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Ford. Though Page be a secure fool, and stands so firmly on his wife's frailty, yet I cannot put off my opinion so easily; She was in his company at Page's house; and, what they made 15 there, I know not. Well, I will look further into't: and I have a disguise to sound Falstaff: If I find her honest, I lose not my labour; if she be otherwise, 'tis labour well bestowed.

[Exit.

SCENE II. A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FALSTAFF and PISTOL.

Fal. I will not lend thee a penny.
Pist. Why, then the world's mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.—

I will retort the sum in equipage 1.

2

Fal. Not a penny. I have been content, sir, you should lay my countenance to pawn: I have grated upon my good friends for three reprieves for you and your coach-fellow Nym; or else you had looked through the grate like a geminy of baboons. I am damned in hell, for swearing to gentlemen my friends, you were good soldiers, and tall fellows: and when mistress Bridget lost the handle of her fan3, I took't upon mine honour, thou hadst it not.

15 An obsolete phrase, signifying-' what they did there.' In Act iv. Sc. 2, of this play we have again, what make you here; for what do you here.

1 Equipage appears to have been a cant term, which Warburton conjectured to mean stolen goods. Mr. Steevens thinks it means attendance; i. e. ' if you will lend me the money, I will pay you again in attendance,' but has failed to produce an example of the use of the word in that sense.

2 i. e. he who draws along with you, who is joined with you in all your knavery.

3 Fans were costly appendages of female dress in Shakspeare's time. They consisted of ostrich and other feathers, fixed into handles, some of which were made of gold, silver, or ivory of curious workmanship. The fashion was most probably imported from

ACT II. Pist. Didst thou not share? hadst thou not fifteen

pence?

Fal. Reason, you rogue, reason: Think'st thou, I'll endanger my soul gratis? At a word, hang no more about me, I am no gibbet for you:-go.-A short knife and a throng;-to your manor of Pickthatch, go. You'll not bear a letter for me, you rogue! you stand upon your honour!-Why, thou unconfinable baseness, it is as much as I can do to keep the terms of my honour precise. I, I, I myself sometimes, leaving the fear of heaven on the left hand, and hiding mine honour in my necessity, am fain to shuffle, to hedge, and to lurch; and yet, you, rogue, will ensconce your rags, your cat-a-mountain looks, your red-lattice phrases, and your boldbeating oaths, under the shelter of your honour! You will not do it, you?

Pist. I do relent; what would'st thou more of man?

Enter ROBIN.

Rob. Sir, here's a woman would speak with you. Fal. Let her approach.

Italy, for in the HABITI ANTICHI ET MODERNI di tutto il Mondo, published at Venice in 1580, from drawings by Titiano and Cesare Vecelli,

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are several represented of various forms, of which these are two.

Thus in the second Sestyad of Marlow's Hero and Leander : "Her painted fan of curled plumes let fall."

4 i. e. go and cut purses in a crowd. Purses being then worn hanging at the girdle.

5 Pick't-hatch was in Turnbull Street, Cow Cross, Clerkenwell, a haunt of the worst part of both sexes. The unseasonable and obstreperous irruptions of the swash-bucklers of that age rendered a hatch or half door with spikes upon it a necessary defence to a brothel, and hence the term became a cant phrase to denote a part of the town noted for brothels.

6 A sconce is a fortification; to ensconce is therefore to protect as with a fort.

Alehouse language. Red lattice windows formerly denoted an alehouse, as the chequers have done since.

Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY.

Quick. Give your worship good-morrow.
Fal. Good-morrow, good wife.

Quick. Not so, an't please your worship.
Fal. Good maid, then.

Quick, I'll be sworn; as my mother was, the first hour I was born.

Fal. I do believe the swearer: What with me? Quick. Shall I vouchsafe your worship a word or two?

Fal. Two thousand, fair woman; and I'll vouchsafe thee the hearing.

Quick. There is one Mistress Ford, sir;—I pray, come a little nearer this ways:—I myself dwell with master doctor Caius.

Fal. Well, on: Mistress Ford, you say,

Quick. Your worship says very true: I pray your worship, come a little nearer this ways.

Fal. I warrant thee, nobody hears;-mine own people, mine own people.

Quick. Are they so? Heaven bless them, and make them his servants!

Fal. Well: mistress Ford:—what of her?

Quick. Why, sir, she's a good creature. Ford, lord! your worship's a wanton: Well, heaven forgive you, and all of us, I pray!

8

Fal. Mistress Ford:-come, mistress Ford,Quick. Marry, this is the short and the long of it: you have brought her into such a canaries as 'tis wonderful. The best courtier of them all, when the court lay at Windsor, could never have brought her to such a canary. Yet there has been knights, and

8 A mistake of Mrs. Quickly's for quandaries. Canary was, however, a quick and lively dance mentioned in All's Well that Ends Well, Act ii. Sc. 1.

VOL. I.

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lords, and gentlemen, with their coaches; I warrant you, coach after coach, letter after letter, gift after gift; smelling so sweetly (all musk), and so rushling, I warrant you, in silk and gold; and in such alligant terms; and in such wine and sugar of the best, and the fairest, that would have won any woman's heart; and, I warrant you, they could never get an eyewink of her. I had myself twenty angels given me this morning: but I defy all angels (in any such sort, as they say), but in the way of honesty:-and, I warrant you, they could never get her so much as sip on a cup with the proudest of them all: and yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, pensioners9; but I warrant you, all is one with her.

Fal. But what says she to me? be brief, my good she Mercury.

Quick. Marry, she hath received your letter; for the which she thanks you a thousand times: and she gives you to notify, that her husband will be absence from his house between ten and eleven. Fal. Ten and eleven? Quick. Ay, forsooth; and then you may come and see the picture, she says, that wot 10 of;master Ford, her husband, will be from home. Alas! the sweet woman leads an ill life with him; he's a very jealousy man; she leads a very frampold 11 life with him, good heart.

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Fal. Ten and eleven: Woman, commend me to her; I will not fail her.

9 i. e. Gentlemen of the band of Pensioners. Their dress was remarkably splendid, and therefore likely to attract the notice of Mrs. Quickly. Hence Shakspeare, in a Midsummer Night's Dream, has selected the golden-coated cowslips to be pensioners to the Fairy Queen.

10 To wot is to know. So in K. Henry VIII. wol you what I found?

11 Frampold here means fretful, peevish, or vexatious. This obsolete word is of uncertain etymology.

Quick. Why, you say well: But I have another messenger to your worship: Mrs. Page hath her hearty commendations to you too;-and let me tell you in your ear, she's as fartuous a civil modest wife, and one (I tell you) that will not miss you morning nor evening prayer, as any is in Windsor, whoe'er be the other and she bade me tell your worship, that her husband is seldom from home; but she hopes, there will come a time. I never knew a woman so dote upon a man; surely, I think you have charms, la; yes, in truth.

Fal. Not I, I assure thee; setting the attraction of my good parts aside, I have no other charms. Quick. Blessing on your heart for't!

Fal. But, I pray thee, tell me this: has Ford's wife, and Page's wife, acquainted each other how they love me?

Quick. That were a jest, indeed!—they have not SO little grace, I hope:-that were a trick, indeed! But mistress Page would desire you to send her your little page of all loves 12; her husband has a marvellous infection to the little page; and, truly, master Page is an honest man. Never a wife in Windsor leads a better life than she does; do what she will, say what she will, take all, pay all, go to bed when she list, rise when she list, all is as she will; and, truly, she deserves it: for if there be a kind woman in Windsor, she is one. You must send her your page; no remedy.

Fal. Why, I will.

Quick. Nay, but do so then: and, look you, he may come and go between you both; and, in any case, have a nay word 13, that you may know one

12 Of all loves, is an adjuration only, and signifies no more than by all means, for the sake of all love. It is again used in Othello and in A Midsummer Night's Dream,

13 A watchword.

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