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Page. Of what, son?

Slen. I came yonder at Eton to marry mistress Anne Page, and she's a great lubberly boy: If it had not been i' the church, 1 would have swinged him, or he should have swinged me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never stir, and 'tis a post-master's boy.

Page. Upon my life then you took the wrong.

Slen. What need you tell me that? I think so, when I took a boy for a girl: If I had been married to him, for all he was in woman's apparel, I would not have had him.

Page. Why, this is your own folly. Did not I tell you, how you should know my daughter by her garments?

Slen. I went to her in white, and cry'd, mum, and she cry'd budget, as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a post-master's boy.

Eva. Jeshu! Master Slender, cannot you see but marry boys?

Page. O, I am vexed at heart: What shall I do?

Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry: I knew of your purpose; turned my daughter into green; and, indeed, she is now with the doctor at the deanery, and there married.

Enter CAIUS.

Caius. Vere is mistress Page? By gar, I am cozened; I ha' married un garçon, a boy; un paisan, by gar, a boy; it is not Anne Page: by gar, I am cozened.

Mrs. Page. Why, did you take her in green?

Caius. Ay, be gar, and 'tis a boy: be gar, I'll raise all Windsor. [Exit CAIUS. Ford. This is strange: Who hath got the right Anne?

Page. My heart misgives me: Here comes master Fenton.

Enter FENTON and ANNE PAGE.

How now, master Fenton?

Anne. Pardon, good father! good my mother, par

don!

Page. Now, mistress? how chance you went not with master Slender?

Mrs. Page. Why went you not with master doctor,

maid?

Fent. You do amaze her:5 Hear the truth of it.
You would have married her most shamefully,
Where there was no proportion held in love.
The truth is, She and I, long since contracted,
Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve us.
The offence is holy, that she hath committed:
And this deceit loses the name of craft,
Of disobedience, or unduteous title;
Since therein she doth evitate and shun

A thousand irreligious cursed hours,

Which forced marriage would have brought upon her.
Ford. Stand not amaz'd: here is no remedy:
In love, the heavens themselves do guide the state;
Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate.

Fal. I am glad, though you have ta'en a special stand to strike at me, that your arrow hath glanced.

Page. Well, what remedy? Fenton, heaven give thee joy!

What cannot be eschew'd, must be embrac’d.

Fal When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer are chas'd.7

5

amaze her:] i. e. confound her by your questions.

So, in Cymbeline, Act IV, sc. iii:

"I am amaz'd with matter."

Again, in Goulart's Memorable Histories, &c. 4to. 1607: "I have seene two men (the father and the sonne) have their bodies so amazed and deaded with thunder," &c. Steevens.

6 Page. Well, what remedy ] In the first sketch of this play, which, as Mr. Pope observes, is much inferior to the latter performance, the only sentiment of which I regret the omission, occurs at this critical time. When Fenton brings in his wife, there is this dialogue:

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Mrs. Ford. Come, Mrs. Page, I must be bold with you.

'Tis pity to part love that is so true.

Mrs. Page. [aside] Although that I have miss'd in my intent, Yet I am glad my husband's match is cross'd.

Here Fenton, take her.

Eva. Come, master Page, you must needs agree.

Ford. I' faith, sir, come, you see your wife is pleas'd.
Page. I cannot tell, and yet my heart is eas'd;

And yet it doth me good the doctor miss'd.

Come hither, Fenton, and come hither daughter. Johnson.

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all sorts of deer are chas'd.] Young and old, does

6

Eva. I will dance and eat plums at your wedding.
Mrs. Page. Well, I will muse no further:-Master
Fenton,

Heaven give you many, many merry days!—
Good husband, let us every one go home,
And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire;
Sir John and all.

Ford. Let it be so:-Sir John,

To master Brook you yet shall hold your word:
For he, to-night, shall lie with mistress Ford."

[Exeunt.

well as bucks. He alludes to Fenton's having just run down Anne Page.

Malone.

6 I will dance and eat plums at your wedding.] I have no doubt but this line, supposed to be spoken by Evans, is misplaced, and should come in after that spoken by Falstaff, which being intended to rhyme with the last line of Page's speech, should immediately follow it; and then the passage will run

thus:

Page. Well, what remedy? Fenton, Heaven give thee joy!
What cannot be eschew'd, must be embrac'd.
Fal. When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer are chac'd.
Eva. I will dance and eat plums, &c. M. Mason.

I have availed myself of Mr. M. Mason's very judicious remark, which had also been made by Mr. Malone, who observes that Evans's speech-" I will dance," &c. was restored from the first quarto by Mr. Pope. Steevens.

7 Of this play there is a tradition preserved by Mr. Rowe, that it was written at the command of Queen Elizabeth, who was so delighted with the character of Falstaff, that she wished it to be diffused through more plays; but suspecting that it might pall by continued uniformity, directed the poet to diversify his manner, by shewing him in love No task is harder than that of writing to the ideas of another. Shakspeare knew what the Queen, if the story be true, seems not to have known-that by any real passion of tenderness, the selfish craft, the careless jollity, and the lazy luxury of Falstaff must have suffered so much abatement, that little of his former cast would have remained. Falstaff could not love, but by ceasing to be Falstaff. He could only counterfeit love, and his professions could be prompted, not by the hope of pleasure, but of money. Thus the poet approached as near as he could to the work enjoined him; yet having perhaps in the former plays completed his own idea, seems not to have been able to give Falstaff all his former power of entertainment.

VOL. III.

This comedy is remarkable for the variety and number of the personages, who exhibit more characters appropriated and discriminated, than perhaps can be found in any other play.

Whether Shakspeare was the first that produced upon the English stage the effect of language distorted and depraved by provincial or foreign pronunciation, I cannot certainly decide.* This mode of forming ridiculous characters can confer praise only on him who originally discovered it, for it requires not much of either wit or judgment: its success must be derived almost wholly from the player, but its power in a skilful mouth, even he that despises it, is unable to resist.

The conduct of this drama is deficient; the action begins and ends often, before the conclusion, and the different parts might change places without inconvenience; but its general power, that power by which all works of genius shall finally be tried, is such, that perhaps it never yet had reader or spectator who did not think it too soon at the end. Johnson.

* In The Three Ladies of London, 1584, is the character of an Italian merchant, very strongly marked by foreign pronunciation. Dr. Dodypoli, in the comedy which bears his name, is like Caius, a French physician. This piece appeared at least a year before The Merry Wives of Windsor. The hero of it speaks such another jargon as the antagonist of Sir Hugh, and like him is cheated of his mistress. In several other pieces, more ancient than the earliest of Shakspeare's, provincial characters are introduced. Steevens.

TWELFTH NIGHT:

OR,

WHAT YOU WILL.

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