The Merry Wives of Windsor

your own folly. Did not I tell you how you should know my daughter by her garments? Slender I went to her in white and cried “mum” and she cried “budget” as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a postmaster’s boy. Sir Hugh Evans Jeshu! Master Slender, cannot you see put marry poys? Page O I am vexed at heart: what shall I do? Mistress Page Good George, be not angry: I knew of your purpose; turned my daughter into green; and, indeed, she is now with the doctor at the deanery, and there married. Enter Doctor Caius. Doctor Caius Wrathfully. 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. Mistress Page Why, did you take her in green? Doctor Caius Ay, by gar, and ’tis a boy: by gar, I’ll raise all Windsor. Exit Doctor Caius shaking his fist. Ford This is strange. Who hath got the right Anne? Page My heart misgives me; here comes Master Fenton. Enter Fenton and Anne Page, arm in arm. How now, Master Fenton! Anne Page Kneels. Pardon, good father! good my mother, pardon! Page Now, Mistress, how chance you went not with Master Slender? Mistress Page Why went you not with Master Doctor, maid? Fenton

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 curséd hours,
Which forcéd marriage would have brought upon her.

Ford

Stand not amaz’d: here is no remedy:
In love, the heavens themselves do guide the state:
Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate.

Falstaff 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 embrac’d.

Falstaff When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer are chas’d. Mistress 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, tonight, shall lie with Mistress Ford.

Exeunt.

Colophon

The Merry Wives of Windsor
was published in 1602 by
William Shakespeare.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
B. Timothy Keith,
and is based on a transcription produced in 1998 by
The P.G. Shakespeare Team
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
Anne Page Inviting Slender to Dinner,
a painting completed in 1836 by
Thomas Duncan.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
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