Fal. Well, I am your theme: you have the start of me; I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welch flannel: ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me; use me as you will.

Ford. Marry, sir, we'll bring you to Windsor, to one master Brook, that you have cozened of money, to whom you should have been a pander: over and above that you have suffered, I think, to repay that money will be a biting affliction.

Page. Yet be cheerful, knight: thou shalt eat a posset to-night at my house; where I will desire thee to laugh at my wife that now laughs at thee: Tell her master Slender hath married her daughter. Mrs. Page. Doctors doubt that; if Anne Page be my daughter, she is, by this, doctor Caius' wife.

Enter SLENDER.

Slen. Whoo, ho! ho! father Page!

[Aside.

Page. Son! how now? how now, son? have you despatched? Slen. Despatched!—I'll make the best in Glocestershire know on't; would I were hanged, la, else.

Page. Of what, son?

Slen. I came yonder at Eton to marry mistress Anne Page, and she's a great lubberly boy. If it had not been i' the church, I would have swinged him, or he should have swinged me.

If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never stir, and 't is a post-master's boy.

Page. Upon my life then you took the wrong.

Slen. What need you tell me that? I think so, 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 should know my daughter by her garments?

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

Mrs. Page. 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.

Enter CAIUS.

Caius. 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 't is a boy; be gar, I'll raise all Windsor.

[Exit CAIUS. Ford. This is strange: Who hath got the right Anne? Page. My heart misgives me Here comes master Fenton.

Enter FENTON and ANNE PAGE.

How now, master Fenton?

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

Page. Now, mistress

Slender?

how chance you went not with master

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 since contracted,
Are now so sure that nothing can dissolve us.
The offence is holy that she hath committed:
And this deceit loses the name of craft,
Of disobedience, of unduteous title;
Since therein she doth evitate and shun

A thousand irreligious cursed 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 sold by fate.

Fal. I am glad, though you have ta'en a special stand to strike at me, that your arrow hath glanced.

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

Fal. When night-dogs run all sorts of deer are chas'd.
Mrs. Page. 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.

Ford. Let it be so :-Sir John,

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

[Exeunt.

Duke.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-An Apartment in the Duke's Palace.
Enter DUKE, ESCALUS, Lords, and Attendants.
Escalus,-

Escal. My lord.

Duke. Of government the properties to unfold,
Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse;
Since I am put to know, that your own science
Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

My strength can give you: Then, no more remains:
But that, to your sufficiency as your worth, is able;
And let them work. The nature of our people,

Our city's institutions, and the terms

For common justice, you are as pregnant in,

As art and practice hath enriched any

That we remember: There is our commission,

From which we would not have you warp.-Call hither,

I

say, bid come before us Angelo.

What figure of us think you he will bear?

For you must know, we have with special soul

Elected him our absence to supply;

Lent him our terror, dress'd him with our love;
And given his deputation all the organs
Of our own power: What think you of it?
Escal. If any in Vienna be of worth

[Exit an Attendant.

To undergo such ample grace and honour,
It is lord Angelo.

Ang. Always obedient to your grace's will, I come to know your pleasure.

Duke.

Angelo,
There is a kind of character in thy life,
That, to the observer, doth thy history
Fully unfold: Thyself and thy belongings
Are not thine own so proper, as to waste
Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.
Heaven doth with us as we with torches do;
Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 't were all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd
But to find issues: nor nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excellence,
But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use.

But I do bend my speech

To one that can my part in him advertise;
Hold, therefore, Angelo;

In our remove, be thou at full ourself:

Mortality and mercy in Vienna

Live in thy tongue and heart: Old Escalus,
Though first in question, is thy secondary:
Take thy commission.

Let there be some more test made of my metal,
Before so noble and so great a figure

Be stamp'd upon it.

We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice
Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.
Our haste from hence is of so quick condition,
That it prefers itself, and leaves unquestion'd
Matters of needful value. We shall write to you,
As time and our concernings shall importune,
How it goes with us; and do look to know
What doth befall you here. So, fare you well:
To the hopeful execution do I leave you
Of your commissions.

Ang.

Yet, give leave, my lord,

That we may bring you something on the way.

Duke. My haste may not admit it;

Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do

With any scruple: your scope is as mine own.

So to enforce or qualify the laws

As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand; I'll privily away: I love the people,

But do not like to stage me to their eyes:
Though it do well, I do not relish well
Their loud applause, and aves vehement:
Nor do I think the man of safe discretion
That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.
Ang. The heavens give safety to your purposes !
Escal. Lead forth, and bring you back in happiness.
Duke. I thank you: Fare you well.

Escal. I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave
To have free speech with you; and it concerns me
To look into the bottom of my place :

A power I have; but of what strength and nature
I am not yet instructed.

Ang. 'T is so with me :-Let us withdraw together,
And we may soon our satisfaction have

Touching that point.

Escal.

I'll wait upon your honour.

SCENE II.-A Street.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

Enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen.

Lucio. If the duke, with the other dukes, come not to composition with the king of Hungary, why, then all the dukes fall upon the king.

1 Gent. Heaven grant us its peace, but not the king of Hungary's! 2 Gent.

Amen.

Lucio. Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the ten commandments, but scraped one out of the table. 2 Gent. Thou shalt not steal?

Lucio. Ay, that he razed.

I Gent. Why, 't was a commandment to command the captain and all the rest from their functions; they put forth to steal: There's not a soldier of us all, that, in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relish the petition well that prays for peace.

2 Gent. Lucio.

was said.

2 Gent.

I Gent.
Lucio.

I Gent.

I never heard any soldier dislike it.

I believe thee; for I think thou never wast where grace

No? a dozen times at least.

What? in metre?

In any proportion, or in any language.

I think, or in any religion.

Lucio. Ay! why not? grace is grace, despite of all controversy: As for example: Thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all grace..

1 Gent. Well, there went but a pair of shears between us. Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet: Thou art the list.

1 Gent. And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou art a three-piled piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief be a list of an English kersey, as be piled, as thou art piled, for a French velvet. I speak feelingly now?

Do

Lucio. I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful feeling