your worship more of the wart, the next time we have confidence; and.of other wooers. Fent. Well, farewell; I am in great haste now. [Exit. Quick. Farewell to your worship.--Truly, an honest gentleman; but Anne loves him not; for I know Anne's mind as well as another does :---Out upon't! what have I forgot? [Exit. ACT II. SCENE I. Before PAGE's House. Enter Miftrefs PAGE, with a letter. Mrs. Page. What! have I 'fcaped love-letters in the holy-day time of my beauty, and am I now a fubject for them? Let me fee: [reads. Afk me no reason why I love you; for though love use reafon for his precifian, he admits him not for his counsellor. You are not young, no more am I; go to, then, there's Sympathy: you are merry, fo am I; Ha! ha! then there's more Sympathy: you love fack, and fo do I; would you defire better fympathy? Let it fuffice thee, miftrefs Page, (at the least, if the love of a foldier can fuffice) that I love thee. I will not fay, pity me; 'tis not a foldier-like phrafe; but I fay, love me. By me, Thine own true knight, By day or night, Or any kind of light, With all his might, For thee to fight. John Falstaff. What a Herod of Jewry is this?---O wicked, wicked world !---one that is well nigh worn to pieces with age, to fhow himself a young gallant! What an unweigh'd behaviour hath this Flemish drunkard pick'd (with the devil's name) out of my conversation, that he dares in this manner affay me? Why, he hath not been thrice in my company!-What should I say to him?---I was then frugal of my mirth :---heaven forgive me!---Why, I'll exhibit a bili in the parliament for the putting down of men. How hall I be revenged on him? for revenged I will be, as fure as his guts are made of puddings. Enter Enter Miftrefs FORD. Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page! truft me, I was going to your house. Mrs. Page. And, trust me, I was coming to you. You look very ill. Mrs. Ford. Nay, I'll ne'er believe that; I have to fhow to the contrary. Mrs. Page. 'Faith, but you do, in my mind. Mrs. Ford. Well, I do then; yet, I fay, I could fhow you to the contrary: O, miftrefs Page, give me fome counfel! Mrs. Page. What's the matter, woman? Mrs. Ford. O woman, if it were not for one trifling refpect, I could come to fuch honour! Mrs. Page. Hang the trifle, woman; take the honour Mrs. Page. What?-thou lieft!-Sir Alice Ford!Thefe knights will hack; and fo thou fhouldst not alter the article of thy gentry. Mrs. Ford. We burn day-light :-here, read, read ;-—perceive how I might be knighted.-I fhall think the worfe of fat men, as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's liking: And yet he would not fwear; prais'd women's modefty; and gave fuch orderly and well-behaved reproof to all uncomelinefs, that I would have fworn his difpofition would have gone to the truth of his words: but they do no more adhere, and keep place together, than the hundredth pfalm to the tune of Green fleeves. What tempeft, I trow, threw this whale, with fo many tuns of oil in his belly, afhore at Windfor? How fhall I be revenged on him? I think, the best way were to entertain him with hope, till the wicked fire of luft have melted him in his own grease.Did you ever hear the like ? Mrs. Page. Letter for letter; but that the name of Page and Ford differs!-To thy great comfort in this mystery of ill opinions, here's the twin-brother of thy letter: but let thine inherit first; for, I proteft, mine never fhall. I warrant, he hath a thousand of these letters, writ with blank fpace for different names, (fure more) and thefe are of the fecond edition: He will print them out of doubt; for he cares not what he puts into the prefs, when he would put us two. I had rather be a giantess, and lie under mount Pelion. Well, I will find you twenty lafcivious turtles, ere one chaste man. Mrs. Ford. Why, this is the very fame; the very hand the very words: What doth he think of us? Mrs. Page. Nay, I know not: It makes me almoft ready to wrangle with mine own honesty. I'll entertain myself like one that I am not acquainted withal; for, fure, unless he knew some strain in me, that I know not myfelf, he would never have boarded me in this fury. Mrs. Ford. Boarding, call you it? I'll be fure to keep him above deck. Mrs. Page. So will I; if he come under my hatches, I'll never to fɛa again. Let's be revenged on him: let's appoint him a meeting; give him a fhow of comfort in his fuit; and lead him on, with a fine-baited delay, till he hath pawn'd his horfes to mine Hoft of the Garter. Mrs. Ford. Nay, I will confent to act any villainy against him, that may not fully the charinefs of our honefty. O, that my husband faw this letter! it would give eternal food to his jealousy. Mrs. Page. Why, look, where he comes; and my good man too: he's as far from jealousy, as I am from |