Re-enter RUGBY.

Rug. Out, alas! here comes my master.

Quick. We shall all be shent.7 [Exit RUGBY.] -Run in here, good young man; go into this closet: he will not stay long. [Shuts SIMPLE in the closet.]-What, John Rugby! John what, John, I say! Go, John, go inquire for my masI doubt he be not well, that he comes not home. [Sings.] And down, down, adown-a, &c.

ter;

Enter Doctor CAIUS.

Caius. Vat is you sing? I do not like dese toys. Pray you, go and vetch me in my closet un boitier vert,

a box,

a green-a box: do intend vat I speak? a green-a box. Quick. Ay, forsooth; I'll fetch it you.—[Aside.] I am glad he went not in himself: if he had found the young man, he would have been horn-mad.8

Caius. Fe, fe, fe, fe! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. Je m'en vais à la cour, la grande affaire.

Quick. Is it this, sir?

Caius. Oui; mette le au mon pocket: dépêche, quickly. Vere is dat knave Rugby?

Quick. What, John Rugby! John!

Rug. Here, sir.

Re-enter RUGBY.

Caius. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby. Come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to de Court.

7 Shent is used repeatedly by the Poet for reviled, scolded, or treated with harsh language. See vol. v., page 221, note 16.

8 Horn-mad was the state of mind a man was in, or supposed to be in, when he knew or suspected his wife had played him false, and so planted horns in his head. See vol. i., page 47, note II.

Rug. 'Tis ready, sir, here in the porch.

Caius. By my trot, I tarry too long. 'Od's me! Qu'aij'oublié dere is some simples9 in my closet, dat I vill not for de varld I shall leave behind.

Quick. Ah me, he'll find the young man there, and be mad!

Caius. O diable, diable! vat is in my closet? Villain! larron! [Pulling SIMPLE out.] — Rugby, my rapier! Quick. Good master, be content.

Caius. Verefore shall I be content-a?

Quick. The young man is an honest man.

Caius. Vat shall de honest man do in my closet? dere is no honest man dat shall come in my closet.

Quick. I beseech you, be not so phlegmatic. 10 Hear the truth of it: he came of an errand to me from Parson Hugh.

Caius. Vell.

Sim. Ay, forsooth; to desire her to

Quick. Peace, I pray you.

Caius. Peace-a your tongue.

Speak-a your tale.

Sim. To desire this honest gentlewoman, your maid, to speak a good word to Mistress Anne Page for my master in the way of marriage.

Quick. This is all, indeed, la; but I'll ne'er put my finger in the fire, and need not.

Caius. Sir Hugh send-a you? - Rugby, baillez me some paper.-Tarry you a little-a while. [Writes.

Quick. [Aside to SIM.] I am glad he is so quiet: if he had been throughly 11 moved, you should have heard him so

9 Simples is here used for medicines in general, though it properly means medicinal herbs.

10 Phlegmatic is Mrs. Quickly's blunder for splenetic, probably.

11 Throughly and thoroughly, as also through and thorough, were used indifferently, the two being but different forms of the same word.

loud and so melancholy. But notwithstanding, man, I'll do for your master what good I can: and the very yea and the no is, the French doctor, my master, I may call him my master, look you, for I keep his house; and I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the beds, and do all myself;

Sim. [Aside to QUICK.] 'Tis a great charge to come under one body's hand.

Quick. [Aside to SIM.] Are you avised 12 o' that? you shall find it a great charge and to be up early and down late; but notwithstanding, to tell you in your ear,-I would have no words of it, my master himself is in love with mistress Anne Page: but notwithstanding that, I know Anne's mind,—that's neither here nor there.

Caius. You jack'nape, give-a dis letter to Sir Hugh; by gar, it is a shallenge: I will cut his troat in de park; and I vill teach a scurvy jack-a-nape priest to meddle or make. You may be gone; it is not good you tarry here.— By gar, I vill cut all his two stones; by gar, he shall not have a stone to trow at his dog.

Quick. Alas, he speaks but for his friend.

[Exit SIMPLE.

Caius. It is no matter-a for dat: do not you tell-a me dat I shall have Anne Page for myself? By gar, I vill kill de Jack priest; and I have appointed mine Host of de Jarteer to measure our weapon. By gar, I vill myself have Anne Page.

Quick. Sir, the maid loves you, and all shall be well. must give folks leave to prate: what, the good-jer ! 13

We

12 Avised, again, for advised. To be advised of what one says is to speak it deliberately or upon due consideration, not rashly or thoughtlessly. See page 14, note 21.

18 Good-jer is a corruption of goujeer, which, again, was a common term for what was known as the French disease, or morbus Gallicus. Here used as a sort of imprecation. Repeatedly so.

Caius. Rugby, come to de Court vit me.-By gar, if I have not Anne Page, I shall turn your head out of my door. -Follow my heels, Rugby. [Exeunt CAIUS and RUGBY.

Quick. You shall have An fool's-head of your own.

No,

I know Anne's mind for that: never a woman in Windsor knows more of Anne's mind than I do; nor can do more than I do with her, I thank Heaven.

Fent. [Within.] Who's within there? ho!

Quick. Who's there, I trow?14 Come near the house, I

pray you.

Enter FENTON.

Fent. How now, good woman! how dost thou?

Quick. The better that it pleases your good Worship to ask. Fent. What news? how does pretty Mistress Anne?

Quick. In truth, sir, and she is pretty, and honest, and gentle; and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by the way; I praise Heaven for it.

Fent. Shall I do any good, thinkest thou? shall I not lose my suit?

Quick. Troth, sir, all is in His hands above: but notwithstanding, Master Fenton, I'll be sworn on a book, she loves you. Have not your Worship a wart above your eye?

Fent. Yes, marry, have I; what of that?

Quick. Well, thereby hangs a tale: good faith, it is such another Nan; but, I detest,15 an honest maid as ever broke bread we had an hour's talk of that wart: I shall never laugh but in that maid's company! But, indeed, she is given

་་

14 I trow is here exactly equivalent to I wonder. Shakespeare has it repeatedly in that sense. So in the next scene: 'What tempest, I trow, threw this whale," &c. Also in Eastward Ho, by Chapman, Jonson, and Marston, iv. I: 'What young planet reigns, trow, that old men are so foolish?" See, also, vol. iv., page 213, note 11.

"

15 Detest is a Quicklyism for protest, a strong affirmation.

too much to allicholy and musing: but for you-well, go to.16

Fent. Well, I shall see her to-day. Hold, there's money for thee; let me have thy voice in my behalf: if thou see'st her before me, commend me.

17

Quick. Will I? i'faith, that I will; and I will tell your Worship more of the wart the next time we have confidence ; 1 and of other wooers.

Fent. Well, farewell; I am in great haste now.

Quick. Farewell to your Worship. [Exit FENTON.]— Truly, an honest gentleman: but Anne loves him not; for I know Anne's mind as well as another does. — Out upon't! what have I forgot?

[Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE I.

Before PAGE's House.

Enter Mistress PAGE, with a letter.

Mrs. Page. What, have I 'scaped love-letters in the holiday-time of my beauty, and am I now a subject for them? Let me see.

[Reads.] Ask me no reason why I love you; for, though Love use Reason for his physician, he admits him not for his counsellor. You are not young, no more am I; go to then, there's sympathy: you are merry, so am I; ha, ha! then there's more sympathy: you love sack, and so do I; would you desire better sympathy? Let it suffice thee, Mistress Page, - at the least, if the love of a soldier can suffice,— that I love thee. I

16 Go to is an old phrase of varying import, sometimes of rebuke, sometimes of encouragement. Hush up, come on, be off, are among its meanings. 17 Confidence is another Quicklyism for conference.