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Discuss plot/sentence questions
Closing Remarks on Merry Wives
Discussion of Twelfth Night

Closing Remarks on Merry Wives

Fenton: 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 cursed hours,
Which forced marriage would have brought upon her.
(5.5.215-24)

Fenton. I see I cannot get thy father’s love;
Therefore no more turn me to him, sweet Nan
Anne Page. Alas, how then?
Fenton. Why, thou must be thyself.
He doth object I am too great of birth—,
And that, my state being gall’d with my expense,
I seek to heal it only by his wealth:
Besides these, other bars he lays before me,
My riots past, my wild societies;
And tells me ’tis a thing impossible
I should love thee but as a property.

Anne Page. May be he tells you true.

Fenton. No, heaven so speed me in my time to come!
Albeit I will confess thy father’s wealth
Was the first motive that I woo’d thee, Anne:
Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value
Than stamps in gold or sums in sealed bags;
And ’tis the very riches of thyself
That now I aim at.

Anne Page. Gentle Master Fenton,
Yet seek my father’s love; still seek it, sir:
If opportunity and humblest suit
Cannot attain it, why, then,—hark you hither!
(3.4.1-18)

Quickly: And have not they suffered? Yes, I warrant;  speciously one of them; Mistress Ford, good heart,  is beaten black and blue, that you cannot see a  white spot about her.\ (4.5.105-106).

Ford. Well met, Mistress Page. Whither go you?

Mistress Page. Truly, sir, to see your wife. Is she at home?

Ford. Ay; and as idle as she may hang together, for want of company. I think, if your husbands were dead, you two would marry.

Mistress Page. Be sure of that,—two other husbands.
(3.2.11-14)

Slender: I came yonder at Eton to marry Mistress Anne Page, and she’s a great lubberly boy. If it had not been i’ the church, I would have swinged him, or he  should have swinged me. If I did not think it had  been Anne Page, would I might never stir!—and ’tis  a postmaster’s boy (5.5.180-83).