and Recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of waste, attempt us again,

Mrs. Ford. Shall we tell our Husbands how we have ferved him?

Mrs. Page. Yes, by all means, if it be but to scrape the Figures out of your Husband's Brain. If they can find in their Hearts the poor unvirtuous fat Knight fhall be any further afflicted, we two will ftill be the Minifters.

Mrs. Ford. I'll warrant they'll have him publickly fham'd; and methinks there would be no period to the Jeft, fhould he not be publickly sham'd.

Mrs. Page. Come to the Forge with it, then shape it: I would not have things cool. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Enter Hoft and Bardolph.

Bard. Sir, the German defires to have three of your Horses; the Duke himself will be to Morrow at Court, and they are going to meet him.

Hoft. What Duke should that be comes fo fecretly? I hear not of him in the Court: Let me speak with the Gentlemen; they speak English?

Bar. Sir, I'll call them to you.

Hoft. They fhall have my Horfes, but I'll make them pay, I'll fawce them. They have had my Houfe a Week at Command; I have turn'd away my other Guests; they muft come off, I'll fawce them, come. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Enter Page, Ford, Miftrefs Page, Mistress Ford,
and Evans.

Eva. 'Tis one of the best Discretions of a o'man as ever I did look upon.

Page. And did he fend you both these Letters at an inftant?

Mrs. Page. Within a quarter of an Hour.

Ford. Pardon me, Wife. Henceforth do what thou wilt;

I rather will fufpe&t the Sun with cold,

Than thee with Wantonnefs; now doth thy Honour stand,

In him that was of late an Heretick,

As firm of Faith.

Page. 'Tis well, 'tis well; no more.

Be not extream in Submiffion, as in Offence,
But let our Plot go forward: Let our Wives
Yet once again, to make us publick Sport,
Appoint a Meeting with this old fat Fellow,
Where we may take him, and difgrace him for it.

Ford. There is no better way than that they spoke of. Page. How? to fend him Word they'll meet him in the Park at Midnight? Fie, fie, he'll never come.

Eva. You fay he hath been thrown into the River; and has been grievously peaten, as an old o'man; methinks there fhould be Terrors in him, that he fhould not come ; methinks his Flesh is punish'd, he fhall have no Defires. Page. So think I too.

Mrs. Ford. Devife but how you'll ufe him when he comes; And let us two devife to bring him thither.

Mrs. Page. There is an old Tale goes, that Herne the
Hunter, fometime a Keeper in Windfor Forest,
Doth all the Winter time at ftill of Midnight
Walk round about an Oak, with great ragged Horns,
And there he blafts the Tree, and takes the Cattle,
And makes Milch-kine yield Blood, and shakes a Chain
In a moft hideous and dreadful manner.

You have heard of fuch a Spirit, and well you know
The fuperftitious idle-headed Eld

Receiv'd, and did deliver to our Age

This Tale of Herne the Hunter for a Truth.

Page. Why yet there want not many that do fear
In deep of Night to walk by this Herne's Oak:
But what of this?

Mrs. Ford. Marry this is our Device,

That Falstaff at that Oak fhall meet with us.

Page. Well, let it not be doubted but he'll come.
And in this Shape when you have brought him thither,
What fhall be done with him? What is your Plot?

Mrs. Page. That likewife we have thought upon, and thus:
Nan Page, (my Daughter) and my little Son,
And three or four more of their Growth, we'll drefs
Like Urchins, Ouphes, and Fairies, green and white,

N 2

With

With Rounds of waxen Tapers on their Heads,
And Rattles in their Hands; upon a fudden,
As Falstaff, the, and I, are newly met,
Let them from forth a Saw-pit rush at once
With fome diffused Song: Upon their fight
We two, in great Amazednefs, will fly;
Then let them all encircle him about,
And Fairy-like to pinch the unclean Knight;
And ask him why, that Hour of Fairy Revel,
In their fo facred Paths he dares to tread
In Shape prophane.

Mrs. Ford. And 'till he tell the Truth,
Let the fuppofed Fairies pinch him found,
And burn him with their Tapers.

Mrs. Page. The Truth being known,
We'll all present our felves; dif-horn the Spirit,
And mock him home to Windfor.

Ford. The Children muft

Be practis'd 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-a-napes alfo, to burn the Knight with my Taber.

Ford. That will be excellent.

I'll go buy them Vizards.

Mrs. Page. My Nan fhall be the Queen of all the Fairies, finely attir'd in a Robe of white.

Page. That Silk would I go buy, and in that time
Shall Mr. Slender steal my Nan away,

And marry her at Eaton. Go, fend to Falstaff ftraight.
Ford. Nay, I'll to him again in name of Broom;
He'll tell me all his Purpose. Sure he'll come.
Mrs. Page. Fear not you that; go get us Properties
And Tricking for your Fairies.

Eva. Let us about it,

It is admirable Pleasures, and ferry honeft Knaveries.

Mrs. Page. Go, Mrs. Ford,

[Exeunt Page, Ford and Evans.

Send quickly to Sir John, to know his Mind. [Ex. Mrs. Ford.
Tll to the Doctor, he hath my good Will,
And none but he to marry with Nan Page.
That Slender, tho? well landed, is an Ideot;
And he my Husband beft of all affects:

The

The Doctor is well mony'd, and his Friends
Potent at Court; he, none but he fhall have her,

Tho' twenty thousand worthier came to crave her. [Exit.

Hoft. What wouldst thou have? Boor, what? Thickskin, fpeak, breathe, difcufs; brief, fhort, quick, fnap.

Simp. Marry, Sir, I come to fpeak with Sir John Falstaff,

from Mr. Slender.

Hoft. There's his Chamber, his Houfe, 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 fpeak like an Anthropophaginian unto thee: Knock, I fay.

Simp. There's an old Woman, a fat Woman gone up into his Chamber; I'll be fo bold as ftay, Sir, 'till fhe come down; I come to speak with her indeed.

Hoft. Ha! a fat Woman? The Knight may be robb'd: I'll call. Bully-Knight! Bully-Sir John! fpeak from thy Lungs Military: Art thou there? It is thine Hoft, thine Ephefian calls.

Enter Falftaff.

Fal. How now, mine Hoft?

Hoft. Here's a Bohemian-Tartar tarries the coming down of thy fat Woman: Let her defcend, Bully, let her defcend; my Chambers are honourable. Fic, Privacy? Fie.

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

Simp. Pray you, Sir, was't not the wife Woman of Brainford?

Fal. Ay marry was it, Muffel-fhell, what would you with her?

Simp. My Mafter, Sir, my Mafter Slender fent to her, feeing her go thro' the Street, to know, Sir, whether one Nym, Sir, that beguil'd him of a Chain, had the Chain,

or no.

Fal. I fpake with the old Woman about it.
Simp. And what fays fhe, I pray Sir?

Fal. Marry the fays, that the very fame Man that beguil'd Master Slender of his Chain, cozen'd him of it.

Simp. I would I could have spoken with the Woman her self, I had other things to have spoken with her too, from him.

Fal. What are they? Let us know.
Hoft. Ay, come; quick.

Simp. I may not conceal them, Sir.
Hoft. Conceal them, or thou dy'st.

Simp. Why, Sir, they were nothing but about Mistress Anne Page, to know if it were my Master's Fortune to have

her or no.

Fal. 'Tis, 'tis his Fortune.

Simp. What, Sir?

Fal. To have her, or no: Go; fay the Woman told me fo. Simp. May I be bold to fay fo, Sir?

Fal. Ay Sir; like who more bold.

Simp. I thank your Worship: I fhall make my Master glad with thefe Tidings.

[Exit Simple. Hoft. Thou art clarkly; thou art clarkly, Sir John: Was there a wife Woman with thee?

Fal. Ay, that there was, mine Hoft, one that hath taught me more Wit than ever I learn'd before in my Life; and I paid nothing for it neither, but was paid for my learning.

Enter Bardolph.

Bard. Out alas, Sir, Cozenage; meer Cozenage.. Hoft. Where be my Horfes ? Speak well of them, Varletto.

Bard. Run away with the Cozeners; for fo foon as I came beyond Eaton, they threw me off from behind one of them in a Slough of Mire, and fet Spurs, and away; like three German Devils, three Doctor Fauftuffes.

Hoft. They are gone but to meet the Duke, Villain, do not fay they be fled; Germans are honeft Men.

Enter Evans.

Eva. Where is mine Hoft?

Hoft. 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 Co

zen