Shal. Nay, but understand me.

Slen. So I do, sir.

Evans. Give ear to his motions, Master Slender: I will description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it.

Slen. Nay, I will do as my cousin Shallow says: I pray you, pardon me; he's a justice of peace in his country,28 simple though I stand here.

Evans. But that is not the question: the question is concerning your marriage.

Shal. Ay, there's the point, sir.

Evans. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to Mistress Anne Page.

Slen. Why, if it be so, I will marry her upon any reasonable demands.

Evans. But can you affection the 'oman? Let us command to know that of your mouth or of your lips; for divers philosophers hold that the lips is parcel of the mouth. Therefore, precisely, can you carry your good will to the maid?

Shal. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her?

Slen. I hope, sir, I will do as it shall become one that would do reason.

Evans. Nay, Got's lords and His ladies, you must speak positable, if you can carry her your desires towards her. Shal. That you must. Will you, upon good dowry, marry her?

Slen. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your request, cousin, in any reason.

Shal. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz: what I do is to pleasure you, coz. Can you love the maid?

Slen. I will marry her, sir, at your request: but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet Heaven may decrease

28 It is not quite clear whether country is a blunder of Slender's or a misprint for county.

it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have more occasion to know one another; I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: but, if you say, marry her, I will marry her; that I am freely dissolved, and dissolutely.

Evans. It is a fery discretion answer; save the faul 29 is in the 'ort dissolutely: the 'ort is, according to our meaning, resolutely: his meaning is goot.

Shal. Ay, I think my cousin meant well.

Slen. Ay, or else I would I might be hang'd, la.
Shal. Here comes fair Mistress Anne. -

Re-enter ANNE PAGE.

Would I were young for your sake, Mistress Anne !
Anne. The dinner is on the table; my father desires your
Worships' company.

Shal. I will wait on him, fair Mistress Anne.

Evans. 'Od's plessed will! I will not be absence at the [Exeunt SHALLOW and Sir H. EVANS.

grace.

Anne. Will't please your Worship to come in, sir?

Slen. No, I thank you, forsooth, heartily; I am very well. Anne. The dinner attends 30 you, sir.

- Go,

Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth. sirrah, for all you are my man, go wait upon my cousin Shallow. [Exit SIMPLE.]-A justice of peace sometime may be beholding 31 to his friend for a man. I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be dead but what though? yet I live like a poor gentleman born.

29 Faul is of course Sir Hugh's pronunciation of fault.

30 The Poet uses to attend repeatedly in the sense of to stay or wait for. So in Othello, iii. 3: "Your dinner, and the generous islanders by you invited, do attend your presence." See, also, vol. v., page 208, note 16.

31 Beholding, the active form, is always used by Shakespeare, instead of beholden. Of course it means obliged, indebted, or under obligation. See vol. i., page 233, note 24.

Anne. I may not go in without your Worship: they will

not sit till you come.

Slen. I'faith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much as though I did.

Anne. I pray you, sir, walk in.

I bruised my

Slen. I had rather walk here, I thank you. shin th' other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence, -three veneys 32 for a dish of stew'd prunes; and, by my troth, I cannot abide the smell of hot meat since. Why do your dogs bark so? be there bears i' the town?

Anne. I think there are, sir; I heard them talk'd of.

Slen. I love the sport well; but I shall as soon quarrel at it as any man in England. You are afraid, if you see the bear loose, are you not?

Anne. Ay, indeed, sir.

Slen. That's meat and drink to me, now. I have seen Sackerson 33 loose twenty times, and have taken him by the chain; but, I warrant you, the women have so cried and shriek'd at it, that it pass'd : 34 but women, indeed, cannot

abide 'em; they are very ill-favour'd rough things.

Re-enter PAGE.

Page. Come, gentle Master Slender, come; we stay for you.

Slen. I'll eat nothing, I thank you, sir.

Page. By cock and pie,35 you shall not choose, sir: come, come.

32 A veney is a fencing-term, used for a bout or turn; also for a thrust or a pass.-A master of fence is one who has taken a master's degree in the Art of Defence. There were three degrees, Master, Provost, and Scholar. 33 A celebrated bear shown at Paris-Garden on the Bankside, and probably named from the showman.

34 Meaning it passed all expression.

35 This is an old oath of uncertain origin and import. The Cock and

Slen. Nay, pray you, lead the way.

Page. Come on, sir.

Slen. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first.

Anne. Not I, sir; pray you, keep on.

Slen. Truly, I will not go first; truly, la; I will not do

you that wrong.

Anne. I pray you, sir.

Slen. I'll rather be unmannerly than troublesome. You do yourself wrong, indeed, la.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. An outer Room in PAGE's House.

Enter Sir HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE.

Evans. Go your ways, and ask of Doctor Caius' house which is the way: and there dwells one Mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, or his try nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer.

Sim. Well, sir.

Evans. Nay, it is petter yet. Give her this letter; for it is a 'oman that altogether's acquaintance with Mistress Anne Page: and the letter is, to desire and require her to solicit your master's desires to Mistress Anne Page. I pray you, be gone: I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and seese to come. [Exeunt.

Magpie is said to have been an ancient and favourite alehouse sign; and some find the origin of the phrase in that. Others regard Cock as a corruption of the sacred name, and pie as referring to the table in the Roman service-book showing the service for the day.

SCENE III. A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FALSTAFF, Host, BARDOLPH, NYM, PISTOL, and ROBIN.

Host. What says my bully-rook?1 speak scholarly and wisely.

Fal. Truly, mine Host, I must turn away some of my followers.

Host. Discard, bully Hercules; cashier: let them wag; trot, trot.

Fal. I sit at ten pounds a-week.

Host. Thou'rt an emperor, Cæsar, Keisar, and Pheezar.2 I will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he shall tap: said I well, bully Hector?

Fal. Do so, good mine Host.

Host. I have spoke; let him follow.

froth and lime : 3 I am at a word; follow.

Let me see thee

[Exit.

Fal. Bardolph, follow him. A tapster is a good trade: an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd serving-man a fresh tapster. Go; adieu.

Bard. It is a life that I have desired: I will thrive.

1 Bully-rook is explained by Douce as a term for "a hectoring, cheating sharper." But mine Host seems to use it jocularly, and not in the way of reproach; and Coles, in his Latin and English Dictionary, explains Bullyrook as " Vir fortis et animosus."

2 Keisar is an old form of Casar, the general term for an emperor; Kings and Keisars being a common phrase. Pheezar is probably from pheeze, an old word meaning to beat, to chastise, to humble. See vol. ii., page 139, note I.

3 Frothing beer and liming sack, that is, Sherry wine, were tapster's tricks, to make the liquors, old and stale, appear fresh and new. The first was done by putting soap in the tankard before drawing the beer, the other by mixing lime with the sack to make it sparkle in the glass. Mine Host wants a living proof that Bardolph is master of the trade.