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'Mongst all foes, that a friend should be the worst!

Pro. My shame and guilt confound me.-
Forgive me, Valentine: if hearty sorrow
Be a sufficient ransom for offence,

I tender it here; I do as truly suffer,
As e'er I did commit.

Val. Then I am paid;

And once again I do receive thee honest:-
Who by repentance is not satisfied,

Is nor of heaven, nor earth; for these are pleas'd;
By penitence th' Eternal's wrath's appeas'd:-
And, that my love may appear plain and free,
All that was mine in Silvia, I give thee.
Jul. O me, unhappy!
Pro. Look to the boy.
Val. Why, boy! why, wag; how now? what
is the matter? Look up; speak.

[Faints.

Jul. O good sir, my master charg'd me to deliver a ring to Madam Silvia; which, out of my neglect, was never done.

Pro. Where is that ring, boy! Jul. Here 'tis: this is it. [Gives a ring. Pro. How! let me see: why this is the ring I gave to Julia.

Jul. O. cry yon mercy, sir, I have mistook;; this is the ring you sent to Silvia. [Shows another ring. Pro. But how cam'st thou by this ring? at my depart, I gave this unto Julia.

Jul. And Julia herself did give it me; And Julia herself hath brought it hither. Pro. How! Julia!

Jul. Behold her that gave aim to all thy oaths, And entertain'd them deeply in her heart: How oft hast thou with perjury cleft the root? O Proteus, let this habit make thee blush! Be thou asham'd, that I have took upon me Such an immodest raiment; if shame live In a disguise of love:

It is the lesser blot modesty finds, [minds. Women to change their shapes, than men their Pro. Than men their minds? 'tis true: 0 heaven! were man

But constant, he were perfect: that one error Fills him with faults; makes him run through all the sins:

Inconstancy falls off, ere it begins:
What is in Silvia's face, but I may spy
More fresh in Julia's, with a constant eye?
Val. Come, come, a hand from either:
Let me be blest to make this happy close?
"Twere pity two such friends should be long foes.
Pro. Bear witness, heaven, I have my wish
Jul. And I mine.
[for ever.

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Sir Valentine!

Duke.
Thu. Yonder is Silvia; and Silvia's mine.
Val. Thurio, give back, or else embrace thy
death.

Come not within the measure of my wrath;
Do not name Silvia thine: if once again,
Verona shall not hold thee. Here she stands,
Take but possession of her with a touch;-
I dare thee but to breathe upon my love.

Thu. Sir Valentine, I care not for her, I;
I hold him but a fool, that will endanger
His body for a girl that loves him not;
I claim her not, and therefore she is thine.

Duke. The more degenerate and base art theu
To make such means for her as thou hast done,
And leave her on such slight conditions.--
Now, by the honour of my ancestry,
I do applaud thy spirit, Valentine,
And think thee worthy of an empress' love.
Know then, I here forget all former griefs,
Cancel all grudge, repeal thee home again.-
Plead a new state in thy unrivall'd merit,
To which I thus subscribe,-Sir Valentine,
Thou art a gentleman, and well deriv'd;
Take thou thy Silvia, for thou hast deserv'd
her.
[me happy.

Val. I thank your grace; the gift hath made I now beseech you, for your daughter's sake, To grant one boon that I shall ask of you.

Duke. I grant it for thine own, whate'er it be. Val. These banish'd men, that I have kept

withal,

Are men endued with worthy qualities;
Forgive them what they have committed here,
And let them be recall'd from their exile:
They are reform'd, civil, full of good,
And fit for great employment, worthy lord.
Duke. Thou hast prevail'd: I pardon them,

and thee;

Dispose of them, as thou know'st their deserts.
Come, let us go; we will include all jars
With triumphs, mirth, and rare solemnity.

Val. And, as we walk along, I dare be bold With our discourse to make your grace to smile: What think you of this page, my lord?

Duke. I think the boy hath grace in him; he

blushes.

[boy. Val. I warrant you, my lord; more grace than Duke. What mean you by that saying?

Val. Please you, I'll tell you as we pass alon That you will wonder what hath fortuned.--Come, Proteus, 'tis your penance but to hear The story of your loves discovered: That done, our day of marriage shall be yours; One feast, one house, one mutual happiness. [Exeunt.

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Shal. Ay, cousin Slender, and Cust-alorum. Slen. Ay, and ratolorum too; and a gentleman born, master parson: who writes himself armigero; in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, armigero.

Shal. Ay, that I do; and have done any time these three hundred years.

Slen. All his successors, gone before him, have done't; and all his ancestors, that come after him, may: they may give the dozen white luces in their coat.

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Shal. Not a whit.

Eva. Yes, pe'r-lady; if he has a quarter of your coat, there is but three skirts for yourself, in my simple conjectures: but that is all one: If Sir John Falstaff have committed disparagements unto you, I am of the church, and will be glad to do my benevolence, to make atonements and compromises between you.

Shal. The Council shall hear it; it is a riot.

Eva. It is not meet the Council hear a riot; there is no fear of Got in a riot: the Council, look you, shall desire to hear the fear of Got. and not to hear a riot; take your vizaments in that.

Shal. Ha! o' my life, if I were young again, the sword should end it.

Eva. It is petter that friends is the sword, and end it: and there is also another device in my prain, which, peradventure, prings goot discretions with it: There is Anne Page, which is daughter to master George Page, which is pretty virginity.

Slen. Mistress Anne Page? She has brown hair, and speaks small like a woman.

Eva. It is that fery person for all the 'orld, as just as you will desire: and seven hundred pounds of monies, and gold, and silver, is her grandsire, upon his death's bed (Got deliver to a joyful resurrections!) give, when she is able to overtake seventeen years old: it were a goot motion, if we leave our pribbles and prabbles, and desire a marriage between master Abraham and mistress Anne Page.

Shal. Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?

Eva. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny.

Shal. I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts.

Eva. Seven hundred pounds, and possibilities, is good gifts.

Shal. Well, let us see honest master Page: Is Falstaff there?

Eva. Shall I tell you a lie? I do despise a liar, as I do despise one that is false? or, as I despise one that is not true. The knight, Sir John, is there; and, I beseech you, be ruled by your wellwillers. I will peat the door [knocks] for master Page. What, hoa! Got pless your house here! Enter PAGE.

Page. Who's there?

Eva. Here is Got's plessing, and your friend, and justice Shallow; and here young master Slender; that, peradventures, shall tell you another tale, if matters grow to your likings.

Page. I am glad to see your worships well: I thank you for my venison, master Shallow. Shal. Master Page, I am glad to see you: Much good do it your good heart! I wished your venison better; it was ill kill'd:-How doth good mistress Page?-and I love you always with my heart, la; with my heart.

Page. Sir, I thank you.

Shal. Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, I do. Fuge. I am glad to see you, good master Slender. Sten. How does your fallow greyhound, sir? 1 heard say, he was out-run on Cotsale.

Page. It could not be judg'd, sir.

Sien. You'll not confess, you'll not confess. Shal. That he will not; 'tis your fault, 'tis your fault:-'Tis a good dog.

Page. A cur, sir.

Shal. Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog; Can there be more said? he is good, and fair,-Is

Sir John Falstaff here?

Page. Sir, he is within; and I would, I could do a good office between you.

Eva. It is spoke as a christians ought to speak. Shal. He hath wrong'd me, master Page. Page. Sir, he doth in some sort confess it. Shal. If it be confess'd, it is not redress'd, is not that so, master Page? He hath wrong'd me; indeed he hath;-at a word, he hath;-believe me; -Robert Shallow, esquire, saith he is wrong'd. Page. Here comes Sir John. Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, Bardolph, NYM, and

PISTOL.

Fal. Now, master Shallow, you'll complain of me to the king?

Shal. Knight, you have beaten my men, killed my deer, and broke open my lodge.

Fal. But not kiss'd your keeper's daughter?
Shal. Tut, a pin! this shall be answer'd.
Fal. I will answer it straight;-I have done

all this:-That is now answer'd.

Shal. The Council shall know this. Fal. "Twere better for you, if it were known in counsel: you'll be laugh'd at.

Eva. Pauca verba, Sir John, good worts. Fal. Good worts! good cabbage.-Slender, I broke your head: What matter have you against me?

Slen. Marry, sir, I have matter in my head against you; and against your coney catching rascals, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol. They carried me to the tavern, and made me drunk, and afterwards picked my pocket.

Bar. You banbury cheese!

Slen. Ay, it is no matter.
Pist. How now, Mephostophilus?
Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Nym. Slice, I say! pauca, pauca; slice! that's my humour.

Slen. Where's Simple, my man?-can you tell, cousin?

Eva. Peace: I pray you! Now let us understand: There is three umpires in this matter, as I understand: That is-master Page, fulelicet, master Page; and there is myself, jidelicet, my self; 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 note-book; 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 shovel-boards, that cost me two shilling and twopence 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 bilbo :
Word of denial in thy labras here;
Word of denial; froth and scum, thou liest.
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?

Bard. Why, sir, for my part, I say, the gentleman had drunk himself out of his five sentences. Eva. It is his five senses: fie, what the ignorance is!

Bard. And being fap, sir, was, as they say, cashier'd; and so conclusions pass'd the careires.

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; M19TRESS 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, SLENDER, and EVANS.

Sten. 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 Inust wait on myself, must I? You have not The Book of Riddles about you, have you? Sim. Book of Ruddles! why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas?

Shai, 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.

Eca. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to mistress Anue 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?

Sten. 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?

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

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

Sten. 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 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.

Eva. It is a fery discretion answer; save the faul' is in the 'ort dissolutely: the 'ort is, according to our meaning, 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 grace.

[Exeunt SHALLOW and SIR H. EVANS.

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.

Sten. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth: Go, sirrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my cousin Shallow [Exit SIMPLE]. 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 at 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.

Sten. 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 shriek'd at it, that it pass'd:-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 pye, you shall not choose, sir: come, come.

Slen. Nay, 'pray you lead the way.
Page. Come on, sir.

Slen. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first.
Anne. Not I, sir; pray yon, 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.

SCENE II. The same.

[Exeunt.

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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 yon, 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.

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