Page 2558 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Scene IV IT

Enter Evans [disguised] and [William and other children as] Fairies.

EVANS
Trib, trib, fairies; come; and remember your parts. Be pold, I pray you; follow
me into the pit; and when I give the watch-’ords, do as I pid you. Come,

come; trib, trib.
Exeunt.

Scene V IT

Enter Falstaff [disguised as Herne] wearing a buck’s head.

FALSTAFF

The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; the minute draws on. Now, the hot-
blooded gods assist me! Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa;
love set on thy horns. O powerful love, that in some respects makes a beast a
man; in some other, a man a beast. You were also, [5] Jupiter, a swan for

the love of Leda. O omnipotent love, how near the god drew to the
complexion of a goose! A fault done first in the form of a beast: O Jove, a
beastly fault! And then another fault in the semblance of a fowl: think on’t,
Jove, a foul fault! When gods have hot backs, [10] what shall poor men do?

For me, I am here a Windsor stag, and the fattest, I think, i’ th’ forest. Send
me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to piss my tallow? − Who
comes here? My doe?

Enter Mistress Ford and Mistress Page.

MISTRESS FORD
Sir John! Art thou there, my deer, my [15] male deer?

FALSTAFF

My doe with the black scut? Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the
tune of ‘Greensleeves’, hail kissing comfits, and snow eringoes; let there
come a tempest of provocation, I will shelter me here. [20]