the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the| And, Hony soit qui mal y pense, write, tune of Green Sleeves; hail kissing-comfits, Iu emerald tufts,flowers purple,blue,and white; and snow eringoes; let there come a tempest Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery, of provocation, I will shelter me here. Buckled below fair knight-hood's bending [Embracing her. Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page is come with me, sweetheart. Fal. Divide me like a bribe-buck, each a haunch I will keep my sides to myself, my shoulders for the fellow of this walk, and my horns I bequeath your husbands. Am 1 a woodman? ha! Speak I like Herne the hunter? Why, now is Cupid a child of conscience; he makes restitution. As I am a true spirit, welcome! [Noise within. Mrs. Page. Alas! what noise? Mrs. Ford. Heaven forgive our sins! Fal. What should this be? Mrs. Ford. Mrs. Page. Away, away. [They run off. Fal. I think, the devil will not have me damned, lest the oil that is in me should set hell on fire; he would never else cross me thus. Enter Sir HUGH EVANS, like a satyr; Mrs. QUICKLY, and PISTOL; ANNE PAGE, as the Fairy Queen, attended by her brother and others, dressed like fairies, with waxen tapers on their heads. Quick. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white, You moon-shine revellers, and shades of night, You orphan heirs of fixed destiny, Attend your office, and your quality t.Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy o-yes. Pist. Elves, list your names; silence, you airy toys. leap: Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths 19.unswept, N There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry : Our radiant queen hates sluts, and sluttery. Fal. They are fairies; he, that speaks to them, shall die! I'll wink and couch: No man their works must eye. [Lies down upon his face. Eva, Where's Pede?-Go you, and where you find maid, That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said, Sleep she as sound as careless infancy; Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out: And nightly, meadow-fairies, look, you sing, knee : Fairies use flowers for their charactery §. Away; disperse: But, till 'tis one o'clock, Our dance of custom, round about the oak Of Herne the hunter, let us not forget. Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand, your- And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be, Eva. Come, will this wood take fire ? [They burn him with their tapers. Fal. Oh, oh, oh! [desire! Quick. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in About him fairies; sing a scornful rhyme: And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time. Eva. It is right; indeed he is full of lecheries and iniquity. During this song, the fairies pinch Falstaff. Doctor Caius comes one way, and steals away a fairy in green; Slender another way, and takes off a fairy in white; and Fenton comes, and steals away Mrs. Anne Page. A noise of hunting is made within. All the fairies run away. Falstaff pulls off his buck's head, and rises. Enter PAGE, FORD, Mrs. PAGE, and Mrs. FORD. They lay hold on him. Page. Nay, do not fly: I think, we have watch'd you now; [turn? Will none but Herne the hunter serve your Mrs. Page. I pray you, come; hold up [wives? the jest no higherNow, good sir John, how like you Windsor See you these, husband? do not these fair yokes | Become the forest better than the town? Whortleberry. The letters, Horns which Falstaff had, Ford. Now, sir, who's a cuckold now ?-| Windsor, to one master Brook, that you have Master Brook, Falstaff's a knave, a cuckoldly cozened of money, to whom you should have knave; here are his horns, master Brook: been a pander: over and above that you And, master Brook, he hath enjoyed nothing have suffered, I think, to repay that money of Ford's but his buck-basket, his cudgel, and will be a biting affliction. [make amends: twenty pounds of money; which must be Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to paid to master Brook; his horses are arrested Forgive that sum, and so we'll all be friends. for it, master Brook.. Ford. Well, here's my hand; all's forgiven ... at last. Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never meet. I will never take you for my love again, but I will always count you my deer. Fal. I do begin to perceive that I am made an ass. ܐ، Ford. Ay, and an ox too; both the proofs are extant. Fal. And these are not fairies? I was three or four times in the thought, they were not fairies: and yet the guiltiness of my mind, the sudden surprise of my powers, drove the grossness of the foppery into a received belief, in despite of the teeth of all rhyme and reason, that they were fairies. See now, how wit may be made a Jack-alent, when 'tis upon ill employment! Eva. Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave your desires, and fairies will not pinse you. Ford. Well said, fairy Hugh. Eva. And leave you your jealousies too, I pray you. Slen. I came yonder at Eton 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. " Ford. I will never mistrust my wife again, till thou art able to woo her in good English. Fal. Have I laid my brain in the sun, and dried it, that it wants matter to prevent so gross o'er-reaching as this? Am I ridden Slen. What need you tell me that? I think with a Welsh goat too? Shall I have a cox-so, when I took a boy for a girl: If I had comb of frize*? 'tis time I were choked been married to him, for all he was in woman's with a piece of toasted cheese. apparel, I would not have had him.' Eva. Seese is not good to give putter; your pelly is all putter. Fal. Seese and putter! Have I lived to stand at the taunt of one that makes fritters of English? This is enough to be the decay of lust and late-walking, through the realm. Mrs. Page. Why, sir John, do you think, though we would have thrust virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders, and have given ourselves without scruple to hell, that ever the devil could have made you our delight? Ford. What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of flax? Page. Old, cold, withered, and of into lerable entrails? Ford. And one that is as slanderous as Satan? Ford. And as wicked as his wife? Eva. And given to fornications, and to taverns, and sack, and wine, and metheglins, and to drinkings, and swearings, and starings, pribbles and prabbles? Fal. Well, I am your theme: you have the start of me; I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welsh flannel; ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me: use me as you will. Ford. Marry, Sir, we'll bring you to Did Puge. Why, this is your own folly. not I tell you, how you should know my danghter by her garments? Sten. I went to her in white, and cry'd mum, and she cry'd budget, as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a post-master's boy. Eta. Jeshu! Master Slender, cannot you see but marry boys?! Page. O, I'am vexed at heart: What shall I do? knew of your purpose; turned my daughter Mrs. Page: Good George, be not angry : I into green; and, indeed, she is now with the doctor at the deanery, and there married. ' 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, begar, and 'tis a boy: be 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. * A fool's cap of Welsh materials. 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 You would have married her most shamefully, Of this play there is a tradition preserved by Mr. Rowe, that it was written at the command of queen Elizabeth, who was so delighted with the character of Falstaff, that she wished it to be diffused through more plays; but suspecting that it might pall by continued uniformity, directed the poet to diversify his manner, by shewing him in love. No task is harder than that of writing to the ideas of another. Shakspeare knew what the queen, if the story be true, seems not to have known, that by any real passion of tenderness, the selfish craft, the careless jollity, and the lazy luxury of Falstaff must have suffered so much abatement, that little of his former cast would have remained. Falstaff could not love, but by ceasing to be Falstaff. He could only counterfeit love, and his professions could be prompted, not by the hope of pleasure, but of money. Thus the poet approached as near as he could to the work enjoined him; yet having perhaps in the former plays completed his own idea, seems not to have been able to give Falstaff all his former power of entertainment. This comedy is remarkable for the variety and number of the personages, who exhibit more characters appropriated and discriminated, than perhaps can be found in any other play. Whether Shakspeare was the first that produced upon the English stage the effect of language distorted and depraved by provincial or foreign pronunciation, I cannot certainly decide. This mode of forming ridiculous characters can confer praise only on him who originally discovered it, for it requires not much of either wit or judgment; its success must be derived almost wholly from the player, but its power in a skilful mouth, even he that despises it, is unable to resist. clusion, and the different parts might change places without inconvenience such, that The conduct of this drama is deficient; the action begins and ends often, before the con; but its ge neral power, that power by which all works of genius shall finally be tried, perhaps it never yet had reader or spectator who did not think it too soon at the end. JOHNSON. ་་ Sir TOBY BELCH, uncle of Olivia. Lords, Priests, Sailors, Officers, Musicians, and other Attendants. the sp КРАТ УЧАСТ I. SCENE I. An Apartment in the Duke's Palace. Enter DUKE, CURIO, Lords; Musicians attending. Duke. If musick be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.. That strain again;-it had a dying fall: 0, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south, That breathes upon a bank of violets, [more; Stealing, and giving odour.-Enough; no 'Tis not so sweet now, as it was before. O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou! That notwithstanding thy capacity Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there, Of what validity and pitch soever, But falls into abatement and low price, Even in a minute! so full of shapes is fancy, That it alone is high-fantastical t.. Cur. Will you go hunt, my lord? Duke. What, Curio? Cur. The hart. Duke. Why, so I do, the noblest that I have: 0, when mine eyes did see Olivia first, Methought, she purg'd the air of pestilence; That instant was I turn'd into a hart; And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, E'er since pursue me.-How now? what news from her? Enter VALENTINE. Val. So please my lord, I might not be admitted, But from her handmaid do return this answer: • Value.. How will she love, when the rich golden shaft, Hath kill'd the flock of all affections' else That live in her! when liver, brain, and heart, These sovereign thrones, are all supplied, and fill'd, (Her sweet perfections,) with one self king!Away before me to sweet beds of flowers; Love-thoughts lie rich, when canopied with bowers. [Exeunt. SCENE II The Sea-coast. Enter VIOLA, Captain, and Sailors. Vio. What country, friends, is this? Cap. Illyria, lady, Vio. And what should I do in Illyria? My brother he is in Elysium. [you, sailors? Perchance, he is not drown'd:-What think Cap. It is perchance, that you yourself were [may he be. Vio. O my poor brother! and so, perchance, Cap. True, madam: and, to comfort you with saved. i Assure yourself, after our ship did split, [you, Vio. Not three hours' travel from this very place. Cap. + Fantastical to the height. A noble duke, in nature, What is his name?~ Heated. H count Cap. A virtuous maid, the daughter of a [leaving her That died some twelvemonth since; then In the protection of his son, her brother, Who shortly also died: for whose dear love, They say, she hath abjur'd the company And sight of men. Vio. ་ O, that I served that lady: And might not be delivered to the world, Till I had made mine own occasion mellow, What my estate is. Cap. That were hard to compass; Because she will admit no kind of suit, No, not the duke's.. Vio. There is a fair behaviour in thee,captain; And though that nature with a beauteous wall Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee I will believe, thou hast a mind that suits With this thy fair and outward character. I pray thee, and I'll pay thee bounteously, Conceal me what I am; and be my aid For such disguise as, haply, shall become The form of my intent. I'll serve this duke; Thou shalt present me as an eunuch to him, It may be worth thy pains; for I can sing, And speak to him in many sorts of musick, That will allow me very worth his service. What else may hap, to time I will commit; Only shape thou thy silence to my wit. Cap. Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be: [not see! When my tongue blabs, then let mine eyes Vio. I thank thee: Lead me on, [Exeunt. SCENE III. A Room in Olivia's House. Enter Sir TOBY BELOH and MARIA. Sir To. What a plague means my niece, to take the death of her brother thus? I am sure, care's an enemy to life. fit Mar. By my troth, sir Toby, you must come in earlier of nights; your cousin, my lady, takes great exceptions to your ill hours. Sir To. Why, let her except before excepted. Mar. Ay, but you must confine yourself within the modest limits of order. Sir To. Confine? I'll confine myself no finer than I am: these clothes are good enough to drink in, and so be these boots too; an they be not, let them hang themselves in their own straps. Mar. That quaffing and drinking will undo you I heard my lady talk of it yesterday; and of a foolish knight, that you brought in one night here, to be her wooer."" Sir To. Who? Sir Andrew Ague-cheek! + Stout. Approve." Mar. Ay, he. Sir To. He's as tall a man as any's in Illyria. Mar. What's that to the purpose? Sir To. Why, he has three thousand ducats a year. Mar. Ay, but he'll have but a year in all these ducats; he's a very fool, and a prodigal. Sir To. Fie, that you'll say so! he plays o' the viol-de-gambo, and speaks three or four languages word for word without book, and hath all the good gifts of nature. Mar. He hath, indeed,-almost natural: for, besides that he's a fool, he's a great quarreller; and, but that he hath the gift of a coward to allay the gust he hath in quarrelling, 'tis thought among the prudent, he would quickly have the gift of a grave. Sir To. By this hand, they are scoundrels and substractors that say so of him. Who are they? Mar. They that add moreover, he's drunk nightly in your company. Sir To. With drinking healths to my niece; I'll drink to her, as long as there is a passage in my throat, and drink in Illyria: He's a coward, and a coystri‡, that will not drink to my niece, till his brains turn o' the toe like a parish-top, What, wench? Castiliano vulgo; for here comes Sir Andrew Ague-face. f Enter Sir ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK. Sir To. Sweet Sir Andrew! Sir To. Accost, Sir Andrew, accost. Sir To. My niece's chamber maid. Sir And. Good mistress Accost, I desire better acquaintance. Mar. My name is Mary, sir. Sir And. Good Mistress Mary Accost,Sir To. You mistake, knight: accost is, front her, board her, woo her, assail her. Sir And. By my troth, I would not undertake her in this company, Is that the meaning of accost?" Mar. Fare you well, gentlemen. Sir To. An thou let part so, Sir Andrew, 'would thou might'st never draw sword again. Sir And. An you part so, mistress, I would I might never draw sword again. Fair lady, do you think you have fools in hand? Mar. Sir, I have not you by the hand. Sir And. Marry, but you shall have; and here's my hand. Mar. Now, sir, thought is free: I pray you bring your hand to the buttery-bar, and let it drink. |