on't, Jove; a foul fault.-When gods have hot backs, what shall poor men do? For me, I am here a Windsor stag; and the fattest, I think, i' the forest: Send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to piss my tallow? Who comes here? my doe?

Enter Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page.

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

Fal. My doe with the black scut?-Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves ; bail kissing-comfits, and snow eringoes; let there come a tempest of provocation, I will shelter me here.

[Embracing her. Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page is come with me, sweetheart.

Fel. 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 to 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!

Mrs. Page. Alas! what noise?

Mrs. Ford. Heaven forgive our sins!
Fal. What should this be?

[Noise within.

Mrs. Ford. Mrs. Page. Away, away. [They run off. Fel. I think the devil will not have me damned, lest the oil that is in me should set hell on fire: he would Dever else cross me thus.

Enter Sir Hugh Evans, like 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.

Quic. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white, You moon-shine revellers, and shades of night, You orphan-heirs of fixed destiny,

Attend your office, and your quality.

Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy o-yes.

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:

F'll wink and couch: No man their works must eye.
[Lies down upon his face.
Eva. Where's Pede?-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.

Quic. 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:
Fach fair instalment, coat, and several crest,
With royal blazon, evermore he 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 knight-hood's bending knee;
Fairies use flowers for their charactery.
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,
To guide our measure round about the tree.
But, stay; I smell a man of middle earth.

Fal. Heavens defend me from that Welch fairy!
lest he transform me to a piece of cheese! [birth.
Pist. Vile worm, thou wast o'er-look'd even in thy
Quic. With trial-fire touch me his finger-end :
If he be chaste, the flame will back descend,
And turn him to no pain; but if he start,
It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.
Pist. A trial, come.

[They burn him with their tapers. Eva. Come, will this wood take fire. Fal. Oh, oh, oh!

Quic. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire!About him, fairies; sing a scornful rhyme: And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time. Eva. It is right; indeed, he is full of lecheries and ¡niquity.

Will none but Herne the hunter serve your turn? Mrs. Page. I pray you, come; hold up the jest no higher:

-Now, good sir John, how like you Windsor wives? -See you these, husband? do not these fair yokes Become the forest better than the town?

Ford. Now, sir, who's a cuckold now?-Master Brook, Falstaff's a knave, a cuckoldly knave; here are his horns, master Brook: And, master Brook, he hath enjoyed nothing of Ford's but his buck-basket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds of money; which must be paid to master Brook; his horses are arrested for it, master Brook.

Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never meet. I will never take you for my love again, but I will always count you my deer.

Fal. I do begin to perceive that I am made an ass. Ford, Ay, and an ox too; both the proofs are extant.

Ial. And these are not fairies? I was three or four times in the thought, they were not fairies; and yet the guiltiness of my mind, the sudden surprise of my powers, drove the grossness of the foppery into a received belief, in despite of the teeth of all rhyme and reason, that they were fairies. See now, how wit may be made a jack-a-lent, when 'tis upon ill employment! Eva. Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave your desires, and fairies will not pinse you.

Ford. Well said, fairy Hugh.

Eva. And leave your jealousies too, I pray you, Ford. I will never mistrust my wife again, till thou art able to woo her in good English.

Fal. Have I laid my brain in the sun, and dried it, that it wants matter to prevent so gross o'er-reaching as this? Am I ridden with a Welch goat too? Shall I have a coxcomb of frize? 'tis time I were choaked with a piece of toasted cheese.

Eva. Seese is not good to give putter; your pelly is all putter.

Fal. Seese and putter! have I lived to stand at the taunt of one that makes fritters of English? This is enough to be the decay of lust and late-walking, through the realm.

Mrs. Page. Why, sir John, do you think, though we would 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 Welch 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.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to make amends:

Forgive that sum, and so we'll all be friends.

Ford. Well, here's my hand; all's forgiven at last. Page. Yet be cheerful, knight: thou shalt eat a posset to night at my house; where I will desire thee to faugh 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's wife. [ Aside. Enter Slender.

Sten. Whoo, ho! ho! father Page!

Page. Son! how now? how now, son? have you despatched?

Slen. Despatched!--I'll make the best in Glouc‹ stershire know on't; would I were hanged, lo, else. Page. Of what, son?

Sten. I came yonder at Eton to marry mistress Anne Page, and she's a great lubberly boy: If it had not heen 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 går. ments?

Slen. I went to her in white, and cry'd mum, and she cry'd budget, as Anne and I had appointed; aud yet it was not Anne, but a post-master's boy.

Eva. Jeshu! Master Slender, cannot you see but marry poys?

Page. O, I am vexed at heart: What shall I do? Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry: I knew of indeed, she is now with the doctor at the deanery, and your purpose; turned my daughter into green; and, there married.

Enter Caius.

Page. Now, mistress? how chance you went not with master Slender?

Mrs. Page. Why went you not with master doctor, maid?

Fent. You do amaze her: Hear the truth of it.
You would have married her most shamefully,
Where there was no proportion held in love.
The truth is, she and I, long since contracted,
Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us.
The offence is holy, that she hath committed:
And this deceit loses the name of craft,
Of disobedience, or unduteous title;
Since therein she doth evitate and shun
A thousand irreligious cursed hours,
Which forced marriage would have brought upon her.
Ford. Stand not amaz'd: here is no remedy :-

In love, the heavens themselves do guide the state;
Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate.

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 chae'd.

Eva. I will dance and eat plums at your wedding. Mrs. Page. Well, I will muse no further :-Master

Fenton,

Vincentio, duke of Vienna.

Clown, servant, to Mrs. Over-done. Abhorson, an executioner.

Angelo, lord deputy in the duke's absence.

deputation.

Claudio, a young gentleman.

Lucio, a fantastic.

Tus other like gentlemen.

Varrius, a gentleman, servant to the Duke.

Provest.

Thomas,

Peter,

A Justice.

two friars.

Elbow, a simple constable.

Froth, a foolish gentleman.

Isabella, sister to Claudio.
Mariana, betrothed to Angelo.

Juliet, beloved by Claudio.
Francisca, a nun.

Mistress Over-done, a bawd.

Lords, Gentlemen, Guards, Officers, and other Attend

ants.

SCENE-Vienna.

Are not thine own so proper, as to waste Thyself upon thy virtues, them on thee.

For common justice, you are as pregnant in,
As art and practice hath enriched any
That we remember: There is our commission,
From which we would not have you warp.-Call hither,
I say, bid come before us Angelo. [Exit an Attendant.
-What figure of us think you he will bear?
For you must know, we have with special soul
Elected him our absence to supply;
Lent him our terror, drest him with our love;
And given his deputation all the organs
Of our own power: What think you of it?
Esta. If any in Vienna be of worth
To undergo such ample grace and honour,
It is lord Angelo.

Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do;
Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues

Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'₫
But to fine issues: nor nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence,
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech
To one that can my part in him advertise;
Hold therefore, Angelo:

In our remove, be thou at full ourself;
Mortality and mercy in Vienna

Live in thy tongue and heart: Ok! Escalus,
Though first in question, is thy secondary :-
Take thy commission.

Let there be some more test made of my metal,
Ang.
Now, good my lord,
Before so noble and so great a figure
Be stamp'd upon it.

Duke.

No more evasion:
We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice
Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.
Our haste from hence is of so quick condition,
That it prefers itself, and leaves unquestion'd
Matters of needful value. We shall write to you,
As time and our concernings shall importune,
How it goes with us, and do look to know
What doth befal you here. So, fare you well:
To the hopeful execution do I leave you
Of your commissions.

Ang.
Yet, give leave, my lord,
That we may bring you something on the way.
Duke. My haste may not admit it;

Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do
With any scruple: your scope is as mine own;

So to enforce, or qualify the laws,

As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand;
I'll privily away: I love the people,
But do not like to stage me to their eyes:
Though it do well, I do not relish well
Their loud applause, and aves vehement;
Nor do I think the man of safe discretion,
That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.

Ang. The heavens give safety to your purposer!
Esca. Lead forth, and bring you back in happiness.
Duke. I thank you. Fare you well.

[Exit.

Lucio. Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the ten commandments, but scraped one out of the table.

2 Gent. Thou shalt not steal?— Lucio. Ay, that he razed.

1 Gent. Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain and all the rest from their functions; they put forth to steal: There's not a soldier of us all, that, in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relish the petition well that prays for peace.

2 Gent. I never heard any soldier dislike it. Lucio. I believe thee; for, I think, thou never wast

where grace was said.

2 Gent. No? a dozen times at least.

1 Gent. What? in metre?

Lucio. In any proportion, or in any language.

1 Gent. I think, or in any religion.

Lucio. Ay! why not? Grace is grace, despite of all controversy. As for example; Thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all grace.

1 Gent. Well, there went but a pair of sheers be

tween us.

Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet: Thou art the list.

1 Gent. And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou art a three-pil'd piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief be a list of an English kersey, as be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet. Do I speak feelingly now?

Lucio. I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy speech: I will, out of thine own confession, learn to begin thy health; but, whilst I live, forget to drink after thee.

2 Gent. To what, I pray?

1 Gent. Judge.

2 Gent. To three thousand dollars a year.

1 Gent. Ay, and more.

Lucio. A French crown more.

1 Gent. Thou art always figuring diseases in me: but thou art full of error; I am sound.

Lucio. Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but so sound, as things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow; impiety hath made a feast of thee.

Enter Bawd.

1 Gent. How now? Which of your hips has the most profound sciatica ?

Bawd. Well, well; there's one yonder arrested, and carried to prison, was worth five thousand of you all. 1 Gent. Who's that, I pr'ythee?

Bawd. Marry, sir, that's Claudio, signior Claudio. 1 Gent. Claudio to prison! 'tis not so.

Bawd. Nay, but I know, 'tis so: I saw him arrested; saw him carried away; and, which is more, within these three days his head's to be chopped off.

Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so: Art thou sure of this?

Bawd. I am too sure of it: and it is for getting madam Julietta with child.

Lucio. Believe me, this may be: he promised to meet me two hours since; and he was ever precise in promise-keeping.

2 Gent. Besides, you know, it draws something near to the speech we had to such a purpose.

1 Gent. But most of all, agreeing with the proclamation.

Lucio. Away; let's go learn the truth of it.

[Exeunt Lucio and Gentlemen. Bawd. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom-shrunk.-How now? what's the news with you?

Enter Clown.

Clown. Yonder man is carried to prison. Bawd. Well; what hath he done?

Clown. A woman.

Bawd. But what's his offence?

Clown. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river. Bawd. What, is there a maid with child by him? Clown. No; but there's a woman with maid by him: You have not heard of the proclamation, have you? Bawd. What proclamation, man?

Clown. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down.

Bewd. And what shall become of those in the city? Clown. They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too, but that a wise burgher put in for them. Bawd. But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pull'd down?

Clown. To the ground, mistress.

Bawd. Why, here's a change, indeed, in the commonwealth!-What shall become of me?

Clown. Come; fear not you: good counsellors lack no clients though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapster still.

2 Gent. Yes, that thou hast; whether thou art tainted, or free.

Lucio. Behold, behold, where madam Mitigation comes! I have purchased as many discases under her roof, as comes to-

have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you will be considered.

Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapster? Let's withdraw.

Clown. Here comes signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison: and there's madam Juliet. [Exeunt

SCENE III-Enter Provost, Claudio, Juliet, and officers; Lucio, and two Gentlemen.

Clau. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?

Bear me to prison, where I am committed.

Prov. I do it not in evil disposition,
But from lord Angelo by special charge.
Clau. Thus can the demi-god, Authority,
Make us pay down, for our offence by weight.-
The words of heaven;-on whom it will, it will;
On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.

Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this restraint?

Clau. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: As surfeit is the father of much fast,

So every scope by the immoderate use

Turns to restraint: Our natures do pursue
(Like rats that ravin down their proper bane)
A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die.

Lucio. If I could speak so wisely under arrest, I would send for certain of my creditors: And yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment.-What's thy offence, Claudio?

Clau. What, but to speak of would offend again.
Lucio. What is it? murder?

Clau. No.

Is lechery so look'd after?

Clau, Thus stands it with me:-Upon a true contract, I got possession of Julietta's bed;

You know the lady; she is fast my wife,

Save that we do the denunciation lack

Of outward order: this we came not to,
Only for propagation of a dower
Remaining in the coffer of her friends;

From whom we thought it meet to hide our love,
Till time had made them for us. But it chances,
The stealth of our most mutual entertainment,
With character too gross, is writ on Juliet.
Lucis. With child, perhaps?

Clau. Unhappily, even so.

And the new deputy now for the duke,

Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness;

Or whether that the body public be
A horse whereon the governor doth ride
Who, newly in the seat, that it may know

He can command, lets it straight feel the spur:
Whether the tyranny be in his place,

Or in his eminence that fills it up,

I stagger in:-But this new governor
Awakes me all the enrolled penalties,

Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall
So long, that nineteen zodiacs have gone round,
And none of them been worn; and, for a name,
Now puts the drowsy and neglected act
Freshly on me :-'tis surely, for a name.

Lucio. I warrant, it is: and thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders, that a milk-maid, if she be in love, may sigh it off. Send after the duke, and appeal to him.

Clau. I have done so, but he's not to be found.
I prythee, Lucio, do me this kind service :—

This day my sister should the cloister enter,
And there receive her approbation:

Acquaint her with the danger of my state;
Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends
To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him;
I have great hope in that: for in her youth
There is a prone and speechless dialect,
Such as moves men; beside, she hath prosperous art
When she will play with reason and discourse,
And well she can persuade.

Lucio. I pray, she may: as well for the encouragement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition: as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack. I'll to her.

Clau. I thank you, good friend Lucio.
Lucio. Within two hours,-

Clau. Come, officer, away.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV-A Monastery. Enter Duke and Friar Thomas.

Duke. No; holy father; throw away that thought; Believe not that the dribbling dart of love Can pierce a complete bosom: why I desire thee To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends Of burning youth.

Fri.

May your grace speak of it? Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd;

And held in idle price to haunt assemblies,

Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps.

I have deliver'd to lord Angelo

(A man of stricture, and firm abstinence,)
My absolute power and place here in Vienna,

And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;
For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is receiv'd: Now, pious sir,

You will demand of me, why I do this?

Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have strict statutes, and most biting laws. (The needful bits and curbs for head-strong steeds) Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep; Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey: Now, as fond fathers
Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch,
Only to stick it in their children's sight,
For terror, not to use; in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd: so our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;

And liberty plucks justice by the nose;

The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Fri.

It rested in your grace

To unloose this tied-up justice, when you pleas'd: And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd, Than in lord Angelo.

Duke.