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QUICKLY.

I'll provide you a chain, and I'll do what I can to

get you a pair of horns.

FALSTAFF.

Away, I say; time wears; hold up your head, and

mince. Exit MRS. QUICKLY

Enter FORD disguised

How now, Master Brook. Master Brook, the matter will

be known tonight or never. Be you in the Park about

midnight, at Herne's oak, and you shall see wonders.

FORD.

Went you not to her yesterday, sir, as you told me you had appointed?

FALSTAFF.

I went to her, Master Brook, as you see, like a

poor old man; but I came from her, Master Brook, like a

poor old woman. That same knave Ford, her husband, hath

the finest mad devil of jealousy in him, Master Brook, that

ever govern'd frenzy. I will tell you-he beat me grievously

in the shape of a woman; for in the shape of man, Master

Brook, I fear not Goliath with a weaver's beam; because

I know also life is a shuttle. I am in haste; go along with

me; I'll. tell you all, Master Brook. Since I pluck'd geese,

play'd truant, and whipp'd top, I knew not what 'twas to

be beaten till lately. Follow me. I'll tell you strange things

of this knave-Ford, on whom to-night I will be revenged,

and I will deliver his wife into your hand. Follow. Strange

things in hand, Master Brook! Follow. Exeunt

SCENE 2.

Windsor Park

Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER

PAGE.

Come, come; we'll couch i' th' Castle ditch till we

see the light of our fairies. Remember, son Slender, my daughter.

SLENDER.

Ay, forsooth; I have spoke with her, and we have

a nay-word how to know one another. I come to her in

white and cry 'mum'; she cries 'budget,' and by that we know one another.

SHALLOW.

That's good too; but what needs either your mum

or her budget? The white will decipher her well enough.

It hath struck ten o'clock.

PAGE.

The night is dark; light and spirits will become it well.

Heaven prosper our sport! No man means evil but the

devil, and we shall know him by his horns. Let's away;

follow me. Exeunt

SCENE 3.

A street leading to the Park

Enter MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS FORD, and DOCTOR CAIUS

MRS.

PAGE. Master Doctor, my daughter is in green; when

you see your time, take her by the hand, away with her to

the deanery, and dispatch it quickly. Go before into the

Park; we two must go together.

CAIUS.

I know vat I have to do; adieu.

MRS.

PAGE. Fare you well, sir. [Exit CAIUS] My husband

will not rejoice so much at the abuse of Falstaff as he will

chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter; but 'tis no

matter; better a little chiding than a great deal of heartbreak.

MRS.

FORD. Where is Nan now, and her troop of fairies, and

the Welsh devil, Hugh?

MRS.

PAGE. They are all couch'd in a pit hard by Heme's

oak, with obscur'd lights; which, at the very instant of

Falstaff's and our meeting, they will at once display to the night.

MRS.

FORD. That cannot choose but amaze him.

MRS.

PAGE. If he be not amaz'd, he will be mock'd; if he be

amaz'd, he will every way be mock'd.

MRS.

FORD. We'll betray him finely.

MRS.

PAGE. Against such lewdsters and their lechery,

Those that betray them do no treachery.

MRS.

FORD. The hour draws on. To the oak, to the oak!

Exeunt

SCENE 4.

Windsor Park

Enter SIR HUGH EVANS like a satyr, with OTHERS as fairies

EVANS.

Trib, trib, fairies; come; and remember your parts. Be pold, I pray you; follow me into the pit; and when I give the watch-ords, do as I pid you. Come, come; trib, trib. Exeunt

SCENE 5.

Another part of the Park

Enter FALSTAFF disguised as HERNE

FALSTAFF.

The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; the minute

draws on. Now the hot-blooded gods assist me!

Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa; love set on thy

horns. O powerful love! that in some respects makes a

beast a man; in some other a man a beast. You were also,

Jupiter, a swan, for the love of Leda. O omnipotent love!

how near the god drew to the complexion of a goose! A

fault done first in the form of a beast-O Jove, a beastly

fault!-and then another fault in the semblance