Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

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5.3 King Henry enters with his power. Alarum, and exeunt to the battle. Then enter the Earl of Douglas, and Sir Walter Blunt, disguised as the King

BLUNT

What is thy name, that in the battle thus

Thou crossest me? What honour dost thou seek

Upon my head?

DOUGLAS Know then my name is Douglas,

And I do haunt thee in the battle thus

Because some tell me that thou art a king.

BLUNT They tell thee true.

DOUGLAS

The Lord of Stafford dear today hath bought

Thy likeness, for instead of thee, King Harry,

This sword hath ended him. So shall it thee,

Unless thou yield thee as my prisoner.

BLUNT

I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot,

And thou shalt find a king that will revenge

Lord Stafford’s death.

They fight. Douglas kills Blunt. Then enter Hotspur

HOTSPUR

O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon thus,

I never had triumphed upon a Scot.

DOUGLAS

All’s done, all’s won: here breathless lies the King.

HOTSPUR Where?

DOUGLAS Here.

HOTSPUR

This, Douglas? No, I know this face full well.

A gallant knight he was; his name was Blunt—

Semblably furnished like the King himself.

DOUGLAS (to Blunt’s body)

A fool go with thy soul, whither it goes !

A borrowed title hast thou bought too dear.

Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king?

HOTSPUR

The king hath many marching in his coats.

DOUGLAS

Now by my sword, I will kill all his coats.

I’ll murder all his wardrobe, piece by piece,

Until I meet the King.

HOTSPUR Up and away!

Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day.

Exeunt, leaving Blunt’s body

Alarum. Enter Sir John Oldcastle

SIR JOHN Though I could scape shot-free at London, I fear the shot here. Here’s no scoring but upon the pate.—Soft, who are you?—Sir Walter Blunt. There’s honour for you. Here’s no vanity. I am as hot as molten lead, and as heavy too. God keep lead out of me; I need no more weight than mine own bowels. I have led my ragamuffins where they are peppered; there’s not three of my hundred and fifty left alive, and they are for the town’s end, to beg during life.

Enter Prince Harry

But who comes here?

PRINCE HARRY

What, stand’st thou idle here? Lend me thy sword.

Many a noble man lies stark and stiff

Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies,

Whose deaths as yet are unrevenged. I prithee

Lend me thy sword.

SIR JOHN

O Hal, I prithee give me leave to breathe awhile.

Turk Gregory never did such deeds in arms

As I have done this day. I have paid Percy,

I have made him sure.

PRINCE HARRY He is indeed,

And living to kill thee. I prithee

Lend me thy sword.

SIR JOHN Nay, before God, Hal,

If Percy be alive thou gett’st not my sword;

But take my pistol if thou wilt.

PRINCE HARRY

Give it me. What, is it in the case?

SIR JOHN Ay, Hal;

’Tis hot, ’tis hot. There’s that will sack a city.

The Prince draws it out, and finds it to be a bottle of sack

PRINCE HARRY

What, is it a time to jest and dally now?

He throws the bottle at him. Exit

SIR JOHN Well, if Percy be alive, I’ll pierce him. If he do come in my way, so; if he do not, if I come in his willingly, let him make a carbonado of me. I like not such grinning honour as Sir Walter hath. Give me life, which if I can save, so; if not, honour comes unlocked for, and there’s an end. Exit [with Blunt’s body]

5.4 Alarum. Excursions. Enter King Henry, Prince Harry, wounded, Lord John of Lancaster, and the Earl of Westmorland

KING HENRY

I prithee, Harry, withdraw thyself, thou bleed’st too

much.

Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.

JOHN OF LANCASTER

Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.

PRINCE HARRY (to the King)

I beseech your majesty, make up,

Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.

KING HENRY

I will do so. My lord of Westmorland,

Lead him to his tent.

WESTMORLAND (to the Prince)

Come, my lord, I’ll lead you to your tent.

PRINCE HARRY

Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help,

And God forbid a shallow scratch should drive

The Prince of Wales from such a field as this,

Where stained nobility lies trodden on,

And rebels’ arms triumph in massacres.

JOHN OF LANCASTER

We breathe too long. Come, cousin Westmorland,

Our duty this way lies. For God’s sake, come.

Exeunt Lancaster and Westmorland

PRINCE HARRY

By God, thou hast deceived me, Lancaster;

I did not think thee lord of such a spirit.

Before I loved thee as a brother, John,

But now I do respect thee as my soul.

KING HENRY

I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point

With lustier maintenance than I did look for

Of such an ungrown warrior.

PRINCE HARRY

O, this boy lends mettle to us all! Exit

Enter the Earl of Douglas

DOUGLAS

Another king! They grow like Hydra’s heads.

I am the Douglas, fatal to all those

That wear those colours on them. What art thou

That counterfeit’st the person of a king?

KING HENRY

The King himself, who, Douglas, grieves at heart

So many of his shadows thou hast met

And not the very King. I have two boys

Seek Percy and thyself about the field;

But seeing thou fall’st on me so luckily,

I will assay thee; and defend thyself.

DOUGLAS

I fear thou art another counterfeit;

And yet, in faith, thou bear’st thee like a king.

But mine I am sure thou art, whoe’er thou be,

And thus I win thee.

They fight. The King being in danger, enter Prince Harry

PRINCE HARRY

Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like

Never to hold it up again. The spirits

Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms.

It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee,

Who never promiseth but he means to pay.

They fight. Douglas flieth

Cheerly, my lord! How fares your grace?

Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,

And so hath Clifton. I’ll to Clifton straight.

KING HENRY Stay and breathe awhile.

Thou hast redeemed thy lost opinion,

And showed thou mak’st some tender of my life,

In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.

PRINCE HARRY

O God, they did me too much injury

That ever said I hearkened for your death.

If it were so, I might have let alone

The insulting hand of Douglas over you,

Which would have been as speedy in your end

As all the poisonous potions in the world,

And saved the treacherous labour of your son.

KING HENRY

Make up to Clifton; I’ll to Sir Nicholas Gawsey. Exit

Enter Hotspur

HOTSPUR

If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.

PRINCE HARRY

Thou speak’st as if I would deny my name.

HOTSPUR

My name is Harry Percy.

PRINCE HARRY Why then, I see

A very valiant rebel of the name.

I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,

To share with me in glory any more.

Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere,

Nor can one England brook a double reign

Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.

HOTSPUR

Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come

To end the one of us, and would to God

Thy name in arms were now as great as mine.

PRINCE HARRY

I’ll make it greater ere I part from thee,

And all the budding honours on thy crest

I’ll crop to make a garland for my head.

HOTSPUR

I can no longer brook thy vanities.

They fight.

Enter Sir John Oldcastle

SIR JOHN Well said, Hal! To it, Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy’s play here, I can tell you.

Enter Douglas. He fighteth with Sir John, who falls down as if he were dead. Exit Douglas. The Prince killeth Hotspur

HOTSPUR

O Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth.

I better brook the loss of brittle life

Than those proud titles thou hast won of me.

They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword my

flesh.

But thoughts, the slaves of life, and life, time’s fool,

And time, that takes survey of all the world,

Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,

But that the earthy and cold hand of death

Lies on my tongue. No, Percy, thou art dust,

And food for—He dies

PRINCE HARRY

For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well, great heart.

Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!

When that this body did contain a spirit,

A kingdom for it was too small a bound,

But now two paces of the vilest earth

Is room enough. This earth that bears thee dead

Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.

If thou wert sensible of courtesy,

I should not make so dear a show of zeal;

But let my favours hide thy mangled face,

He covers Hotspur’s face

And even in thy behalf I’ll thank myself

For doing these fair rites of tenderness.

Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven.

Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,

But not remembered in thy epitaph.

He spieth Sir John on the ground

What, old acquaintance! Could not all this flesh

Keep in a little life ? Poor Jack, farewell.

I could have better spared a better man.

O, I should have a heavy miss of thee,

If I were much in love with vanity.

Death hath not struck so fat a deer today,

Though many dearer in this bloody fray.

Embowelled will I see thee by and by.

Till then, in blood by noble Percy lie. Exit

Sir John riseth up

SIR JOHN Embowelled? If thou embowel me today, I’ll give you leave to powder me, and eat me too, tomorrow. ’Sblood, ’twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me, scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, I am no counterfeit. To die is to be a counterfeit, for he is but the counterfeit of a man who hath not the life of a man. But to counterfeit dying when a man thereby liveth is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valour is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life. Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead. How if he should counterfeit too, and rise ? By my faith, I am afraid he would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I’ll make him sure; yea, and I’ll swear I killed him. Why may not he rise as well as I? Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore, sirrah, (stabbing Hotspur) with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.

He takes up Hotspur on his back.

Enter Prince Harry and Lord John of Lancaster

PRINCE HARRY

Come, brother John. Full bravely hast thou fleshed

Thy maiden sword.

JOHN OF LANCASTER But soft; whom have we here? Did you not tell me this fat man was dead?

PRINCE HARRY I did; I saw him dead, Breathless and bleeding on the ground. (To Sir John) Art thou alive? Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight? I prithee speak; we will not trust our eyes Without our ears. Thou art not what thou seem’st.

SIR JOHN No, that’s certain: I am not a double man. But if I be not Jack Oldcastle, then am I a jack. There is Percy. If your father will do me any honour, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you.

PRINCE HARRY

Why, Percy I killed myself, and saw thee dead.

SIR JOHN Didst thou ? Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath, and so was he; but we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be believed, so; if not, let them that should reward valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I’ll take’t on my death I gave him this wound in the thigh. If the man were alive and would deny it, zounds, I would make him eat a piece of my sword.

JOHN OF LANCASTER

This is the strangest tale that e’er I heard.

PRINCE HARRY

This is the strangest fellow, brother John.

(To Sir John) Come, bring your luggage nobly on your

back.

For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,

I’ll gild it with the happiest terms I have.

A retreat is sounded

The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is our.

Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field

To see what friends are living, who are dead.

Exeunt the Prince and Lancaster

SIR JOHN I’ll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God reward him. If I do grow great, I’ll grow less; for I’ll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman should do.

Exit, bearing Hotspur’s body

5.5 The trumpets sound. Enter King Henry, Prince Harry, Lord John of Lancaster, the Earl of Westmorland, with the Earl of Worcester and Sir Richard Vernon, prisoners, ⌈and soldier⌉

KING HENRY

Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.

Ill-spirited Worcester, did not we send grace,

Pardon, and terms of love to all of you ?

And wouldst thou turn our offers contrary,

Misuse the tenor of thy kinsman’s trust?

Three knights upon our party slain today,

A noble earl, and many a creature else,

Had been alive this hour

If like a Christian thou hadst truly borne

Betwixt our armies true intelligence.

WORCESTER

What I have done my safety urged me to,

And I embrace this fortune patiently,

Since not to be avoided it falls on me.

KING HENRY

Bear Worcester to the death, and Vernon too.

Other offenders we will pause upon.

Exeunt Worcester and Vernon, guarded

How goes the field?

PRINCE HARRY

The noble Scot Lord Douglas, when he saw

The fortune of the day quite turned from him,

The noble Percy slain, and all his men

Upon the foot of fear, fled with the rest;

And falling from a hill he was so bruised

That the pursuers took him. At my tent

The Douglas is, and I beseech your grace

I may dispose of him.

KING HENRY With all my heart.

PRINCE HARRY

Then, brother John of Lancaster,

To you this honourable bounty shall belong.

Go to the Douglas, and deliver him

Up to his pleasure ransomless and free.

His valours shown upon our crests today

Have taught us how to cherish such high deeds

Even in the bosom of our adversaries.

JOHN OF LANCASTER

I thank your grace for this high courtesy,

Which I shall give away immediately.

KING HENRY

Then this remains, that we divide our power.

You, son John, and my cousin Westmorland,

Towards York shall bend you with your dearest speed

To meet Northumberland and the prelate Scrope,

Who, as we hear, are busily in arms.

Myself and you, son Harry, will towards Wales,

To fight with Glyndwr and the Earl of March.

Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,

Meeting the check of such another day;

And since this business so fair is done,

Let us not leave till all our own be won.

Exeunt [the King, the Prince, and their power at one door, Lancaster, Westmorland, and their power at another door]

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

A LEGEND dating from 1702 claims that Shakespeare wrote The Merry Wives of Windsor in fourteen days and by command of Queen Elizabeth; in 1709 she was said to have wished particularly to see Falstaff in love. Whether or not this is true, a passage towards the end of the play alluding directly to the ceremonies of the Order of the Garter, Britain’s highest order of chivalry, encourages the belief that the play has a direct connection with a specific occasion. In 1597 George Carey, Lord Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain and patron of Shakespeare’s company, was installed at Windsor as a Knight of the Garter. The Queen was not present at the installation but had attended the Garter Feast at the Palace of Westminster on St George’s Day (23 April). Shakespeare’s play was probably performed in association with this occasion, and may have been written especially for it. It was first printed, in a corrupt text, in 1602; a better text appears in the 1623 Folio.

Some of the characters—Sir John Falstaff, Mistress Quickly, Pistol, Nim, Justice Shallow—appear also in I and 2 Henry IV and Henry V, but in spite of a reference to ’the wild Prince and Poins’ at 3.2.66-7, this is essentially an Elizabethan comedy, the only one that Shakespeare set firmly in England. The play is full of details that would have been familiar to Elizabethan Londoners, and the language is colloquial and up to date. The plot, however, is made up of conventional situations whose ancestry is literary rather than realistic. There are many analogues to Shakespeare’s basic plot situations in medieval and other tales, some in books that he probably or certainly knew. The central story, of Sir John’s unsuccessful attempts to seduce Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, and of Master Ford’s unfounded jealousy, is in the tradition of the Italian novella, and may have been suggested by Ser Giovanni Fiorentino’s II Pecorone (1558). Alongside it Shakespeare places the comical but finally romantic love story of Anne Page, wooed by the foolish but rich Abraham Slender and the irascible French Doctor Caius, but won by the young and handsome Fenton. The play contains a higher proportion of prose to verse than any other play by Shakespeare, and the action is often broadly comic; but it ends, after the midnight scene in Windsor Forest during which Sir John is frightened out of his lechery, in forgiveness and love.

The Merry Wives of Windsor is known to have been acted for James I on 4 November 1604, and for Charles I in 1638. It was revived soon after the theatres reopened, in 1660; at first it was not particularly popular, but since 1720 it has consistently pleased audiences. Many artists have illustrated it, and it forms the basis for a number of operas, including Otto Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (1849) and Giuseppe Verdi’s comic masterpiece, Falstaff (1893).

THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

The Merry Wives of Windsor

1.1 Enter Justice Shallow, Master Slender, and Sir Hugh Evans

SHALLOW Sir Hugh, persuade me not. I will make a Star Chamber matter of it. If he were twenty Sir John Falstaffs, he shall not abuse Robert Shallow, Esquire.

SLENDER In the county of Gloucester, Justice of Peace and Coram.

SHALLOW Ay, cousin Slender, and Custalorum.

SLENDER Ay, and Ratolorum too; and a gentleman born, Master Parson, who writes himself ‘Armigero’ in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation: ‘Armigero’.

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

SLENDER All his successors gone before him hath done’t, and all his ancestors that come after him may. They may give the dozen white luces in their coat.

SHALLOW It is an old coat.

EVANS The dozen white louses do become an old coad well. It agrees well passant: it is a familiar beast to man, and signifies love.

SHALLOW The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old cod.

SLENDER I may quarter, coz.

SHALLOW You may, by marrying.

EVANS It is marring indeed if he quarter it.

SHALLOW Not a whit.

EVANS Yes, py’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.

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

EVANS 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 ’visaments in that.

SHALLOW Ha! O’ my life, if I were young again, the sword should end it.

EVANS 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.

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

EVANS It is that fery person for all the ‘orld, as just as you will desire. And seven hundred pounds of moneys, 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.

SLENDER Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?

EVANS Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny. ⌈SHALLOW⌉I know the young gentlewoman. She has good gifts.

EVANS Seven hundred pounds and possibilities is goot gifts.

SHALLOW Well, let us see honest Master Page. Is Falstaff there?

EVANS 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 well-willers. I will peat the door for Master Page.

He knocks on the door

What ho! Got pless your house here I

PAGE ⌈within⌉ Who’s there?

EVANS 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.

⌈Enter Master Page⌉

PAGE I am glad to see your worships well. I thank you for my venison, Master Shallow.

SHALLOW Master Page, I am glad to see you. Much good do it your good heart! Iwished your venison better; it was ill killed.—How doth good Mistress Page?—And I thank you always with my heart, la, with my heart.

PAGE Sir, I thank you.

SHALLOW Sir, I thank you. By yea and no, I do.

PAGE I am glad to see you, good Master Slender.

SLENDER How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I heard say he was outrun on Cotswold.

PAGE It could not be judged, sir.

SLENDER You’ll not confess, you’ll not confess.

SHALLOW That he will not. ‘Tis your fault, ’tis your fault.

(To Page) ’Tis a good dog.

PAGE A cur, sir.

SHALLOW 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.

EVANS It is spoke as a Christians ought to speak.

SHALLOW He hath wronged me, Master Page.

PAGE Sir, he doth in some sort confess it.

SHALLOW If it be confessed, it is not redressed. Is not that so, Master Page? He hath wronged me; indeed he hath; at a word, he hath. Believe me, Robert Shallow, Esquire, saith he is wronged.

Enter Sir John Falstaff, Bardolph, Nim, and Pistol

PAGE Here comes Sir John.

SIR JOHN Now, Master Shallow, you’ll complain of me to the King?

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

SIR JOHN But not kissed your keeper’s daughter?

SHALLOW Tut, a pin. This shall be answered.

SIR JOHN I will answer it straight: I have done all this.

That is now answered.

SHALLOW The Council shall know this.

SIR JOHN ’Twere better for you if it were known in counsel.

You’ll be laughed at.

EVANS Pauca verba, Sir John, good worts.

SIR JOHN Good worts? Good cabbage!—Slender, I broke your head. What matter have you against me?

SLENDER Marry, sir, I have matter in my head against you, and against your cony-catching rascals, Bardolph, Nim, and Pistol.

BARDOLPH You Banbury cheese!

SLENDER Ay, it is no matter.

PISTOL How now, Mephistopheles?

SLENDER Ay, it is no matter.

NIM Slice, I say pauca, pauca. Slice, that’s my humour.

SLENDER (to Shallow) Where’s Simple, my man? Can you tell, cousin?

EVANS Peace, I pray you. Now let us understand. There is three umpires in this matter, as I understand: that is, Master Page, fidelicet Master Page; and there 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.

EVANS 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.

SIR JOHN Pistol.

PISTOL He hears with ears.

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

SIR JOHN Pistol, did you pick Master Slender’s purse?

SLENDER 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 apiece of Ed Miller. By these gloves.

SIR JOHN Is this true, Pistol?

EVANS No, it is false, if it is a pickpurse.

PISTOL

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.

SLENDER (pointing to Nim) By these gloves, then, ’twas he.

NIM 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.

SLENDER 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.

SIR JOHN (to Bardolph) What say you, Scarlet and John?

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

EVANS It is ‘his five senses’. Fie, what the ignorance is!

BARDOLPH And being fap, sir, was, as they say, cashiered. And so conclusions passed the careers.

SLENDER 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.

EVANS So Got ’udge me, that is a virtuous mind.

SIR JOHN You hear all these matters denied, gentlemen, you hear it.

Enter Anne Page, with wine

PAGE Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we’ll drink within. Exit Anne

SLENDER O heaven, this is Mistress Anne Page! ⌈Enter at another door Mistress Ford and Mistress Pagel⌉

PAGE How now, Mistress Ford?

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

⌈He kisses 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 Slender

SLENDER 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?

SIMPLE Book of riddles? Why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas?

Enter Shallow and Evans

SHALLOW (to Slender) Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. (Aside to him) A word with you, coz.

He draws Slender aside

Marry, this, coz: there is, as ’twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by Sir Hugh here. Do you understand me?

SLENDER Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable. If it be so, I shall do that that is reason.

SHALLOW Nay, but understand me.

SLENDER So I do, sir.

EVANS Give ear to his motions. Master Slender, I will description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it.

SLENDER 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.

EVANS But that is not the question. The question is concerning your marriage.

SHALLOW Ay, there’s the point, sir.

EVANS Marry, is it, the very point of it—to Mistress Anne Page.

SLENDER Why, if it be so, I will marry her upon any reasonable demands.

EVANS 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?

SHALLOW Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her?

SLENDER I hope, sir, I will do as it shall become one that would do reason.

EVANS Nay, Got’s lords and his ladies, you must speak positable if you can carry her your desires towards her.

SHALLOW That you must. Will you, upon good dowry, marry her?

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

SHALLOW Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz. What I do is to pleasure you, coz. Can you love the maid?

SLENDER 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.

EVANS It is a fery discretion answer, save the faul’ is in the ’ord ‘dissolutely’. The ’ort is, according to our meaning, ‘resolutely’. His meaning is good.

SHALLOW Ay, I think my cousin meant well.

SLENDER Ay, or else I would I might be hanged, la.

Enter Anne Page

SHALLOW 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 worships’ company.

SHALLOW I will wait on him, fair Mistress Anne.

EVANS ’Od’s plessed will, I will not be absence at the grace. Exeunt Shallow and Evans

ANNE (to Slender) Will’t please your worship to come in, sir?

SLENDER No, I thank you, forsooth, heartily; I am very well.

ANNE The dinner attends you, sir.

SLENDER I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth. (To Simple) 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.

SLENDER I’faith, I’ll eat nothing. I thank you as much as though I did.

ANNE I pray you, sir, walk in.

⌈Dogs bark within⌉

SLENDER I had rather walk here, I thank you. I bruised my shin th‘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’th’ town?

ANNE I think there are, sir. I heard them talked of.

SLENDER 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.

SLENDER 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 passed. But women, indeed, cannot abide ’em. They are very ill-favoured, rough things.

Enter Page

PAGE Come, gentle Master Slender, come. We stay for you.

SLENDER I’ll eat nothing, I thank you, sir.

PAGE By cock and pie, you shall not choose, sir. Come, come.

SLENDER Nay, pray you lead the way.

PAGE Come on, sir.

SLENDER Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first.

ANNE Not I, sir. Pray you keep on.

SLENDER Truly, I will not go first, truly, la. I will not do you that wrong.

ANNE I pray you, sir.

SLENDER I’ll rather be unmannerly than troublesome. You do yourself wrong, indeed, la.

Exeunt ⌈Slender first, the others following⌉