Ford. I'll prat her ;

-Out of my door, you witch!

[beats him.] you rag, you baggage, you polecat, you ronyon! out! out! I'll conjure you, I'll fortune-tell you. [Exit FALSTAFF.

Mrs. Page. Are you not afhamed? I think you have kill'd the poor woman.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, he will do it :-'Tis a goodly credit for you.

Ford. Hang her, witch!

Eva. By yea and no, I think, the 'oman is a witch indeed: I like not when a 'oman has a great peard; I fpy a great peard under her muffler.

Ford. Will you follow, gentlemen? I beseech you, follow; fee but the iffue of my jealoufy: if I cry out thus upon no trail, never trust me when I open again.

Page. Let's obey his humour a little further: Come, gentlemen. [Exeunt PAGE, FORD, SHALLOW, and EVANS. Mrs. Page. Trust me, he beat him moft pitifully. Mrs. Ford. Nay, by the mafs, that he did not; he beat him most unpitifully, methought.

Mrs. Page. I'll have the cudgel hallow'd, and hung o'er the altar; it hath done meritorious fervice.

Mrs. Ford. What think you? May we, with the warrant of woman-hood, and the witness of a good conscience, pursue him with any further revenge?

Mrs. Page. The fpirit of wantonnefs is, fure, scared out of him; if the devil have him not in fee-fimple, with fine and recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of wafte, 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 brains. If they can find in their hearts, the poor unvirtuous fat knight shall

be

be any further afflicted, we two will ftill be the minif

ters.

Mrs. Ford. I'll warrant, they'll have him publickly fhamed: and, methinks, there would be no period to the jest, should he not be publickly fhamed.

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

SCENE III.

A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter HOST and BARDOLPH.

[Exeunt.

Bar. Sir, the Germans defire 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 fpeak with the gentlemen; they speak English?

Bar. Ay, fir; I'll call them to you.

Hoft. They fhall have my horfes; but I'll make them pay, I'll fauce them: they have had my houses a week at command; I have turn'd away my other guests: they must come off: I'll fauce them: Come.

SCENE IV.

A Room in FORD's Houfe.

[Exeunt

Enter PAGE, FORD, Mrs. PAGE, Mrs. FORD, and Sir HUGH EVANS.

Eva. 'Tis one of the pest discretions of a 'oman as ever I did look upon.

Page. And did he fend you both these letters at an in

ftant.

Mrs.

Mrs. Page. Within a quarter of an hour.

Ford. Pardon me, wife: Henceforth do what thou wilt; I rather will fufpect the fun with cold,

Than thee with wantonnefs: now doth thy honour stand, In him that was of late an heretick,

As firm as faith.

Page. 'Tis well, 'tis well; no more. Be not extreme in fubmiffion,

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 has been thrown into the rivers; and has been grievously peaten, as an old 'oman: methinks, there fhould be terrors in him, that he fhould not come; methinks, his flesh is punish'd, he shall have no defires. Page. So think I too.

Mrs. Ford. Devife but how you'll ufe him when he

comes,

And let us two devise to bring him thither.

Mrs. Page. There is an old tale goes, that Herne the hunter,

Sometime a keeper here in Windfor forest,

Doth all the winter time, at ftill midnight,

Walk round about an oak, with great raggid horns;
And there he blafts the tree, and takes the cattle;
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain
In a most hideous and dreadful manner:

You have heard of fuch a fpirit; and well you know,
The fuperftitious idle-headed eld

Receiv'd

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,

Difguis'd like Herne, with huge horns on his head.

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 have we thought upon, and

thus:

Nan Page my daughter, and my little fon,

And three or four more of their growth, we'll drefs
Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white,
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 faw-pit rush at once
With fome diffufed fong; 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 fhape prophane.

Mrs. Ford. And till he tell the truth,
Let the fuppofed fairies pinch him sound,
And burn him with their tapers.

Mrs. Page. The truth being known,

We'll all present ourselves; dif-horn the spirit,
And mock him home to Windfor.

Ford. The children must

Be

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-an-apes also, 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 attired in a robe of white.

Page. That filk will I go buy;-and in that time Shall master Slender steal my Nan away,

[Afide. And marry her at Eton.- -Go, send to Falstaff straight. Ford. Nay, I'll to him again in name of Brook:. He'll tell me all his purpose: Sure, he'll come.

Mrs. Page. Fear not you that: Go, get us properties, And tricking for our fairies.

Eva. Let us about it: It is admirable pleasures, and fery honest knaveries. [Exeunt PAGE, FORD, and EVANS. Mrs. Page. Go, miftrefs Ford,

Send Quickly to fir John, to know his mind.

[Exit Mrs. FORD.

I'll to the doctor; he hath my good will,
And none but he, to marry with Nan Page.
That Slender, though well landed, is an ideot;,
And he my husband best of all affects:

The doctor is well money'd, and his friends
Potent at court; he, none but he, fhall have her,
Though twenty thousand worthier come to crave her.

SCENE V.

A Room in the Garter Inn..

Enter Hoft and SIMPLE.

[Exit.

Hoft. What would'st thou have, boor? what, thickfkin? fpeak, breathe, difcufs; brief, fhort, quick, fnap.