Enter FORD.

How now, master Brook? Master Brook, the matter will be known to-night, or never. Be you in the Park about midnight, at Herne's oak, and you shall see wonders.

FORD. Went you not to her yesterday, sir, as you told me you had appointed?

FAL. I went to her, master Brook, as you see, like a poor old man: but I came from her, master Brook, like a poor old woman. That same knave, Ford her husband, hath the finest mad devil of jealousy in him, master Brook, that ever governed frenzy. I will tell you.-He beat me grievously, in the shape of a woman; for in the shape of man, master Brook, I fear not Goliath with a weaver's beam; because I know also, life is a shuttle. I am in haste; go along with me; I'll tell you all, master Brook. Since I plucked geese, played truant, and whipped top, I knew not what it was to be beaten, till lately. Follow me: I'll tell you strange things of this knave Ford: on whom to-night I will be revenged, and I will deliver his wife into your hand.-Follow: Strange things in hand, master Brook! follow.

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turn two mincing steps

"Into a manly stride." STEEVENS.

[Exeunt.

So, in Stubbes's Anatomy of Abuses, Part II. sig. E 8: "And not onlie upon these things do they spend their goods, (or rather the goods of the poore,) but also in pride; their summum gaudium, and upon their dansing minions, that minse it full gingerlie God wot, tripping like gotes, that en egge wold not brek under their feet." MALONE.

8

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because I know also, LIFE IS A SHUTTLE.] An allusion to the sixth verse of the seventh chapter of the Book of Job: My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle," &c. STEEVENS. Since I PLUCKED GEESE,] To strip a living goose of his feathers, was formerly an act of puerile barbarity. STEEVENS.

9

SCENE II.

Windsor Park.

Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and Slender.

PAGE. Come, come; we'll couch i' the castleditch, till we see the light of our fairies.-Remember, son Slender, my daughter1.

SLEN. Ay, forsooth; I have spoke with her, and we have a nay-word 2, how to know one another. I come to her in white, and cry, mum; she 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 struck ten o'clock.

PAGE. The night is dark; light and spirits will become it well. Heaven prosper our sport! No man means evil but the devil 4, and we shall know him by his horns. Let's away; follow me.

[Exeunt.

I-my DAUGHTER.] The word daughter was inadvertently omitted in the first folio. The emendation was made by the editor of the second. MALONE.

2

--

a nay-word,] i. e. a watch-word. Mrs. Quickly has already used it in this sense. STEEVENS.

3

MUM; she cries, BUDGET;] These words appear to have been in cominon use before the time of our author: "And now if a man call them to accomptes, and aske the cause of al these their tragical and cruel doings, he shall have a short answer with mum budget, except they will peradventure allege this," &c. Oration against the unlawful Insurrections of the Protestants, bl. 1. 8vo. 1615, sign. C 8. REED.

4

We

No MAN means evil but the devil,] This is a double blunder; for some, of whom this was spoke, were women. should read then, No one means. WARBURTON.

There is no blunder. In the ancient interludes and moralities, the beings of supreme power, excellence, or depravity, are occasionally styled men. So, in Much Ado About Nothing, Dogberry

SCENE III.

The Street in Windsor.

Enter Mrs PAGE, Mrs. FORD, and Dr. CAIUS. MRS. PAGE. Master Doctor, my daughter is in green when you see your time, take her by the hand, away with her to the deanery, and dispatch it quickly: Go before into the park; we two must go together.

CAIUS. I know vat I have to do; Adieu.

MRS. PAGE. Fare you well, sir. [Exit CAIUS.] My husband will not rejoice so much at the abuse of Falstaff, as he will chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter: but 'tis no matter; better a little chiding, than a great deal of heart-break.

MRS. FORD. Where is Nan now, and her troop of fairies? and the Welch devil, Hugh?

says: "God's a good man." Again, in an Epitaph, part of which has been borrowed as an absurd one, by Mr. Pope and his associates, who were not very well acquainted with ancient phraseology:

"Do all we can,
"Death is a man

"That never spareth none." Again, in Jeronimo, or The First Part of the Spanish Tragedy, 1605:

"You're the last man I thought on, save the devil.”

STEEVENS.

Page indirectly alludes to Falstaff, who was to be disguised like Herne the hunter, with horns upon his head. MALONE.

5

and the Welch devil, HUGH?] The former impressions read-the Welch Devil, Herne? But Falstaff was to represent Herne, and he was no Welchman. Where was the attention or sagacity of our editors, not to observe that Mrs. Ford is enquiring for [Sir Hugh] Evans by the name of the Welch devil? Dr. Thirlby likewise discovered the blunder of this passage.

THEOBALD.

I suppose only the letter H. was set down in the MS. and

MRS. PAGE. They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's oak, with obscured lights; which, at the very instant of Falstaff's and our meeting, they will at once display to the night.

MRS. FORD. That cannot choose but amaze him. MRS. PAGE. If he be not amazed, he will be mocked; if he be amazed, he will every way be mocked.

MRS. FORD. We'll betray him finely.

MRS. PAGE, Against such lewdsters, and their lechery,

Those that betray them do no treachery.

MRS. FORD. The hour draws on; To the oak, to the oak! [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Windsor Park.

Enter Sir HUGH EVANS, and Fairies.

EVA. Trib, trib, fairies; come; and remember your parts: be pold, 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.

therefore, instead of Hugh, (which seems to be the true reading,) the editors substituted Herne. STEEVENS.

So, afterwards: "Well said, fairy Hugh." MALONE. 6 - in a PIT hard by HERNE'S OAK,] An oak, which may be that alluded to by Shakspeare, is still standing close to a pit in Windsor forest. It is yet shown as the oak of Herne. STEEVENS.

SCENE V.

Another Part of the Park.

Enter FALSTAFF disguised, with a Buck's Head on. FAL. The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; the minute draws on : Now, the hot-blooded gods assist me:-Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa; love set on thy horns.-O powerful love! that, in some respects, makes a beast a man; in some other, a man a beast.-You were also, Jupiter, a swan, for the love of Leda ;-O, omnipotent love! how near the god drew to the complexion of a goose-A fault done first in the form of a beast ;-O Jove, a beastly fault! and then another fault in the semblance of a fowl; think on't, Jove; a foul fault. When gods have hot backs, what shall poor men do"? For me, I am here a Windsor stag; and the fattest, I think, i' the forest: Send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to piss my tallow? Who comes here? my doe?

When gods have hot backs, what shall poor men do?] Shakspeare had perhaps in his thoughts the argument which Cherea employed in a similar situation. Ter. Eun. Act III. Sc. V. : Quia consimilem luserat

"Jam olim ille ludum, impendio magis animus gaudebat mihi "Deum sese in hominem convertisse, atque per alienas tegulas "Venisse clanculum per impluvium, fucum factum mulieri. "At quem deum? qui templa cœli summa sonitu concutit.

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Ego homuncio hoc non facerem? Ego vero illud ita feci, ac lubens."

A translation of Terence was published in 1598.

The same thought is found in Lyly's Euphues, 1580:-" I think in those days love was well ratified on earth, when lust was so full authorized by the gods in heaven." MALONE.

8

Send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to PISS MY TALLOw?] This, I find, is technical. In Turberville's Booke of Hunting, 1575: "During the time of their rut, the