[They put the tapers to his fingers, and he starts.]
FALSTAFF.
O, o, o!
MISTRESS QUICKLY.
Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire!
About him, fairies, sing a scornful rhyme,
And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time.
SONG.
Fie on sinful fantasy!
Fie on lust and luxury!
Lust is but a bloody fire,
Kindled with unchaste desire,
Fed in heart, whose flames aspire,
As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher.
Pinch him, fairies, mutually;
Pinch him for his villainy.
Pinch him and burn him and turn him about,
Till candles and starlight and moonshine be out.
[During the song they pinch him, and Doctor Caius comes one way and steals away a boy in green; and Slender another way takes a boy in white; Fenton comes in and steals away Anne Page. A noise of hunting is heard within and all the fairies run away. Falstaff pulls off his buck’s head, and rises up.]
Enter Page, Ford, Mistress Page and Mistress Ford.
PAGE.
Nay, do not fly. I think we have watched you now.
Will none but Herne the hunter serve your turn?
MISTRESS PAGE.
I pray you, come, hold up the jest no higher.—
Now, good Sir John, how like you Windsor wives?
See you these, husband?
[She points to the horns.]
Do not these fair yokes
Become the forest better than the town?