The Merry Wives of Windsor The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [9 vols.]

[Transcriber’s Note:

These  texts of _The Merry Wives of Windsor_ are from Volume I of
the nine-volume 1863 Cambridge edition of Shakespeare. The Preface
(e-text 23041) and the other plays from this volume are each
available as separate e-texts.

General Notes are in their original location at the end of the play.
Text-critical notes are grouped at the end of each Scene. All line
numbers are from the original text; line breaks in dialogue--including
prose passages--are unchanged. Brackets are also unchanged; to avoid
ambiguity, footnotes and linenotes are given without added brackets.
In the notes, numerals printed as subscripts are shown inline as
F1, F2, Q1....

Texts cited in the Notes are listed at the end of the e-text.]




  THE WORKS

  of

  WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE


  Edited by

  WILLIAM GEORGE CLARK, M.A.
  Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, and Public Orator
  in the University of Cambridge;

  and JOHN GLOVER, M.A.
  Librarian Of Trinity College, Cambridge.


  _VOLUME I._


  Cambridge and London:
  MACMILLAN AND CO.
  1863.




THE

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.




Besides the copies of the _Merry Wives of Windsor_ appearing in the
folios and modern editions, a quarto, Q3, has been collated in these
Notes, of which the following is the title:

  The | Merry Wives | of Windsor. | with the humours of Sir _John
  Falstaffe_, | as also, The swaggering Vaine of Ancient | _Pistoll_,
  and Corporall _Nym_. |WRITTEN BY _William Shake-speare_. | Newly
  corrected. | LONDON: | printed by _T. H._ for _R. Meighen_ and are
  to be sold | at his Shop, next to the Middle-Temple Gate, and in |
  S. _Dunstan’s_ Church-yard in _Fleet Street_. | 1630.

Q1 and Q2 are editions of an early sketch of the same play. The
variations between the text of these quartos and the received text are
so great that collation cannot be attempted. The text printed at the end
of the play is taken _literatim_ from Q1, the edition of 1602, of which
a copy is preserved among Capell’s SHAKESPEARIANA, and this text is
collated _verbatim_ with Q2, the second quarto printed in 1619. Q1 was
reprinted in 1842 for the Shakespeare Society by Mr J. O. Halliwell.
This text, which differs in one or two places from Capell’s Q1, has also
been collated. Q2 is given among TWENTY OF THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE,
edited by Steevens. Their titles are as follows:

  (1) A | Most pleasaunt and | excellent conceited Co-|medie, of Syr
  _John Falstaffe_, and the | Merrie Wiues of _Windsor_. | Enter-mixed
  with sundrie | variable and pleasing humors of Syr _Hugh_ | the
  Welch Knight, Justice _Shallow_, and his | wise Cousin M. _Slender_.
  | With the Swaggering vaine of Auncient | _Pistoll_, and Corporall
  _Nym_. | By _William Shakespeare_. | As it hath been diuers times
  Acted by the right Honorable | my Lord Chamberlaines seruants. Both
  before her | Maiestie, and else-where. | London. | Printed by T. C.
  for Arthur Johnson, and are to be sold at | his shop in Powles
  Church-yard, at the signe of the | Flower de Leuse and the Crowne.
  | 1602.

[This consists of 7 Quires of 4. In the Quire G one line, which we have
included in brackets, has been cut away by the binder. We have supplied
it from Halliwell’s edition and Q2.]

  (2) A | Most pleasant and ex-|cellent Comedy, | _of Sir John
  Falstaffe, and the | merry Wives of Windsor_. | With the swaggering
  vaine of An|cient _Pistoll_, and Corporall _Nym_. | Written by
  W. SHAKESPEARE. | Printed for _Arthur Johnson_, 1619.




DRAMATIS PERSONÆ[1].


  SIR JOHN FALSTAFF.
  FENTON, a gentleman.
  SHALLOW, a country justice.
  SLENDER, cousin to Shallow.
  FORD, } two gentlemen dwelling at Windsor.
  PAGE, }
  WILLIAM PAGE, a boy, son to Page.
  SIR HUGH EVANS, a Welsh parson.
  DOCTOR CAIUS, a French physician.
  Host of the Garter Inn.
  BARDOLPH, }
  PISTOL,   } sharpers attending on Falstaff.
  NYM,      }
  ROBIN, page to Falstaff.
  SIMPLE, servant to Slender.
  RUGBY, servant to Doctor Caius.

  MISTRESS FORD.
  MISTRESS PAGE.
  ANNE PAGE, her daughter.
  MISTRESS QUICKLY, servant to Doctor Caius.

  Servants to Page, Ford, &c.


  SCENE--_Windsor, and the neighbourhood._


    [Footnote 1: Not in Qq Ff. Inserted by Rowe.]




THE
MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.




ACT I.


SCENE I. _Windsor. Before PAGE’S house._

  _Enter JUSTICE SHALLOW, SLENDER, and SIR HUGH EVANS._

_Shal._ Sir Hugh, persuade me not; I will make a Star-chamber
matter of it: if he were twenty Sir John Falstaffs,
he shall not abuse Robert Shallow, esquire.

_Slen._ In the county of Gloucester, justice of peace
and ‘Coram.’                                                         5

_Shal._ Ay, cousin Slender, and ‘Custalorum.’

_Slen._ Ay, and ‘Rato-lorum’ too; and a gentleman born,
master parson; who writes himself ‘Armigero,’ in any bill,
warrant, quittance, or obligation, ‘Armigero.’

_Shal._ Ay, that I do; and have done any time these                 10
three hundred years.

_Slen._ All his successors gone before him hath done’t;
and all his ancestors that come after him may: they may
give the dozen white luces in their coat.