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I find not what I feek, fhew no colour for my extremity; let me for ever be your table-sport; let them fay of me, as jealous as Ford, that fearch'd a hollow wall-nut for his wife's leman. Satisfy me once more, once more fearch with me.

Mrs Ford. What hoa, Mistress Page! come you, and the old woman down; my husband will come into the chamber.

Ford. Old woman; what old woman's that?

Mrs Ford. Why, it is my maid's aunt of Brainford. Ford. A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean; have I not forbid her my houfe? fhe comes of errands, does fhe? We are fimple men, we do not know what's brought to pafs under the profeffion of fortune-telling. She works by charms, by fpells, by th' figure; and fuch dawbry as this is beyond our element; we know nothing. Come down, you witch; you hag you, come down, I say.

Mrs Ford. Nay, good fweet hufband; good gentlemen, let him not strike the old woman.

SCENE V.

Enter Falstaff in women's cloaths, and Mrs Page. Mrs Page. Come, mother Prat, come, give me your hand

Ford. I'll Prat her. Out of my door, you witch! [Beats him.] you hag, you baggage, you poulcat, you runnion! out, out, out. I'll conjure you, I'll fortune-tell you. [Exit Fal. Mrs Page. Are you not afham'd? I think you have kill'd the poor woman.

Mrs Ford. Nay, he will do it.-'Tis a goodly credit for you.

Ford. Hang her, witch.

Eva. By yea and no, I think the 'oman is a witch indeed I like not when a'oman has a great peard; Ifpy a great peard under her muffler.

Ford. Will you follow, gentlemen? I beseech you, follow; fee but the iffue of my jealouly; if I cry out thus upon no trail, never truft me when I open again.

Page. Let's obey his humour a little further: come, gentlemen. [Exeunt. Mrs Page. Truft me, he beat him most pitifully. Mrs Ford. Nay, by th' mafs, that he did not; he beat him most unpitifully, methought.

Mrs Page. I'll have the cudgel hallow'd and hung o'er the altar; it hath done meritorious fervice.

Mrs Ford. What think you? may we, with the warrant of woman-hood, and the witness of a good confcience, pursue him with any further revenge?

Mrs Page. The spirit of wantonnefs is, fure, fcar'd out of him; if the devil have him not in feefimple, with fine and recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of waste, attempt us again.

Mrs Ford. Shall we tell our hufbands how we have ferv'd him?

Mrs Page. Yea, by all means; if it be but to fcrape the figures out of your husband's brain. If they can find in their hearts the poor unvirtuous fat knight fhall be any further afflicted, we two will ftill be the minifters.

Mrs Ford. I'll warrant they'll have him publicly fham'd; and, methinks, there would be no period to the jeft, fhould he not be publicly fham'd.

Mrs Page. Come to the forge with it, then shape it: I would not have things cool. [Exeunt.

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Bard. Sir, the German defires to have three of your horfes; the Duke himself will be to-morrow at court, and they are going to meet him.

Hoft. What duke fhould that be, comes fo fecretly? I hear not of him in the court: let me fpeak with the gentlemen; they speak English? Bard. Sir, I'll call them to you.

Heft They fhall have my horses, but I'll make them pay i'll fwace them. They have had my houfe a week at command; I have turn'd away my

other guests; they must come off; I'll fawce them;

come.

SCENE

VII.

Changes to Ford's House.

[Exeunt.

Enter Page, Ford, Mrs Page, Mrs Ford, and Evans.

Eva. 'Tis one of the best discretions of 'oman, as ever I did look upon.

Page. And did he fend you both these letters at an inftant?

Mrs Page. Within a quarter of an hour.

Ford. Pardon me, wife. Henceforth do what thou I rather will fufpect the fun with cold, [wilt; Than thee with wantonnefs; thy honour ftands, In him that was of late an heretic,

As firm as faith.

Page. 'Tis well; 'tis well; no more.

Be not as extream in submission, as in offence,
But let our plot go forward; let our wives
Yet once again, to make us public sport,
Appoint a meeting with this old fat fellow,
Where we may take him, and difgrace him for it.
Ford. There is no better way than that they
fpoke of.

Page. How? to fend him word they'll meet him in the park at midnight? fy, fy, he'll never come. Eva. You fay he hath been thrown into the river, and has been grievonfly peaten, as an old 'oman; methinks there fhould be terrors in him, that he fhould not come; methinks his flesh is punifh'd, he fhall have no defires.

Page. So think I too.

Mrs Ford. Devise but how you'll use him, when he comes;

And let us two devife to bring him thither.

Mrs Page. There is an old tale goes, that Herne the hunter,

Sometime a keeper here in Windfor foreft,
Doth all the winter-time, at ftill of midnight,
Walk round about an oak, with ragged horns ;
And there he blafts the tree, and takes the cattle;

And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a

chain

In a most hideous and dreadful manner.

You've heard of fuch a fpirit; and well you know The fuperftitious idle-headed Eld

Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age,

This tale of Herne the hunter for a truth.

Page. Why, yet there want not many that do fear, In deep of night, to walk by this Herne's oak; But what of this?

Mrs Ford. Marry this is our device,

That Falstaff at that oak fhall meet with us. We'll fend him word to meet us in the field, Difguis'd like Herne, with huge horns on his head. Page. Well, let it not be doubted but he'll come. And in this fhape when you have brought him thither,

What fhall be done with him? what is your plot? Mrs Page. That likewife we have thought upon, and thus:

Nan Page my daughter, and my little fon,

And three or four more of their growth, we'll dress
Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white,
With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads,
And rattles in their hands: upon a fudden,
As Falftaff, fhe, and I, are newly met,
Let them from forth a faw-pit rush at once
With fome diffufed fong: upon their fight,
We two, in great amazednefs, will fly;
Then let them all encircle him about,
And fairy-like to pinch the unclean knight;
And ask him why, that hour of fairy-revel,
In their fo facred paths he dares to tread
In fhape profane?

Mrs Ford. And 'till he tell the truth,
Let the fuppofed fairies pinch him round,
And burn him with their tapers.

Mrs Page. The truth being known,

We'll all prefent ourselves, dif-horn the fpirit,
And mock him home to Windfor.

Ford. The children must

Be practis'd well to this, or they'll ne'er do't.
VOL. III.

N

Eva. I will teach the children their behaviours; and I will be like a jack-an-apes alfo, to burn the knight with my taber.

Ford. This will be excellent. I'll go buy them vizards.

Mrs Page. My Nan fhall be the queen of all the fairies;

Finely attired in a robe of white.

Page. That filk will I go buy. And in that time Shall Mr Slender fteal my Nan away, And marry her at Eaton..

ftraight.

[Afide.

-Go, fend to Falstaff

Ford. Nay, I'll to him again in the name of Brook; he'll tell me all his purpose. Sure he'll come. Mrs Page. Fear not you that; go, get us properties and tricking for our fairies.

Eva. Let us about it; it is admirable pleasures, and ferry honest knaveries.

[Exeunt Page, Ford and Evans.

Mrs Page. Go, Mrs Ford,

Send Quickly to Sir John to know his mind.

[Exit Mrs Ford.

I'll to the Doctor; he hath my good will,
And none but he, to marry with Nan Page.
That Slender, tho' well landed, is an ideot;
And he my husband beft of all affects:
The doctor is well money'd, and his friends
Potent at court; he, none but he fhall have her;
Tho' twenty thousand worthier came to crave her.
[Exit.

SCENE VIII.

Changes to the Garter-Inn.

Enter Hoft and Simple.

Hoft. What wouldst thou have, boor? what, thick-skin? fpeak, breathe, difcufs; brief, fhort, quick, fnap.

Simp. Marry, Sir, I come to speak with Sir John Falftaff, from Mr Slender.

Hoft. There's his chamber, his house, his castle,

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