SCENE X.
Enter Doctor Caius.
Caius.
Vat is you sing? I do not like des toys;
pray you, go and vetch me in my closet un boitier verd;
a box, a green-a box; do intend vat I speak? a green-a
box.
Quic.
Ay, forsooth, I'll fetch it you.
I am glad, he went not in himself; if he had found
the young man, he would have been horn-mad.
[Aside.
Caius.
Fe, fe, fe, fe, ma foi, il fait fort chaud; je
m'en vais à la Cour—la grande affaire.
Quic.
Is it this, Sir.
Caius.
Ouy, mettez le au mon pocket; Depêchez,
quickly; ver is dat knave Rugby!
Quic.
What, John Rugby! John!
Rug.
Here, Sir.
Caius.
You are John Rugby, and you are Jack
Rugby; come, take-a your rapier, and come after my
heel to the Court.
Rug.
'Tis ready, Sir, here in the porch.
Caius.
By my trot, I tarry too long: od's me! Qu'
ay je oublié? dere is some simples in my closet, dat I
will not for the varld I shall leave behind.
-- 268 --
Quic.
Ay-me, he'll find the young man there, and
be mad.
Caius.
O Diable, Diable! vat is in my closet? villaine,
Larron! Rugby, my rapier.
[Pulls Simple out of the closet.
Quic.
Good master, be content.
Caius.
Wherefore shall I be content-a?
Quic.
The young man is an honest man.
Caius.
What shall de honest man do in my closet?
dere is no honest man, dat shall come in my closet.
Quic.
I beseech you, be not so flegmatick; hear the
truth of it. He came of an errand to me from parson
Hugh.
Caius.
Vell.
Sim.
Ay, forsooth, to desire her to—
Quic.
Peace, I pray you.
Caius.
Peace-a your tongue, speak-a your tale.
Sim.
To desire this honest gentlewoman your maid,
to speak a good word to mistress Anne Page for my
master in the way of marriage.
Quic.
This is all, indeed-la; but I'll never put my
finger in the fire, and need not.
Caius.
Sir Hugh send-a-you? Rugby, baillez me some
paper; tarry you a little-a-while.
Quic.
I am glad, he is so quiet; if he had been
thoroughly moved, you should have heard him so loud,
and so melancholy: but notwithstanding, man, I'll do
for your master what good I can; and the very yea
and the no is, the French Doctor my master, (I may
call him my master, look you, for I keep his house,
and I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, 5 notedress meat
and make the beds, and do all my self.)
Sim.
'Tis a great charge to come under one body's
hand.
-- 269 --
Quic.
Are you a-vis'd o'that? you shall find it a
great charge; and to be up early and down late. But
notwithstanding, to tell you in your ear, I would have
no words of it, my master himself is in love with mistress
Anne Page; but, notwithstanding that, I know
Anne's mind, that's neither here nor there.
Caius.
You jack'nape; give-a this letter to Sir Hugh;
by gar, it is a shallenge: I will cut his troat in de parke,
and I will teach a scurvy jack-a-nape priest to meddle
or make—you may be gone; it is not good you
tarry here; by gar, I will cut all his two stones; by
gar, he shall not have a stone to trow at his dog.
[Exit Simple.
Quic.
Alas, he speaks but for his friend.
Caius.
It is no matter'a ver dat: do you not tell-ame,
dat I shall have Anne Page for myself? by gar, I
vill kill de jack priest; and I have appointed mine host
of de Jarterre to measure our weapon; by gar, I will
myself have Anne Page.
Quic.
Sir, the maid loves you, and all shall be well:
we must give folks leave to prate; what, the good-jer!
Caius.
Rugby, come to the Court with me;—by
gar, if I have not Anne Page, I shall turn your head
out of my door;—follow my heels, Rugby.
[Exeunt Caius and Rugby.
Quic.
You shall have An fool's-head of your own.
No, I know Anne's mind for that; never a Woman
in Windsor knows more of Anne's mind than I do,
nor can do more than I do with her, I thank heav'n.
Fent. [within.]
Who's within there, hoa?
Quic.
Who's there, I trow? come near the house, I
pray you.
Alexander Pope [1747], The works of Shakespear in eight volumes. The Genuine Text (collated with all the former Editions, and then corrected and emended) is here settled: Being restored from the Blunders of the first Editors, and the Interpolations of the two Last: with A Comment and Notes, Critical and Explanatory. By Mr. Pope and Mr. Warburton (Printed for J. and P. Knapton, [and] S. Birt [etc.], London) [word count] [S11301].
