Well, I will muse no further. Master 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.

Why went you not with master doctor, maid?

Why, did you take her in green?

Good George, be not angry: I knew of your purpose;
turned my daughter into green; and, indeed, she is
now with the doctor at the deanery, and there married.

Aside Doctors doubt that: if Anne Page be my
daughter, she is, by this, Doctor Caius' wife.

A puffed man?

Why Sir John, do you think, though we would have the
virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders
and have given ourselves without scruple to hell,
that ever the devil could have made you our delight?

I pray you, come, hold up the jest no higher
Now, good Sir John, how like you Windsor wives?
See you these, husband? do not these fair yokes
Become the forest better than the town?

Alas, what noise?

Against such lewdsters and their lechery
Those that betray them do no treachery.

If he be not amazed, he will be mocked; if he be
amazed, he will every way be mocked.

They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's oak,
with obscured lights; which, at the very instant of
Falstaff's and our meeting, they will at once
display to the night.

Fare you well, sir.
Exit DOCTOR 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 heart-break.

Master doctor, my daughter is in green: when you
see your time, take her by the band, away with her
to the deanery, and dispatch it quickly. Go before
into the Park: we two must go together.

Go, Mistress Ford,
Send quickly to Sir John, to know his mind.
Exit MISTRESS FORD
I'll to the doctor: he hath my good will,
And none but he, to marry with Nan Page.
That Slender, though well landed, is an idiot;
And he my husband best of all affects ...

Fear not you that. Go get us properties
And tricking for our fairies.

My Nan shall be the queen of all the fairies,
Finely attired in a robe of white.

The truth being known,
We'll all present ourselves, dis-horn the spirit,
And mock him home to Windsor.

That likewise have we thought upon, and thus:
Nan Page my daughter and my little son
And three or four more of their growth we'll dress
Like urchins, ouphes and fairies, green and white,
With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads,
And rattles in their hands: upon a ...

There is an old tale goes that Herne the hunter,
Sometime a keeper here in Windsor forest,
Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight,
Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns;
And there he blasts the tree and takes the cattle
And makes milch-kine yield blood and ...

Within a quarter of an hour.

Come, to the forge with it then; shape it: I would
not have things cool.

Yes, by all means; if it be but to scrape the
figures out of your husband's brains. If they can
find in their hearts the poor unvirtuous fat knight
shall be any further afflicted, we two will still be
the ministers.

The spirit of wantonness is, sure, scared out of
him: if the devil have him not in fee-simple, with
fine and recovery, he will never, I think, in the
way of waste, attempt us again.

I'll have the cudgel hallowed and hung o'er the
altar; it hath done meritorious service.

Trust me, he beat him most pitifully.

Are you not ashamed? I think you have killed the
poor woman.

Come, Mother Prat; come, give me your hand.

Hang him, dishonest varlet! we cannot misuse him enough.
We'll leave a proof, by that which we will do,
Wives may be merry, and yet honest too:
We do not act that often jest and laugh;
'Tis old, but true, Still swine eat all the draff.

Nay, but he'll be here presently: let's go dress him
like the witch of Brentford.

Ah, in good sadness, is he; and talks of the basket
too, howsoever he hath had intelligence.

Heaven guide him to thy husband's cudgel, and the
devil guide his cudgel afterwards!

Quick, quick! we'll come dress you straight: put
on the gown the while.

On my word, it will serve him; she's as big as he
is: and there's her thrummed hat and her muffler
too. Run up, Sir John.

Alas the day, I know not! There is no woman's gown
big enough for him otherwise he might put on a hat,
a muffler and a kerchief, and so escape.

If you go out in your own semblance, you die, Sir
John. Unless you go out disguised--

Alas, three of Master Ford's brothers watch the door
with pistols, that none shall issue out; otherwise
you might slip away ere he came. But what make you here?

Why then you are utterly shamed, and he's but a dead
man. What a woman are you!--Away with him, away
with him! better shame than murder.

Hard by; at street end; he will be here anon.

Of none but him; and swears he was carried out, the
last time he searched for him, in a basket; protests
to my husband he is now here, and hath drawn him and
the rest of their company from their sport, to make
another experiment of his suspicion: but I ...

Why, woman, your husband is in his old lunes again:
he so takes on yonder with my husband; so rails
against all married mankind; so curses all Eve's
daughters, of what complexion soever; and so buffets
himself on the forehead, crying, 'Peer out, peer
out!' that any madness I ...

Truly, I am so glad you have nobody here.

Indeed!

How now, sweetheart! who's at home besides yourself?

Within What, ho, gossip Ford! what, ho!

Adieu, good Sir Hugh.
Exit SIR HUGH EVANS
Get you home, boy. Come, we stay too long.

He is a better scholar than I thought he was.

Prithee, hold thy peace.

Peace!

Come on, sirrah; hold up your head; answer your
master, be not afraid.