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 that is not the question: the question is concerning your marriage. Shal. Ay, there's the point, fir. 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 mind : therefore precisely, can you marry your good will to the maid ? Shal. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her ? Slen. I hope, fir; I will do as it shall become one that would do reason. Eva. Nay, got’s lords and his ladies, you must fpeak posfitable, if you can carry her desires towards 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, fir, at your request: but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heav'n may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are marry'd, and have more occasion to know one another; I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: but if you say, marry her, I will marry her, that I am freely diffolved, and diffolutely. Eva. It is a ferry discretion answer, fave the faul is in th’ort, dissolutely: the ort is, according to our meaning, resolutely; his meaning is goot. Shal. Ay, I think, my cousin meant well. SCENE SCENE V. man. Enter mistress Anne Page. Anne. The dinner is on the table; my father desires your Shal. I will wait on him, fair mistress Anne. [Exe. Shallow and Evans. Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth. Go, firrah, I keep but three men and a boy yet, 'till my mother be dead; but what though, yet I live a poor gentleman born. Anne. I in without your worship; they will not Slen. I'faith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much as though Anne. I pray you, sir, walk in. Slen. I had rather walk here, I thank you: I bruis’d my shin th' other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence, three veneys for a dish of stew'd prunes; and, by my troth, I cannot abide the smell of hot meat since. Why do your dogs bark fo? be there bears i'th' town?. Anne. I think, there are, fir; I heard them talk'd of, Slen. I love the sport well, but I shall as soon quarrel at it as any man in England. You are afraid, if you see the bear loose, are you not? Anne. Ay, indeed, sir. Slen. That's meat and drink to me now; I have seen Sackerson loose, twenty times, and have taken him by the chain; but, I may not go warrant warrant you, the women have so cry'd and shriek’d at it, that it Enter master Page. sir. Slen. I'll rather be unmannerly than troublesome; you do yourself wrong, indeed-la. [Exeunt. that wrong. SCENE VI. Re-enter Evans and Simple. Eva. Go your ways, and ask of doctor Caius' house, which is the way; and there dwells one mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer. Simp. Well, fir. Eva. Nay, it is petter yet; give her this letter ; for it is a oman that altogethers acquaintance with mistress Anne Page ; and the letter is to desire and require her to folicit your master's desires to mistress Anne Page: I pray you, be gone; I will make a E end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come. [Exeunt. tra It paft, and, this passes, was a way of speaking customary heretofore to signify the excess, or exordinary degree, of any thing. The sentence compléated would be, it past, or, this passes, all pression, or, perhaps, (according to a vulgar phrase fill in use) it past, or, this passes, all things, Beyond all things. The participle of the same verb is fill in common use, and in the same senje : paling well, paffing strange, &c. SCENE is Changes to the Garter-Inn. of the Host. What says my bully rock? speak schollarly, and wisely. Fal. Truly, mine hoft, I must turn away some of my followers. trot. Fal. I sit at ten pounds a week. Hoft. Thou’rt an emperor, Cæsar, Keisar, and Pheazar. I will entertain Bardolph, he will draw, he will tap; said I well, bully Hector? Fal. Do so, good mine host. Hoft. I have spoke, let him follow; let me see thee froth, and live: I am at a word; follow. [Exit Hoft. Fal. Bardolph, follow him ; a tapster is a good trade ; an old cloak makes a new jerkin ; a wither’d serving-man, a fresh tapster; go, adieu. Bard. It is a life that I have desir’d: I will thrive. [Exit Bar. Fal. I am glad, I am so quit of this tinderbox ; his thefts were too open, his filching was like an unskilful singer, he kept not time. Nym. The good humour is, to steal at a minute's rest. Pift. I ken the wight; he is of substance good. Fal. No quips now, Piftol: indeed, I am in the waist two yards about; but I am now about no waste; I am about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife: I spy entertainment in her; she discourses, she carves, she gives the leer of invitation; I can conftrue the action of her familiar stile, and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be english'd right, is, I am fir John Falstaff's. Pift. He hath study'd her well, and translated her out of honesty into English.. Nym. The anchor is deep; will that humour pass? Fal. Now, the report goes, she has all the rule of her husband's purse: she hath a legion of angels, Pift. As many devils entertain; and, to her, boy, say I. Fal. I have writ me here a letter to her; and here another to Page’s wife, who even now gave me good eyes too, examin'd my parts with most judicious oiellades ; fometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, sometimes my portly belly. Pift. Then did the fun on dunghill shine. Fal. Q, she did so course o'er my exteriors with such a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did seem to scorch me up like a burning-glass. Here's another letter to her ; she bears the purfe too; she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty, I will be efcheator to them both, and they shall be exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West-Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to mistress Page; and thou this to mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive. Pift. Shall I sir Pandarus of Troy become, Nym. I will rụn no base humour: here take the humour-letter, Fal. Hold, frrah, bear you these letters rightly, [To Robin. Ff Rogues, |