there is no fear of Got in a riot: the council, look you, shall desire to hear the fear of Got, and not to hear a riot; take your vizaments in that. Shal. Ha! o' my life, if I were young again, 40 the sword should end it. Evans. It is petter that friends is the sword, and end it: and there is also another device in my prain, which peradventure prings goot discretions with it: there is Anne Page, which is daughter to Master Thomas Page, which is pretty virginity. Slen. Mistress Anne Page? She has brown hair, and speaks small like a woman. Evans. It is that fery person for all the orld, 50 as just as you will desire; and seven hundred pounds of moneys, and gold and silver, is her grandsire upon his death's-bed-Got deliver to a joyful resurrections !-give, when she is able to overtake seventeen years old: it were a goot motion if we leave our pribbles and prabbles, and desire a marriage between Master Abraham and Mistress Anne Page. Slen. Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound? Evans. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny. Slen. I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts. Evans. Seven hundred pounds and possibilities is goot gifts. Shal. Well, let us see honest Master Page. Is Falstaff there? 60 Evans. Shall I tell you a lie? I do despise a liar as I do despise one that is false, or as I despise one 70 that is not true. The knight, Sir John, is there; and, I beseech you, be ruled by your well-willers. I will peat the door for Master Page. [Knocks] Enter PAGE. Evans. Here is Got's plessing, and your friend, and Justice Shallow; and here young Master Slender, that peradventures shall tell you another tale, if matters grow to your likings. Page. I am glad to see your worships well. 80 I thank you for my venison, Master Shallow. I wished Shal. Master Page, I am glad to see you : much good do it your good heart! your venison better; it was ill killed. How doth good Mistress Page?-and I thank you always with my heart, la! with my heart. Page. Sir, I thank you. Shal. Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, I do. Page. I am glad to see you, good Master Slender. Slen. How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I heard say he was outrun on Cotsall. Page. It could not be judged, sir. Slen. You'll not confess, you'll not confess. Shal. That he will not. 'Tis your fault, 'tis your fault; 'tis a good dog. Page. A cur, sir. Shal. Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog: 92. outrun on Cotsall, at the Whitsun games, annually held on the Cotswolds, near Chipping Campden. They were instituted, probably in the last years of the sixteenth century, by Captain Robert Dover, and known as his 'Olympick games.' Drayton, 90 Randolph, and other noted poèts combined to celebrate them in the Annalia Dubrensia, 1636. They apparently ceased in 1638, and Dover died in 1641. Cf. Gosse, Seventeenth-Century Studies. can there be more said? he is good and fair. Is Sir John Falstaff here? Page. Sir, he is within; and I would I could do a good office between you. Evans. It is spoke as a Christians ought to speak. Shal. He hath wronged me, Master Page. Page. Sir, he doth in some sort confess it. Shal. If it be confessed, it is not redressed : is not that so, Master Page? He hath wronged me; indeed he hath; at a word, he hath, believe me: Robert Shallow, esquire, saith, he is wronged. Page. Here comes Sir John. Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, Bardolph, Nym, Fal. Now, Master Shallow, you'll complain of me to the king? Shal. Knight, you have beaten my men, killed my deer, and broke open my lodge. Fal. But not kissed your keeper's daughter? Fal. I will answer it straight; I have done all That is now answered. Shal. The council shall know this. Fal. 'Twere better for you if it were known in counsel you'll be laughed at. Evans. Pauca verba, Sir John; goot worts. Fal. Good worts! good cabbage. Slender, I broke your head: what matter have you against me? Slen. Marry, sir, I have matter in my head 109. at a word, in a word. 115. lodge, the keeper's lodge. 100 110 120 121. known in counsel, i.e. kept secret. against you; and against your cony-catching rascals, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol; they carried me to the tavern, and made me drunk, and afterwards 130 picked my pocket. Bard. You Banbury cheese! Slen. Ay, it is no matter. Pist. How now, Mephostophilus ! Slen. Ay, it is no matter. Nym. Slice, I say! pauca, pauca: slice! that's my humour. Slen. Where's Simple, my man? cousin ? Can you tell, Now let us under- 140 Evans. Peace, I pray you. stand. There is three umpires in this matter, as I understand; that is, Master Page, fidelicet Master Page; and there is myself, fidelicet myself; and the three party is, lastly and finally, mine host of the Garter. Page. We three, to hear it and end it between them. Evans. Fery goot: I will make a prief of it in my note-book; and we will afterwards ork upon the cause with as great discreetly as we can. 150 Fal. Pistol! Pist. He hears with ears. Evans. The tevil and his tam! what phrase 128. cony-catching, cheating. It was originally a metaphor taken from those that rob warrens and conie-grounds, using all means, sleights, and cunning to deceive them, as pitching of haies before their holes, etc.' (Minsheu, Dict.). 132. You Banbury cheese! a reflection on Slender's leanness. A Banbury cheese was proverbi ally said to be nothing but paring.' 134. Mephostophilus; Marlowe's Doctor Faustus was still often performed, and the name of the fiend as well as that of Faustus was already proverbial (cf. below, iv. 5. 70). 136. Slice; Nym continues the jest upon Slender's slimness. is this, 'He hears with ear'? why, it is affectations. Fal. Pistol, did you pick Master Slender's purse? Slen. Ay, by these gloves, did he, or I would I might never come in mine own great chamber again else, of seven groats in mill-sixpences, and 160 two Edward shovel-boards, that cost me two shilling and two pence a-piece of Yead Miller, by these gloves. Fal. Is this true, Pistol? Evans. No; it is false, if it is a pick-purse. Pist. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner! Sir John and master mine, I combat challenge of this latten bilbo. Word of denial in thy labras here! Word of denial: froth and scum, thou liest! Nym. Be avised, sir, and pass good humours : I will say 'marry trap' with you, if you run the nuthook's humour on me; that is the very note of it. Slen. By this hat, then, he in the red face had it; for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass. 161. Edward shovel-boards, old shillings of Edward VI., used in the game of shovel-board or shove-groat. 162. Yead, an old abbreviation for Edward. 166. mountain-foreigner, a contemptuous term for a Welshman. Fluellen reckons it among the offences of Pistol that he has called him a 'mountain-squire' (Hen. V., v. 1.). 167. latten bilbo, brass sword 170 blade. Latten was a soft alloy of copper. 168. labras (Span.), lips. 171. be avised, reflect. 172. I will say 'marry trap,' etc., I will say, "Look out for yourself" (or "Catch me if you can") if you play the constable with me. 173. nuthook (a hooked pole used in nutting) was a contemptuous term for a catchpole. |