ly? I hear not of him in the Court: let me speak with the gentlemen; they fpeak English?

Bard. Sir, I'll call them to you.

Hoft. They fhall have my horfes, but I'll make them pay, I'll fawce them. They have had my house a week at command; I have turn'd away my other guests; (22) they must compt off; I'll fawce them, come. [Exeunt. SCENE changes to Ford's house.

Enter Page, Ford, Miftrefs Page, Miftrefs Ford, and Evans.

Eva.'TIS

Eva."TIS one of the best discretions of a o'man, 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 wilt;

I rather will suspect the fun with cold,

Than thee with wantonnefs; thy honour stands,
In him that was of late an heretick,

As firm of faith.

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

Be not as extream in fubmiffion, as in offence;
But let our Plot go forward: let our wives
Yet once again, to make us publick fport,
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 spoke
of.

Page. How? to fend him word they'll meet him in the Park at midnight? fie, fie, he'll never come.

(22)-they must come off.] This can never be our Poet's, or his Hoft's, Meaning: to come off, is, in other Terms, to go fcot-free; But thefe Germans had taken up the Hoft's houfe, and he was refolv'd to make them pay for it. We must certainly, therefore, read, they must compt off: i. e. they must pay off the Accompt, or, as we now fay, down with their Pence. Mr. Warburton.

VOL. I.

Eva.

Eva. You fay, he hath been thrown into the river; and has been grievously peaten, as an old o'man; methinks, there fhould be terrors in him, that he should not come; methinks, his flesh is punish'd, he shall have no defires.

Page. So think I too.

Mrs. Ford. Devife 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 cattel;
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain
In a moft hideous and dreadful manner.

You've heard of fuch a Spirit; 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, (23) 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?

(23) Mrs. Ford. Marry, this is our Device,

That Falstaff at that Oak fhall meet with us.

Page. Well; let it not be doubted, but he'll come.

And in this Shape when you have brought him thither,] Thus this Paffage has been tranfmitted down to us, from the Time of the first Edition by the Players: But what was this Shape, in which Falstaff was to be appointed to meet? For the women have not faid one Word to afcertain it. This makes it more than fufpicious, the Defect in this Point must be owing to fome wife Retrenchment. The two intermediate Lines, which I have reftor'd from the old Quarto, are abfolutely neceffary, and clear up the matter.

Mrs.

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 drefs
Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white,
With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads,
And rattles in their hands; upon a sudden,
As Falstaff, fhe, and I, are newly met,
Let them from forth a faw-pit rush at once
With fome diffused 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 prophane?

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 our felves; 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.

Eva. I will teach the children their behaviours; and I will be like a jack-anapes also, to burn the Knight with my taper.

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 tire (24)

(24) That Silk will I go buy, and in that time

Shall Mr. Slender feal, &c.] What! muft Slender fteal Mrs. Anne, while her Father goes to buy the Silk fhe was to be drefs'd in? This was no part of the Scheme. Her Garb was to be the Signal for Slender to know her by. The Alteration of a fingle Letter gives us the Poet's Reading. Tire is as common with our Poet, and other Writers of his Age, as Attire; to fignify, Drefs. And my Emendation is clearly jultified, by what Fenton afterwards tells the Hoft.

Her Father means She shall be all in white,
And in that Drefs, when Slender fees his time
To take her by the Hand, &c,
U 2

Shall

Shall Mr. Slender fteal my Nan away, [Afide. And marry her at Eaton. Go, fend to Falstaff straight. 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 pleafures, and ferry honeft knaveries. [Ex. Page, Ford and Evans.

Mrs. Page. Go, Mrs. Ford,
Send Quickly to Sir John, to know his mind. (25)

[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 mony'd, and his friends
Potent at Court; he, none but he fhall have her;
Tho' twenty thousand worthier came to crave her.

[Exit.

SCENE changes to the Garter-Inn.

Hoft.W

Enter Holt and Simple.

HAT would'st thou have, boor? what, thick-skin? fpeak, breathe, difcufs; brief,

fhort, quick, fnap.

Simp. Marry, Sir, I come to fpeak with Sir John Falstaff, from Mr. Slender.

Hoft. There's his chamber, his houfe, his caftle, his standing-bed and truckle-bed; 'tis painted about with the ftory of the Prodigal, fresh and new; go, knock and call, he'll fpeak like an anthropophaginian unto thee: knock, I fay.

Simp. There's an old woman, a fat woman gone up

(25) Send quickly to Sir John, to know his mind] The whole Set of printed Copies downwards have funk our Messenger here into an Adverb. Dame Quickly is the Perfon intended to be fent to Sir John; and accordingly when we next find her with him, She tells him, She comes from the two parties; viz. Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page.

into his chamber; I'll be fo bold as ftay, Sir, 'till fhe come down; I come to speak with her, indeed.

Hoft. Ha! a fat woman? the Knight may be robb'd: I'll call. Bully-Knight! bully-Sir John! fpeak from thy lungs military: art thou there? it is thine Host, thine Ephefian calls.

Falstaff, above.

Fal. How now, mine Hoft?

Hoft. Here's a Bohemian-Tartar tarries the coming down of thy fat woman: let her defcend, bully, let her defcend; my chambers are honourable. Fie, privacy? fie!

Enter Falftaff.

Fal. There was, mine Hoft, an old fat woman even now with me, but she's gone.

Simp. Pray you, Sir, was't not the wife woman of Brainford?

Fal. Ay, marry was it, muffel-fhell, what would you with her?

Simp. My mafter, Sir, my master Slender fent to her, feeing her go thro' the street, to know, Sir, whether one Nym, Sir, that beguil'd him of a chain, had the chain, or no.

Fal. I fpake with the old woman about it.

Simp. And what fays fhe, I pray, Sir?

Fal. Marry, the fays, that the very fame man, that beguil'd mafter Slender of his chain, cozen'd him of it. Simp. I would, I could have spoken with the woman her felf; I had other things to have spoken with her too, from him.

Fal. What are they? let us know.
Hoft. Ay, come; quick.

Simp. I may not conceal them, Sir.

Fal. Conceal them, or thou dy't.

Simp. Why, Sir, they were nothing but about miftrefs Anne Page; to know, if it were my master's fortune to have her or no.

Fal. 'Tis, 'tis his fortune.

Simp. What, Sir?

Fal. To have her, or no: go; fay, the woman told

me fo.

U 3

Simp.