Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

deed! 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?

Slen. Truly, for mine own part, I would little or nothing with you: Your father, and my uncle, have made motions: if it be my luck, fo; if not, happy man be his dole! They can tell you how things go, better than I can: You may ask your father; here he comes.

Enter PAGE and Miftrefs PAGE.

Page. Now, mafter Slender :-Love him, daughter Anne.--

Why, how now! what does master Fenton here?
You wrong me, fir, thus ftill to haunt my houfe:
I told you, fir, my daughter is dispos'd of.

Fent. Nay, mafter 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, fon Slender; in:-
Knowing my mind, you wrong me, mafter Fenton.

[Exeunt PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER.

Quick. Speak to mistress Page.

Fent. Good miftrefs Page, for that I love your daughter In fuch a righteous fashion as I do,

Perforce against all checks, rebukes and manners,

I must advance the colours of my love,

And not retire: Let me have your good will.

Anne. Good mother, do not marry me to 'yon fool. Mrs. Page. I mean it not; I feek you a better husband. Quick. That's my mafter, mafter doctor.

Anne.

Anne. Alas, I had rather be fet quick i'the earth,

And bowl'd to death with turnips.

Mrs. Page. Come, trouble not yourfelf: Good master Fenton,

I will not be your friend, nor enemy:

My daughter will I question how fhe loves you,
And as I find her, fo am I affected;

'Till then, farewell, fir:---She must needs go in ;
Her father will be angry.

[Exeunt Mrs. PAGE and ANNE.

Fent. Farewell, gentle miftrefs; farewell, Nan.

Quick. This is my doing now :---Nay, faid I, will you caft away your child on a fool, and a phyfician? Look on mafter Fenton :--- this is my doing.

Fent. I thank thee; and I pray thee, once to night Give my fweet Nan this ring: There's for thy pains. [ Exit. Quick. Now heaven send thee good fortune! A kind heart he hath: a woman would run through fire and water for fuch a kind heart. But yet, I would my master had mistress Anne; or I would mafter Slender had her: or, in footh I would mafter Fenton had her; I will do what I can for them all three; for fo I have promised, and I'll be as good as my word; but fpeciously for master Fenton. Well, I muft of another errand to fir John Falftaff from my two miftreffes; What a beast am I to flack it?

[Exit.

SCENE V.

A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH.

Fal. Bardolph, I fay,

Bard. Here, fir.

Fal.

Fal. Go fetch me a quart of fack; put a toaft in't. [Exit BARD.] Have I lived to be carried in a basket, like a barrow of butcher's offal; and to be thrown into the Thames? Well, if I be ferved fuch another trick, I'll have my brains ta'en out, and butter'd, and give them to a dog for a new year's gift. The rogues flighted me into the river with as little remorfe as they would have drown'd a bitch's blind puppies, fifteen i'the litter : and you may know by my fize, that I have a kind of alacrity in finking; if the bottom were as deep as hell, I fhould down. I had been drown'd, but that the shore was fhelvy and fhallow; a death that I abhor; for the water fwells a man; and what a thing should I have been, when I had been fwell'd! I fhould have been a mountain of mummy.

Re-enter BARDOLPH, with the wine.

Bard. Here's mistress Quickly, fir, to speak with you. Fal. Come, let me pour in fome fack to the Thames water; for my belly's as cold as if I had swallow'd snowballs 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 a pottle of fack finely.

Bard. With eggs, fir?

Fal. Simple of itself; I'll no pullet-fperm in my brewage. [Exit BARD.]—How now ?

Quick. Marry, fir, I come to your worship from Mrs. Ford.

Fal.

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

Quick. Alas the day! good heart, that was not her fault: fhe does fo take on with her men; they mistook their erection.

Fal. So did I mine, to build upon a foolish woman's promife.

Quick. Well, fhe laments, fir, for it, that it would yearn your heart to fee it. Her husband goes this morning a birding; fhe defires you once more to come to her between eight and nine: I must carry her word quickly : she'll make you amends I warrant you.

Fal. Well, I will vifit her: Tell her fo; and bid her think, what a man is: let her confider his frailty, and then judge of my merit.

Quick. I will tell her.

Fal. Do fo. Between nine and ten fay'ft thou?

Quick. Eight and nine, fir.

Fal. Well, be gone: I will not mifs her.

Quick. Peace be with you, fir!

[Exit.

Fal. I marvel I hear not of master Brook; he fent me word to stay within: I like his money well. O, here he comes.

Ford. Blefs you, fir!

Enter FORD,

Fal. Now, mafter Brook? you come to know what hath pafs'd between me and Ford's wife?

Ford. That, indeed, fir John, is my business.

Fal. Mafter Brook, I will not lie to you; I was at her house the hour fhe appointed me.

Ford. And how sped you, fir?

Fal. Very ill-favour'dly, master Brook.

Ford.

Ford. How fo, fir? Did the change her determination? Fal. No, master Brook: but the peaking cornuto her husband, master Brook, dwelling in a continual 'larum of jealoufy, comes me in the inftant of our encounter, after we had embrac'd, kifs'd, protefted, and as it were, spoke the prologue of our comedy; and at his heels a rabble of his companions, thither provoked and inftigated by his distemper, and, forfooth, to fearch his houfe for his wife's love.

Ford. What, while you were there?

Fal. While I was there.

Ford. And did he search for you, and could not find you?

Fal. You fhall hear. As good luck would have it, comes in one mistress Page; gives intelligence of Ford's approach; and, by her invention, and Ford's wife's dif traction, they convey'd me into a buck-basket.

Ford. A buck-basket!

Fal. By the Lord, a buck-basket: ramm'd me in with foul fhirts and fmocks, focks, foul ftockings, and greafy napkins; that, mafter Brook, there was the rankeft compound of villainous fmell, that ever offended noftril. Ford. And how long lay you there?

Fal. Nay, you fhall hear, mafter Brook, what I have fuffer'd to bring this woman to evil for your good. Being thus cramm'd in the basket, a couple of Ford's knaves, his hinds, were call'd forth by their miftrefs, 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 afk'd them once or twice what they had in their basket: I quaked for fear, left the lunatic knave would have fearch'd it; but fate, ordaining he should be a cuckold, held his hand. Well; on went he for a search, and away went I for foul clothes. But mark the fequel,

mafter

« ÎnapoiContinuă »