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- William Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV, Scene IV
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Scene IVA room in Ford’s houseEnter Page, Ford, Mistress Page, Mistress Ford, and Sir Hugh EvansSir Hugh Evans’Tis one of the best discretions of a ‘oman as ever I did look upon.PageAnd did he send you both these letters at an instant?Mistress PageWithin a quarter of an hour.FordPardon me, wife. Henceforth do what thou wilt; I rather will suspect the sun with cold Than thee with wantonness: now doth thy honour stand In him that was of late an heretic, As firm as faith.Page’Tis well, ’tis well; no more: Be not as extreme in submission As in offence. But let our plot go forward: let our wives Yet once again, to make us public sport, Appoint a meeting with this old fat fellow, Where we may take him and disgrace him for it.FordThere is no better way than that they spoke of.PageHow? to send him word they’ll meet him in the park at midnight? Fie, fie! he’ll never come.Sir Hugh EvansYou say he has been thrown in the rivers and has been grievously peaten as an old ‘oman: methinks there should be terrors in him that he should not come; methinks his flesh is punished, he shall have no desires.PageSo think I too.Mistress FordDevise but how you’ll use him when he comes, And let us two devise to bring him thither.Mistress PageThere 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 shakes a chain In a most hideous and dreadful manner: You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know The superstitious idle-headed eld Received and did deliver to our age This tale of Herne the hunter for a truth.PageWhy, yet there want not many that do fear In deep of night to walk by this Herne’s oak: But what of this?Mistress FordMarry, this is our device; That Falstaff at that oak shall meet with us.PageWell, let it not be doubted but he’ll come: And in this shape when you have brought him thither, What shall be done with him? what is your plot?Mistress PageThat 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 sudden, As Falstaff, she and I, are newly met, Let them from forth a sawpit rush at once With some diffused song: upon their sight, We two in great amazedness will fly: Then let them all encircle him about And, fairy-like, to-pinch the unclean knight, And ask him why, that hour of fairy revel, In their so sacred paths he dares to tread In shape profane.Mistress FordAnd till he tell the truth, Let the supposed fairies pinch him sound And burn him with their tapers.Mistress PageThe truth being known, We’ll all present ourselves, dis-horn the spirit, And mock him home to Windsor.FordThe children must Be practised well to this, or they’ll ne’er do’t.Sir Hugh EvansI will teach the children their behaviors; and I will be like a jack-an-apes also, to burn the knight with my taber.FordThat will be excellent. I’ll go and buy them vizards.Mistress PageMy Nan shall be the queen of all the fairies, Finely attired in a robe of white.PageThat silk will I go buy.AsideAnd in that time Shall Master Slender steal my Nan away And marry her at Eton. Go send to Falstaff straight.FordNay I’ll to him again in name of Brook He’ll tell me all his purpose: sure, he’ll come.Mistress PageFear not you that. Go get us properties And tricking for our fairies.Sir Hugh EvansLet us about it: it is admirable pleasures and fery honest knaveries.Exeunt Page, Ford, and Sir Hugh EvansMistress PageGo, Mistress Ford, Send quickly to Sir John, to know his mind.Exit Mistress FordI’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. The doctor is well money’d, and his friends Potent at court: he, none but he, shall have her, Though twenty thousand worthier come to crave her.Exit
William Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV
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William Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V, Scene V
- William Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, Act V, Scene V
TrendingHere are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.
Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
Current Events This Week: January 2023
African Americans by the Numbers
Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents
The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales
TrendingHere are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.
Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
Current Events This Week: January 2023
African Americans by the Numbers
Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents
The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales
- Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?
- The Twelve Dancing Princesses
- Current Events This Week: January 2023
- African Americans by the Numbers
- Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents
- The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales
