, mother Prat; come, give me your

hand.

Ford. I'll prat her.-Out of my door, you witch! [beats him] you rag, you baggage, you polecat, you ronyon! out! out! I'll conjure you, I'll fortune-tell you. [Exit FALSTAFF.

Mrs. Page. Are you not ashamed? I think, you have killed the poor woman.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, he will do it.-Tis a goodly credit for you.

Ford. Hang her, witch!

Eva. By yea and no, I think, the 'oman is a witch indeed I like not when a 'oman has a great peard; I spy a great peard under her muffler.

Ford. Will you follow, gentlemen? I beseech you, follow: see but the issue of my jealousy. If I cry out thus upon no trail, never trust me when I open again. Page. Let's obey his humour a little farther. Come, gentlemen.

[Exeunt FORD, PAGE, SHALLOW, and EVANS. Mrs. Page. Trust me, he beat him most pitifully. Mrs. Ford. Nay, by the mass, that he did not; he beat him most unpitifully, methought.

Mrs. Page. I'll have the cudgel hallowed, and hung o'er the altar: it hath done meritorious service.

Mrs. Ford. What think you? May we, with the

9 - let him NOT strike the old woman.] "Not" is from the folio, 1632; it is wanting in the folio, 1623.

10

you RONYON !] From the Fr. royne, scurf. See also Vol. vii. p. 103, where it is applied to a witch.

warrant of womanhood, and the witness of a good conscience, pursue him with any farther revenge?

Mrs. Page. The spirit of wantonness is, sure, scared out of him if the devil have him not in fee simple, with fine and recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of waste, attempt us again.

Mrs. Ford. Shall we tell our husbands how we have served him?

Mrs. Page. Yes, by all means; if it be but to scrape the figures out of your husband's brains. If they can find in their hearts the poor unvirtuous fat knight shall be any farther afflicted, we two will still be the ministers.

Mrs. Ford. I'll warrant, they'll have him publicly shamed, and, methinks, there would be no period to the jest. Should he not be publicly shamed?

Mrs. Page. Come, to the forge with it, then shape it: I would not have things cool.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter Host and BARDOLPH.

Bard. Sir, the Germans desire' to have three of your horses: the duke himself will be to-morrow at court, and they are going to meet him.

Host. What duke should that be, comes so secretly? I hear not of him in the court. Let me speak with

the gentlemen; they speak English?

Bard. Ay, sir; I'll call them to you.

1 Sir, the GERMANS DESIRE-] In the folio, 1623, it is Germane desires, the letter s having been added to the wrong word. Just afterwards the error is continued by the printing of him for "them" in Bardolph's answer, 66 Ay, sir; I'll call him to you." The second error was corrected in the folio, 1664, but the first was not corrected at all in the old editions.

Host. They shall have my horses, but I'll make them pay; I'll sauce them: they have had my houses a week at command; I have turned away my other guests: they must come off; I'll sauce them.

Come. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

A Room in FORD'S House.

Enter PAGE, FORD, Mrs. PAGE, Mrs. FORD, and
Sir HUGH EVANS.

Eva. 'Tis one of the pest discretions of a 'oman as ever I did look upon.

Page. And did he send you both these letters at an instant?

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

wilt;

Henceforth do what thou

I rather will suspect the sun with cold2,

Than thee with wantonness: now doth thy honour

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.

? I rather will suspect the sun with COLD,] The four folios, without exception, have gold for "cold," which was Rowe's judicious substitution. The quartos do not contain the passage. Ford means to contrast the heat of the sun with the coldness and chastity of his wife.