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Slen. Nay, I will do as my coufin Shallow fays: I pray you, pardon me he's a juftice of peace in his country, fimple though I stand here.

Eva. But that is not the question: the question is concerning your marriage.

Shal. Ay, there's the point, fir.

Eva. Marry, is it; the very point of it, to mistress Anne Page. Slen. Why, if it be fo, I will marry her upon any reasonable demands.

Eva. But can you affection the 'oman? let us command to know that of your mouth, or of your lips; for divers philosophers hold, that the lips is parcel of the mind: therefore precisely, can you marry your good will to the maid?

Shal. Coufin Abraham Slender, can you love her?

Slen. I hope, fir; I will do as it fhall become one that would

do reafon.

Eva. Nay, got's lords and his ladies, you must speak poffitable, if you can carry her your defires towards her.

Shal. That you muft: will you, upon good dowry, marry her? Slen. I will do a greater thing than that upon your request, coufin, in any reason.

Shal. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, fweet coz; what I do is to pleasure you, coz: can you love the maid?

Slen. I will marry her, fir, at your requeft: but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heav'n may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are marry'd, and have more occafion to know one another; I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: but if you say, marry her, I will marry her, that I am freely diffolved, and diffolutely.

Eva. It is a ferry discretion answer, fave the faul' is in th’ort, dissolutely: the ort is, according to our meaning, refolutely; his meaning is goot.

Shal. Ay, I think, my coufin meant well.

Slen. Ay, or elfe I would, I might be hang'd, la.

SCENE

SCENE V.

Enter mistress Anne Page.

Shal. Here comes fair mistress Anne: would, I were young for your fake, mistress Anne.

Anne. The dinner is on the table; my father defires your worship's company.

Shal. I will wait on him, fair mistress Anne.

Eva. Od's pleffed will! I will not be absence at the grace.
[Exe. Shallow and Evans.
Anne. Will't please your worship to come in, fir?
Slen. No, I thank you, forfooth, heartily; I am very well.
Anne. The dinner attends you, fir.

Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forfooth. Go, firrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my coufin Shallow: a juftice of peace sometime may be beholden to his friend for a man. I keep but three men and a boy yet, 'till my mother be dead; but what though, yet I live a poor gentleman born.

Anne. I may not go in without your worship; they will not fit 'till you come.

Slen. I'faith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much as though I did.

Anne. I pray you, fir, walk in.

Slen. I had rather walk here, I thank you: I bruis'd my shin th' other day with playing at fword and dagger with a master of fence, three veneys for a dish of ftew'd prunes; and, by my troth, I cannot abide the fmell of hot meat fince. Why do your dogs bark fo? be there bears i' th' town?

Anne. I think, there are, fir; I heard them talk'd of.

Slen. I love the sport well, but I fhall as foon quarrel at it as any man in England. You are afraid, if you see the bear loose, are you not?

Anne. Ay, indeed, fir.

Slen. That's meat and drink to me now; I have seen Sackerfon loose, twenty times, and have taken him by the chain; but, I

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warrant you, the women have fo cry'd and fhriek'd at it, that it past: but women, indeed, cannot abide 'em, they are very illfavour'd rough things.

Enter mafter Page.

Page. Come, gentle mafter Slender, come; we ftay for you.
Slen. I choose to eat nothing, I thank you, fir.

Page. By cock and pye, you fhall not choose, fir; come, come.
Slen. Nay, pray you, lead the way.

Page. Come on, fir.

Slen. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first.

Anne. Not I, fir; pray you, keep on.

Slen. Truly, I will not go firft, truly-la: I will not do you

that wrong.

Anne. I pray you, fir.

Slen. I'll rather be unmannerly than troublesome; you do yourself wrong, indeed-la.

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[Exeunt.

Eva. Go your ways, and afk of doctor Caius' houfe, which is the way; and there dwells one mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer.

Simp. Well, fir.

Eva. Nay, it is petter yet; give her this letter; for it is a 'oman that altogethers acquaintance with mistress Anne Page; and the letter is to defire and require her to folicit your master's defires to mistress Anne Page: I pray you, be gone; I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come.

[Exeunt.

It paft, and, this paffes, was a way of speaking customary heretofore to fignify the excefs, or extraordinary degree, of any thing. The fentence compleated would be, it paft, or, this paffes, all expreffion, or, perhaps, (according to a vulgar phrafe fill in use) it past, or, this paffes, all things, is beyond all things. The participle of the fame verb is fill in common ufe, and in the fame fense : paffing well, paffing ftrange, &c.

SCENE

SCENE VII.

Changes to the Garter-Inn.

Enter Falstaff, Hoft, Bardolph, Nym, Pistol, and Robin. INE hoft of the garter!

Fal.

M1

and wifely.

Hoft. What fays my bully rock? fpeak schollarly,

Fal. Truly, mine hoft, I must turn away fome of my followers. Host. Discard, bully Hercules, cashier; let them wag; trot,

trot.

Fal. I fit at ten pounds a week.

Hoft. Thou'rt an emperor, Cæfar, Keifar, and Pheazar. I will entertain Bardolph, he will draw, he will tap; faid I well, bully Hector?

Fal. Do fo, good mine hoft.

Host. I have spoke, let him follow; let me see thee froth, and live: I am at a word; follow.

[Exit Hoft. Fal. Bardolph, follow him; a tapfter is a good trade; an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd ferving-man, a fresh tapfter; go, adieu.

Bard. It is a life that I have defir'd: I will thrive. [Exit Bar. Pift. O base Hungarian wight, wilt thou the fpigot wield? Nym. He was gotten in drink; is not the humour conceited? Fal. I am glad, I am fo quit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open, his filching was like an unskilful finger, he kept not time.

Nym. The good humour is, to fteal at a minute's rest.

Pift. Convey, the wife it call: steal! foh; a fico for the phrase! Fal. Well, firs, I am almost out at heels.

Pift. Why then let kibes enfue.

Fal. There is no remedy: I must cony-catch, I must shift. Pift. Young ravens must have food.

Fal. Which of you know Ford of this town?

Pift. I ken the wight; he is of fubftance good.
Fal. My honeft lads, I will tell you what I am about.
Pift. Two yards and more.

Fal. No quips now, Pistol: indeed, I am in the waist two yards about; but I am now about no waste; I am about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife: I fpy entertainment in her; she discourses, fhe carves, the gives the leer of invitation; I can conftrue the action of her familiar ftile, and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be english'd right, is, I am fir John Falstaff's. Pift. He hath study'd her well, and tranflated her out of honesty into English.

Nym. The anchor is deep; will that humour pass?

Fal. Now, the report goes, fhe has all the rule of her husband's purse: fhe hath a legion of angels.

Pift. As many devils entertain; and, to her, boy, say I. Nym. The humour rifes; it is good; humour me the angels. Fal. I have writ me here a letter to her; and here another to Page's wife, who even now gave me good eyes too, examin'd my parts with most judicious oiellades; fometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, fometimes my portly belly.

Pift. Then did the fun on dunghill fhine.

Nym. I thank thee for that humour.

Fal. O, fhe did fo courfe o'er my exteriors with fuch a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did seem to fcorch me up like a burning-glafs. Here's another letter to her; fhe bears the purfe too; fhe is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be efcheator to them both, and they fhall be exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West-Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to mistress Page; and thou this to mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive.

Pift. Shall I fir Pandarus of Troy become,

And by my fide wear fteel? then, Lucifer take all!

Nym. I will run no bafe humour: here take the humour-letter,

I will keep the haviour of reputation.

Fal. Hold, firrah, bear you thefe letters rightly, [To Robin. Saił like my pinnace to thefe golden fhores.

VOL. I.

Ff

Rogues,

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