Farewell.

Take heed, have open eye, for thieves do foot111 by night.

Take heed, ere summer comes, or cuckoo-birds112 do sing.

Away113, Sir Corporal Nim!

Believe it, Page, he speaks sense.

[Exit]

FORD    I will be patient. I will find out this.

Aside To Page

NIM    And this is true, I like not the humour

of lying. He hath wronged me in some humours: I should117

have borne the humoured letter to her, but I have a sword,

and it shall bite upon my necessity119. He loves your wife:

there’s the short and the long. My name is Corporal Nim. I

speak and I avouch ’tis true: my name is Nim, and Falstaff

loves your wife. Adieu. I love not the humour of bread and122

cheese. Adieu.

[Exit]

PAGE    ‘The humour of it’, quoth a124! Here’s a fellow frights

English out of his125 wits.

FORD    I will seek out Falstaff.

PAGE    I never heard such a drawling, affecting127 rogue.

FORD    If I do find it128 — well.

PAGE    I will not believe such a Cataian, though129 the priest

o’th’town commended him for a true man.

FORD    ’Twas a good sensible fellow — well.

PAGE    How now, Meg?

Mistress Page and Mistress Ford come forward

MISTRESS PAGE    Whither go you, George?

Hark you.

MISTRESS FORD    How now, sweet Frank, why art thou melancholy?

FORD    I melancholy? I am not melancholy. Get you

home, go.

MISTRESS FORD    Faith, thou hast some crotchets138 in thy head

now.— Will you go, Mistress Page?

MISTRESS PAGE    Have with you140.— You’ll come to dinner,

George?—

Look who comes yonder: she shall be our messenger to this

paltry knight.

Aside to Mistress Ford

[Enter Mistress Quickly]

MISTRESS FORD    Trust me, I thought on her: she’ll fit it144.

Aside to Mistress Page

MISTRESS PAGE    You are come to see my daughter

Anne?

MISTRESS QUICKLY    Ay, forsooth, and I pray how does good

Mistress Anne?

MISTRESS PAGE    Go in with us and see. We have an hour’s talk

with you.

[Exeunt Mistress Page, Mistress Ford and Mistress Quickly]

PAGE    How now, Master Ford?

FORD    You heard what this knave told me, did you not?

PAGE    Yes, and you heard what the other told me?

FORD    Do you think there is truth in them?

PAGE    Hang ’em, slaves! I do not think the knight would

offer156 it. But these that accuse him in his intent towards our

wives are a yoke157 of his discarded men: very rogues, now they

be out of service.

FORD    Were they his men?

PAGE    Marry, were they.

FORD    I like it never the better for that. Does he lie161 at the

Garter?

PAGE    Ay, marry, does he. If he should intend this voyage163

toward my wife, I would turn her loose to him, and what he

gets more of her than sharp words, let it lie on my head165.

FORD    I do not misdoubt166 my wife, but I would be loath to

turn them167 together. A man may be too confident. I would

have nothing lie on my head. I cannot be thus satisfied.

PAGE    Look where my ranting169 host of the Garter comes:

there is either liquor in his pate170 or money in his purse, when

he looks so merrily.

[Enter Host]

How now, mine host?

HOST    How now, bully-rook? Thou’rt a gentleman.

[Enter Shallow]

Cavaliero174 Justice, I say!

SHALLOW    I follow, mine host, I follow. Good even and twenty175,

good Master Page. Master Page, will you go with us? We have

sport in hand.

HOST    Tell him, Cavaliero Justice: tell him, bully-rook.

SHALLOW    Sir, there is a fray to be fought between Sir Hugh the

Welsh priest and Caius the French doctor.

FORD    Good mine host o’th’Garter, a word

They speak apart

with you.

HOST    What sayst thou, my bully-rook?

SHALLOW    Will you go with us to behold it? My merry

To Page

host hath had the measuring of their weapons, and, I think,

hath appointed them contrary186 places, for, believe me, I hear

the parson is no jester187. Hark, I will tell you what our sport

shall be.

They speak apart

HOST    Hast thou no suit against my knight, my guest-189

cavalier?

FORD None, I protest. But I’ll give you a pottle of burned191

sack to give me recourse192 to him, and tell him my name is

Broom, only for a jest.

HOST    My hand, bully. Thou shalt have egress and regress194

— said I well? — and thy name shall be Broom. It is a merry

knight.— Will you go, An-heires196?

To Shallow and Page

SHALLOW    Have with you, mine host.

PAGE    I have heard the Frenchman hath good skill in his

rapier.

SHALLOW    Tut, sir, I could have told you more. In these times

you stand on distance: your passes, stoccadoes201, and I know

not what. ’Tis the heart202, Master Page, ’tis here, ’tis here. I

have seen the time, with my long sword203, I would have made

you four tall204 fellows skip like rats.

HOST    Here, boys, here, here! Shall we wag205?

PAGE    Have with you. I had rather hear them scold206 than

fight.

[Exeunt Host, Shallow and Page]

FORD    Though Page be a secure fool, and stands so firmly208

on his wife’s frailty, yet I cannot put off my opinion so easily.

She was in his210 company at Page’s house, and what they

made211 there I know not. Well, I will look further into’t, and I

have a disguise to sound212 Falstaff. If I find her honest, I lose

not my labour: if she be otherwise, ’tis labour well bestowed.

Exit

Act 2 Scene 2

running scene 6

Enter Falstaff [and] Pistol

FALSTAFF    I will not lend thee a penny.

PISTOL    Why, then the world’s mine oyster, which I with

sword will open.

FALSTAFF    Not a penny. I have been content, sir, you should

lay my countenance to pawn.