the mouth. Therefore, precisely, can you carry your ACT I good will to the maid? SHAL. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her? SLEN. I hope, Sir-I will do as it shall become one that would do reason. EVANS. Nay, Got's lords and His ladies, you must speak possitable: if you can carry her your desires towards her. SHAL. That you must. Will you, upon good dowry, marry her? 222 SLEN. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your request, cousin, in any reason. SHAL. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz; what I do is to pleasure you, coz. Can you love the maid? SLEN. I will marry her, Sir, 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 occasion to know one another. I hope upon familiarity will grow more content. But if you say Marry her, I will marry her: that I am freely dissolv'd, and dissolutely. 233 EVANS. It is a fery discretion answer; save the 'fall' is in the 'ort dissolutely: the 'ort is, according to our meaning, resolutely. --His meaning is good. SHAL. Ay, I think my cousin meant well. SLEN. Ay, or else I would I might be hang'd, la. Re-enter ANNE PAGE. SHAL. Here comes fair Mistress Anne. - Would I were young for your sake, Mistress Anne! 240 ANNE. The dinner is on the table; my father desires your Worships' company. SHAL. I will wait on him, fair Mistress Anne. EVANS. 'Od's plessed will! I will not be absence at the grace. [Exeunt SHALLOW and SIR H. EVANS. ANNE. Will 't please your Worship to come in, Sir? ANNE. The dinner attends you, Sir. 249 SLEN. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth.-Go, sirrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my cousin 1 fault. Sc. I ACT I Shallow. [Exit SIMPLE.] A Justice of Peace sometime may be beholding to his friend for a man. I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be dead. But what though? yet I live like a poor gentleman born. ANNE. I may not go in without your Worship: they will not sit till you come. SLEN. I' faith, I'll eat nothing. I thank you as much as though I did. ANNE. I pray you, Sir, walk in. 260 SLEN. I had rather walk here, I thank you. I bruis'd my shin th' other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence (three veneys1 for a dish of stew'd prunes), and, by my troth, I cannot abide the smell of hot meat since. Why do your dogs bark so? be there bears i' th' town? ANNE. I think there are, Sir: I heard them talk'd of. at it as any man in England. ANNE. Ay, indeed, Sir. You are afraid if you see 270 SLEN. That's meat and drink to me now! I have seen Sackerson loose, twenty times; and have taken him by the chain. But, I warrant you, the women have so cried and shriek'd at it, that it pass'd. But women, indeed, cannot abide 'em: they are very ill-favour'd, rough things. Re-enter PAGE. PAGE. Come, gentle Master Slender, come: we stay for you. SLEN. I'll eat nothing-I thank you, Sir. 2 PAGE. By cock and pye, you shall not choose, Sir: come, SLEN. Truly, I will not go first, truly, la: I will not do you that wrong. ANNE. I pray you, Sir. 288 SLEN. I'll rather be unmannerly than troublesome: you do yourself wrong, indeed, la. [exeunt. SCENE II. The Same. 1 bouts. 2 a popular oathlet. Enter SIR HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE. EVANS. Go your ways, and ask of Doctor Caius' house Evans. Nay, it is petter yet. Give her this letter; for it SCENE III. A Room in the Garter. Enter FALSTAFF, Host, BARDOLPH, NYM, PISTOL, FAL. Mine Host of the Garter Host. What says my bully-rook? Speak scholarly, and wisely. FAL. Truly, mine Host, I must turn away some of my followers. Host. Discard, bully Hercules; cashier; let them wag; trot, trot! FAL. I sit at ten pounds a week. Host. Thou 'rt an Emperor, Cæsar, Keiser, and Pheazar. I will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he shall tap : said I well, bully Hector? FAL. Do so, good mine Host. 2 II Host. I have spoke; let him follow. Let me see thee froth1 and lime. I am at a word: follow. [Exit Host. FAL. Bardolph, follow him. A tapster is a good trade: an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd servingman, a fresh tapster. Go; adieu. BARD. It is a life that I have desir'd; I will thrive. [Exit BARDOLPH. 1 soap a tankard. 2 sophisticate with lime. I: Y 153 ACT I ACT I PIST. O base Hungarian wight! wilt thou the spigot Sc. III wield? 20 NYM. He was gotten in drink. Is not the humour conceited? FAL. I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder-box. His thefts were too open: his filching was like an unskilful singer, he kept not time. NYM. The good humour is, to steal at a minim's rest. PIST. Convey the wise it call. Steal? foh! a fico1 for the phrase! FAL. Well, Sirs, I am almost out at heels. 2 PIST. Why then let kibes ensue. 30 FAL. There is no remedy: I must coney-catch; I must shift.3 PIST. Young ravens must have food. FAL. Which of you know Ford of this town ? PIST. I ken the wight; he is of substance good. FAL. My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about. PIST. Two yards, and more. 37 FAL. No quips now, Pistol; indeed I am in the waist two yards about; but I am now about no waste; I am about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife. I spy entertainment in her; she discourses, she carves, she gives the leer of invitation. I can construe the action of her familiar style, and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be English'd rightly, is I am Sir John Falstaff's. PIST. He hath studied her well, and translated her ill: NYM. The anchor is deep: will that humour pass? 50 PIST. As many devils entertain; and To her, boy, say I. NYM. The humour rises; it is good; humour me the angels. FAL. I have writ me here a letter to her: and here another to Page's wife; who even now gave me good eyes too, examin'd my parts with most judicious illiads: sometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, sometimes my portly belly. 60 ACT I PIST. Then did the Sun on dunghill shine. PIST. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become, 70 And by my side wear steel ? Then, Lucifer take all! NYM. I will run no base humour; here, take the humour letter; I will keep the 'haviour of reputation. FAL. [to ROBIN.] Hold, sirrah, bear you these letters Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores. - French thrift, you rogues! myself, and skirted page. 80 [Exeunt FALSTAFF and ROBIN. PIST. Let vultures gripe thy guts! For gourd and fullam3 holds, And high and low beguile the rich and poor! Tester I 'll have in pouch, when thou shalt lack, Base Phrygian Turk! NYM. I have operations which be humours of revenge. PIST. Wilt thou revenge? NYM. By Welkin and her stars! PIST. With wit, or steel? NYM. With both the humours, I : I will discuss the humour of this love to Page. PIST. How Falstaff, varlet vile, His dove will prove, his gold will hold, 90 } |