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Word of denial in thy labras here;

Word of denial: froth and fcum, thou lieft.

Slen. By these gloves, then 'twas he.

Nym. Be avis'd, fir, and pass good humours: I will fay, marry-trap, with you, if you run the nuthook's humour on me; that is the very note of it.

Slen. By this hat then, he in the red face had it: for, though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an afs.

Fal. What fay you, Scarlet and John?

Bar. Why, fir, for my part, I fay, the gentleman had drunk himself out of his five fentences.

Eva. It is his five fenfes: fie, what the ignorance is! Bar. And being fap, fir, was, as they fay, cashier'd; and fo conclufions pafs'd the careires.

Slen. Ay, you spake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter: I'll ne'er be drunk whilst I live again, but in honeft, civil, godly company, for this trick: if I be drunk, I'll be drunk with thofe that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves.

Eva. So Got 'udge me, that is a virtuous mind.

Fal. You hear all thefe matters denied, gentlemen; you hear it.

Enter Miftrefs ANNE PAGE with wine; Mistress FORD and Miftrefs PAGE following.

Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within. [Exit ANNE PAGE.

Slen. O heaven! this is mistress Anne Page.

Page. How now, mistress Ford?

Fal. Miftrefs Ford, by my troth, you are very well

met: by your leave, good mistress.

[kiffing her.

Page. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome :-Come,

we

we have a hot venison pasty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.

[Exeunt all but SHALLOW, SLENDER, and EVANS. Slen. I had rather than forty fhillings, I had my book of Songs and Sonnets here.

Enter SIMPLE.

How now, Simple! where have you been? I must wait on myself, must I? You have not The Book of Riddles about you, have you

Sim. Book of Riddles! why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas ?

Shal. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word with you, coz: marry, this, coz; There is, as 'twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by fir Hugh here;-Do you understand me?

Slen. Ay, fir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be fo, I fhall do that that is reason.

Shal. Nay, but understand me.

Slen. So I do, fir.

Eva. Give ear to his motions, mafter Slender: I will defcription the matter to you, if you be capacity of it.

Slen. Nay, I will do as my coufin Shallow fays: I pray you, pardon me; he's a justice of peace in his country, fimple though I stand here.

Eva. But that is not the question; the question is concerning your marriage.

Shal. Ay, there's the point, fir.

Eva. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to mistress Anne Page.

Slen. Why, if it be fo, I will marry her, upon any reasonable demands.

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Eva. But can you affection the 'oman? Let us command to know that of your mouth, or of your lips; for divers philofophers hold, that the lips is parcel of the mouth :-Therefore, precisely, can you carry your good I will to the maid?

Shal. Coufin Abraham Slender, can you love her?

Slen. I hope, fir,-I will do, as it fhall become one that would do reafon.

Eva. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies, you must speak poffitable, if you can carry her your defires towards her. Shal. That you must: Will you, upon good dowry, marry her?

Slen. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your request, coufin, in any reafon.

Shal. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, fweet 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 heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married, and have more occafion to know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: but if you fay, marry her, I will marry her, that I am freely diffolved, and diffolutely.

Eva. It is a fery difcretion anfwer; fave, the faul' is in the 'ort diffolutely: the 'ort is, according to our meaning, refolutely;-his meaning is good.

Shal. Ay, I think my coufin meant well.

Slen. Ay, or elfe I would I might be hang'd, la.

Re-Enter ANNE PAGE.

Shal. Here comes fair miftrefs Anne.-Would I were

young, for your fake, mistress Anne!

Anne.

WN.Gardiner del et sc

Merry Wives of Windsor.

Page 13.

Publishd1 April 1798 by Edw Harding Pall Mall .

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