And burn him with their tapers.
Mrs. Page.

The truth being known,
We'll all present ourselves, dis-horn the spirit,
And mock him home to Windsor.
Ford.'

The children must
Be practised 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-an-apes also, to burn the knight with my taber.

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

Mrs. Page. My Nan shall be the queen of all the fairies,
Finely attired in a robe of white.
Page. That silk will I go buy ;-[Aside.] and in that

'tire
Shall master Slender steal

my
Nan

away,
And marry her at Eton. (To them.] Go, send to Falstaff

straight.
Ford. Nay, I'll to him again in 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 fery honest knaveries.

[Exeunt PAGE, FORD, and EvANS.
Mrs. Page. Go, mistress 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, though well landed, is an idiot;
And he my husband best of all affects :
The doctor is well money'd, and his friends
Potent at court: he, none but he, shall have her,
Though twenty thousand worthier come to crave her. [Exit.

4

..

adjective is altered to the adverb in the corr. fo. 1632. The old printer was doubtless in fault.

and in that 'TIRE] It is “in that time” in the folios, which can hardly be right, and Theobald altered time to “ ”tire” with more than plausibility : in the 4to, 1602, the words are,

“ in a robe of white
I'll clothe my daughter, and advertise Slender

To know her by that sign.”
What makes it more likely that “'tire” was the poet's word is the fact, that it is
used in the preceding line in the 4to; but time remains unaltered in the corr. fo.
1632.

SCENE V.

A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter Host and SIMPLE.

Host. What wouldst thou have, boor? what, thick-skin ? speak, breathe, discuss; brief, short, quick, snap.

Sim. Marry, sir, I come to speak with sir John Falstaff from master Slender.

Host. There's his chamber, his house, his castle, his standing-bed, and truckle-bed : ’tis painted about with the story of the prodigal, fresh and new. Go, knock and call; he'll speak like an Anthropophaginian unto thee: knock, I say. Sim. There's an old woman, a fat woman, gone up

into his chamber : I'll be so bold as stay, sir, till she come down ; I come to speak with her, indeed.

Host. Ha! a fat woman ? the knight may be robbed : I'll call.—Bully knight! Bully sir John ! speak from thy lungs military: art thou there? it is thine host, thine Ephesian, calls.

Fal. [ Above.] How now, mine host !

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

Enter FALSTAFF.

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

Sim. Pray you, sir, was’t not the wise woman of Brentford ?

Fal. Ay, marry, was it, muscle-shell: what would you with her ?

Sim. My master, sir, my master Slender, sent to her, seeing her go through the streets, to know, sir, whether one Nym, sir, that beguiled him of a chain, had the chain, or no.

Fal. I spake with the old woman about it.
Sim. And what says she, I pray, sir?

Fal. Marry, she says, that the very same man, that beguiled master Slender of his chain, cozened him of it.

VOL. I.

R

Sim. I would, I could have spoken with the woman herself: I had other things to have spoken with her too, from him.

Fal. What are they ? let us know.
Host. Ay, come: quick.
Fal. You may not conceal them, sir 5.
Host. Conceal them, and thou diest.

Sim. Why, sir, they were nothing but about mistress Anne Page; to know, if it were my master's fortune to have her,

me so.

a

Sim. May I be bold to say so, sir ?
Fal. Ay, sir, like who more bold • ?

Sim. I thank your worship. I shall make my master glad with these tidings.

[Exit SIMPLE. Host. Thou art clerkly, thou art clerkly, sir John. Was there a wise woman with thee?

Fal. Ay, that there was, mine host; one, that hath taught me more wit than ever I learned before in

my

life: and I paid nothing for it neither, but was paid for my learning.

Enter BARDOLPH. Bard. Out, alas, sir! cozenage; mere cozenage ! Host. Where be my horses ? speak well of them, varletto. Bard. Run away with by the cozeners?; for so soon as I

7

" I may

may not

" And

5 Fal. You may not conceal them, sir.] The folios make Falstaff say, not conceal them,” which must be an error, the remedy for which has usually been to transfer the speech to Simple ; but the old corrector of the folio, 1632, much more naturally substitutes “You " for 1, for why was Simple to say I conceal them?" It was Falstaff who was to compel disclosure, and the Host follows it up by the threat of death in case of concealment. Modern editors do not seem to understand the drift of the dialogue.

for
or,

in the next speech, is also from the corr. fo. 1632.

6 Ay, sir, LIKE who more bold ?] The expression "who more bold" seems to have been proverbial, and “like” is here used for as—“Ay, sir, as who more bold ?” i. e. as who may venture to be bolder ? This passage has caused some speculation, and Mr. Singer makes Falstaff confer a knighthood upon Simple, “Ay, sir Tike, who more bold ?”

7 Run away with by the cozeners ;]. This is the text in the corr. fo. 1632, the folio, 1623, omitting " by ;' and Mr. Singer, without a word to state from whence he derived the notion, says, “We should perhaps read “Run away with by the cozeners.'”

"

That he must have known that these very words were contained in our Vol. of “Notes and Emendations " is clear, because he blames us for a preceding note on the same page. If the obligation, trifling as it is, were worth in

66

8

came beyond Eton, they threw me off from behind one of them in a slough of mire; and set spurs, and away, like three German devils, three Doctor Faustuses ®.

Host. They are gone but to meet the duke, villain. Do not say, they be fled: Germans are honest men.

Enter Sir Hugh EVANS.
Eva. Where is mine host ?
Host. What is the matter, sir ?

Eva. Have a care of your entertainments: there is a friend of mine come to town tells me, there is three cousin germans, that has cozened all the hosts of Readings, of Maidenhead, of Colebrook, of horses and money. I tell you for good-will, look you : you are wise, and full of gibes and vlouting-stogs, and 'tis not convenient you should be cozened. Fare you well.

[Exit. Enter Doctor Caius. Caius. Vere is mine Host de Jarretière ?

Host. Here, master doctor, in perplexity, and doubtful dilemma. Caius. I cannot tell vat is dat; but it is tell-a me, dat you

. make grand preparation for a duke de Jarmany : by my trot, dere is no duke, dat de court is know to come. I tell you for good vill: adieu.

[Exit. Host. Hue and cry, villain ! go.—Assist me, knight; I am

, undone.-Fly, run; hue and cry, villain! I am undone !

[Exeunt Host and BARDOLPH. Fal. I would all the world might be cozened, for I have been cozened, and beaten too. If it should come to the ear of the court how I have been transformed, and how my transformation hath been washed and cudgelled, they would melt me out of my fat, drop by drop, and liquor fishermen's boots with me: I warrant they would whip me with their fine wits, till I were as crest-fallen as a dried pear. I never

curring, surely it was worth acknowledging: it is really made greater by conceal. ment than avowal. Mr. Singer says, on his opposite page, that “ Simple does not know the difference between the verbs to conceal and to reveal :" Mr. Singer (he will pardon us) appears to be in a very similar predicament.

three Doctor Faustuses.] Popular audiences had become acquainted with Dr. Faustus, the German necromancer, both from the often-printed popular storybook of his life and acts, and from Marlowe's play, which, though not printed until 1604, had been constantly acted from about the year 1590. Henslowe mentions it in 1594 (“ Diary,” printed by the Sh. Soc. p. 42), and repeatedly afterwards.

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10

prospered since I forșwore myself at primero'. Well, if my wind were but long enough to say my prayers", I would repent.

Enter Mistress QUICKLY. Now, whence come you ?

Quick. From the two parties, forsooth.

Fal. The devil take one party, and his dam the other, and so they shall be both bestowed. I have suffered more for their sakes, more, than the villainous inconstancy of man's disposition is able to bear.

Quick. And have not they suffered ? Yes, I warrant; speciously one of them: mistress Ford, good heart, is beaten black and blue, that you cannot see a white spot about her.

Fal. What tell'st thou me of black and blue ? I was beaten myself into all the colours of the rainbow; and I was like to be apprehended for the witch of Brentford: but that my admirable dexterity of wit, my counterfeiting the action of an old woman, deliver'd me, the knave constable had set me i' the stocks, i' the common stocks, for witch.

Quick. Sir, let me speak with you in your chamber; you shall hear how things go, and, I warrant, to your content. Here is a letter will say somewhat. [Giving it.] Good hearts ! what ado here is to bring you together : sure, one of you does not serve heaven well, that you are so crossed. Fal. Come up into my chamber.

[Exeunt.

a

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9

I forswore myself at PRIMERO.] A game of cards, often mentioned in old writers : see Vol. iv. p. 444. In reference to this game Malone made a curious biographical extract from the “ Sidney Papers,” Vol. ii. p. 83, by which it appears that Shakespeare's patron, Lord Southampton, being at play at primero with Sir W. Raleigh and Mr. Parker, Ambrose Willoughby, one of the Squires of the body, desired them to give over, the queen having gone to bed. Raleigh and Parker complied, but Southampton threatened Willoughby, and afterwards in a rencounter Willoughby pulled off“ some of the earl's locks” near the tennis-court.