These texts of The Merry Wives of Windsor are from Volume I of the nine-volume 1863 Cambridge edition of Shakespeare. The editors’ preface (e-text [23041]) and the other plays from this volume are each available as separate e-texts.

General Notes are in their original location at the end of the Folio text, followed by the text-critical notes originally printed at the bottom of each page. All notes are hyperlinked in both directions. In dialogue, a link from a speaker’s name generally means that the note applies to the entire line or group of lines. The Quarto text is given separately, after all Notes.

Line numbers—shown in the right margin and used for all notes—are from the original text. In prose passages the exact line counts will depend on your browser settings, and will probably be different from the displayed numbers. Stage directions were not included in the line numbering.

[Introduction]
[Standard Text] (folios and later)
[Text of First Quarto]

THE WORKS

OF

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

EDITED BY

WILLIAM GEORGE CLARK, M.A.

FELLOW AND TUTOR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, AND PUBLIC ORATOR
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE;

and JOHN GLOVER, M.A.

LIBRARIAN OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

VOLUME I.

Cambridge and London:
MACMILLAN AND CO.
1863.

THE

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

Besides the copies of the Merry Wives of Windsor appearing in the folios and modern editions, a quarto, Q₃, has been collated in these Notes, of which the following is the title:

The | Merry Wives | of Windsor. | with the humours of Sir John Falstaffe, | as also, The swaggering Vaine of Ancient | Pistoll, and Corporall Nym. |written by William Shake-speare. | Newly corrected. | London: | printed by T. H. for R. Meighen and are to be sold | at his Shop, next to the Middle-Temple Gate, and in | S. Dunstan’s Church-yard in Fleet Street. | 1630.

Q₁ and Q₂ are editions of an early sketch of the same play. The variations between the text of these quartos and the received text are so great that collation cannot be attempted. The text printed at the end of the play is taken literatim from Q₁, the edition of 1602, of which a copy is preserved among Capell’s Shakespeariana, and this text is collated verbatim with Q₂, the second quarto printed in 1619. Q₁ was reprinted in 1842 for the Shakespeare Society by Mr J. O. Halliwell. This text, which differs in one or two places from Capell’s Q₁, has also been collated. Q₂ is given among Twenty of the Plays of Shakespeare, edited by Steevens. Their titles are as follows:

(1) A | Most pleasaunt and | excellent conceited Co-|medie, of Syr John Falstaffe, and the | Merrie Wiues of Windsor. | Enter-mixed with sundrie | variable and pleasing humors of Syr Hugh | the Welch Knight, Justice Shallow, and his | wise Cousin M. Slender. | With the Swaggering vaine of Auncient | Pistoll, and Corporall Nym. | By William Shakespeare. | As it hath been diuers times Acted by the right Honorable | my Lord Chamberlaines seruants. Both before her | Maiestie, and else-where. | London. | Printed by T. C. for Arthur Johnson, and are to be sold at | his shop in Powles Church-yard, at the signe of the | Flower de Leuse and the Crowne. | 1602.

[This consists of 7 Quires of 4. In the Quire G one line, which we have included in brackets, has been cut away by the binder. We have supplied it from Halliwell’s edition and Q₂.]

(2) A | Most pleasant and ex-|cellent Comedy, | of Sir John Falstaffe, and the | merry Wives of Windsor. | With the swaggering vaine of An|cient Pistoll, and Corporall Nym. | Written by W. Shakespeare. | Printed for Arthur Johnson, 1619.

[ DRAMATIS PERSONÆ].[1]

Scene—Windsor, and the neighbourhood.

[1.] Not in Qq Ff. Inserted by Rowe.

THE

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

[ACT I.]

[ I. 1 Scene I.] Windsor. Before Page’s house.

Enter Justice Shallow, Slender, and Sir Hugh Evans.

Shal. 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.

Slen. In the county of Gloucester, justice of peace 5 and ‘Coram.’

Shal. Ay, cousin Slender, and ‘[Custalorum].’

Slen. Ay, and ‘[Rato-lorum]’ too; and a gentleman born, master parson; who writes himself ‘Armigero,’ in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, ‘Armigero.’

10 Shal. Ay, that [I] do; and have done any time these three hundred years.

Slen. All his successors gone before him [hath] done’t; and all his ancestors that come after him may: they may 15 give the dozen white luces in their coat.

Shal. It is an old coat.

Evans. The dozen white louses do become an old coat well; it agrees well, passant; it is a familiar beast to man, and signifies love.

Shal. [The luce is] the fresh fish; the salt fish is an 20 old coat.

Slen. I may quarter, coz.

Shal. You may, by marrying.

Evans. It is [marring] indeed, if he quarter it.

Shal. Not a whit.

I. 1.
25 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 30 [compremises] between you.

Shal. 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] 35 vizaments in that.

Shal. 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 40 prings [goot] discretions with it:—there is Anne Page, which is daughter to Master [Thomas] Page, which is pretty virginity.

Slen. Mistress Anne Page? She has brown hair, and speaks [small] like a woman.

45 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 I. 1.
50 leave our pribbles and prabbles, and desire a marriage between Master Abraham and Mistress Anne Page.

[Slen.] Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?

Evans. Ay, and [her father] is make her a petter penny.

[Slen.] I know the young gentlewoman; she has good 55 gifts.

Evans. Seven hundred pounds and [possibilities] is goot gifts.

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

60 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. [Knocks] What, hoa! Got pless your house here!

65 Page. [Within] Who’s there?

[Enter Page.]

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.

70 Page. I am glad to see your [worships] well. I thank you for my venison, Master Shallow.

Shal. Master Page, I am glad to see you: much good do it your good heart! I wished your venison better; it was ill killed. How doth good Mistress Page?—and I I. 1.
75 [thank] you always with my heart, la! with my heart.

Page. Sir, I thank you.

Shal. Sir, I [thank] you; by yea and no, I do.

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

Slen. How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I heard 80 say he was outrun on [Cotsall].

Page. It could not be judged, sir.

[Slen.] You’ll not confess, you’ll not confess.

[Shal.] That he will not. ’Tis your fault, ’tis your fault; ’tis a good dog.

85 Page. A cur, sir.

Shal. 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.

90 Evans. It is spoke as a Christians ought to speak.

Shal. He hath wronged me, Master Page.

Page. Sir, he doth in some sort confess it.

Shal. If it be confessed, it is not redressed: is not that so, Master Page? He hath wronged me; indeed he hath; 95 at a word, he hath, believe me: Robert Shallow, esquire, saith, he is wronged.

Page. Here comes Sir John.

[Enter Sir John Falstaff, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol.]

Fal. Now, Master Shallow, you’ll complain of me to the [king]?

I. 1.
100 Shal. Knight, you have beaten my men, killed my deer, and broke open my lodge.

Fal. But not kissed your keeper’s [daughter]?

Shal. Tut, a pin! this shall be answered.

Fal. I will answer it straight; I have done all this.

105 That is now answered.

Shal. The [council] shall know this.

[Fal.] ’Twere better for you if it were [known] in [counsel]: you’ll be laughed at.

Evans. Pauca verba, Sir John; goot worts.

110 Fal. Good worts! good cabbage. Slender, I broke your head: what matter have you against me?

Slen. Marry, sir, I have matter in my head against you; and against your cony-catching rascals, Bardolph, Nym, and [Pistol].

115 Bard. You Banbury cheese!

Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Pist. How now, Mephostophilus!

Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

[Nym.] Slice, I say! pauca, pauca: slice! that’s my 120 humour.

Slen. 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; I. 1.
125 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 130 note-book; and we will afterwards ork upon the cause with as great [discreetly] as we can.

Fal. Pistol!

Pist. He hears with ears.

Evans. The tevil and his tam! what phrase is this, ’He 135 hears with ear’? why, it is affectations.

Fal. Pistol, did you pick Master Slender’s purse?

Slen. 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, 140 that cost me two shilling and two pence a-piece of Yead Miller, by these gloves.

Fal. Is this true, Pistol?

Evans. No; it is false, if it is a pick-purse.

145 Pist. 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!

Slen. By these gloves, then, ’twas he.

I. 1.
150 Nym. Be [avised], 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.

Slen. By this hat, then, he in the red face had it; for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me 155 drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass.

Fal. What say you, Scarlet and John?

Bard. 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!

160 Bard. And being [fap], sir, was, as they say, cashiered; and so conclusions passed the [careires].

Slen. 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, 165 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.

Fal. You hear all these matters denied, gentlemen; you hear it.

Enter Anne Page, with wine; Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, following.

170 Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we’ll drink within.

[Exit Anne Page.]

Slen. O heaven! this is Mistress Anne Page.

Page. How now, Mistress Ford!

Fal. Mistress Ford, by my troth, you are very well I. 1.
175 met: by your leave, good mistress. [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 except Shal., Slen., and Evans.]

Slen. I had rather than forty shillings I had my Book 180 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?

Sim. Book of Riddles! why, did you not lend it to 185 Alice Shortcake upon All-hallowmas last, a fortnight afore [Michaelmas]?

Shal. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word with you, coz; marry, [this, coz]: there is, as ’twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by Sir Hugh here. Do 190 you understand me?

Slen. Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, I shall do [that that] is reason.

Shal. Nay, but understand me.

Slen. So I do, sir.

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

Slen. 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.

I. 1.
200 Evans. But that is not the question: the question is concerning your marriage.

Shal. Ay, there’s the point, sir.

Evans. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to Mistress Anne Page.

205 Slen. 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]. 210 Therefore, precisely, can you [carry] your good will to the maid?

Shal. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her?

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

215 Evans. Nay, Got’s lords and his ladies! you must speak possitable, if you can [carry her] your desires towards her.

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

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

Shal. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz: what I do is to pleasure you, coz. Can you love the maid?

Slen. I will marry her, sir, at your request: but if there I. 1.
225 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.

230 Evans. It is a fery discretion answer; save the [fall] is in the ort ‘dissolutely:’ the ort is, according to our meaning, ‘resolutely:’ his meaning is good.

Shal. Ay, I think my cousin meant well.

Slen. Ay, or else I would I might be [hanged], la!

235 Shal. Here comes fair Mistress Anne.

[Re-enter Anne Page.]

Would I were young for your sake, Mistress Anne!

Anne. The dinner is on the table; my father desires your worships’ company.

Shal. I will wait on him, fair Mistress Anne.

240 Evans. Od’s plessed will! I will not be absence at the grace.

Exeunt Shallow and Evans.

Anne. Will’t please your worship to come in, sir?

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

245 Anne. The dinner attends you, sir.

Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth. Go, sirrah, for all you are my man, go wait upon my cousin Shallow. [Exit Simple.] A justice of peace sometimes may be [beholding] to his friend for a man. I keep but I. 1.
250 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.

Slen. I’ faith, I’ll eat nothing; I thank you as much as 255 though I did.

Anne. I pray you, sir, walk in.

Slen. 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 260 prunes; and, by my troth, I cannot abide the smell of hot meat since. Why do your dogs bark so? be there bears i’ the town?

Anne. I think there are, sir; I heard them talked of.

Slen. I love the sport well; but I shall as soon quarrel 265 at it as any man in England. You are afraid, if you see the bear loose, are you not?

Anne. Ay, indeed, sir.

Slen. That’s meat and drink to me, now. I have seen Sackerson loose twenty times, and have taken him by the 270 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.

Re-enter Page.

Page. Come, gentle Master Slender, come; we stay for you.

I. 1.
275 Slen. [I’ll eat] nothing, I thank you, sir.

Page. By cock and pie, you shall not choose, sir! come, come.

Slen. Nay, pray you, lead the way.

Page. Come on, sir.

280 Slen. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first.

Anne. Not I, sir; pray you, keep on.

Slen. Truly, I will not go first; truly, la! I will not do you that wrong.

Anne. I pray you, sir.

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

Exeunt.

[ I. 2 Scene II. The same.]

Enter Sir Hugh Evans and Simple.

Evans. Go your ways, and ask of Doctor Caius’ house which is the way: and there dwells one Mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, or his [dry] nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his [wringer].

5 Sim. Well, sir.

Evans. Nay, it is petter yet. Give her this letter; for it is a ’oman that altogether’s acquaintance with Mistress Anne Page: and the letter is, to desire and require her to solicit your master’s desires to Mistress Anne Page. I 10 pray you, be gone: I will make an end of my dinner; there’s pippins and [cheese] to come.

Exeunt.

[ I. 3 Scene III.] A room in the Garter Inn.

Enter Falstaff, Host, Bardolph, Nym, Pistol, and Robin.

Fal. Mine host of the Garter!

Host. What says my [bully-rook]? speak scholarly and wisely.

Fal. Truly, mine host, I must turn away some of my 5 followers.

Host. Discard, bully Hercules; cashier: let them wag; trot, trot.

Fal. I sit at ten pounds a week.

Host. Thou’rt an emperor, Cæsar, Keisar, and Pheezar. 10 I will entertain Bardolph; [he shall draw, he shall tap]: said I well, bully Hector?

Fal. Do so, good mine host.

Host. I have spoke; let him follow. [To Bard.] Let me [see thee froth] and [lime]: I am at a word; follow. Exit.

15 Fal. Bardolph, follow him. A tapster is a good trade: an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a withered serving-man a fresh tapster. Go; adieu.

Bard. It is a life that I have desired: I will thrive.

Pist. O base [Hungarian] wight! wilt thou the spigot 20 wield?

Exit Bardolph.

Nym. He was gotten in drink: is not the humour [conceited]?

Fal. I am glad I am so [acquit] of this tinder-box: his thefts were too open; his filching was like an unskilful I. 3.
25 singer; he kept not time.

Nym. The good humour is to steal at a [minute’s] rest.

Pist. ‘Convey,’ the wise it call. ‘Steal!’ foh! a fico for the phrase!

Fal. Well, sirs, I am almost out at heels.

30 Pist. Why, then, let kibes ensue.

Fal. There is no remedy; I must cony-catch; I must shift.

Pist. Young ravens must have food.

Fal. Which of you know Ford of this town?

35 Pist. I ken the wight: he is of substance good.

Fal. My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about.

Pist. Two yards, and more.

Fal. No quips now, Pistol! Indeed, I am in the waist two yards about; but I am now about no waste; I am 40 about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford’s wife: I spy entertainment in her; she discourses, she [carves], she gives the leer of invitation: I can construe the action of her familiar style; and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be Englished rightly, is, ‘I am Sir John Falstaff’s.’

45 Pist. He hath [studied her will], and [translated her will], out of honesty into English.

Nym. The [anchor] is deep: will that humour pass?

Fal. Now, the report goes she has all the rule of her husband’s purse: [he] hath of angels.

I. 3.
50 Pist. As many devils [entertain]; and ‘To her, boy,’ say I.

Nym. The humour rises; it is good: humour me the angels.

Fal. I have writ me here a letter to her: and here another to Page’s wife, who even now gave me good eyes 55 too, examined my parts with most judicious [œillades]; sometimes the beam of her view [gilded] my foot, sometimes my portly belly.

Pist. Then did the sun on dunghill shine.

Nym. I thank thee for that humour.

60 Fal. O, she did so course o’er my exteriors with such a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did seem to scorch me up like a burning-glass! Here’s another letter to her: she bears the purse too; she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be [cheaters] to them both, and 65 they shall be exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go bear thou this letter to Mistress Page; and thou this to Mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive.

Pist. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become,

70 And by my side wear steel? then, Lucifer take all!

Nym. I will run no base humour: here, take the humour-letter: I will keep the haviour of reputation.

Fal. [To Robin] Hold, sirrah, bear you these letters [tightly];

Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores[. ]

I. 3.
75 Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go;

Trudge, plod away [o’ the] hoof; seek shelter, pack!

Falstaff will [learn] the [humour] of [the] age,

French thrift, you rogues; myself and skirted page.

[Exeunt Falstaff and Robin.]

[Pist.] Let vultures gripe thy guts! for gourd and [fullam holds],

80 And high and low [beguiles] the rich and poor:

Tester I’ll have in pouch when thou shalt lack,

Base Phrygian Turk!

Nym. I have [operations] which be humours of revenge.

Pist. Wilt thou revenge?

85 Nym. By welkin and her [star]!

Pist. With wit or steel?

Nym. With both the humours, I:

I will [discuss] the humour of this love to [Page].

Pist. And I to [Ford] shall eke unfold

90 How Falstaff, varlet vile,

His dove will prove, his gold will hold,

And his soft couch defile.

Nym. My humour shall not cool: I will incense [Page] to deal with poison; I will possess him with [yellowness], for 95 [the] revolt of [mine] is dangerous: that is my true humour.

Pist. Thou art the Mars of malecontents: I second thee; troop on.

Exeunt.

[ I. 4 Scene IV.] A room in Doctor Caius’s house.

Enter Mistress Quickly, Simple, and Rugby.

Quick. What, John Rugby! I pray thee, go to the casement, and see if you can see my master, Master Doctor Caius, coming. If he do, i’ faith, and find any body in the house, here will be [an] old abusing of God’s 5 patience and the king’s English.

Rug. I’ll go watch.

Quick. Go; and we’ll have a posset for’t soon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire. [Exit Rugby.] An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come 10 in house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale nor no breed-bate: his worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is something peevish that way: but nobody but has his fault; but let that pass. Peter Simple, you say your name is?

Sim. Ay, for fault of a better.

15 Quick. And Master Slender’s your master?

Sim. Ay, forsooth.

Quick. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover’s paring-knife?

Sim. No, forsooth: he hath but a little [wee] face, with 20 a little yellow beard,—a [Cain]-coloured beard.

Quick. A softly-sprighted man, is he not?

Sim. Ay, forsooth: but he is as tall a man of his hands as any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a warrener.

I. 4.
25 Quick. How say you?—O, I should remember him: does he not hold up his head, as it were, and strut in his gait?

Sim. Yes, indeed, does he.

Quick. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse fortune! Tell Master Parson Evans I will do what I can 30 for your master: Anne is a good girl, and I wish—

Re-enter Rugby.

Rug. Out, alas! here comes my master[. ]

Quick. We shall all be shent. Run in here, good young man; go into this closet: he will not stay long. [[Shuts Simple in the closet.]] What, John Rugby! John! 35 what, John, I say! Go, John, go inquire for my master; I doubt he be not well, that he comes not home.

[Singing] And down, down, adown-a, &c.

[Enter Doctor Caius.]

Caius. Vat is you sing? I do not like [des toys]. Pray you, go and vetch me in my closet [un boitier] vert,—a box, 40 a green-a box: do intend vat I speak? a green-a box.

Quick. Ay, forsooth; I’ll fetch it you. [Aside] I am glad he went not in himself: if he had found the young man, he would have been horn-mad.

[Caius.] Fe, fe, fe, fe! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. Je 45 m’en vais à la cour,—la grande affaire.

Quick. Is it this, sir?

Caius. Oui; mette le au mon pocket: [dépêche], quickly. Vere is dat knave Rugby?

Quick. What, John Rugby! John!

I. 4.
50 Rug. Here, sir!

Caius. You are John Rugby, and you are [Jack Rugby]. Come, [take-a] your rapier, and come after my heel to the court.

Rug. ’Tis ready, sir, here in the porch.

55 Caius. By my trot, I tarry too long. —Od’s me! Qu’ai-j’oublié! dere is some simples in my closet, dat I [vill] not for the varld I shall leave behind.

Quick. Ay me, he’ll find the young man there, and be mad!

60 Caius. O diable, diable! vat is in my closet? [Villain]! [larron]! [[Pulling Simple out.]] Rugby, my rapier!

Quick. Good master, be content.

Caius. Wherefore [shall] I be content-a?

Quick. The young man is an honest man.

65 Caius. What shall de honest man do in my closet? dere is no honest man dat [shall] come in my closet.

Quick. I beseech you, be not so phlegmatic. Hear the truth of it: he came of an errand to me from Parson Hugh.