SCENE II. Windsor Park. Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER. Page. Come, come; we'll couch i' the castle-ditch, till we see the light of our fairies.-Remember, son Slender, my daughter. Slen. Ay, forsooth; I have spoke with her, and we have a nay-word how to know one another. I come to her in white, and cry, mum; she cries, budget; and by that we know one another. Shal. That's good too; But what needs either your mum, or her budget? the white will decipher her well enough. It hath struck ten o'clock. 41 Page. The night is dark; light and spirits will become it well. Heaven prosper our sport! No man means evil but the devil, and we shall know him by his horns. Let's away; follow me. [Exeunt: SCENE III, Enter Mistress PAGE, Mistress FORD, and Dr. CAIUS. Mrs. Page. Master doctor, my daughter is in green : when you see your time, take her by the hand, away with her to the deanery, and dispatch it quickly: Go before into the park; we two must go together. Caius. I know vat I have to do; Mrs. Page. Fare you well, sir. not rejoice so much at the abuse 49 Adieu. will chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter: but 'tis no matter; better a little chiding, than a great deal of heart-break. Mrs. Ford. Where is Nan now, and her troop of fairies and the Welch devil Evans? Mrs. Page. They are all couch'd in a pit hard by Herne's oak, with obscur'd lights; which, at the very instant of Falstaff's and our meeting, they will at once display to the night. Mrs. Ford. That cannot chuse but amaze him. 61 Mrs. Page. If he be not amaz'd, he will be mock'd; if he be amaz'd, he will every way be mock'd. Mrs. Ford. We'll betray him finely. Mrs. Page. Against such lewdsters, and their lechery, Those that betray them do no treachery.. Mrs. Ford. The hour draws on; To the oak, to the oak! [Exeunt.] 69 SCENE IV. Enter Sir HUGH EVANS, and Fairies. Eva. Trib, trib, fairies; come; and remember your parts be pold, I pray you; follow me into the pit; and when I give the watch-'ords, do as I pid you; Come, come; trib, trib. [Exeunt. SCENE SCENE V. Enter FALSTAFF with a Buck's Head on. the Fal. The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; minute draws on: Now, the hot-blooded gods assist me!-Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa; love set on thy horns.-Oh powerful 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;-Oh, 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!-and 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? 89 Enter Mistress FORD and Mistress PAGE. Mrs. Ford. Sir John? art thou there, my deer? my male deer ? Fal. My doe with the black scut?-Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves; hail kissing-comfits, and snow eringoes; let there come a tempest of provocation, I will shelter me here. Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page is come with me, sweetheart. 97 Fal. Fal. Divide me like a bribe-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, now is Cupid a child of conscience he makes restitution. As I am a true : spirit, welcome! Mrs. Page. Alas! what noise? [Noise within. [The Women run out. Fal. I think the devil will not have me damn'd, lest the oil that is in me should set hell on fire; he never would else cross me thus. 111 Enter Sir HUGH like a Satyr ; QUICKLY, and others, dress'd like Fairies, with Tapers. Quic. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white, You moon-shine revellers, and shades of night, You orphan-heirs of fixed destiny, Attend your office, and your quality. Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy o-yes. Eva. Elves, list your names; silence, you airy toys. Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap : Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths un swept, 2 There There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry : 120 Fal. They are fairies; he that speaks to them, shall die; I'll wink and couch; No man their works must eye. [Lies down upon his Face. Eva. Where's Bede ?-Go you, and where you find a maid, That, ere she sleep, hath thrice her prayers said, 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. Quic. About, about; Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out: Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room; In state as wholsome, as in state 'tis fit; 130 In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white; 140 |