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ACT I.

Before Page's House.

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Slen. I may quarter, coz?
Shal. You may, by marrying.
Eva. It is marring indeed, if he quarter it.
Shal. Not a whit.

Eva. Yes, py'r 3 lady; if he has a quarter of your coat, there is but three skirts for yourself, in my simple conjectures: but this is all one: If Sir John Falstaff have committed disparagements unto you, I am of the church, and will be glad to do my benevolence, to make atonements and compromises between you.

Shal. The Council shall hear it; it is a riot.

Eva. It is not meet the Council hear a riot; there is no fear of Got in a riot; the Council, look you. shall desire to hear the fear of Got, and not to hear a riot; take your vizaments in that.

Shal. Ha! o' my life, if I were young again, the sword should end it.

Eva. It is petter that friends is the sword, and end it: and there is also another device in my prain, which, peradventure, prings goot discretions with it: There is Anne Page, which is daughter to master George Page, which is pretty virginity.

Slen. Mistress Anne Page? She has brown hair, and speaks small like a woman.

Eva. It is that fery person for all the 'orld, as just as you will desire: and seven hundred pounds of monies, and gold, and silver, is her grandsire.

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upon his death's bed, give, when she is able to overtake seventeen years old: it were a goot motion, if we leave our pribbles and prabbles, and desire a marriage between master Abraham and mistress Anne Page.

Shal. Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?

Eva. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny. Shal. I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts.

Eva. Seven hundred pounds, and possibilities, is good gifts.

Shal. Well, let us see honest master Page: Is Falstaff there?

Eva. Shall I tell you a lie? I do despise a liar, as I do despise one that is false; or as I despise one that is not true. The knight, sir John, is there; and, I beseech you, be ruled by your wellwillers. I will peat the door [knocks] for master Page. What, hoa! pless your house here! Enter PACE.

Page. Who's there?

Eva. Here's your friend, and justice Shallow: and here young master Slender; that peradventures shall tell you another tale, if matters grow to your likings.

Page. I am glad to see your worships well: I thank you for my venison, master Shallow.

Shal. Master Page, I am glad to see you; Much good do it your good heart! I wished your venison better; it was ill-kill'd:- How doth good mistress Page? - and I love you always with my heart, la; with my heart.

Page. Sir, I thank you.

Shal. Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, I do. Page. I am glad to see you, good master Slender. Slen. How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I heard say he was outrun on Cotsale. 5

fault: :

Page. It could not be judg'd, sir. Slen. You'll not confess, you'll not confess. Shal. That he will not; 'tis your fault, 'tis your 'Tis a good dog. Page. A cur, sir. Shal. Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog; Can there be more said? he is good, and fair. - Is sir John Falstaff here? Page. Sir, he is within; and I would I could do a good office between you.

Eva. It is spoke as a Christian ought to speak. Shal. He hath wrong'd me, master Page. Page. Sir, he doth in some sort confess it. Shal. If it be confess'd, it is not redress'd; is not that so, master Page? He hath wrong'd me; indeed, he hath ; —at a word, he hath ;-believe me; Robert Shallow, esquire, saith, he is wrong'd. Page. Here comes sir John.

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Eva. Pauca verba, sir John, good worts. Fal. Good worts! good cabbage. — Slender, I broke your head; What matter have you against me?

Slen. Marry, sir, I have matter in my head against you; and against Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol. They carried me to the tavern, and made me drunk, and afterwards picked my pocket. Bar. You Banbury cheese! 7 Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Pist. How, now, Mephostophilus ? 8
Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Nym. Slice, I say! pauca, pauca; slice! that's my humour.

Slen. Where's Simple, my man? - can you tell, cousin?

Eva. Peace: I pray you! Now let us understand: There is three umpires in this matter as I understand: that is-master Page, fidelicet, master Page; and there is myself, fidelicet, myself; and the three party is, lastly and finally, mine host of the Garter.

Page. We three, to hear it, and end it between them. Eva. Fery goot: I will make a prief of it in my note-book; and we will afterwards 'ork upon the cause, with as great discreetly as we can. Fal. Pistol,

Pist. He hears with ears.

Eva. What phrase is this, He hears with ear? Why, it is affectations.

Fal. Pistol, did you pick master Slender's purse? Slen. Ay, by these gloves, did he, (or I would I might never come in mine own great chamber again else,) of seven groats in mill-sixpences, and two Ed

ward shovel-boards, that cost me two shillings and two pence a-piece of Yead Miller, by these gloves. Fal. Is this true, Pistol?

Eva. No; it is false, if it is a pick-purse. Pist. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner! — Sir John, and master mine,

I combat challenge of this latten bilbo : 1
Word of denial in thy labras here;
Word of denial; froth and scum, thou liest.

Slen. By these gloves, then 'twas he.

Nym. Be advised, sir, and pass good humours: I will say, marry trap, with you if you run the nut hook's 3 humour on me; that is the very note of it.

Slen. By this hat, then he in the red face had it: for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass.

Fal. What say you, Scarlet and John? Bard. Why, sir, for my part, I say, the gentleman had drunk himself out of his five sentences.

Eva. It is his five senses: fie, what the ignorance is!

Bard. And being fap 4, sir, was, as they say, cashier'd; and so conclusions pass'd the careires.5

Slen. Ay, you spake in Latin then too: but 'tis no matter: I'll ne'er be drunk whilst I live again, but in honest, civil, godly company, for this trick: if I be drunk, I'll be drunk with those that have

the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves. Eva. That is a virtuous mind.

Fal. You hear all these matters denied, gentlemen; you hear it.

6 Worts was the ancient name of all the cabbage kind

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Mistress

Enter Mistress ANNE PAGE with wine; FORD and Mistress PAGE following. Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within. [Erit ANNE PAGE. Slen. O heaven! this is mistress Anne Page. Page. How now, mistress Ford? Fal. Mistress Ford, by my troth, you are very well met: by your leave, good mistress. [Kissing her. Page. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome: Come, we have a hot venison pasty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.

[Exeunt all but SHAL. SLENDER, and EVANS. Slen. I had rather than forty shillings, I had my book of Songs and Sonnets here:

Enter SIMPLE.

How now, Simple! where have you been? I must wait on myself, must I? You have not The Book of Riddles about you, have you?

Sim. Book of Riddles! why did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas ? 6

Shal. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word with you, coz; marry, this, coz; There is, as 'twere a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by sir Hugh here; Do you understand me? Slen. Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, I shall do that that is reason. Shal. Nay, but understand me.

Slen. So I do, sir.

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Eva. Give ear to his motions, master Slender : I will description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it.

Slen. Nay I will do as my cousin Shallow says: I pray you, pardon me; he's a justice of peace in his country, simple though I stand here.

Eva. But this is not the question; the question is concerning your marriage.

Shal. Ay, there's the point, sir.

Eva. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to mistress Anne Page.

Slen. Why, if it be so, I will marry her, upon any reasonable demands.

Eva. But can you affection the 'oman? Let us command to know that of your mouth, or of your lips; for divers philosophers hold, that the lips is parcel of the mouth; - Therefore, precisely, can you carry your good will to the maid?

Shal. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her? Slen. I hope, sir, I will do, as it shall become one that would do reason.

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Eva. Nay, you must speak possitable, if you can carry her your desires towards her.

Shul. That you must: Will you, upon good dowry, marry her?

Slen. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your request, cousin, in any reason.

Shal. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz ; what I do, is to pleasure you, coz: Can you love the maid?

Slen. I will marry her, sir, at your request; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married, and have more occasion to know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt; but if you say, marry her,

6 An intended blunder.

I will marry her, that I am freely dissolved, and dissolutely.

Eva. It is a fery discretion answer; save, the faul' is in the 'ort dissolutely: the 'ort is, according to our meaning, resolutely; his meaning is good. Shal. Ay, I think my cousin meant well. Slen. Ay, or else I would I might be hanged, la.

Re-enter ANNE PAGE.

Shal. Here comes fair mistress Anne: -Would I were young, for your sake, mistress Anne!

Anne. The dinner is on the table; my father desires your worships' company.

Shal. I will wait on him, fair mistress Anne.
Eva. I will not be absence at the grace.

[Exeunt SHALLOW and Sir H. EVANS. Anne. Wil't please your worship to come in, sir? Slen. No, I thank you, forsooth, heartily; I am very well.

Anne. The dinner attends you, sir.

Go, sirrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth: my cousin Shallow: [Erit SIMPLE.] A justice of a man: peace sometime may be beholden to his friend for my mother be dead: But what though? yet I live I keep but three men and a boy yet, till like a poor gentleman born.

they will not sit, till you come. Anne. I may not go in without your worship.

Slen. I'faith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much as though I did.

Anne. I pray you, sir, walk in.

Slen. I had rather walk here, I thank you: I bruised my shin the other day with playing at sword for a dish of stewed prunes; and, by my troth, I and dagger with a master of fence, three veneys 7 cannot abide the smell of hot meat since, Why do your dogs bark so? be there bears i'the town?

Anne. I think there are, sir; I heard them talked of.

Slen. I love the sport well; but I shall as soon quarrel at it, as any man in England : — You are afraid, you see the bear loose, are you not? Anne. Ay, indeed, sir.

Slen. That's meat and drink to me now: I have taken him by the chain: but, I warrant you, the seen Sackerson & loose, twenty times: and have women have so cried and shriek'd at it. that it pass'd 9: but women, indeed, cannot abide 'em ; they are very ill-favoured rough things.

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