your purpose; turned my daughter into green; and, in- 190 deed, 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 paysan, by gar, a boy; it is not Anne Page: by gar, I am cozened.

[Exit.

195

Mrs Page. Why, did you take her in green? Caius. Ay, by gar, and 'tis a boy: by gar, I'll raise all Windsor. Ford. This is strange. Who hath got the right Anne? Page. My heart misgives me:-here comes Master 200 Fenton.

Enter FENTON and ANNE Page.

How now, Master Fenton!

Anne. Pardon, good father! good my mother, pardon! Page. Now, mistress, how chance you went not with Master Slender?

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, or 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 amazed; here is no remedy:

205

210

215

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 embraced.

220

225

Fal. When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer are chased.
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.

225. After this line Pope, followed by Theobald, inserts from Q1 Q2: Evans [aside to Fenton] I will dance

[Exeunt.

and eat plums at your wedding.

231. Let it be so. Sir John,] Let it be so (Sir John:) Ff Q3.

230

NOTES.

NOTE I.

I. 1. 41. Master Page is called 'George' in three places, II. I. 135 and 143, and V. 5. 189, but we have left the text of the Folios uncorrected, as the mistake may have been Shakespeare's own. It is however possible that a transcriber or printer may have mistaken 'Geo.' for 'Tho.'

In I. 3. 89, 90, on the other hand, we have not hesitated to correct the reading of the Folio, substituting 'Page' for 'Ford,' and 'Ford' for 'Page,' because, as the early Quartos have the names right, it seems likely that the blunder was not due to Shakespeare.

NOTE II.

I. I. 49. Here again, as in line 40, F2F3F4 read 'good,' F1Q3 'goot,' but we have not thought it necessary to do more than give a specimen of such variations. Capell, in order to make Dr Caius's broken English consistent with itself, corrects it throughout and substitutes 'de' for 'the,' 'vill' for 'will,' and so forth. As a general rule, we have silently followed the first Folio.

NOTE III.

1. 1. 114. With regard to this and other passages which Pope, Theobald, Malone, &c. have inserted from the early Quartos, our rule has been to introduce, between brackets, such, and such only, as seemed to be absolutely essential to the understanding of the text, taking care to give in the note all those which we have rejected.

The fact that so many omissions can be supplied from such mutilated copies as the early Quartos, indicates that there may be many more omissions for the detection of which we have no clue. The text of the Merry Wives given in F, was probably printed from a carelessly written copy of the author's MS.

NOTE IV.

I. 3. 96. Perhaps, as in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, III. 1. 315, and other passages, some of which are mentioned by Sidney Walker in his 'Criticisms,' Vol. II. p. 13 sqq., this vexed passage may be emended by supplying a word. We venture to suggest 'the revolt of mine anger is dangerous.' The recurrence of the same letters anger in the word 'dangerous,' might mislead the printer's eye and cause the omission.

NOTE V.

II. 1. 5. In the copy of Johnson's Edition, which belongs to Emmanuel College, there is a MS. note of Dr Farmer's referring to Sonnet CXLVII. in support of the conjecture 'physician' for 'precisian:' we find there

'My reason, the physician to my love,' &c.

NOTE VI.

II. 1. 194, 196. Here again we have followed the early Quartos in reading 'Brook' instead of 'Broome,' the name given by Ff Q3. That the former was the original name is proved by the jest in 11. 2. 136, where the Folios make sheer nonsense.

Mr Halliwell suggests that the following lines, IV. 4. 75, 76, 'Nay I'll to him again in name of Broome;

He'll tell me all his purpose: sure he'll come,'

were intended to rhyme and therefore favour the later reading. But in this scene there are no rhyming lines except the couplet at the end.

On the whole, it seems likely that the name was altered in the stage copies at the instance of some person of the name of Brook living at Windsor, who had sufficient acquaintance with the players, or interest with their patrons, to get it done.