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Follow me, I'll tell you ftrange things of this knave Ford, on whom to night I will be reveng'd, and I will deliver his wife into your hand. Follow; ftrange things in hand, master Brook! follow,[Exeunt.

C

A C T V.

SCENE, Windfor Park.

Enter Page, Shallow, and Slender.

FAGE.

NOME, come; we'll couch i'th' caftle-ditch, 'till we fee the light of our fairies. Remember, fon Slender, my daughter.

Slen. Ay, forfooth, I have fpoke with her, and we have a nay-word how to know one another. I come to her in white, and cry, mum; fhe cries, budget; and by that we know one another.

Shal. That's good too; but what needs either your mum, or her budget? the white will decipher her well enough. It hath ftruck ten o'clock.

Page. The night is dark, light and fpirits will become it well; heav'n profper our fport! No man means evil but the devil, and we fhall know him by his horns. Let's away; follow me. [Exeunt Enter Mifres Page, Miftrefs Ford and Caius. Mrs. Page. Mr. Doctor, my daughter is in green; when you fee your time, take her by the hand, away with her to the Deanry, and difpatch it quickly; go before into the Park; we two must go together.

[Exit.

Caius. I know vat I have to do; adieu. Mrs. Page. Fare you well, Sir. My husband will not rejoice so much at the abufe of Falstaff, as he will chafe at the Doctor's marrying my daughter; but 'tis.

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no matter: better, a little chiding, than a great deal of heart-break.

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Mrs. Ford. Where is Nan now, and her troop of fairies, (18) and the Welch devil, Evans?

Mrs. Page. They are all couch'd in a pit hard by Herne's Oak, with obfcur'd lights; which, at the very initant of Falstaff's and our meeting, they will at once difplay to the knight.

Mrs. Ford. That cannot chufe but amaze him.

Mrs. Page. If he be not amaz'd, he will be mock'd; if he be amaz'd, he will every way be mock'd. Mrs. Ford. We'll betray him finely,

Mrs. Puge. Against fuch lewdfters and their lechery, Thofe, that betray them, do no treachery.

Mrs. Ford. The hour draws on; to the Oak, to the Oak. [Exeunt.

Enter Evans and Fairies.

Eva. Trib, trib, fairies; come, and remember your parts: be bold, I pray you; follow me into the pit and when I give the watch 'ords, do as I pid you; come, come; trib, trib. [Exeunt.

Enter Falftaff, with a Buck's bead on.

Fal. The Windfor bell hath ftruck twelve, the minute draws on; now, the hot blooded Gods affift me! Remember, Jove, thou waft a bull for thy Europa; love fet on thy horns. O powerful love! that, in fome respects, makes a beast a man; in fome other, a man a beast: You were also, Jupiter, a swan for the love of Leda :

(18) And the Welch Devil Herne?] Thus all the Impreffions have blunder'd after each other; but Falfiaff was to reprefent Herne, and he was no Welchman Where was the Attention, or Sagacity of our Editors, not to obferve that Mrs. Ford is inquiring for Evans, by the Name of the Welch Devil? The Miftake of the Word Herne getting into the Text, might eafily happen by the Inadvertence of Transcribers, who threw their Eyes too haftily on the fucceeding Line, where the Word again occurs. Dr. Thirlby likewife difcover'd the Blunder of this Paffage.

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Oh, omnipotent love! how near the God drew to the complexion of a goofe? A fault done firft in the form of a beaft, Jove, a beaftly fault; and then another fault in the femblance of a fowl:- think on't, Jove, a foul fault. When Gods have hot backs, what fhall poor men do? for me, I am here a Windfor ftag, and the fatteft, I think, i'th' foreft. Send me a cool ruttime, Jove, or who can blame me to pifs my tallow ? who comes here? my Doe?

Enter Miftrefs Ford and Mifres Page.

Mrs. Ford. Sir John? art thou there, my deer? my male-deer?

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Fal. My doe with the black fcut? let the fky y rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green-Sleeves 3 hail kiffing-comfits, and fnow eringoes; let there come a tempeft of provocation, I will shelter me here.

Mrs. Ford. Miftrefs Page is come with me, fweet heart.

Fal. (19) Divide me like a bribe-buck, each a haunch; I will keep my fides to myself, my shoulders for the fellow of this walk, and my horns I bequeath your hufbands. Am I a woodman, ha? Speak I like Herne the hunter? why, now is Cupid a child of confcience, he makes restitution. As I am a true spirit, welcome!

Mrs. Page. Alas! what noife?
Mrs. Ford. Heav'n forgive our fins!

Fal. What fhould this be?

Mrs. Ford.

Mrs. Page. Away, away.

[Noife within.

[The women run out. Fal. I think the devil will not have me damn'd, left the oil that is in me fhould fet hell on fire; he never would elfe cross me thus.

(19) Divide me like a brib'd-Buck,] Thus all the old Copies, miltakingly: It must be bribe-buck; i, e. a Buck fent for a Bribe.

Enter

Enter Sir Hugh like a Satyr; Quickly, and others, dreft like Fairies, with Tapers.

Quic. Fairies, black, gray, green, and white,
You moon-fhine revellers, and fhades of night,
You Ouphen heirs of fixed deftiny, (20)
Attend your office, and your quality.

Crier hobgoblin, make the fairy o-yes.

Eva. Elves, lift your names; filence, you airy toys. Cricket, to Windfor chimneys fhalt thou leap: Where fires thou find'ft unrak'd, and hearths unswept, There pinch the maids as blue as bilbery. Our radiant Queen hates fluts and fluttery.

Fal. They're fairies; he, that fpeaks to them, shall die. I'll wink and couch; no man their works must eye.

[Lyes down upon his face.

Eva. Where's Pede? go you, and where you find a maid. That, ere fhe fleep, hath thrice her prayers faid, Raife up the organs of her fantafy;

Sleep the as found as carelefs infancy;

But thofe, that sleep, and think not on their fins,

Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, fhoulders, fides and fhins, Quic. About, about;

Search Windfor caftle, elves, within and out.

Strew good luck, ouphes, on every facred room,
That it my ftand 'till the perpetual Doom,

In ftate as wholsom, as in state 'tis fit ;
Worthy the owner, as the owner it.
The feveral chairs of Order look you scour,
With juice of balm and ev'ry precious flow'r :

(20) You Orphan heirs of] Why, Orphan heirs? Destiny, to which they ow'd their Original, and to whom they were heirs, was yet in Being fure: therefore they could not be call'd Orphans. Doubtlefs, the Poet wrote:

You Ouphen beirs of fixed Deftiny.

i. e. You Elves, Works of Deftiny. Play, Ouths; here, plural Nouns.

that fucceed to, and minifter in, fome of the
They are call'd both before and after, in this
Ouphen: for en is the Saxon Termination of
Mr. Warburton.

Each

Each fair Instalment-Coat and fev'ral Crest,
With loyal blazon evermore be bleft!
And nightly-meadow-fairies, look, you fing,
Like to the Garter-compass, in a ring
Th' expreffure that it bears, green let it be,
More fertile-fresh than all the field to fee;
And, Hony Soit Qui Mal y Penfe write,

In emrold-tuffs, flow'rs purple, blue and white,
Like faphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair Knight-hood's bending knee;
Fairies ufe flow'rs for their charactery.
Away, difperfe; but, 'till 'tis one o'clock,
Our dance of cuftom round about the Oak
Of Herne, the hunter, let us not forget.

}

Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand, yourfelves in order fet:

And twenty glow-worms fhall our lanthorns be,
To guide our measure round about the tree.
But ftay, I fmell a man of middle earth.

Fal. Heav'ns defend me from that Welch fairy, left he transform me to a piece of cheese!

Eva. Vild worm, thou waft o'er-look'd ev'n in thy birth.
Quic. With trial-fire touch me his finger-end;

If he be chafte, the flame will back defcend,
And turn him to no pain; but if he start,

It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.

Eva. A trial, come.-

[They burn him with their tapers, and pinch him.

Come, will this wood take fire."

Fal. Oh, oh, oh!

Quic. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in defire;
About him, fairies, fing a fcornful rhime:
And, as you trip, ftill pinch him to your time.

Eva. (21) It is right, indeed, he is full of leacheries and iniquity.

(21) Eva. It is right, indeed:] This fhort Speech, which is very much in Character for Sir Hugh, I have inferted from the old Quarto.

The

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