Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

Enter Servants with a basket.
Mrs. Page. Come, come, come.
Mrs. Ford. Here, set it down.
Mrs. Page. Give your men the charge; we
must be brief.

Mrs. Ford. Believe me, there's no such thing in me.

Fal. What made me love thee? let that persuade thee, there's something extraordinary in thee. Come, I cannot cog, and say, thou art this and that, like a many of these lisping hawthorn buds, Mrs. Ford. Marry, as I told you before, John, that come like women in men's apparel, and smell and Robert, be ready here hard by in the brew- like Bucklersburys in simple-time; I cannot: but house; and when I suddenly call you, come forth, Mrs. Ford. Do not betray me, sir; I fear, you and (without any pause or staggering,) take this I love thee; none but thee; and thou deservest it. love mistress Page. basket on your shoulders: that done, trudge with it in all haste, and carry it among the whitsters' in Datchet Mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch, close by the Thames' side.

Mrs. Page. You will do it?

Mrs. Ford. I have told them over and over; they lack no direction: be gone, and come when [Exeunt Servants. Mrs. Page. Here comes little Robin.

you are called.

Enter Robin.

Mrs. Ford. How now, my eyas-musket ? what news with you?

Rob. My master, sir John, is come in at your back-door, mistress Ford; and requests your com

pany.

Mrs. Page. You little Jack-a-lent, have you been true to us?

Rob. Ay, I'll be sworn: my master knows not of your being here; and hath threatened to put ine into everlasting liberty, if I tell you of it; for, he swears, he'll turn me away.

Mrs. Page. Thou'rt a good boy; this secrecy of thine shall be a tailor to thee, and shall make thee a new doublet and hose.-I'll go hide me.

Mrs. Ford. Do so:-Go tell thy master, I am alone. Mrs. Page, remember you your cue. [Exit Robin. Mrs. Page. I warrant thee; if I do not act it, [Exit Mrs. Page. hiss me. Mrs. Ford. Go to then; we'll use this unwholesome humidity, this gross watry pumpion;-we'll teach him to know turtles from jays.

Enter Falstaff.

Fal. Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel? Why, now let me die, for I have lived long enough; this is the period of my ambition: O this blessed hour!

Mrs. Ford. O sweet sir John!

Fal. Mistress Ford, I cannot cog, I cannot prate, Mistress Ford. Now shall I sin in my wish: would thy husband were dead: I'll speak it before the best lord, I would make thee my lady.

Mrs. Ford. I your lady, sir John! alas, I should be a pitiful lady.

Fal. Thou might'st as well say, I love to walk by the Counter-gate; which is as hateful to me as the reek of a lime-kiln.

Mrs. Ford. Well, heaven knows, how I love you; and you shall one day find it.

Fal. Keep in that mind; I'll deserve it. Mrs. Ford. Nay, I must tell you, so you do; or else I could not be in that mind.

Rob. [within.] Mistress Ford, mistress Ford! here's mistress Page at the door, sweating and blowing, and looking wildly, and would needs speak with you presently.

Fal. She shall not see me; I will ensconce' me Mrs. Ford. Pray you, do so; she's a very tat behind the arras." [Falstaff hides himself. tling woman.

Enter Mistress Page and Robin.

Mrs. Page. O mistress Ford, what have you What's the matter? how now? done? You're shamed, you are overthrown, you Mrs. Ford. What's the matter, good mistress are undone for ever. Page? Mrs. Page. O well-a-day, mistress Ford! having an honest man to your husband, to give him such cause of suspicion!

Mrs. Ford. What cause of suspicion? Mrs. Page. What cause of suspicion?-Out upon you! how am I mistook in you!

Mrs. Ford. Why, alas! what's the matter?

Mrs. Page. Your husband's coming hither, woman, with all the officers in Windsor, to search for a gentleman, that, he says, is here now in the house, by your consent, to take an ill advantage of his absence. You are undone.

Mrs. Ford. Speak louder.-[Aside.]—'Tis not so, I hope.

Mrs. Page. Pray heaven it be not so, that you have such a man here; but 'tis most certain your husband's coming, with half Windsor at his heels, to search for such a one. I come before to tell you: if you know yourself clear, why I am glad of it: but if you have a friend here, convey, convey him out. Be not amazed; call all your senses Fal. Let the court of France show me such ano-to you; defend your reputation, or bid farewell to ther; I see how thine eyes would emulate the your good life forever. diamond: thou hast the right arched bent of the brow, that becomes the ship-tire, the tire-valiant, or any tire of Venetian admittance."

Mrs. Ford. What shall I do?-There is a gentleman, my dear friend; and I fear not mine own shame, so much as his perit: I had rather than a Mrs. Ford. A plain kerchief, sir John: my thousand pound, he were out of the house. brows become nothing else; nor that well neither.

Mrs. Page. For shame, never stand you had Fal. Thou art a traitor to say so: thou would'st rather, and you had rather; your husband's here make an absolute courtier; and the firm fixture of at hand, bethink you of some conveyance: in the thy foot would give an excellent motion to thy gait, house you cannot hide him.-O, how have you dein a semi-circled farthingale. I see what thou ceived me!-Look, here is a basket; if he be of wert, if fortune thy foe were not; nature is thy any reasonable stature, he may creep in here; and throw foul linen upon him, as if it were going to friend: come, thou canst not hide it.

(1) Bleachers of linen.

(2) A young small hawk.

(4) Venetian fashions.

(5) Formerly chiefly inhabited by druggists.
(7) Hide.
(8) Tapestry.

(3) A puppet thrown at in Lent, like shrove-cocks. (6) Prison.

bucking: or, it is whiting-time,' send him by your men to Datchet Mead.

Mrs. Ford. He's too big to go in there: what shall I do?

Re-enter Falstaff.

Fal. Let me see't, let me see't! O let me see't! I'll in, I'll in;-follow your friend's counsel;I'll in.

Mrs. Page. What! sir John Falstaff! Are these your letters, knight?

Fal. I love thee, and none but thee; help me away: let me creep in here; I'll never

[He goes into the basket; they cover him with foul linen.]

Mrs. Page. Help to cover your master, boy: call your men, mistress Ford:-You dissembling knight! Mrs. Ford. What, John, Robert, John! [Exit Robin; re-enter Servants.] Go take up these clothes here, quickly; where's the cowl-staff?2 look, how you drumble: carry them to the laundress in Datchet Mead; quickly, come.

Enter Ford, Page, Caius, and Sir Hugh Evans.

Ford. Pray you, come near: if I suspect without cause, why then make sport at me, then let me be your jest; I deserve it.-How now? whither bear you this?

Serv. To the laundress, forsooth.

Mrs. Ford. Why, what have you to do whither they bear it? you were best meddle with buckwashing.

Mrs. Ford. Shall we send that foolish carrion, mistress Quickly, to him, and excuse his throwing into the water; and give him another hope, to betray him to another punishment?

Mrs. Page. We'll do it; let him be sent for tomorrow eight o'clock, to have amends.

Re-enter Ford, Page, Caius, and Sir Hugh Evans.

Ford. I cannot find him: may be the knave bragged of that he could not compass.

Mrs. Page. Heard you that?

Mrs. Ford. Ay, ay, peace:-You use me well, master Ford, do you?

Ford. Ay, I do so.

Mrs. Ford. Heaven make you better than your thoughts!

Ford. Amen.

Mrs. Page. You do yourself mighty wrong, master Ford.

Ford. Ay, ay; I must bear it.

Eva. If there be any pody in the house, and in the chambers, and in the coffers, and in the presses, heaven forgive my sins at the day of judgment!

Caius. By gar, nor I too; dere is no bodies. Page. Fie, fie, master Ford! are you not ashamed? What spirit, what devil suggests this imagination? I would not have your distemper in this kind, for the wealth of Windsor Castle.

Ford. 'Tis my fault, master Page: I suffer for it. Eva. You suffer for a pad conscience: your wife is as honest a 'omans, as I will desires among five thousand, and five hundred too.

Ford. Buck? I would I could wash myself of Cuius. By gar, I see 'tis an honest woman. the buck! Buck, buck, buck? ay, buck; I warFord. Well;-I promised you a dinner :-Come, rant you, buck; and of the season too, it shall ap- come, walk in the park: I pray you, pardon me; pear. [Exeunt Servants with the basket.] Gentle-I will hereafter make known to you, why I have men, I have dreamed to-night; I'll tell you my done this. Come, wife;-come, mistress Page; I dream. Here, here, here be my keys: ascend my pray you pardon me; pray heartily, pardon me. chambers, search, seek, find out: I'll warrant, we'll Page. Let's go in, gentlemen; but, trust me, unkennel the fox-Let me stop this way first:-we'll mock him. I do invite you to-morrow mornSo, now, uncape. ing to my house to breakfast; after, we'll a birding together; I have a fine hawk for the bush: shall it be so?

Page. Good master Ford, be contented: you wrong yourself too much.

Ford. True, master Page.-Up, gentlemen; you shall see sport anon: follow me, gentlemen.

Ford. Any thing.

Eva. If there is one, I shall make two in the [Exit. company.

Eva. This is fery fantastical humours, and jealousies.

Caius. By gar, 'tis no de fashion of France: it is not jealous in France.

Page. Nay, follow him, gentlemen; see the issue of his search. [Exeunt Evans, Page, and Caius. Mrs. Page. Is there not a double excellency in this?

Mrs. Ford. I know not which pleases me better, that my husband is deceived, or sir John.

Mrs. Page. What a taking was he in, when your husband asked who was in the basket!

Mrs. Ford. I am half afraid he will have need of washing; so throwing him into the water will do him a benefit.

Mrs. Page. Hang him, dishonest rascal! I would, all of the same strain were in the same distress.

Mrs. Ford. I think, my husband hath some special suspicion of Falstaff's being here; for I never saw him so gross in his jealousy till now. Mrs. Page. I will lay a plot to try that: And we will yet have more tricks with Falstaff: his dissolute disease will scarce obey this medicine.

[blocks in formation]

Caius. If there be one or two, I shall make-a de

tird.

Eva. In your teeth: for shame.
Ford. Pray you go, master Page.
Eva. I pray you now, remembrance to-morrow
on the lousy knave, mine host.

Caius. Dat is good; by gar, vit all my heart.
Eva. A lousy knave; to have his jibes and his
mockeries.
[Exeunt.

SCENE IV-A room in Page's house. Enter
Fenton and Mistress Anne Page.

Fent. I see, I cannot get thy father's love;
Therefore, no more turn me to him, sweet Nan.
Anne. Alas! how then?

I

Fent.

Why, thou must be thyself.
He doth object, I am too great of birth;
And that, my state being gall'd with my expense,
seek to heal it only by his wealth:
Besides these, other bars he lays before me,-
My riots past, my wild societies;
And tells me, 'tis a thing impossible
I should love thee, but as a property.
Anne. May be, he tells you true.

(S) Drone. (4) Unbag the fox. (5) What

Fent. No, heaven so speed me in my time to I told you, sir, my daughter is dispos'd of.

come!

Albeit, I will confess, thy father's wealth
Was the first motive that I woo'd thee, Anne:
Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value
Than stamps in gold, or sums in sealed bags;
And 'tis the very riches of thyself
That now I aim at.

Anne. Gentle master Fenton,
Yet seek my father's love: still seek it, sir:
If opportunity and humble suit
Cannot attain it, why then-Hark you hither.
[They converse apart.

Enter Shallow, Slender, and Mrs. Quickly. Shal. Break their talk, mistress Quickly; my kinsman shall speak for himself.

Slen. I'll make a shaft or a bolt on't: slid, 'tis but venturing.

Shal. Be not dismay'd.

Slen. No, she shall not dismay me: I care not for that, but that I am afeard.

Quick. Hark ye; master Slender would speak a word with you.

Anne. I come to him.-This is my father's choice. O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year! [Aside. Quick. And how does good master Fenton? Pray you, a word with you.

Shal. She's coming; to her, coz. O boy, thou

hadst a father!

Slen. I had a father, mistress Anne ;-my uncle can tell you good jests of him:-Pray you, uncle, tell mistress Anne the jest, how my father stole two geese out of a pen, good uncle.

Shal. Mistress Anne, my cousin loves you. Slen. Ay, that I do; as well as I love any woman in Glocestershire.

Shal. He will maintain you like a gentlewoman. Slen. Ay, that I will, come cut and long-tail, under the degree of a squire.

2

Shal. He will make you a hundred and fifty pounds jointure.

Anne. Good master Shallow, let him woo

himself.

for

Shal. Marry, I thank you for it; I thank you for that good comfort. She calls you, coz: I'll leave

you.

Anne. Now, master Slender.

Slen. Now, good mistress Anne.
Anne. What is your will?

Slen. My will? od's heartlings, that's a pretty jest, indeed! I ne'er made my will yet, I thank heaven; I am not such a sickly creature, I give heaven praise.

Anne. I mean, master Slender, what would you with me?

Fent. Nay, master Page, be not impatient.
Mrs. Page. Good master Fenton, come not to

my child.

Page. She is no match for you.

Fent. Sir, will you hear me? Page. No, good master Fenton. Come, master Shallow: come, son Slender; in:Knowing my mind, you wrong me, master Fenton. [Exeunt Page, Shallow, and Slender. Quick. Speak to mistress Page.

Fent. Good mistress Page, for that I love your daughter

In such a righteous fashion as I do,

Perforce, against all checks, rebukes, and manners,
And not retire: let me have your good will.
I must advance the colours of my love,

Anne. Good mother, do not marry me to yond fool.

Mrs. Page. I mean it not; I seek you a better husband.

Quick. That's my master, master doctor. Anne. Alas, I had rather be set quick i' the earth, and bowl'd to death with turnips.

Mrs. Page. Come, trouble not yourself: good master Fenton,

My daughter will I question how she loves you,
I will not be your friend, nor enemy:
And as I find her, so am I affected;
'Till then, farewell, sir:-She must needs go in
Her father will be angry.

[Exeunt Mrs. Page and Anne. Fent. Farewell, gentle mistress; farewell, Nan. Quick. This is my doing now ;-Nay, said I, will Look on master Fenton :-this is my doing. you cast away your child on a fool, and a physician?

night

Fent. I thank thee; and I pray thee, once to Give my sweet Nan this ring: there's for thy pains.

Exit.

kind heart he hath: a woman would run through Quick. Now heaven send thee good fortune! A fire and water for such a kind heart. But yet, I would my master had mistress Anne; or I would master Slender had her; or, in sooth, I would

master Fenton had her: I will do what I can for

them all three; for so I have promised, and I'll be as good as my word; but speciously for master Fenton. Well, I must of another errand to sir John Falstaff from my two mistresses; what a beast am I to slack it!

[Exit.

SCENE V.-A room in the Garter Inn. Enter Falstaff and Bardolph.

Fal. Bardolph, I say,Bard. Here, sir.

Fal. Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in't [Exit Bard.] Have I lived to be carried in a basket, Slen. Truly, for mine own part, I would little or like a barrow of butcher's offal; and to be thrown nothing with you: your father, and my uncle, have into the Thames? Well; if I be served such anmade motions: if it be my luck, so: if not, happy other trick, I'll have my brains ta'en out, and butman be his dole! They can tell you how things ter'd, and give them to a dog for a new year's gift. go, better than I can: you may ask your father; here he comes.

[blocks in formation]

The rogues slighted me into the river with as little remorse as they would have drown'd a bitch's blind puppies, fifteen i' the litter and you may know by my size, that I have a kind of alacrity in sinking; if the bottom were as deep as hell, I should down. I had been drowned, but that the shore was shelvy and shallow; a death that I abhor; for the water swells a man; and what a thing should I

(2) Come poor or rich. (3) Lot. (4) Specially. (5) Neglect. (6) Pity.

have been, when I had been swelled! I should have been a mountain of mummy.

Re-enter Bardolph, with the wine.

Bard. Here's mistress Quickly, sir, to speak with you.

Fal. Come, let me pour in some sack to the Thames water; for my belly's as cold, as if I had swallowed snow-balls for pills to cool the reins. Call her in.

Bard. Come in, woman.

Enter Mrs. Quickly.

Quick. By your leave; I cry you mercy: give your worship good-morrow.

Fal. Take away these chalices: go brew me pottle of sack finely.

Bard. With eggs, sir?

a

Fal. Simple of itself; I'll no pullet-sperm in my brewage.-Exit Bardolph.]-How now?

Quick. Marry, sir, I come to your worship from mistress Ford.

Fal. Mistress Ford! I have had ford enough: I was thrown into the ford: I have my belly full of

ford.

[blocks in formation]

Fal. By the Lord, a buck-basket: rammed me in with foul shirts and smocks, socks, foul stockings, and greasy napkins; that, master Brook, there was the rankest compound of villanous smell, that ever offended nostril.

Ford. And how long lay you there?

Fal. Nay, you shall hear, master Brook, what I have suffered to bring this woman to evil for your good. Being thus crammed in the basket, a couple of Ford's knaves, his hinds, were called forth by their mistress, to carry me in the name of foul clothes to Datchet-lane: they took me on their shoulders; met the jealous knave, their master, in the door; who asked them once or twice what they had in their basket. I quaked for fear, lest the lunatic knave would have searched it; but Fate ordaining he should be a cuckold, held his hand. Quick. Alas the day! good heart, that was not Well: on went he for a search, and away went I her fault; she does so take on with her men; they for foul clothes. But mark the sequel, master Brook: mistook their erection. I suffered the pangs of three several deaths: first, Fal. So did I mine, to build upon a foolish an intolerable fright, to be detected with a jealous woman's promise. rotten-bell-wether: next, to be compassed like a Quick. Well, she laments, sir, for it, that it good bilbo, in the circumference of a peck, hilt to would yearn your heart to see it. Her husband point, heel to head: and then, to be stopped in, like goes this morning a birding; she desires you once a strong distillation, with stinking clothes that fretmore to come to her between eight and nine: I must ted in their own grease: think of that,-a man of carry her word quickly: she'll make you amends, my kidney,-think of that; that am as subject to I warrant you. heat as butter; a man of continual dissolution and Fal. Well, I will visit her: tell her so; and bid thaw; it was a miracle to 'scape suffocation. And her think, what a man is: let her consider his frailty, and then judge of my merit. Quick. I will tell her.

Fal. Do so. Between nine and ten, say'st thou
Quick. Eight and nine, sir.

Fal. Well, be gone: I will not miss her.
Quick. Peace be with you, sir!
[Exit.
Fal. I marvel, I hear not of master Brook; he
sent me word to stay within: I like his money well.
O, here he comes.

Enter Ford.

Ford. Bless you, sir!

Fal. Now, master Brook; you come to know what hath passed between me and Ford's wife? Ford. That, indeed, sir John, is my business. Fal. Master Brook, I will not lie to you; I was at her house the hour she appointed me. Ford. And how speed you, sir?

in the height of this bath, when I was more than half stewed in grease, like a Dutch dish, to be thrown into the Thames, and cooled, glowing hot, ? in that surge, like a horse-shoe; think of that; ;hissing hot,-think of that, master Brook.

Ford. In good sadness, sir, I am sorry that for my sake you have suffered all this. My suit then is desperate; you'll undertake her no more.

Fal. Master Brook, I will be thrown into Etna, as I have been into the Thames, ere I will leave her thus. Her husband is this morning gone a birding: I have received from her another embassy of meeting; 'twixt eight and nine is the hour, master Brook.

Ford. 'Tis past eight already, sir.

Fal. Is it? I will then address me to my appointment. Come to me at your convenient leisure, and you shall know how I speed; and the conclusion shall be crowned with your enjoying her: adieu. You shall have her, master Brook; master Brook, you shall cuckold Ford.

[Exit,

Fal. Very ill-favouredly, master Brook. Ford. How so, sir? Did she change her deter- Ford. Hum! ha! is this a vision? is this a dream? mination? do I sleep? Master Ford, awake; awake, master Fal. No, master Brook; but the peaking cornu- Ford; there's a hole made in your best coat, master to, her husband, master Brook, dwelling in a con- Ford. This 'tis to be married! this 'tis to have linen, tinual 'larum of jealousy, comes me in the instant and buck-baskets!-Well, I will proclaim myself of our encounter, after we had embraced, kissed, what I am: I will now take the lecher; he is at my protested, and, as it were, spoke the prologue of house: he cannot 'scape me; 'tis impossible he our comedy; and at his heels a rabble of his com- should; he cannot creep into a half-penny purse, panions, thither provoked and instigated by his dis-nor into a pepper-box: but, lest the devil that temper, and, forsooth, to search his house for his guides him should aid him, I will search impossible wife's love. places. Though what I am I cannot avoid, yet to

(1) Cups.

(2) Bilboa, where the best blades are made.

(3) Seriousness.

(4) Make myself ready.

Scene I, II.

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

be what I would not, shall not make me tame: if I have horns to make one mad, let the proverb go with me, I'll be horn mad.

ACT IV.

[Exit.

SCENE I.-The Street. Enter Mrs. Page, Mrs.
Quickly, and William.

Mrs. Page. Is he at master Ford's already,

think'st thou ?

Eva. 'Oman, forbear.
Mrs. Page. Peace.

Eva. What is your genitive case, plural, Wil

liam?

Will. Genitive case?

Eva. Ay.

Will. Genitive,-horum, harum, horum.
Quick. 'Vengeance of Jenny's case! fie on
her!-never name her, child, if she be a whore.
Eva. For shame, 'oman.

Quick. You do ill to teach the child such words:
he teaches him to hick and to hack, which they'll
do fast enough of themselves; and to call horum:-
fie upon you!

Eva. Oman, art thou lunatics? hast thou no Quick. Sure he is by this; or will be presently: but truly, he is very courageous1 mad, about his understandings for thy cases, and the numbers of throwing into the water. Mistress Ford desires you the genders? Thou art as foolish Christian creatures as I would desires. to come suddenly.

Mrs. Page. I'll be with her by and by; I'll but bring my young man here to school: look, where his master comes; 'tis a playing-day, I see.

Enter Sir Hugh Evans.

How now, sir Hugh? no school to-day?

Eva. No; master Slender is let the boys leave to play.

Quick. Blessing of his heart!

Mrs. Page. Sir Hugh, my husband says, my son profits nothing in the world at his book; I pray you, ask him some questions in his accidence.

Mrs. Page. Pr'ythee, hold thy peace.

Eva. Show me now, William, some declensions of your pronouns.

Will. Forsooth, I have forgot.

Eva. It is ki, ka, cod; if you forget your kies, your kes, and your cods, you must be preeches.2 Go your ways, and play, go.

Mrs. Page. He is a better scholar than I thought he was.

Eva. He is a good sprag' memory. mistress Page.

Farewell,

[Exit Sir

Mrs. Page. Adieu, good sir Hugh.
Hugh.] Get you home, boy.-Come, we stay

Eva. Come hither, William; hold up your too long.

head; come.

[Exeunt.

Falstaff and Mrs. Ford. Mrs. Page. Come on, sirrah; hold up your SCENE II-A room in Ford's house. Enter head; answer your master, be not afraid.

Eva. William, how many numbers is in nouns?
Will. Two.

Fal. Mistress Ford, your sorrow hath eaten up

Quick. Truly, I thought there had been one my sufferance: I see, you are obsequious in your love, and I profess requital to a hair's breadth; not number more; because they say, od's nouns.

Eva. Peace your tattlings. What is fair, Wil-only, mistress Ford, in the simple office of love, but

[blocks in formation]

Mrs. Page. Why, woman, your husband is in his old lunes again: he so takes on yonder with my husband; so rails against all married mankind; so curses all Eve's daughters, of what complexion Eva. I pray you, have your remembrance, soever; and so buffets himself on the forehead, child; Accusativo, hing, hang, hog.

Will. Accusativo, hinc.

crying, peer out, peer out! that any madness Quick. Hang hog is Latin for bacon, I warrant ever yet beheld, seemed but tameness, civility,

you.

and patience, to this his distemper he is in now:

Eva. Leave your prabbles, 'oman. What is am glad the fat knight is not here. the focative case, William?

[blocks in formation]

Mrs. Ford. Why, does he talk of him? Mrs. Page. Of none but him; and swears, he was carried out, the last time he searched for him, in a basket: protests to my husband, he is now

(6) As children call on a snail to push forth his

Sorrowful. (5) Mad fits. horns.

« ZurückWeiter »