shall do with the basket. linen for him straight.

[Exit. Mrs. Page. Hang him, dishonest varlet! we cannot misuse him enough.

We'll leave a proof, by that which we will do, Wives may be merry and yet honest too.

[Exit.

Enter Mrs. FORD, with two Servants. Mrs. Ford. Go, sirs, take the basket again on your shoulders: your master is hard at door; if he bid you set it down, obey him. Quickly; despatch. [Exit.

1 Serv. Come, come, take it up.

2 Serv. Pray Heaven it be not full of knight again.. [lead. 1 Serv. I hope not; I had as lief bear so much

Enter FORD, PAGE, SHALLOW, CAIUS, and Sir

HUGH EVANS.

Ford. Ay, but if it prove true, Master Page, have you any way then to unfool me again?-Set down the basket, villain.-Somebody call my wife.-Youth in a basket!-O, you panderly rascals! there's a knot, a ging, a pack, a conspiracy against me: now shall the devil be sham'd.-What, wife, I say! Come, come forth: behold what honest clothes you send forth to bleaching.

Page. Why, this passes! Master Ford, you are not to go loose any longer; you must be pinion'd. Eva. Why, this is lunatics: this is mad as a mad dog. [indeed. Shal. Indeed, Master Ford, this is not well;

Enter Mrs. FORD.

Ford. So say I too, sir.-Come hither, Mistress Ford; Mistress Ford, the honest woman, the modest wife, the virtuous creature, that hath the jealous fool to her husband!—I suspect without cause, mistress, do I?

Mrs. Ford. Heaven be my witness, you do, if you suspect me in any dishonesty.

Ford. Well said, brazen-face; hold it out.Come forth, sirrah.

[Pulls the clothes out of the basket. Page. This passes! Mrs. Ford. Are you not asham'd? let the Ford. I shall find you anon. [clothes alone. Eva. 'Tis unreasonable. Will you take up your wife's clothes? Come away. Ford. Empty the basket, I say. Mrs. Ford. Why, man, why,Ford. Master Page, as I am a man, there was one convey'd out of my house yesterday in this basket: why may not he be there again? In my house I am sure he is: my intelligence is true; my jealousy is reasonable.-Pluck me out all the linen.

Mrs. Ford. If you find a man there he shall die a flea's death.

Page. Here's no man.

Shal. By my fidelity, this is not well, Master Ford; this wrongs you.

Eva. Master Ford, you must pray, and not follow the imaginations of your own heart: this is jealousies.

Ford. Well, he's not here I seek for.

Page. No, nor nowhere else but in your brain. Ford. Help to search my house this one time: if I find not what I seek, show no colour for my extremity; let me for ever be your table-sport: let them say of me, 'As jealous as Ford, that search'd a hollow walnut for his wife's leman.'* + Scab.

• Lover.

+ Scent.

Ford. Old woman! What old woman's that? Mrs. Ford. Why, it is my maid's aunt of Brentford.

Ford. A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean! Have I not forbid her my house? She comes of errands, does she? We are simple men; we do not know what's brought to pass under the profession of fortune-telling. She works by charms, by spells, by th' figure, and such daubery as this is; beyond our element: we know nothing.Come down, you witch, you hag you; come down, I say.

gentlemen, let him not strike the old woman.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, good, sweet husband.-Good

Enter FALSTAFF in women's clothes, led by
Mrs. PAGE.

Mrs. Page. Come, Mother Prat; come, give me your hand.

Ford. I'll prat her.-Out of my door, you witch! [beats him,] you rag, you baggage, you pole-cat, you ronyon!+ out! out! I'll conjure you, I'll fortune-tell you. [Exit FALSTAFF. Mrs. Page. Are you not asham'd? 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 spy a great peard under her muffler.

Ford. Will you follow, gentlemen? I beseech you, follow: see but the issue of my jealousy. If I cry out thus upon no trail,‡ never trust me when I open again.

Page. Let's obey his humour a little farther. Come, gentlemen.

[Exeunt FORD, PAGE, SHALLOW, and EVANS. Mrs. Page. Trust me, he beat him most pitifully. Mrs. Ford. Nay, by the Mass, that he did not; he beat him most unpitifully, methought.

Mrs. Page. I'll have the cudgel hallow'd; it hath done meritorious service.

Mrs. Ford. What think you? May we, with the warrant of womanhood, and the witness of a good conscience, pursue him with any farther revenge?

Mrs. Page. The spirit of wantonness is, sure, scar'd out of him : if the Devil have him not in feesimple, with fine and recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of waste, attempt us again.

Mrs. Ford. Shall we tell our husbands how we have serv'd 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 any farther afflicted, we two will still be the ministers.

Mrs. Ford. I'll warrant, they'll have him publicly sham'd, and, methinks, there would be no period to the jest. Should he not be publicly sham'd?

Mrs. Page. Come, to the forge with it, then shape it: I would not have things cool. [Exeunt. SCENE III.-A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter Host and BARDOLPH. Bard. Sir, the Germans desire to have three of your horses: the Duke himself will be to-morrow at Court, and they are going to meet him.

Host. What duke should that be, comes so secretly? I hear not of him in the Court. Let me speak with the gentlemen; they speak English?

Bard. Ay, sir; I'll call them to you.

Host. They shall have my horses, but I'll make them pay; I'll sauce them: they have had my house a week at command; I have turn'd away my other guests: they must come off; I'll sauce them. Come. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-A Room in FORD's House.

Enter PAGE, FORD, Mrs. PAGE, Mrs. FORD, and

Sir HUGH EVANS.

Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white,

Mrs. Ford.

With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads,
And rattles in their hands. Upon a sudden,
As Falstaff, she, and I, are newly met,
Let them from forth a saw-pit rush at once
With some diffused song: upon their sight,
We two in great amazedness 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 so sacred paths he dares to tread
In shape profane.
And till he tell the truth,
Let the supposed fairies pinch him, sound,
And burn him with their tapers.
Mrs. Page.
The truth being known,
We'll all present ourselves, dis-horn the spirit,
And mock him home to Windsor.
Ford.
The children must
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.
[vizards.
Ford. That will be excellent. I'll go buy them
Mrs. Page. My Nan shall be the queen of all
Finely attired in a robe of white. [the Fairies,
Page. That silk will I go buy ;—[Aside.] and
in that trim

Shall Master Slender steal my Nan away,
And marry her at Eton.-[To them.] Go, send
to Falstaff straight.
[Brook :
Ford. Nay, I'll to him again in the name of
He'll tell me all his purpose. Sure, he'll come.
Mrs. Page. Fear not you that. Go, get us
And tricking for our fairies.
[properties,
Eva. Let us about it: it is admirable pleasures,
and ferry honest knaveries.

[Exeunt PAGE, FORD, and EVANS. Mrs. Page. Go, Mistress Ford, Send quickly to Sir 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 idiot;
And he my husband best of all affects:
The Doctor is well money'd, and his friends
Potent at Court: he, none but he, shall have her,
Though twenty thousand worthier come to claim
her.
[Exit.

SCENE V.-A Room in the Garter Inn.
Enter Host and SIMPLE.

Host. What would'st thou have, boor? what,

The superstitious idle-headed eld+
Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age,

This tale of Herne the hunter for a truth. [fear
Page. Why, yet there want not many that do
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 shall meet with us, Disguis'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 shall be done with him? what is your plot? Mrs. Page. That likewise have we thought upon, and thus.

Nan Page my daughter, and my little son,
And three or four more of their growth, we'll dress

quick, snap.

Sim. Marry, sir, I come to speak with Sir John Falstaff from Master Slender.

Host. There's his chamber, his house, his castle, his standing-bed, and truckle-bed: 'tis painted about with the story of the prodigal, fresh and new. Go, knock and call; he'll speak like an Anthropophaginian? unto thee: knock, I say.

Sim. There's an old woman, a fat woman, gone up into his chamber: I'll be so boid as stay, sir, till she come down; I come to speak with her, indeed.

Host. Ha! a fat woman? the knight may be robb'd: I'll call.-Bully knight! Bully Sir John! speak from thy lungs military; art thou there? It is thine host, thine Ephesian, calls.

Fal. [Above.] How now, mine Host! Host. Here's a Bohemian Tartar tarries the coming down of thy fat woman. Let her descend, ? A cannibal.

Elf, hobgoblin.

Enter FALStaff.

Fal. There was, mine Host, an old fat woman even now with me, but she's gone. [Brentford? Sim. Pray you, sir, was't not the Wise-woman of Fal. Ay, marry, was it, muscle-shell: what would you with her?

Sim. My master, sir, my master Slender, sent to her, seeing her go through the streets, to know, sir, whether one Nym, sir, that beguil'd him of a chain, had the chain, or no.

Fal. I spake with the old woman about it. Sim. And what says she, I pray, sir? Fal. Marry, she says, that the very same man that beguil'd Master Slender of his chain, cozen'd him of it.

Sim. I would I could have spoken with the woman herself: I had other things to have spoken with her too, from him.

Fal. What are they? let us know.
Host. Ay, come; quick.

Sim. I may not conceal them, sir.
Fal. Conceal them, or thou diest.
Sim. Why, sir, they were nothing but about
Mistress Anne Page; to know, if it were my
master's fortune to have her, or no.

Fal. "Tis, 'tis his fortune.
Sim. What, sir?

[told me so. Fal. To have her, or no. Go; say, the woman Sim. May I be bold to say so, sir? Fal. Ay, Sir Tyke; who more bold? Sim. I thank your worship. I shall make my master glad with these tidings. [Exit SIMPLE. Host. Thou art clerkly, thou art clerkly, Sir John. Was there a wise woman with thee? Fal. Ay, that there was, mine Host; one that hath taught me more wit than ever I learn'd before in my life and I paid nothing for it neither, but was paid for my learning.

Enter BARDOLPH.

Bard. Out, alas, sir! cozenage; mere cozenage! Host. Where be my horses? speak well of them, varletto.

Bard. Run away with the cozeners; for so soon as I came beyond Eton, they threw me off from behind one of them in a slough of mire; and set spurs, and away, like three German devils, three Doctor Faustuses.

Host. They are gone but to meet the Duke, villain. Do not say, they be fled: Germans are honest men.

Enter Sir HUGH EVANS.

Eva. Where is mine Host? Host. What is the matter, sir? Eva. Have a care of your entertainments: there is a friend of mine come to town tells me, there is three couzin germans, that has cozen'd all the hosts of Readings, of Maidenhead, of Colebrook, of horses and money. I tell you for good-will, look you you are wise, and full of gibes and vlouting-stogs, and 'tis not convenient you should be cozen'd. Fare you well. [Exit.

[Exit. Host. Hue and cry, villain! go.-Assist me, knight; I am undone.-Fly, run, hue and cry, villain! I am undone! [Exeunt Host and BARD.

Fal. I would all the world might be cozen'd, for I have been cozen'd and beaten too. If it should come to the ear of the Court how I have been transformed, and how my transformation hath been wash'd and cudgell'd, they would melt me out of my fat, drop by drop, and liquor fishermen's boots with me: I warrant they would whip me with their fine wits, till I were as crestfallen as a dried pear. I never prosper'd since I forswore myself at primero.+ Well, if my wind were but long enough to say my prayers, I would repent.

Enter Mrs. QUICKLY.

Now, whence come you?

Quick. From the two parties, forsooth.

Fal. The Devil take one party, and his dam the other; and so they shall be both bestow'd. I have suffer'd more for their sakes, more, than the villainous inconstancy of man's disposition is able to bear.

Quick. And have not they suffer'd? Yes, I warrant; speciously one of them: Mistress Ford, good heart, is beaten black and blue, that you cannot see a white spot about her.

Fal. What tell'st thou me of black and blue? I was beaten myself into all the colours of the rainbow; and I was likely to be apprehended for the Witch of Brentford: but that my admirable dexterity of wit, my counterfeiting the action of an old woman, deliver'd me, the knave constable had set me i' th' stocks, i' th' common stocks, for a witch.

Quick. Sir, let me speak with you in your chamber; you shall hear how things go, and, I warrant, to your content. Here is a letter will say somewhat. Good hearts! what ado here is to bring you together. Sure, one of you does not serve Heaven well, that you are so cross'd. Fal. Come up into my chamber. [Exeunt. SCENE VI.-Another Room in the Garter Inn. Enter FENTON and Host. Host. Master Fenton, talk not to me: my mind is heavy; I will give over all. [purpose, Fent. Yet hear me speak. Assist me in my And, as I am a gentleman, I'll give thee A hundred pound in gold more than your loss. Host. I will hear you, Master Fenton; and 1 will, at the least, keep your counsel.

Fent. From time to time I have acquainted you With the dear love I bear to fair Anne Page; Who, mutually, hath answer'd my affection (So far forth as herself might be her chooser) Even to my wish. I have a letter from her Of such contents as you will wonder at; The mirth whereof so larded with my matter, That neither, singly, can be manifested, Without the show of both;-fat Falstaff Hath a great scene: the image of the jest

[Showing the letter. I'll show you here at large. Hark, good mine Host: [one, To-night at Herne's oak, just 'twixt twelve and Must my sweet Nan present the Fairy Queen; The purpose why, is here; in which disguise, While other jests are something rank on foot, Her father hath commanded her to slip Away with Slender, and with him at Eton Immediately to marry: she hath consented. Now, sir,

Her mother, ever strong against that match,
And firm for Doctor Caius, hath appointed
That he shall likewise shuffle her away,
While other sports are tasking of their minds,
And at the deanery, where a priest attends,
Straight marry her: to this her mother's plot
She, seemingly obedient, likewise hath
Made promise to the Doctor.-Now, thus it rests:
Her father means she shall be all in white;
And in that habit, when Slender sees his time
To take her by the hand, and bid her go,
She shall go with him: her mother hath intended,
The better to denote her to the Doctor,
(For they must all be mask'd and vizarded)
That quaint in green she shall be loose enrob'd,
With ribands pendant, flaring 'bout her head;
And when the Doctor spies his vantage ripe,
To pinch her by the hand, and on that token
The maid hath given consent to go with him.
Host. Which means she to deceive? father or
mother?

Fent. Both, my good Host, to go along with

me:

And here it rests, that you'll procure the Vicar
To stay for me at church 'twixt twelve and one,
And in the lawful name of marrying,
To give our hearts united ceremony.

Host. Well, husband your device: I'll to the
Vicar.

Bring you the maid, you shall not lack a priest.

Fent. So shall I evermore be bound to thee; Besides, I'll make a present recompense. [Exeunt.

Act Fifth.

SCENE I.-A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FALSTAFF and Mrs. QUICKLY. Fal. PR'YTHEE, no more prattling ;-go.-I'll hold. This is the third time; I hope, good luck lies in odd numbers. Away, go. They say, there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death.-Away.

Quick. I'll provide you a chain, and I'll do what I can to get you a pair of horns. Fal. Away, I say; time wears: hold up your head, and mince. [Exit Mrs. QUICKLY.

Enter FORD.

How now, Master Book! Master Brook, the matter will be known to-night, or never. Be you in the Park about midnight, at Herne's oak, and you shall see wonders.

Ford. Went you not to her yesterday, sir, as you told me you had appointed?

Fal. I went to her, Master Brook, as you see, like a poor old man: but I came from her, Master Brook, like a poor old woman. That same knave, Ford her husband, hath the finest mad devil of jealousy in him, Master Brook, that ever govern'd frenzy. I will tell you. He beat me grievously, in the shape of a woman; for in the shape of man, Master Brook, I fear not Goliah with a weaver's beam, because I know also, life is a shuttle. I am in haste: go along with me; I'll tell you all, Master Brook. Since I pluck'd geese, play'd truant, and whipp'd top, I knew not what 'twas to be beaten, till lately. Follow me: I'll tell you strange things of this knave Ford, on whom to-night I will be revenged, and I will deliver his wife into your hand. Follow. Strange things in hand, Master Brook: follow. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Windsor Park. Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER. Page. Come, come: we'll couch i' th' castleditch, till we see the light of our fairies.-Remember, son Slender, my daughter.

Slen. Ay, forsooth; I have spoke with her, and we have a nay-word,+ how to know one another. I come to her in white, and cry, 'mum;' she cries, budget,' and by that we know one another.

Shal. That's good too: but what needs either your 'mum,' or her 'budget?' the white will decipher her well enough.-It hath struck ten o'clock.

Page. The night is dark; light and spirits will become it well. Heaven prosper our sport! No man means evil but the Devil, and we shall know him by his horns. Let's away: follow me. [Exeunt. SCENE III.-The Street in Windsor. Enter Mrs. PAGE, Mrs. FORD, and Dr. CAIUS.

Mrs. Page. Master Doctor, my daughter is in green when you see your time, take her by the hand, away with her to the deanery, and dispatch it quickly. Go before into the park: we two must go together.

Caius. I know vat I have to do.

Adieu.

Mrs. Page. Fare you well, sir. [Exit CAIUS. My husband will not rejoice so much at the abuse of Falstaff as he will chafe at the Doctor's marrying my daughter: but 'tis no matter; better a little chiding than a great deal of heart-break.

Mrs. Ford. Where is Nan, now, and her troop of fairies? and the Welsh devil, Hugh?

Mrs. Page. They are all couch'd in a pit hard by Herne's oak, with obscur'd lights; which, at the very instant of Falstaff's and our meeting, they will at once display to the night.

Mrs. Ford. That cannot choose but amaze him. Mrs. Page. If he be not amaz'd, he will be mock'd; if he be amaz'd, he will every way be Mrs. Ford. We'll betray him finely. [mock'd. Mrs. Page. Those that betray him do no treachery.

Mrs. Ford. The hour draws on: to the oak, to the oak! [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-Windsor Park. Enter Sir HUGH EVANS, and Fairies. Eva. Trib, trib, fairies: come; and remember your parts. Pe pold, I pray you; follow me into the pit, and when I give the watch-'ords, do as I pid you. Come, come; trib, trib. [Exeunt.

SCENE V.-Another Part of the Park. Enter FALSTAFF disguised, with a Buck's Head on.

Fal. The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; the minute draws on. Now, the hot-blooded gods assist me!-remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa; love set on thy horns.-O, powerful love! that, in some respects, makes a beast a man; in some other, a man a beast.-You were also, Jupiter, a swan, for the love of Leda :-0, omnipotent love! how near the god drew to the complexion of a goose !-A fault done first in the form of a beast;-O Jove, a beastly fault! and then another fault in the semblance of a fowl: think on't, Jove; a foul fault.-For me, I am here a Windsor stag; and the fattest, I think, i' th' forest. 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?-Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of GreenSleeves, hail 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.

Fal. Divide me like a brib'd buck, each a haunch: I will keep my sides to myself, my shoulders for the fellow of this walk, and my horns I bequeath 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. [Noise within.

Mrs. Page. Alas! what noise?
Mrs. Ford. Heaven forgive our sins!
Fal. What should this be?
Mrs. Ford.

Mrs. Page. Away, away!

[They run off.

Fal. I think the Devil will not have me; he would never else cross me thus.

Enter Sir H. 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. Quick. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white, You moonshine 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 :

I'll wink and couch.

[eye.

No man their works must [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, Rein 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.

Quick. 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:
Each fair instalment, coat, and sev'ral crest,
With loyal blazon, ever more be blest!
And nightly, meadow-fairies, look, you sing,
Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring:
Th' expressure that it bears, green let it be,
More fertile-fresh than all the field to see;
And, Honi soit qui mal y pense, write,
In em'rald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white;
Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair knighthood'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 lanthorns be,
To guide our measure round about the tree.
But, stay! I smell a man of middle earth.

Fal. Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy, lest he transform me to a piece of cheese! Pist. Vile worm, thou wast o'er-look'd, even in thy birth.

Quick. 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.

Eva. Come, will this wood take fire?

[They burn him with their tapers. Fal. Oh, oh, oh!

Quick. 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 iniquity.
Song.

Fie on sinful fantasy!
Fie on lust and luxury!
Lust is but a bloody fire,
Kindled with unchaste desire,

Fed in heart; whose flames aspire,

As thoughts do blow them higher and higher.
Pinch him, fairies, mutually;
Pinch him for his villainy;

Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about, Till candles, and star-light, and moonshine be out.

[During this song, the Fairies pinch FALSTAFF : Doctor CAIUS comes one way, and steals away a Fairy in green; SLENDER another way, and takes off a Fairy in white; and FENTON comes, and steals away ANNE PAGE. A noise of hunting is made within. All the Fairies run away. FALSTAFF pulls off his buck's head, and rises.]

Enter PAGE, FORD, Mrs. PAGE, and Mrs. FORD: they lay hold on him.

Page. Nay, do not fly: I think we have watch'd you now.

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 buckbasket, 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 [extant.

ass.

Ford. Ay, and an ox too; both the proofs are Fal. 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 receiv'd belief, in despite of the teeth of all rhyme and reason, that they were fairies. See now, how wit may be made a Jacko'-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.

[you.

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

*Horns which Falstaff had.