Slen. I went to her in white, 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.-Act V. Sc. 5,

ACT V.

Enter FALSTAFF and MISTRESS QUICKLY.

Fal. Pr'ythee, no more prattling:-go-I'll hold. This is the third time; I hope good-luck lies in odd numbers. Away, go; they say, there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death.-Away.

Quick. I'll provide you a chain; and I'll do what I can to get you a pair of horns.

Fal. Away, I say; time wears: hold up your head, and mince. [Exit MRS QUICKLY.

Enter FORD.

How now, Master Brook? Master Brook, the matter will be known to-night, or never. Be you in the Park about midnight, at Herne's oak, and you shall see wonders.

Ford. Went you not to her yesterday, sir, as you told me you had appointed?

Fal. I went to her, Master Brook, as you see, like a poor old man: but I came from her, Master Brook, like a poor old woman. That same knave, Ford her husband, hath the finest mad devil of jealousy in him, Master Brook, that ever governed frenzy. I will tell you. He beat me grievously, in the shape of a woman; for in the shape of man, Master Brook, I fear not Goliath with a weaver's beam; because I know also, life is a shuttle. I am in haste; go along with me; I'll tell you all, Master Brook. Since I plucked geese, played truant, and whipped top, I knew not what it was to be beaten till lately. Follow me: I'll tell you strange things of this knave Ford: on whom to-night I will be revenged, and I will deliver his wife into your hand.-Follow: Strange things in hand, Master Brook !-follow. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Windsor Park.

Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER.

Page. Come, come; we'll couch i' the castle-ditch, till we see the light of our fairies.-Remember, son Slender, my daughter. Slen. Ay, forsooth; I have spoke with her, and we have a nay-word how to know one another. I come to her in white, and cry, mum; she cries budget;1 and by that we know one another.

Shal. That's good too: but what needs either your mum, or her budget? the white will decipher her well enough.—It hath struck ten o'clock.

Page. The night is dark; light and spirits will become it well. Heaven prosper our sport! No man means evil. Let's away; follow me.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-The Street in Windsor.

Enter MRS PAGE, MRS FORD, and DR CAIUS.

Mrs Page. Master Doctor, my daughter is in green: when you see your time, take her by the hand, away with her to the

deanery, and despatch it quickly. Go before into the Park; we two must go together.

Caius. I know vat I have to do. Adieu.

Mrs Page. Fare you well, sir. [Exit CAIUS.] My husband will not rejoice so much at the abuse of Falstaff, as he will chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter: but 'tis no matter; better a little chiding than a great deal of heart-break.

Mrs Ford. Where is Nan now and her troop of fairies? and the Welsh Hugh?

Mrs Page. They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's oak, with obscured lights; which, at the very instant of Falstaff's and our meeting, they will at once display to the night.

Mrs Ford. That cannot choose but amaze him.

Mrs Page. If he be not amazed, he will be mocked; if he be amazed, he will every way be mocked.

Mrs Ford. We'll betray him finely.

Mrs Page. Those that betray' such' do no treachery.

Mrs Ford. The hour draws on. To the oak, to the oak!

SCENE IV.-Windsor Park.

Enter SIR HUGH EVANS, and Fairies.

[Exeunt.

Eva. Trib, trib, fairies; come; and remember your parts: be pold, I pray you; follow me into the pit; and when I give the watch-'ords, do as I pid you; Come, come; trib, trib.

on.

SCENE V.-Another part of the Park.

Enter FALSTAFF disguised, with a buck's head on.

[Exeunt.

Fal. The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; the minute draws Now, the hot-blooded gods assist me.-Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa; love set on thy horns.-O powerful love! that, in some respects, makes a beast a man; in some other, a man a beast.-You were also, Jupiter, a swan, for the love of Leda ;-O, omnipotent love! how near the god drew

U

to the complexion of a goose! For me, I am here a Windsor stag; and the fattest, I think, i' the forest. Who comes here? my doe?

Enter MISTRESS FORD and MISTRESS PAGE.

Mrs Ford. Sir John? art thou there, my deer?

Fal. My doe!-Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves ;'2 hail kissing-comfits, and snow eringoes ;3 let there come a tempest, I will shelter me here.

[Embracing her.

Mrs Ford. Mistress Page is come with me, sweetheart. Fal. Divide me like a bribe-buck, each a haunch: I will keep my sides to myself, my shoulders for the fellow of this walk, and my horns I bequeath your husbands. Am I a woodman ? ha! Speak I like Herne the hunter?-Why, now is Cupid a child of conscience; he makes restitution. As I am a true spirit, welcome! [Noise within.

Mrs Page. Alas, what noise?

Mrs Ford. Heaven forgive our sins!

Fal. What should this be?

Mrs Ford.

Mrs Page.

Away, away.

[They run off.

Fal. I think the devil will not have me; he would never else cross me thus.

Enter SIR HUGH EVANS, as a satyr; MRS QUICKLY, and PISTOL ;
ANNE PAGE, as the Fairy Queen, attended by her brother and
others, dressed like Fairies, with waxen tapers on their heads.
Anne. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white,
You moonshine revellers, and shades of night,
You orphan-heirs of fixed destiny,

Attend your office, and your quality.

Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy oyes.5

Pist. Elves, list your names; silence, you airy toys. Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap:

Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths unswept,

There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry:
Our radiant queen hates sluts and sluttery.

Fal. They are fairies; he that speaks to them shall die:
I'll wink and couch: no man their works must eye.

[Lies down upon his face.

Eva. Where's Pead?-Go you, and where you find a maid, That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said,

Raise up the organs of her fantasy,

Sleep she as sound as careless infancy;

But those as sleep, and think not on their sins,

Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, sides, and shins.

Anne. About, about;

Search Windsor Castle, elves, within and out:

Strew good-luck, ouphes, on every sacred room;
That it may stand till the perpetual doom,
In state as wholesome as in state 'tis fit;
Worthy the owner, and the owner it.
The several chairs of order look you scour
With juice of balm and every precious flower:
Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest,
With loyal blazon, evermore be blest!
And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing,
Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring:
The expressure that it bears, green let it be,
More fertile-fresh than all the field to see;
And Hony soit qui mal y pense write

In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white ;
Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee:
Fairies use flowers for their charactery.7
Away; disperse: but till 'tis one o'clock,
Our dance of custom, round about the oak

Of Herne the hunter, let us not forget.

Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand; yourselves in order

set:

And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be,