O power

assist me! Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull
for thy Europa ; love set on thy horns.
ful 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. O
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!
then another fault in the semblance of a fowl ;
think on 't, Jove; a foul fault! When gods have
hot backs, what shall poor men do? For me, I
am here a Windsor stag; and the fattest, I think,
i' the forest. Send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or
who can blame me to piss my tallow? Who comes
here? my doe?

And 10

Enter MISTRESS FORD and MISTRESS PAGE.

snow

Mrs. Ford. Sir John ! art thou there, my deer? my male deer ? Fal. My doe with the black scut !

Let the 20 sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves, hail kissing-comfits and eringoes; let there come a tempest of provocation, I will shelter me here.

Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page is come with me, sweetheart.

Fal. Divide me like a bribed 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,

22. Green Sleeves; cf. note provocative. to ii. 1. 63.

27. bribed, purloined (and so 23. eringoes, sea - holly, re- cut up for

in carrying garded, like potatoes, as off).

30

a

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?
Ford

[They run off Fal. I think the devil will not have me damned, lest the oil that's in me should set hell on fire ; he would never else cross me thus.

Mrs. Farge.} Away, away!

40

Enter Sir Hugh Evans, disguised as before ;

Pistol, as Hobgoblin; MistRESS QUICKLY,
ANNE PAGE, and others as Fairies, with tapers.

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 oyes.
Pist. Elves, list your names; silence, you airy

toys. Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap : Where fires thou find'st unraked and hearths un

swept, 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 : 43. You orphan heirs of fixed equivalent 'superhuman.' destiny. This is partly to be * Heirs of fixed destiny' probexplained by 2 Hen. IV. 4. 122, ably refers to the fairies' imwhere unfathered heirs' are mortality. They are eternal reckoned among unlucky por

50

to

Raise up

60

I'll wink and couch: no man their works must eye.

[Lies down upon his face. Evans. Where's Bede? Go you, and where you

find a maid That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said,

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 several crest,
With loyal blazon, evermore be blest !
And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing,
Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring :
The

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 emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white;
Like sapphire, pearl and rich embroidery,
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee:

70 80

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.
Evans. Pray you, lock hand in hand; yourselves

in order set;
And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns 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'erlook'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.
Evans.

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.

90

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 villany;
Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about,
Till candles and starlight and moonshine be out.
During this song they pinch FALSTAFF. Doc-

TOR Caius comes one way, and steals away a boy in green; SLENDER another way, and takes off a boy in white ; and FENTON comes, and steals away Mrs. ANNE PAGE. A noise of hunting is heard within. All the Fairies run away.

FALSTAFF pulls off his buck's head, and rises.

Enter PAGE, FORD, MISTRESS PAGE, and

MISTRESS FORD.
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