watery pumpion; we'll teach him to
know turtles from jays. 35

_Enter FALSTAFF._

_Fal._ 'Have I caught' thee, 'my heavenly jewel?' Why,
now let me die, for I have lived long enough: this is the
period of my ambition: O this blessed hour!

_Mrs Ford._ O sweet Sir John!

_Fal._ Mistress Ford, I cannot cog, I cannot prate, 40
Mistress Ford. Now shall I sin in my wish: I would thy
husband were dead: I'll speak it before the best lord;
I would make thee my lady.

_Mrs Ford._ I your lady, Sir John! alas, I should be a
pitiful lady! 45

_Fal._ Let the court of France show me such another. I
see how thine eye would emulate the diamond: thou hast
the right arched beauty of the brow that becomes the ship-tire,
the tire-valiant, or any tire of Venetian admittance.

_Mrs Ford._ A plain kerchief, Sir John: my brows become 50
nothing else; nor that well neither.

_Fal._ By the Lord, thou art a traitor to say so: thou
wouldst make an absolute courtier; and the firm fixture of thy
foot would give an excellent motion to thy gait in a semi-circled
farthingale. I see what thou wert, if Fortune thy foe 55
were not, Nature thy friend. Come, thou canst not hide it.

_Mrs Ford._ Believe me, there's no such thing in me.

_Fal._ What made me love thee? let that persuade thee
there's something extraordinary in thee. Come, I cannot
cog, and say thou art this and that, like a many of these 60
lisping hawthorn-buds, that come like women in men's apparel,
and smell like Bucklersbury in simple time; I cannot:
but I love thee; none but thee; and thou deservest it.

_Mrs Ford._ Do not betray me, sir. I fear you love
Mistress Page. 65

_Fal._ Thou mightst as well say I love to walk by the
Counter-gate, which is as hateful to me as the reek of a
lime-kiln.

_Mrs Ford._ Well, heaven knows how I love you; and
you shall one day find it. 70

_Fal._ Keep in that mind; I'll deserve it.

_Mrs Ford._ Nay, I must tell you, so you do; or else I
could not be in that mind.

_Rob._ [_Within_] Mistress Ford, Mistress Ford! here's
Mistress Page at the door, sweating, and blowing, and 75
looking wildly, and would needs speak with you presently.

_Fal._ She shall not see me: I will ensconce