ACT V PIST. A trial, come. Sc. V EVANS. Come, will this wood take fire? FAL. O! O! O! SONG. Fye on sinful fantasy! Lust is but a bloody fire,1 Kindled with unchaste desire, Fed in heart; whose flames aspire, As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher. Pinch him for his villainy; Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about, 90 100 During this Enter PAGE, FORD, MISTRESS PAGE, and MISTRESS FORD. PAGE. Nay, do not fly: I think, we have watch'd2 you now; Will none but Herne the Hunter serve your turn? higher. Now, good Sir John, how like you Windsor wives? See you these, husband? do not these fair yokes 3 3 108 FORD. Now, Sir, who's a cuckold now ?-Master Brook, horns, Master Brook. And, Master Brook, he hath MRS. FORD. Sir John, we have had ill luck, we could FAL. I do begin to perceive that I am made an ass. FORD. Well said, Fairy Hugh. 130 EVANS. And leave you your jealousies too, I pray you. FORD. I will never mistrust my wife again till thou art able to woo her in good English. FAL. Have I laid my brain in the sun, and dried it, that it wants matter to prevent so gross o'er-reaching as this? Am I ridden with a Welsh goat too? Shall I have a coxcomb1 of frize? "Tis time I were chok'd with a piece of toasted cheese. EVANS. Seese is not good to give putter: your pelly is all putter. 140 FAL. Seese and putter! Have I liv'd to stand at the taunt of one that makes fritters of English? This is enough to be the decay of lust and late-walking through the realm. MRS. PAGE. Why, Sir John, do you think, though we would have thrust virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders, and have given ourselves without scruple to Hell, that ever the Devil could have made you our delight? FORD. What, a hodge-pudding?2 a bag of flax? 150 ACT V Sc. V 1 fool's cap. 2 2 medley, haggis. MRS. PAGE. A puff'd man? PAGE. Old, cold, wither'd, and of intolerable entrails? FORD. And as wicked as his wife? EVANS. And given to fornications and to taverns, and sack and wine and metheglins, and to drinkings, and swearings and starings, pribbles and prabbles? FAL. Well, I am your theme: you have the start of me; I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welsh flannel; ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me: use me as you will. 162 FORD. Marry, Sir, we'll bring you to Windsor, to one Master Brook, that you have cozen'd of money, to whom you should have been a pander: over and above that you have suffer'd, I think to repay that money will be a biting affliction. PAGE. Yet be cheerful, Knight: thou shalt eat a posset to-night at my house; where I will desire thee to laugh at my wife, that now laughs at thee. Tell her, Master Slender hath married her daughter. 171 MRS. PAGE. Doctors doubt that. If Anne Page be my daughter, she is, by this, Doctor Caius' wife. Enter SLENDER. SLEN. Whoo! ho! ho! father Page. [aside. PAGE. Son! how now? how now, son? have you dis- SLEN. Dispatch'd!-I'll make the best in Gloucester- 179 SLEN. I came yonder at Eton to marry Mistress Anne Page, and she's a great lubberly boy. If it had not been i' th' church, I would have swinged him, or he should have swinged me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never stir, and 'tis a post-master's boy. PAGE. Upon my life then you took the wrong. SLEN. What need you tell me that? I think so, when 190 him, for all he was in woman's apparel, I would not have had him. PAGE. Why, this is your own folly. Did not I tell you, how you should know my daughter by her garments? SLEN. I went to her in white, and cried mum, and she cried budget, as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a post-master's boy. MRS. PAGE. Good George, be not angry: I knew of your purpose; turn'd my daughter into green; and, indeed, she is now with the Doctor at the Deanery, and there married. Enter CAIUS. 199 CAIUS. Vere is Mistress Page? By gar, I am cozen'd: I FORD. This is strange! Who hath got the right Anne? Fenton. Enter FENTON and ANNE PAGE. How now, Master Fenton ? 209 ANNE. Pardon, good father! Good my mother, pardon! MRS. PAGE. Why went you not with Master Doctor, maid? FENT. You do amaze her. Hear the truth of it. You would have married her most shamefully, 220 ACT V Sc. V A thousand irreligious, cursed hours, Which forced marriage would have brought upon her. ACT V FORD. Stand not amaz'd: here is no remedy! In love, the Heavens themselves do guide the state; FAL. I am glad, though you have ta'en a special stand1 to PAGE. Well, what remedy? Fenton, Heaven give thee What cannot be eschew'd must be embrac❜d. To Master Brook you yet shall hold your word; 230 Master 240 [exeunt. 1 shooting-place. 3 with bolt or shaft. 3 poachers' hounds. |