The Merry Wives of Windsor

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Book: Read The Merry Wives of Windsor for Free Online
Authors: William Shakespeare
that
    he could not compass 170 .
    MISTRESS PAGE     Heard you that?
    Aside to Mistress Ford
    MISTRESS FORD     You use 172 me well, Master Ford, do you?
    FORD     Ay, I do so.
    MISTRESS FORD     Heaven make you better than your thoughts!
    FORD     Amen!
    MISTRESS PAGE     You do yourself mighty wrong, Master Ford.
    FORD     Ay, ay, I must bear it.
    EVANS     If there be any pody in the house, and in the
    chambers, and in the coffers, and in the presses 179 , heaven
    forgive my sins at the day of judgement.
    CAIUS     By gar, nor I too. There is no bodies.
    PAGE     Fie, fie, Master Ford, are you not ashamed? What
    spirit, what devil suggests this imagination? I would not ha’
    your distemper in this kind 184 for the wealth of Windsor Castle.
    FORD     ’Tis my fault, Master Page. I suffer for it.
    EVANS     You suffer for a pad conscience: your wife is as
    honest a ’omans as I will desires 187 among five thousand, and
    five hundred too.
    CAIUS     By gar, I see ’tis an honest woman.
    FORD     Well, I promised you a dinner. Come, come, walk in
    the park, I pray you pardon me. I will hereafter make known
    to you why I have done this. Come, wife, come, Mistress Page.
    I pray you pardon me. Pray heartily pardon me.
    PAGE     Let’s go in, gentlemen, but trust me, we’ll
    To Caius and Evans
    mock him.— I do invite you tomorrow morning
    To Ford, Caius and Evans
    to my house to breakfast. After, we’ll a-birding 196
    together, I have a fine hawk 197 for the bush.
    Shall it be so?
    FORD     Anything.
    EVANS     If there is one, I shall make two in the company.
    CAIUS     If there be one or two, I shall make-a the turd.
    FORD     Pray you, go, Master Page.
    [
Exeunt all but Evans and Caius?
]
    EVANS     I pray you now remembrance tomorrow on the 203
    lousy knave, mine host.
    CAIUS     Dat is good, by gar, with all my heart.
    EVANS     A lousy knave, to have his gibes and his mockeries.
    Exeunt
Act 3 Scene 4
    running scene 11
    Enter Fenton [and] Anne
    FENTON     I see I cannot get thy father’s love,
    Therefore no more turn 2 me to him, sweet Nan.
    ANNE     Alas, how then?
    FENTON     Why, thou must be thyself 4 .
    He doth object I am too great of birth,
    And that, my state being galled 6 with my expense,
    I seek to heal it only by his wealth.
    Besides these, other bars 8 he lays before me:
    My riots past, my wild societies 9 ,
    And tells me ’tis a thing impossible
    I should love thee but as a property.
    ANNE     Maybe he tells you true.
    FENTON     No, heaven so speed 13 me in my time to come!
    Albeit I will confess thy father’s wealth
    Was the first motive that I wooed thee, Anne,
    Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value
    Than stamps 17 in gold or sums in sealèd bags.
    And ’tis the very riches of thyself
    That now I aim at.
    ANNE     Gentle Master Fenton,
    Yet seek my father’s love, still seek it, sir.
    If opportunity and humblest suit
    Cannot attain it, why, then — hark you hither!
    They speak apart
    [
Enter Shallow, Slender and Mistress Quickly
]
    SHALLOW      Break 24 their talk, Mistress Quickly. My kinsman shall
    speak for himself.
    SLENDER      I’ll make a shaft or a bolt on’t . ’Slid , ’tis but venturing 26 .
    SHALLOW     Be not dismayed 27 .
    SLENDER     No, she shall not dismay me: I care not for that, but
    that I am afeard.
    MISTRESS QUICKLY     Hark ye, Master Slender would speak a word with you.
    ANNE     I come to him.— This is my father’s
    Aside to Fenton
    choice.
    O, what a world of vile ill-favoured 33 faults
    Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year!
    MISTRESS QUICKLY     And how does good Master Fenton? Pray you,
    a word with you.
    They speak apart
    SHALLOW     She’s coming. To her, coz. O boy, thou hadst a father 37 !
    SLENDER     I had a father, Mistress Anne: my uncle can tell you
    good jests of him. Pray you, uncle, tell

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