Page.
Why, yet there want not many that do fear
In deep of night to walk by this Herne’s oak.
But what of this?
Mrs. Ford.
Marry, this is our device;
That Falstaff at that oak shall meet with us,
Disguis’d, like Herne, with huge horns on his
head.
Page.
Well, let it not be doubted but he’ll come,
And in this shape. When you have brought him
thither,
What shall be done with him? What is your plot?
Mrs. Page.
That likewise have we thought upon, and thus:
Nan Page my daughter, and my little son,
And three or four more of their growth, we’ll
dress
Like urchins, ouphs, and fairies, green and white,
With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads,
And rattles in their hands. Upon a sudden,
As Falstaff, she, and I, are newly met,
Let them from forth a sawpit rush at once
With some diffused song; upon their sight
We two in great amazedness will fly:
Then let them all encircle him about,
And fairy-like, to pinch the unclean knight;
And ask him why, that hour of fairy revel,
In their so sacred paths he dares to tread
In shape profane.
Mrs. Ford.
And till he tell the truth,
Let the supposed fairies pinch him sound,
And burn him with their tapers.
Mrs. Page.
The truth being known,
We’ll all present ourselves; dis-horn the spirit,
And mock him home to Windsor.
Ford.
The children must
Be practis’d well to this or they’ll ne’er
do ’t.
Evans.
I will teach the children their behaviours; and I
will
be like a jack-an-apes also, to burn the knight with
my
taber.
Ford.
That will be excellent. I’ll go buy them
vizards.
Mrs. Page.
My Nan shall be the Queen of all the Fairies,
Finely attired in a robe of white.
Page.
That silk will I go buy. [Aside.] And in that time
Shall Master Slender steal my Nan away,
And marry her at Eton. Go, send to Falstaff straight.
Ford.
Nay, I’ll to him again, in name of Brook;
He’ll tell me all his purpose. Sure, he’ll
come.
Mrs. Page.
Fear not you that. Go, get us properties
And tricking for our fairies.
Evans.
Let us about it. It is admirable pleasures, and
fery
honest knaveries.
[Exeunt page, ford, and Evans.]
Mrs. Page.
Go, Mistress Ford.
Send Quickly to Sir John to know his mind.
[Exit Mrs. Ford.]
I’ll to the Doctor; he hath my good will,
And none but he, to marry with Nan Page.
That Slender, though well landed, is an idiot;
And he my husband best of all affects:
The Doctor is well money’d, and his friends
Potent at court: he, none but he, shall have
her,
Though twenty thousand worthier come to crave her.