The Merry Wives of Windsor Part 20

_Page._ She is no match for you.

_Fent._ Sir, will you hear me?

_Page._ No, good Master Fenton.

Come, Master Shallow; come, son Slender, in.

Knowing my mind, you wrong me, Master Fenton. 75

[_Exeunt Page, Shal., and Slen._

_Quick._ Speak to Mistress Page.

_Fent._ Good Mistress Page, for that I love your daughter In such a righteous fashion as I do, Perforce, against all checks, rebukes and manners, I must advance the colours of my love, 80 And not retire: let me have your good will.

_Anne._ Good mother, do not marry me to yond fool.

_Mrs Page._ I mean it not; I seek you a better husband.

_Quick._ That's my master, master doctor.

_Anne._ Alas, I had rather be set quick i' the earth, 85 And bowl'd to death with turnips!

_Mrs Page._ Come, trouble not yourself. Good Master Fenton, I will not be your friend nor enemy: My daughter will I question how she loves you, And as I find her, so am I affected. 90 Till then farewell, sir: she must needs go in; Her father will be angry.

_Fent._ Farewell, gentle mistress: farewell, Nan.

[_Exeunt Mrs Page and Anne._

_Quick._ This is my doing now: 'Nay,' said I, 'will you cast away your child on a fool, and a physician? Look on 95 Master Fenton:' this is my doing.

_Fent._ I thank thee; and I pray thee, once to-night Give my sweet Nan this ring: there's for thy pains.

_Quick._ Now heaven send thee good fortune! [_Exit Fenton._] A kind heart he hath: a woman would run 100 through fire and water for such a kind heart. But yet I would my master had Mistress Anne; or I would Master Slender had her; or, in sooth, I would Master Fenton had her: I will do what I can for them all three; for so I have promised, and I'll be as good as my word; 105 but speciously for Master Fenton. Well, I must of another errand to Sir John Falstaff from my two mistresses: what a beast am I to slack it! [_Exit._

NOTES: III, 4

SCENE IV.] SCENE XII. Pope.

7: _Besides these, other_] Ff Q3. _Besides, these other_ S. Walker conj.

12: _my_] _the_ Capell (altered to _my_ in his own hand).

20: _opportunity_] _importunity_ Hanmer.

22: SCENE XIII. Pope.

28: _but that_] F1 Q3 F2. _but_ F3 F4.

40: _pen_] _henloft_ (Q1 Q2) Halliwell.

62: _my_] om. Q3.

_hath_] _have_ F4.

65: _ask_] om. Q3.

66: SCENE XIV. Pope.

67: _Fenton_] _Fenter_ F1.

75: _mind_] _wind_ F2.

80: _of_] _or_ Q3.

85, 86: Anne. _Alas_, ... _turnips!_] Anne. _Alas, ... earth._ Quick. _And ... turnips_ Warburton.

92: _angry_] _angry else_ S. Verges conj.

93: _gentle_] _my gentle_ Capell.

95: _and_] _or_ Hanmer.

SCENE V. _A room in the Garter Inn._

_Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH._

_Fal._ Bardolph, I say,--

_Bard._ Here, sir.

_Fal._ Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in't. [_Exit Bard._] Have I lived to be carried in a basket, like a barrow of butcher's offal, and to be thrown in the Thames? Well, 5 if I be served such another trick, I'll have my brains ta'en out, and b.u.t.tered, and give them to a dog for a new-year's gift. The rogues slighted me into the river with as little remorse as they would have drowned a blind b.i.t.c.h's puppies, fifteen i' the litter: and you may know by my size 10 that I have a kind of alacrity in sinking; if the bottom were as deep as h.e.l.l, I should down. I had been drowned, but that the sh.o.r.e was shelvy and shallow,--a death that I abhor; for the water swells a man; and what a thing should I have been when I had been swelled! I should 15 have been a mountain of mummy.

_Re-enter BARDOLPH with sack._

_Bard._ Here's Mistress Quickly, sir, to speak with you.

_Fal._ Come, let me pour in some sack to the Thames water; for my belly's as cold as if I had swallowed snow-b.a.l.l.s for pills to cool the reins. Call her in. 20

_Bard._ Come in, woman!

_Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY._

_Quick._ By your leave; I cry you mercy: give your worship good morrow.

_Fal._ Take away these chalices. Go brew me a pottle of sack finely. 25

_Bard._ With eggs, sir?

_Fal._ Simple of itself; I'll no pullet-sperm in my brewage.

[_Exit Bardolph._] How now!

_Quick._ Marry, sir, I come to your worship from Mistress Ford. 30

_Fal._ Mistress Ford! I have had ford enough; I was thrown into the ford; I have my belly full of ford.

_Quick._ Alas the day! good heart, that was not her fault: she does so take on with her men; they mistook their erection. 35

_Fal._ So did I mine, to build upon a foolish woman's promise.

_Quick._ Well, she laments, sir, for it, that it would yearn your heart to see it. Her husband goes this morning a-birding; she desires you once more to come to her 40 between eight and nine: I must carry her word quickly: she'll make you amends, I warrant you.

_Fal._ Well, I will visit her: tell her so; and bid her think what a man is: let her consider his frailty, and then judge of my merit. 45

_Quick._ I will tell her.