THE

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

ACT I.

SCENE I. Windsor. Before PAGE's house.

Enter JUSTICE SHALLOW, SLENDER, and SIR
HUGH EVANS.

Shal. Sir Hugh, persuade me not: I will make a Star-chamber matter of it: if he were twenty Sir John Falstaffs, he shall not abuse Robert Shallow, esquire.

Slen. In the county of Gloucester, justice of peace and 'Coram.'

Shal. Ay, cousin Slender, and 'Custalorum.' Slen. Ay, and 'Rato-lorum' too; and a gentleman born, master parson; who writes himself 'Armigero,' in any bill, warrant, quittance, or 10 obligation, Armigero.'

Ford has often been compared to Kitely. Slender even seems to owe here and there a trait to Master Stephen, the country gull; as in his cautious retreat before the threatening ferocities of Bardolph and Pistol in i. I. :

Slen. Marry, sir, I have matter in my head against you; and against your cony-catching rascals, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol. Bard. You Banbury cheese!

Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Pist. How now, Mephostophilus !

Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Master Stephen executes a similar volte-face still more effectively (i. 2.):

Steph. I thought you had laughed at me, cousin.
Know. Nay, . . . I did laugh at you, coz.

Steph. Did you indeed?

Know. Yes indeed.

Steph. Why then

Know. What then?

Steph. I am satisfied; it is sufficient.

Slender does his wooing 'by the book'; and when, on the verge of the critical interview with Anne Page, he longs for his forgotten 'book of songs and sonnets,' one cannot but recall how Master Stephen bought him a hawk and a hood and bells and all,' and lacked nothing but a book to keep it by' (i. 1.).

THE

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

ACT I.

SCENE I. Windsor. Before PAGE's house.

Enter JUSTICE Shallow, SlenDER, and SIR
HUGH EVANS.

Shal. Sir Hugh, persuade me not: I will make a Star-chamber matter of it: if he were twenty Sir John Falstaffs, he shall not abuse Robert Shallow, esquire.

Slen. In the county of Gloucester, justice of peace and 'Coram.'

Shal. Ay, cousin Slender, and 'Custalorum.'

Slen. Ay, and 'Rato-lorum' too; and a gentleman born, master parson; who writes himself 'Armigero,' in any bill, warrant, quittance, or 10 obligation, Armigero.'

ΙΟ

7. Custalorum, for custos rotulorum.'

8. Rato- lorum, Slender's blunder for the last word.

10. Armigero (the Lat. ablative occurring in the signature), Esquire.'

Shal. Ay, that I do; and have done any time these three hundred years.

Slen. All his successors gone before him hath done't; and all his ancestors that come after him may they may give the dozen white luces in their

coat.

Shal. It is an old coat.

Evans. The dozen white louses do become an old coat well; it agrees well, passant; it is a familiar beast to man, and signifies love.

Shal. The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old coat.

Slen. I may quarter, coz.

Shal. You may, by marrying.

Evans. It is marring indeed, if he quarter it.
Shal. Not a whit.

20

Evans. Yes, py'r lady; if he has a quarter of your coat, there is but three skirts for yourself, in my simple conjectures: but that is all one. If 30 Sir John Falstaff have committed disparagements unto you, I am of the church, and will be glad to do my benevolence to make atonements and compremises between you.

Shal. The council shall hear it; it is a riot.
Evans. It is not meet the council hear a riot;

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?

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 that is not true. The knight, Sir John, is there; and, I beseech you, be ruled by your well-willers.

60

70