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Pist. Let vultures gripe thy guts !9 for gourd, and ful

lam holds,'

And high and low beguiles the rich and poor:

Tester I'll have in pouch, when thou shalt lack,
Base Phrygian Turk!

Nym. I have operations in my head, which be humours

of revenge.

Pist. Wilt thou revenge?

Nym. By welkin, and her star!

Pist. With wit, or steel?

Nym. With both the humours, I:

I will discuss the humour of this love to Page.
Pist. And I to Ford shall eke unfold,

How Falstaff, varlet vile,

His dove will prove, his gold will hold,

And his soft couch defile.

Nym. My humour shall not cool: I will incense Page to deal with poison; I will possess him with yellowness, for the revolt of mien is dangerous: that is my true humour.

Pist. Thou art the Mars of malcontents: I second thee; troop on.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

A Room in Dr CAIUS' house. Enter Mrs. QUICKLY, SIMPLE, and RUGBY

Quic. What; John Rugby!-I pray thee, go to the casement, and see if you can see my master, master Doctor Caius, coming: if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the house, here will be an old abusing of God's patience, and the king's English.

Rug. I'll go watch.

Quic. Go; and we'll have a posset for't soon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire. [Exit RUG.] An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale, [9] This hemistich is a burlesque on a passage in Tamburlaine, or The Scythian Shepherd, of which play a more particular account is given in one of the notes to Henry IV. Part II. Act II. STEEVENS.

[1] Fullam is a cant term for false dice, high and low. Torriano, in his Italian dictionary, interprets Pise by false dice, high and low men, high fullams and low fullams. WARBURTON.

Gourds were probably dice in which a secret cavity had been made; fullams those which had been loaded with a small bit of lead. High men and low men, which were likewise cant terms, explain themselves. High numbers on the dice, at hazard, are from five to twelve, inclusive; low, from aces to four. MALONE. [2] Yellowness is jealousy. JOHNSON.

way :( but no body Peter Simple, you

nor no breed-bate : his worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is something peevish that but has his fault ;-but let that pass. say your name is ?

Sim. Ay, for fault of a better.

Quic. And master Slender's your master?
Sim. Ay, forsooth.

Quic. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover's paring-knife?

Sim. No, forsooth: he hath but a little wee face,* with a little yellow beard; a Cain-coloured beard.

Quic. A softly-sprighted man, is he not?

Sim. Ay, forsooth: but he is as tall a man of his hands, as any is between this and his head; he hath fought with

a warrener.

Quic. How say you?O, I should remember him ; Does he not hold up his head, as it were? and strut in his gait ?

Sim. Yes, indeed, does he.

Quic. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse fortune!-Tell master parson Evans, I will do what I can for your master: Anne is a good girl, and I wish—

Re-enter RUGBY,

Rug. Out, alas! here comes my master.

Quic. We shall all be shent : Run in here, good young man; go into this closet. [Shuts SIMPLE in the closet.] He will not stay long.-What, John Rugby! John, what, John, I say!-Go, John, go, inquire for my master; I doubt, he be not well, that he comes not home :-and down, down, adown-a, &c. [Sings.

Enter Doctor CAIUS.

Pray

Caius. Vat is you sing? I do not like dese toys you, go and vetch me in my closet un boitier verd; a box, a green-a box; Do intend vat I speak? a green-a box.

[3] Bate is an obsolete word, signifying strife, contention. STEEVENS.

4 Wee, in the northern dialect, signifies very little. Thus, in the Scottish proverb that apologizes for a little woman's marriage with a big man :-" A wee mouse will creep under a mickle cornstack." COLLINS.

Little wee implies something extremely diminutive, and is a very common vulgar idiom in the North. Wee alone, has only the signification of little. Thus Cleveland:"A Yorkshire wee bit, longer than a mile."-The proverb is, a mile and a wee bit; i. e. about a league and a half. RITSON.

[5] Cain and Judas, in the tapestries and pictures of old, were represented with yellow beards. THEOBALD.

In an age, when but a small part of the nation could read, ideas were frequently borrowed from representations in painting or tapestry. STEEVENS. [6] Shent, i. e. scolded, roughly treated.

STEEVENS.

Boitier in French signifies a case of surgeon's instruments,

GREY

Quic. Ay, forsooth, I'll fetch it you. I am glad he went not in himself if he had found the young man, he would have been horn-mad.

[Aside.

Caius. Fe, fe, fe, fe! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. Je m'en vais à la Cour, la grande affaire.

Quic. Is it this, sir?

Caius. Oui; mettre le au mon pocket; Depeche, quickly-Vere is dat knave Rugby?

Quic. What, John Rugby! John!

Rug. Here, sir.

Caius. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby: Come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to de court.

Rug. 'Tis ready, sir, here in the porch.

Caius. By my trot, I tarry too long:-Od's me! Qu'ay j'oublié ? dere is some simples in my closet, dat I vill not for the varld I shall leave behind.

Quic. Ah me! he'll find the young man there, and be mad.

Caius. O diable, diable! vat is in my closet ?-Villaine ! larron!-Rugby, my rapier. [Pulling SIM. out.

Quic. Good master, be content.

Caius. Verefore shall I be content-a?

Quic. The young man is an honest man.

Caius. Vat shall de honest man do in my closet? dere is no honest man dat shall come in my closet.

Quic. I beseech you, be not so flegmatic; hear the truth of it: He came of an errand to me from parson Hugh. Caius. Vell.

Sim. Ay, forsooth, to desire her to

Quic. Peace, I pray you.

Caius. Peace-a your tongue :-Speak-a your tale. Sim. To desire this honest gentlewoman, your maid, to speak a good word to mistress Anne Page for my master, in the way of marriage.

Quic. This is all, indeed, la; but I'll ne'er put my finger in the fire, and need not.

Caius. Sir Hugh send-a you ?-Rugby, baillez me some paper-Tarry you a little-a while.

[Writes.

Quic. I am glad he is so quiet: if he had been thoroughly moved, you should have heard him so loud, and so melancholy;-But notwithstanding, man, I'll do your master what good I can and the very yea and the no is, the French doctor, my master,-I may call him my

master, look you, for I keep his house; and I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the beds, and do all myself;

Sim. 'Tis a great charge, to come under one body's hand. Quic. Are you avis'd o' that? you shall find it a great charge and to be up early and down late ;-but notwithstanding, (to tell you in your ear; I would have no words of it;) my master himself is in love with mistress Anne Page but notwithstanding that, I know Anne's mind,that's neither here nor there.

Caius. You jack'nape; give-a dis letter to sir Hugh ; by gar, it is a shallenge: I vill cut his troat in de park; and I vill teach a scurvy jack-a-nape priest to meddle or make you may be gone; it is not good you tarry here:-by gar, I vill cut all his two stones; by gar, he shall not have a stone to trow at his dog. [Exit SIM.

Quic. Alas, he speaks but for his friend.

Caius. It is no matter-a for dat:-do not you tell-a me, dat I shall have Anne Page for myself?by gar, I vill kill de Jack priest; and I have appointed mine host of de Jarterre to measure our weapon:-By gar, I vill myself have Anne Page.

Quic. Sir, the maid loves you, and all shall be well: we must give folks leave to prate: What, the goodjer !9

Caius. Rugby, come to de court vit me :-By gar, if I have not Anne Page, I shall turn your head out of my door-Follow my heels, Rugby. [Ex. CAI. & RUG.

Quie. You shall have An fool's-head of your own. No, I know Anne's mind for that: never a woman in Windsor knows more of Anne's mind than I do; nor can do more more than I do with her, I thank heaven.

Fenton. [Within.] Who's within there, ho?

Quic. Who's there, I trow? Come near the house, I pray you.

Enter FENTON.

Fent. How now, good woman; how dost thou ? Quic. The better, that it pleases your good worship to ask.

[8] Jack, in our author's time, was a term of contempt. 9 She means to say-" the goujere," i. e. morbus Gallicus, Mrs. Quickly scarcely ever pronounces a hard word rightly. year were in our author's time common corruptions of goujere; that age the word is as often written one way as the other.

MALONE.

STEEV.

Good jer and Good and in the books of MALONE.

Fent. What news? how does pretty mistress Anne? Quic. In truth, sir, and she is pretty, and honest, and gentle; and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by the way; I praise heaven for it.

Fent. Shall I do any good, thinkest thou? Shall I not lose my suit? 1

Quic. Troth, sir, all is in his hands above but notwithstanding, master Fenton, I'll be sworn on a book, she loves you-Have not your worship a wart above your eye?

Fent. Yes, marry, have I; what of that?

Quic. Well, thereby hangs a tale ;-good faith, it is such another Nan ;-but, I detest, an honest maid as ever broke bread:-We had an hour's talk of that wart ;-1 shall never laugh but in that maid's company !--But, indeed, she is given too much to allicholly and musing: But for you-Well, go to.

Fent. Well, I shall see her to-day: Hold, there's money for thee; let me have thy voice in my behalf: if thou seest her before me, commend me

Quic. Will I? I'faith, that we will: and I will tell your worship more of the wart, the next time we have confidence; and of other wooers.

Fent. Well, farewell; I am in great haste now. [Exit. Quic. Farewell to your worship.-Truly, an honest gentleman; but Anne loves him not; for I know Anne's mind as well as another does :-Out upon't! what have I forgot?

[Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE I.-Before PAGE's house. Enter Mistress PAGE with a letter.

Mrs. Page.

WHAT! have I 'scap'd love-letters in the holy-day time of my beauty, and am I now a subject for them? Let me [Reads.

see:

use

Ask me no reason why I love you; for though love reason for his precisian,' he admits him not for his

[1] By precisian is meant one who pretends to a more than ordinary degree of virtue and sanctity. On which account they gave this name to the puritans of that time. WARB.The character of a precision seems to have been very generally ridiculed in the time of Shakespeare. STEEVENS.

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