have thrust virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders, and have given ourselves without scruple to hell, that ever the devil could have made you our delight? Ford. What, a hodge-pudding'? a bag of flax? Mrs. Page. A puffed man? Page. Old, cold, withered, and of intolerable entrails? Ford. And one that is as slanderous as Satan? Page. And as poor as Job? Ford. And as wicked as his wife? Eva. And given to fornications, and to taverns, and sack, and wine, and metheglins, and to drinkings, and swearings, and starings, pribbles and prabbles? Fal. Well, I am your theme: you have the start of me; I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welsh flannel. Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me: use me as you will. Ford. Marry, sir, we'll bring you to Windsor, to one master Brook, that you have cozened of money, to whom you should have been a pander; over and above that you have suffered, I think, to repay that money will be a biting affliction '. Page. Yet be cheerful, knight: thou shalt eat a posset tonight at my house; where I will desire thee to laugh at my wife, that now laughs at thee. Tell her, master Slender hath married her daughter. Mrs. Page. Doctors doubt that: if Anne Page be my daughter, she is, by this, doctor Caius' wife. Enter SLENDER, crying. Slen. Whoo, ho! ho! father Page! [Aside. Page. Son, how now! how now, son! have you dispatched? Slen. Dispatched!—I'll make the best in Gloucestershire know on't; would I were hanged, la, else. Page. Of what, son? 66 9 What, a HODGE-pudding?] We do not venture to alter the old copy here, but the corr. fo. 1632 instructs us to read " hog-pudding" instead of "hodgepudding." 'Hodge-pudding " is not in our day very intelligible, but a " hogspudding" in the provinces is made of the entrails, stuffed with flour, spice, and other savoury materials. to repay that money will be a biting affliction.] Here the 4tos. add what may be worth giving in a note : "Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to make amends: Forgive that sum, and so we'll all be friends. Ford. Well, here is my hand: all's forgiven at last. Fal. It hath cost me well: I have been well pinch'd, and wash'd." Slen. I came yonder at Eton to marry mistress Anne Page, and she's a great lubberly boy: if it had not been i' the church, I would have swinged him, or he should have swinged me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never stir, and 'tis a post-master's boy. Page. Upon my life, then, you took the wrong. Slen. What need you tell me that? I think so, when I took a boy for a girl: if I had been married to him, for all he was in woman's apparel, I 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? Slen. I went to her in white 2, and cried "mum," and she cried "budget," as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a post-master's boy. Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry: I knew of your purpose; turned my daughter into green; and, indeed, she is now with the doctor at the deanery, and there married. Enter Doctor CAIUS. Caius. Vere is mistress Page? By gar, I am cozened; I ha' married un garçon, a boy; un paisan, by gar, a boy: it is not Anne Page; by gar, I am cozened. Mrs. Page. Why, did you take her in green? Caius. Ay, by gar, and 'tis a boy by gar, I'll raise all Windsor. [Exit CAIUS. Ford. This is strange.-Who hath got the right Anne? Page. My heart misgives me. Here comes master 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 master Slender ? Mrs. Page. Why went you not with master doctor, maid? You would have married her most shamefully, 2 - in WHITE,] The folios read, "in green;" and in the two subsequent speeches of Mrs. Page, instead of green we find "white." The corrections, which are fully justified by what has preceded, were made by Pope. The offence is holy that she hath committed; Which forced marriage would have brought upon her. Fal. I am glad, though you have ta'en a special stand to strike at me, that your arrow hath glanced. Page. Well, what remedy ?-Fenton, heaven give thee joy. What cannot be eschew'd, must be embrac'd. Fal. When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer are chas'd. Mrs. Page. Well, I will muse no farther.-Master Fenton, Heaven give you many, many merry days. Good husband, let us every one go home, And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire; Ford. Let it be so.-Sir John, To master Brook you yet shall hold your word; [Exeunt. 3 Of disobedience, or unduteous GUILE,] "Guile " is title in all the folios, and we find "guile" substituted in the corr. fo. 1632. Mr. Singer could not resist this emendation, and he very becomingly confesses from whence he obtained it. 4 a special stand to strike at me,] To take a stand, for the pupose of killing deer, was a technical expression of the chase. See the opening of A. iv. sc. 1, of "Love's Labour's Lost," Vol. ii. p. 123: the Princess there asks, "Where is the bush Where we must stand to play the murderer in?" and the Forester answers, 66 Hereby, upon the edge of yonder coppice; A stand where you may take the fairest shoot." Many other authorities might be, and have been, quoted on the same point; but one is sufficient, especially when Shakespeare is his own illustrator. 5 For he, to-night, shall lie with mistress Ford.] In the 4to. Ford ends a longer speech with the same point : "All parties pleased, now let us in to feast, And laugh at Slender, and the Doctor's jeast. For Brooke this night shall lye with mistris Ford." Of course for "now shal keep your word" we must read "you shal keep your word," the blunder having arisen from the fact that "you," of old, was often written and printed you. VOL. I. S + |
