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nurfe, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer.

Simp. Well, Sir.

Eva. Nay, it is petter yet; give her this letter; for it is a 'oman that altogethers acquaintance with miftrefs Anne Page; and the letter is to defire and require her to follicit your mafter's defires to miftrefs Anne Page: I pray you, be gone; I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come.

[Exeunt feverally.

SCENE VII.

Changes to the Garter-Inn.

Enter Falstaff, Hoft, Bardolph, Nym, Piftol and Robin.

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MIN

Hoft. What fays my bully Rock? speak fchollarly, and wifely.

Fal. Truly, mine hoft, I must turn away fome of my followers.

Hoft. Difcard, bully Hercules, cafhier; let them wag: trot, trot.

Fal. I fit at ten pounds a week.

Hoft. Thou'rt an Emperor, Cafar, Keifar and PheaI will entertain Bardolph, he fhall draw, he fall tap: faid I well, bully Hector?

zar.

Fal. Do fo, good mine hoft.

Hoft. I have fpoke, let him follow; let me fee thee froth, and live: I am at a word; follow. [Exit Hoft. Fal. Bardolph, follow him; a tapfter is a good trade: an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd fervingman, a fresh tapfter; go, adieu.

Bard. It is a life that I have defir'd: I will thrive. [Exit Bard. Pift. O bafe Hungarian wight, wilt thou the fpigot

Wield?

Nym.

Nym. He was gotten in drink, is not the humour conceited? His mind is not heroick, and there's the humour of it.

Fal. I am glad, I am fo quit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open; his filching was like an unfkilful finger, he kept not time.

Nym. The good humour is to fteal at a minute's reft.

Pift. Convey, the Wife it call: fteal? foh; a fico for the phrafe!

Fal. Well, Sirs, I am almoft out at heels.

Pift. Why then let kibes enfue.

Fal. There is no remedy: I must cony-catch, I must shift.

Pift. Young ravens must have food.

Fal. Which of you know Ford of this Town?
Pift. I ken the wight, he is of substance good.
Fal. My honeft lads, I will tell you what I am about.
Pift. Two yards and more.

Fal. No quips now, Piftol: indeed, I am in the wafte two yards about; but I am now about no waste, I am about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife: I fpy entertainment in her; fhe difcourfes, fhe carves, the gives the leer of invitation: I can conftrue the action of her familiar ftile, and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be english'd right, is, I am Sir John Falstaff's.

Pift. He hath ftudy'd her well, and tranflated her well; out of honesty into English.

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Nym. The anchor is deep; will that humour pass?

at a minute's reft.] It was very judicioufly fuggelted to me by a young gentleman who knows more of mufick than I, that our authour probably wrote at a minim's reft.

7 The anchor is deep; will that humour pass?] I fee not what

relation the anchor has to transla tion. Perhaps we may read the authour is deep; or perhaps the line is out of its place, and should be inferted lower after Falstaff has faid,

Sail like my pinnace to those golden fores.

Fal.

Fal. Now, the report goes, fhe has all the rule of her husband's purfe: fhe hath a legion of angels.

Pift. As many devils entertain; and to her, boy, fay I.

Nym. The humour rifes; it is good; humour me the angels.

Fal. I have writ me here a letter to her; and here another to Page's wife, who even now gave me good eyes too, examin'd my parts with moft judicious eyliads; femetimes, the beam of her view gilded my foot; fometimes, my portly belly.

Pift. Then did the fun on dung-hill shine.
Nym. I thank thee for that humour.

Fal. O, fhe did fo courfe o'er my exteriors with fuch a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did seem to fcorch me up like a burning-glass. Here's another letter to her; the bears the purfe too; fhe is. a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be Cheater to them both, and they fhall be Exchequers to me; they shall be my East and Wef-Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to

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he is a Region in Guiana, all Gold and Bounty.] If the Tradition be true (as I doubt not, but it is) of this Play being wrote at Queen Elizabeth's Command; this Paffage, perhaps, may furnish a probable Conjecture that it could not appear 'till after the Year 1598. The mention of Guiana, then fo lately dif cover'd to the English, was a very happy Compliment to Sir W. Raleigh, who did not begin his Expedition for South America ill 1595, and return'd from it in 1596, with an advantageous Account of the great Wealth of #Guiana. Such an Address of the

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mistress

mistress Page, and thou this to mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive.

Pist. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become,

And by my fide wear fteel? then, Lucifer, take all ! Nym. I will run no base humour; here, take the humour letter, I will keep the 'haviour of reputation

Fal. Hold, Sirrah, bear you these letters tightly, Sail like my pinnace to thefe golden fhores. [To Robin Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hail-ftones, go; Trudge, plod away o'th' hoof feek shelter, pack! Falstaff will learn the humour of the age,

French thrift, you rogues; myself, and skirted page. [Exit Falftaff and Boy.

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Pift. Let vultures gripe thy guts; 'for gourd, and
Fullam holds :

And high and low beguiles the rich and poor.
Tefter I'll have in pouch, when thou shalt lack,
Base Phrygian Turk!

Nym. I have operations in my head, which be humours of revenge.

Pift. Wilt thou revenge?

Nym. By welkin, and her ftar.

Pit. With wit, or steel?

Nym. With both the humours, I:

I will difcufs the humour of this love to Ford.

I

for gourd, and Ful

lam bolds: And high and low beguiles the rich and poor.] Fullam is a cant term for falfe dice, high and low. Torriano, in his Italian Dictionary, interprets Pife by falfe dice, high and low men, high Fullams, and low Fullams. Johnfon, in his Every man out of bis humour, quibbles upon this

cant term. Who, be ferve? keeps high men and low men, has a fair living at Fullam.As for Gourd, or rather Gord, was another inftrument of gam ing, as appears from BeauTI and Fletcher's Scornful Lady. And thy dry bones can reach at thing now, but GORDS or nin pins.

WARBURTO

Pift. And I to Page fhall eke unfold,
How Falstaff, varlet vile,

His dove will prove, his gold will hold,
And his foft couch defile.

Nym. My humour fhall not cool; I will incenfe Ford to deal with poifon; I will poffefs him with yellowness; for the Revolt of Mien is dangerous: that is my true humour.

Pift. Thou art the Mars of male-contents: I fecond thee; troop on.

SCENE IX.

Changes to Dr. Caius's Houfe.

[Exeunt.

Enter Mrs. Quickly, Simple, and John Rugby.

Quic.
W the cafement, and fee if you can fee my

HAT, John Rugby! I pray thee, go to

mafter, master Doctor Caius, coming; if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the houfe, here will be old abufing of God's patience, and the King's English. Rug. I'll go watch.

Quic. Go, and we'll have a poffet for't foon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a fea-coal fire. [Exit Rugby.] An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever fervant fhall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale, nor no breed-bate; his worst fault is, that he is given to pray'r; he is fomething peevish that way; but no-body but has his fault; but let that pafs. Peter Simple, you fay your name is. Sim. Ay, for fault of a better.

Quic. And mafter Slender's your master?
Sim. Ay, forfooth.

the Revolt of Mien] I fuppofe we may_read, the revolt of men. Sir T. Hanmer reads, this revolt of mine. Either may

ferve, for of the prefent text I can find no meaning.

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at the latter end, &c.] That is, when my master is in bed. Hh 2 Quic

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