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PAGE. Son! how now? how now, fon? have you defpatch'd?

SLEN. Defpatch'd!-I'll make the best in Glocestershire know on't; would I were hanged, la, elfe.

PAGE. Of what, fon?

SLEN. I came yonder at Eton to marry mistress. Anne Page, and fhe's a great lubberly boy: If it had not been i' the church, I would have fwinged him, or he should have fwinged me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never ftir, and 'tis a post-master's boy.

PAGE. Upon my life then you took the wrong.

SLEN. What need you tell me that? I think fo, when I took a boy for a girl: If I had been married to him, for all he was in woman's apparel, I would not have had him.

PAGE. Why, this is your own folly. Did not I tell you, how you fhould know my daughter by her garments?

SLEN. I went to her in white,' and cry'd, mum, and the cry'd budget, as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a post-mafter's boy.

EVA. Jefhu! Master Slender, cannot you fee but marry boys ? +

4

PAGE. O, I am vex'd at heart: What fhall I do? MRS. PAGE. Good George, be not angry: I knew

3-in white,] The old copy, by the inadvertence of either the author or tranfcriber, reads-in green; and in the two fubfequent fpeeches of Mrs. Page, inftead of green we find white. The corrections, which are fully juftified by what has preceded, (fee p. 473») were made by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

marry boys?] This and the next fpeech are likewife reftorations from the old quarto. STEEVENS.

of your purpose; turned my daughter into green; and, indeed, fhe is now with the doctor at the deanery, and there married.

Enter CAIUS.

CALUS. Vere is mistress Page? By gar, I am cozened; I ha' married un garçon, a boy; un paisan, by gar, a boy; it is not Anne Page: by gar, I am cozened.

MRS. PAGE. Why, did you take her in green? CAIUS. Ay, be gar, and 'tis a boy: be gar, I'll raise all Windfor. [Exit CAIUS.

FORD. This is ftrange: Who hath got the right Anne?

PAGE. My heart mifgives me: Here comes mafter Fenton.

Enter FENTON and ANNE PAGE.

How now, mafter Fenton ?

ANNE. Pardon, good father! good my mother, pardon!

PAGE. Now, miftrefs? how chance you went not with master Slender?

MRS. PAGE. Why went you not with master doctor, maid?

FENT. You do amaze her; Hear the truth of it. You would have married her most shamefully, Where there was no proportion held in love. The truth is, She and I, long fince contracted, Are now fo fure, that nothing can diffolve us. The offence is holy, that the hath committed :

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amaze her;] i. e. confound her by your questions. So, in Cymbeline, A&t IV. fc. iii:

"I am amaz'd with matter." STEEVENS.

And this deceit lofes the name of craft,
Of disobedience, or unduteous title;
Since therein the doth evitate and fhun
A thousand irreligious curfed hours,

Which forced marriage would have brought upon her.

FORD. Stand not amaz'd: here is no remedy:In love, the heavens themselves do guide the state; Money buys lands, and wives are fold by fate.

FAL. I am glad, though you have ta'en a special ftand to ftrike at me, that your arrow hath glanced. PAGE. Well, what remedy? Fenton,' heaven give thee joy!

What cannot be efchew'd, must be embrac❜d. FAL. When night-dogs run, all forts of deer are chas'd."

EVA. I will dance and eat plums at your wedding.'

5 Page. Well, what remedy?] In the firft fketch of this play, which, as Mr. Pope obferves, is much inferior to the latter performance, the only fentiment of which I regret the omiffion, occurs at this critical time. When Fenton brings in his wife, there is this dialogue.

Mrs. Ford. Come, Mrs. Page, I must be bold with you.

'Tis pity to part love that is fo true.

Mrs. Page. [Afide.] Although that I have mifs'd in my intent, Yet I am glad my husband's match is cross'd.

Here Fenton, take her.

Eva. Come, mafter Page, you must needs agree.

Ford. I' faith, fir, come, you fee your wife is pleas'd.
Page. I cannot tell, and yet my heart is eas'd;

And yet it doth me good the doctor mifs'd.

Come hither, Fenton, and come hither daughter. JOHNSON.

6 all forts of deer are chas'd.] Young and old, does as well as bucks. He alludes to Fenton's having just run down Anne Page. MALONE.

I will dance and eat plums at your wedding.] I have no doubt but this line, fuppofed to be fpoken by Evans, is mifplaced, and Thould come in after that spoken by Falstaff, which being intended

MRS. PAGE. Well, I will mufe no further:-Mafter Fenton,

Heaven give you many, many merry days!—
Good husband, let us every one go home,
And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire;
Sir John and all.

FORD. Let it be so:-Sir John,

To master Brook you yet shall hold your word;
For he, to night, fhall lie with mistress Ford.

[Exeunt.

to rhime with the laft line of Page's fpeech, fhould immediately follow it; and then the paffage will run thus:

Page. Well, what remedy? Fenton, Heaven give thee joy!
What cannot be efchew'd, must be embrac'd.

Fal. When night-dogs run, all forts of deer are chac'd.
Evans. I will dance and eat plums, &c. M. MASON.

I have availed myself of Mr. M. Mafon's very judicious remark, which had also been made by Mr. Malone, who obferves that Evans's fpeech" I will dance," &c. was restored from the first quarto by Mr. Pope. STEEVENS.

Of this play there is a tradition preferved by Mr. Rowe, that it was written at the command of queen Elizabeth, who was fo delighted with the character of Falstaff, that she wished it to be diffused through more plays; but fufpecting that it might pall by continued uniformity, directed the poet to diverfify his manner, by fhewing him in love. No task is harder than that of writing to the ideas of another. Shakspeare knew what the queen, if the ftory be true, feems not to have known, that by any real paffion of tenderness, the selfish craft, the carelefs jollity, and the lazy luxury of Falstaff muft have fuffered fo much abatement, that little of his former caft would have remained. Falstaff could not love, but by ceafing to be Falftaff. He could only counterfeit love, and his profeffions could be prompted, not by the hope of pleasure, but of money. Thus the poet approached as near as he could to the work enjoined him; yet having perhaps in the former plays completed his own idea, feems not to have been able to give Falstaff all his former power of entertainment.

This comedy is remarkable for the variety and number of the perfonages, who exhibit more characters appropriated and difcriminated, than perhaps can be found in any other play.

Whether Shakspeare was the firft that produced upon the English tage the effect of language diftorted and depraved by provincial or

foreign pronunciation, I cannot certainly decide. This mode of forming ridiculous characters can confer praise only on him who originally discovered it, for it requires not much of either wit or judgement: its fuccefs must be derived almost wholly from the player, but its power in a skilful mouth, even he that defpifes it, is unable to refift.

The conduct of this drama is deficient; the action begins and ends often, before the conclufion, and the different parts might change places without inconvenience; but its general power, that power by which all works of genius fhall finally be tried, is fuch, that perhaps it never yet had reader or fpectator who did not think it too foon at the end. JOHNSON.

The ftory of The Two Lovers of Pisa, from which (as Dr. Farmer has obferved) Falstaff's adventures in this play seem to have been taken, is thus related in Tarleton's Nerves out of Purgatorie, bl. 1. no date. [Entered in the Stationers' Books, June 16, 1590.]

"In Pifa, a famous cittie of Italye, there liued a gentleman of good linage and lands, feared as well for his wealth, as honoured for his vertue; but indeed well thought on for both: yet the better for his riches. This gentleman had one onelye daughter called Margaret, who for her beauty was liked of all, and defired of many but neither might their futes, nor her own preuaile about her father's refolution, who was determyned not to marrye her, but to fuch a man as should be able in abundance to maintain the excellency of her beauty. Diuers young gentlemen proffered large feoffments, but in vaine: a maide thee must bee still: till at last an olde doctor in the towne, that profeffed phificke, became a futor to her; who was a welcome man to her father, in that he was one of the welthieft men in all Pifa. A tall ftrippling he was, and a proper youth, his age about fourefcore; his head as white as milke, wherein for offence fake there was left neuer a tooth: but it is no matter; what he wanted in perfon he had in the purfe; which the poore gentlewoman little regarded, wishing rather to tie herself to one that might fit her content, though they liued meanely, then to him with all the wealth in Italye. But thee was yong and forcft to follow her fathers direction, who vpon large couenants was content his daughter should marry with the doctor, and whether she like him or no, the match was made vp, and in fhort time she was

* In The Three Ladies of London, 1584, is the character of an Italias merchant, very strongly marked by foreign pronunciation. Dr. Dodypoll, in the comedy which bears his name, is, like Caius, a French phyfician. This piece appeared at least a year before The Merry Wives of Windfor. The hero of it fpeaks fuch another jargon as the antagonist of Sir Hugh, and like him is cheated of his mistress. In feveral other pieces, more ancient than the earliest of Shakfpeare's, provincial characters are introduced. STEEVENS.

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