Away; difperfe: But, till 'tis one o'clock,

Our dance of custom, round about the oak
Of Herne the hunter, let us not forget. [order fet:
Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand; yourselves in
And twenty glow-worms fhall our lanthorns be,
To guide our measure round about the tree.
But, stay; I smell a man of middle 2 earth.

Fal. Heavens defend me from that Welch fairy!
Left he transform me to a piece of cheese! [birth.
Eva. Vile worm, thou wast o'erlook'd even in thy
Quic, With trial-fire touch me his finger end:
If he be chafte, the flame will back descend,
And turn him to no pain; but if he start,
It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.

Evz. A trial, come.-

Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never meet. I will never take you for my love again, but I will always count you my deer.

Fal. I do begin to perceive that I am made an ass.

Ford. Ay, and an ox too; both the proofs are

extant.

Fal. And these are not fairies? I was three or four times in the thought they were not fairies : and yet the guiltiness of my mind, the sudden furprize of my powers, drove the groffness of the. foppery into a receiv'd belief, in despight of the teeth of all rhime and reason, that they were fairies. See now, how wit may be made a Jack-alent 5, when 'tis upon ill employment!

Eva. Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave

[They bu 'n bim with their tapers, and pinch him. your defires, and fairies will not pinse you.

Come, will this wood take fire?

Fal. Oh, oh, oh!

Quic. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in defire!

About him, fairies; fing a scornful rhime:
And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time.

Eva. It is right; indeed, he is full of leacheries and iniquity.

The SONG,

Fie on fuful phantafy!

Fie on luft and luxury 3!

Luft is but a blody fire 4,

Kindled with unchaste defire,

Fed in heart; whose flames afpire,

As thoughts

do blow

them,

higher

and bigber.

Pinch bim, fairies, mutually :
Pinch him for bis villainy;

Pinch bim, and bu'n bim, and turn him about,
'Till candles, and star-light, and moon-fhine be out.
[During this fong, they pinch bim. Doctor Caius comes

Ford. Well faid, fairy Hugh.

Eva. And leave your jealoufies alfo, I pray you.
Ford. I will never mistrust my wife again, till

thou art able to woo her in good English.

Fal. Have I lay'd my brain in the fun, and dried it, that it wants matter to prevent fo gross o'erreaching as this? Am I ridden with a Welch goat too? shall I have a coxçomb of frize 6? 'tis time I were choak'd with a piece of toafted cheese.

Eva. Seefe is not good to give putter; your pelly is all putter.

Fal. Seefe and putter! have I liv'd to stand in the taunt of one that makes fritters of English? this is enough to be the decay of luft and latewalking, through the realm.

Mrs. Page. Why, fir John, do you think, though we would have thruft virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders, and have given. ourselves without fcruple to hell, that ever the

one way, and steais away a fairy in green; Slen-devil could have made you our delight?

der another way, and be takes away a fairy in
white; and Fenton comes, and steals away Mrs.
Anne Page. A noise of bunting is made within.
All the fairies run away. Falstaff pulls off bis
buck's bead, and rifes.]

Enter Page, Ford, &c. They lay bold on bim.
Page. Nay, do not fly: I think, we have

watch'd you now;

Will none but Herne the hunter serve your turn?
Mrs. Page. I pray you come; hold up the jeft
no higher :-

Now, good fir John, how like you Windfor wives?
See you these, husband do not these fair yoaks

Ford. What, a hodge-pudding a bag of flax?
Mrs. Page. A puff'd man?

Pags. Old, cold, wither'd, and of intolerable

entrails?

1

Ford. And one that is as flanderous as Satan?
Page. And as poor as Job ?

Ford. And as wicked as his wife?

Eva. And given to fornications, and to taverns, and facks, and wines, and metheglins, and to drinkings, and swearings, and ftarings, pribbles and prabbles?

Fal. Well, I am your theme; you have the (start of me; I am dejected; I am not able to an

Or the matter with which they make letters. 2 Spirits being supposed to inhabit the ætherial regions, and fairies to dwell under ground, men therefore are in a middle station. 3 Luxury here. fignifies incontinence. 4 That is, the fire in the blood. 5 A Jack o' Lent was a puppet thrown at in Lent, like Shrove-tide cocks, That is, a fool's cap made out of Welch cloth.

fwer

73

fwer the Weich flannel; ignorance itself is a zen'd; I ha' married un garcon, a boy; un paifan, plummet o'er me 2: use me as you will. by gar, a boy; it is not Anne Page: by gar, I am cozen'd.

Mrs. Page. Why, did you not take her in

Ford. Marry, fir, we'll bring you to Windfor, to one mafter Brook, that you cozened of money, to whom you should have been a pandar: over green? and above that you have fuffer'd, I think, to repay that money will be a biting affliction. [amends: Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to make Forgive that fum, and fo we'll all be friends.

Ford. Well, here's my hand; all's forgiven at last. Page. Yet be cheerful, knight thou shalt eat a poffet to-night at my house; where I will defire thee to laugh at my wife, that now laughs at thee: Tell her, mafter Slender hath married her daughter.

Mrs. Page. Doctors doubt that; if Anne Page be my daughter, she is, by this, doctor Caius wife. [Afide.

Enter Slender.

Sier. Whoo, ho! ho! father Page!

Page. Son! how now? how now, fon? have you difpatch'd?

Slen. Difpatch'd!-I'll make the best in Glocestershire know on 't; would I were hang'd, la,

elfe.

Page. Of what, fon?

Slen. I came yonder at Eaton to marry mistress Anne Page, and the's a great lubberly boy: If it had not been i' the church, I would have swing'd him, or he should have twing'd me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never stir, and 'tis a poft-master's boy.

Page. Upon my life then you took the wrong.
Slen. What need you tell me that? I think fo,

Caius. Ay, be gar, and 'tis a boy: be gar, I'lf raise all Windfor. [Exit Caius. Ford. This is strange; Who hath got the right Anne?

Page. My heart mifgives me:-Here comes mafter Fenton.

Enter Fenton and Anne Page.

How now, master Fenton ?

Anne. Pardon, good father! good my mother, pardon!

Page. Now, mistress, how chance you went not with mafter Slender?

Mrs. Page. Why went you not with master doctor, maid?

Fent. You do amaze her: Hear the truth of it.
You would have married her most shamefully,
Where there was no proportion held in love.
The truth is, She and I, long fince contracted,
Are now fo fure, that nothing can diffolve us.
The offence is holy, that the hath committed:
And this deceit lofes the name of craft,
Of difobedience, or unduteous title.
Since therein she doth evitate and shun
A thoufand irreligious curfed hours,
Which forced marriage would have brought upon

[her.

Ford. Stand not amaz'd: here is no remedy :In love, the heavens themselves do guide the state; Money buys lands, and wives are fold by fate.

Fal. I am glad, though you have ta'en a special when I took a boy for a girl; If I had been mar-stand to strike at me, that your arrow hath glanc'd. Page. Well, what remedy? Fenton, heaven give thee joy!

ried to him, for all he was in woman's apparel, 1 would not have had him.

Page. Why, this is your own folly: Did not I tell you, how you should know my daughter by her garments ?

Slon. I went to her in white, and cry'd mum, and the cry'd budget, as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a poft-mafter's boy. Eva. Jeshu! Master Slender, cannot you fee but marry poys?

Page. O, I am vex'd at heart: What shall I do? Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry; I knew of your purpose; turn'd my daughter into green ; and, indeed, she is now with the doctor at the deanery, and there married.

Enter Gajus.

Caius. Vere is mistress Page? By gar, I am co

What cannot be eschew'd, must be embrac'd.
Eva. I will dance and eat plums at your wedding.
Fal. When night-dogs run, all forts of deer are
chac'd.

Mrs. Page. Well, I will muse no further:-Master
Fenton,

Heaven give you many, many merry days!
Good hutband, let us every one go home,
And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire;
Sir John and all.

Ford. Let it be fo:-Sir John,
To mafter Brook you yet shall hold your word;
For he, to-night, shall lye with mistress Ford.

[Exeunt omnes,

■ Flannel was originally the manufacture of Wales. 2 On the meaning of this difficult passage commentators are greatly divided. Dr. Farmer's conjecture, that we should read, "Ignorance itself ig a planet o'er me," appears to be the most intelligible,

1 1

:

Dake.

SCENE

The Duke's Palace.

ACT

I.

Enter Duke, Efcalus, and Lords.

My lord.

Duke. Of government the properties to unfold, Would feem in me to affect speech and discourse; Since I am put to know, that your own fcience, Exceeds, in that, the lifts of all advice

I,

But that your fufficiency, as your worth is able,
And let them work 4. The nature of our people,
Our city's inftitutions, and the terms

For common justice, you are as pregnant 5 in,
As art and practice hath enrich'd any
That we remember: There is our commiffion,
From which we would not have you warp. Call
I say, bid come before us Angelo.-
What figure of us think you he will bear?
For you must know, we have with special foul 6

My strength can give you: Then no more remains, Elected him our abience to fupply;

[hither,

1 The story of this play is taken from the Promos and Caffandra of George Whetstone, published in 1578, and which was probably originally borrowed from Cinthio's Novels. 2 Meaning, I ain obliged to acknowledge. 3 Limits. 4 This passage has much exercised the fagacity of different editors. Theobald is of opinion, that either from the impertinence of the actors, or the negligence of the copyifts, it has come mutilated to us by a line being accidentally left out, and proposes te read thus:

:

-Then no more remains,
But that to your fufficiency you add
Due diligency, as your worth is able,
And let them work.

Sir Tho. Hanmer endeavours to fupply the deficiency as follows:
Then no more remains,

But that to your fufficiency you join
A will to ferve us, as your worth is able.

Dr. Warburton is for reading, instead of But that, Put to your fufficiency, which he says here means authority, and then the sense will be as follows: Put your skill in governing (fays the duke) to the power which I give you to exercise it, and let them work together. Dr. Johnfon, however, approves neither of Theobald's conjecture, nor of Warburton's amendment, 5 That is, ready, or knowing

• That is, of special favour or affection,

Lent him our terror, drest him with our love;
And given his deputation all the organs
Of our own power: What think you of it?
Efcal. If any in Vienna be of worth
To undergo fuch ample grace and honour,
It is lord Angelo.

Enter Angelo.

Duke. Look where he comes.

Ang. Always obedient to your grace's will, I come to know your pleasure.

Duke. Angelo,

There is a kind of character in thy life,
That, to the obferver, doth thy hiftory
Fully unfold Thyself and thy belongings
Are not thine own fo proper1, as to waste
Thyfelf upon thy virtues, them on thee.
Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do;
Not light them for themselves for if our virtues
Did not go forth with us, 'twere all alike
As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd,
But to fine iffues: nor nature never 3 lends
The fmalleft fcruple of her excellence,
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and ufe. But I do bend my speech
To one that can my part in him advertise 4:
Hold therefore Angelo 5:

In our remove, be thou at full ourself:
Mortality and mercy in Vienna

Live in thy tongue and heart: Old Efcalus,
Though first in question, is thy fecondary.
Take thy commitlion.

Ang. Now, good my lord,
Let there be fome more test made of my metal,
Before fo noble and fo great a figure
Be ftamp'd upon it.

Duke. No more evafion:

We have with a leaven'd 7 and prepared choice
Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.
Qur hafte from hence is of fo quick condition,
That it prefers itself, and leaves unquestion'd
Matters of needful value. We shall write to you,
As time and our concernings shall importune,
How it goes with us, and do look to know
What doth befall you here. So, fare you well:
To the hopeful execution do I leave you
Of your commiffions.

Ang. Yet, give leave, my lord,
That we may bring you fomething on the way.

Duke. My hafte may not admit it;
Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do
With any fcruple: your scope & is as mine own;
So to inforce, or qualify the laws,
As to your foul feems good. Give me your hand;
1'll privily away: I love the people,

But do not like to stage me to their eyes;

1 Gent. Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain and all the rest from their functions; they put forth to iteal: There's not a foldier of us all, that, in the thankfsgiving before mear, doth relish the petition well that prays for peace.

2 Gent. I never heard any foldier diflike it. Lucio. I believe thee; for, I think, thou never waft where grace was faid.

2 Gent. No? a dozen times at leaft.

1 Gent. What? in metre??

Lucio. In any proportion, or in any language. 1 Gent. I think, or in any religion.

Lucio. Ay! why not? Grace is grace, defpight of all controverfy: As for example, Thou thyfelf art a wicked villain, despight of all grace.

I Gent. Well, there went but a pair of sheers between us 11.

Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lifts and the velvet: Thou art the lift.

1 Gent. And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou art a three-pil'd piece, I warrant thee; I had as lief be a lift of an English kersey, as be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet. Do I speak feelingly now?

Lucio. I think thou doft; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy fpeech: I will, out of thine

That is, are not fo much thy own property. 2 To great confequences. 3 Two negatives not ufed to make an affirmative, are common in Shakspeare's plays. 4 That is, one that can inform hir self of that which otherwise it would be my part to tell him. 5 That is, continue to he Angelo. That is, firit appointed. 7 A leavened choice means a choice not hatty, but confiderate.

8 That is. Your fullness of power. 9 There are metrical graces in the Primers, which probably were ufed in Shakspeare's time. to That is, in any form. 11 Meaning, we are both of the fame piece.