is myself, fidelicet, myself; and the three party is, lastly and finally, mine host of the Garter.

Page. We three, to hear it, and end it between them. Eva. Fery goot: I will make a prief of it in my notebook; and we will afterwards 'ork upon the cause with as great discreetly as we can.

Fal. Pistol

Pist. He hears with ears.

Eva. The tevil and his tam! What phrase is this, He hears with ear? Why, it is affectations.

Fal. Pistol, did you pick master Slender's purse ?

Slen. Ay, by these gloves, did he, (or I would I might never come in mine own great chamber again else,) of seven groats in mill-sixpences, and two Edward shovelboards, that cost me two shilling and two pence a-piece of Yead Miller, by these gloves.

Fal. Is this true, Pistol?

Eva. No; it is false, if it is a pick-purse.

Pist. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner !-Sir John, and master mine,

I combat challenge of this latten bilboe:

Word of denial in thy labras here;7

Word of denial: froth and scum, thou ly'st.

Slen. By these gloves, then, 'twas he.

Nym. Be advised, sir, and pass good humours: I will say, marry trap, with you, if you run the nuthook's humour on me; that is the very note of it.

Slen. By this hat, then he in the red face had it for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass.

Fal. What say you, Scarlet and John ?9

Bard. Why, sir, for my part, I say, the gentleman had drunk himself out of his five sentences.

Eva. It is his five senses: fye, what the ignorance is! Bard. And being fap, sir, was, as they say, cashier'd; and so conclusions pass'd the careires.

[6] Pistol, seeing Slender such a slim, puny wight, would intimate, that he is as thin as a plate of that compound metal, which is called latten: and which was, as we are told, the old orichalc. THEOBALD.

Latten may signify no more than as thin as a lath.

STEEVENS.

[7] I suppose it should rather be read- Word of denial in my labras hear ;'—i. e hear the word of denial in my lips. Thou ly'st. JOHNSON.

[] When a man was caught in his own stratagem, I suppose the exclamation of insult was-marry, trap! JOHNSON.

[9] The names of two of Robin Hood's companions; but the humour consists in the allusion to Bardolph's red face; concerning which see The Second Part of King Henry IV. WARBURTON.

Slen. Ay, you spake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter I'll ne'er be drunk whilst I live again, but in honest, civil, godly company, for this trick if I be drunk, I'll be drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves.

Eva. So Got 'udge me, that is a virtuous mind.

Fal. You hear all these matters denied, gentlemen; you hear it.

Enter Mistress ANNE PAGE, with wine; Mistress FORD and Mistress PAGE following.

Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within. [Exit ANNE PAGE. Slen. O heaven! this is mistress Anne Page. Page. How now, mistress Ford?

Fal. Mistress Ford, by my troth, you are very well met by your leave, good mistress.

[Kissing her. Page. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome :-Come, we have a hot venison pasty to dinner: come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.

[Exeunt all but SHAL. SLEND. and EVANS. Slen. I had rather than forty shillings, I had my book of songs and sonnets here:

Enter SIMPLE.

How now, Simple! Where have you been? I must wait on myself, must I? You have not The Book of Riddles about you, have you?

Sim. Book of Riddles ! why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake, upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas ?

Shal. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word with you, coz: marry, this, coz; There is, as 'twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by sir Hugh here;-Do you understand me?

Slen. Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, I shall do that that is reason.

Shal, Nay, but understand me.

Slen. So I do, sir.

Eva. 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, simple though I stand here.

Eva. But this is not the question; the question is concerning your marriage.

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

Eva. 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.

Eva. 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.

Eva. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies, you must speak possitable, 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 re quest, 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 it upon better acquaintance, when we are mar ried, 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.

Eva. It is a fery discretion answer; save, the faul' is in the 'ort dissolutely: the 'ort is, according to our mean ing, resolutely;-his meaning is good.

Shal. Ay, I think my cousin meant well.

Slen. Ay, or else I would I might be hanged, la.
Re-enter ANNE Page.

Shal. Here comes fair mistress Anne :-'Would I were young, for your sake, mistress Anne !

Anne. The dinner is on the table; my father desires your worship's company.

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

Eva. Od's plessed will! I will not be absence at the [Exe. SHAL. and Sir H. EVANS. VOL. I.

grace.

17

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 you, sir.

Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth :-Go, sirrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my cousin Shallow [Ex. SIMP.] A justice of peace sometime may be beholden 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.

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.

Slen. I had rather walk here, I thank you: I bruised my shin the other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence, three veneys' for a dish of stewed 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 talked 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 loose twenty times; and have taken him by the chain but I warrant you, the women have so cried and shrieked at it, that it pass'd: but women, indeed, cannot abide 'em; they are very ill-favoured, 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 pye, you shall not choose, sir :— come, come.

Slen. Nay, pray you, lead the way. .

[1] i. e. three venues, Fr. Three different set-to's, bouts, (or hits, as Mr. Malone, perhaps more properly, explains the word,) a technical term. STE.

[2] It pass'd or this passes, was a way of speaking customary heretofore, to signify the excess, or extraordinary degree of any thing The sentence completed would be, This passes all expression, or perhaps. This passes all things. We still use passing well, passing strange. WARBURTON.

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.

The same.

Enter Sir HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE.

Eva. Go your ways, and ask of Dr. Caius' house, which is the way and there dwells one mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer.

Sim. Well, sir.

Eva. 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 cheese to come. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

A room in the Garter Inn. Enter FALSTAFF, Host, BARDOLPH, NYM, PISTOL, and ROBIN.

Fal. Mine host of the Garter,

Host. What says my bully-rook? 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 PheeI will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he shall tap: said I well, bully Hector?

zar.

[3] The latter part of this compound title is taken from the rooks at the game of chess. STEEVENS-Bully-rook seems to have been the reading of some editions: in others it is bully-rock. Mr. Steevens's explanation of it as alluding to chess-men, is right. But Shakespeare might possibly have given it bully-rock, as Tock is the true name of these men, which is softened or corrupted into rook. There is seemingly more humour in bully-rock. WHALLEY.