# Result number

Work The work is either a play, poem, or sonnet. The sonnets are treated as single work with 154 parts.

Character Indicates who said the line. If it's a play or sonnet, the character name is "Poet."

Line Shows where the line falls within the work.

The numbering is not keyed to any copyrighted numbering system found in a volume of collected works (Arden, Oxford, etc.) The numbering starts at the beginning of the work, and does not restart for each scene.

Text The line's full text, with keywords highlighted within it, unless highlighting has been disabled by the user.

1

Merry Wives of Windsor
[I, 1]

Robert Shallow

2

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.

2

Merry Wives of Windsor
[I, 1]

Robert Shallow

37

Ha! o' my life, if I were young again, the sword
should end it.

3

Merry Wives of Windsor
[I, 1]

Sir Hugh Evans

46

It is that fery person for all the orld, as just as
you will desire; and seven hundred pounds of moneys,
and gold and silver, is her grandsire upon his
death's-bed—Got deliver to a joyful resurrections!
—give, when she is able to overtake seventeen years
old: it were a goot motion if we leave our pribbles
and prabbles, and desire a marriage between Master
Abraham and Mistress Anne Page.

4

Merry Wives of Windsor
[I, 1]

Falstaff

110

'Twere better for you if it were known in counsel:
you'll be laughed at.

5

Merry Wives of Windsor
[I, 1]

Robert Shallow

238

Here comes fair Mistress Anne.
[Re-enter ANNE PAGE]
Would I were young for your sake, Mistress Anne!

6

Merry Wives of Windsor
[I, 3]

Falstaff

327

I am glad I am so acquit of this tinderbox: his
thefts were too open; his filching was like an
unskilful singer; he kept not time.

7

Merry Wives of Windsor
[I, 4]

Hostess Quickly

431

How say you? O, I should remember him: does he not
hold up his head, as it were, and strut in his gait?

8

Merry Wives of Windsor
[II, 1]

Mistress Ford

608

O woman, if it were not for one trifling respect, I
could come to such honour!

9

Merry Wives of Windsor
[II, 1]

Mistress Ford

617

We burn daylight: here, read, read; perceive how I
might be knighted. I shall think the worse of fat
men, as long as I have an eye to make difference of
men's liking: and yet he would not swear; praised
women's modesty; and gave such orderly and
well-behaved reproof to all uncomeliness, that I
would have sworn his disposition would have gone to
the truth of his words; but they do no more adhere
and keep place together than the Hundredth Psalm to
the tune of 'Green Sleeves.' What tempest, I trow,
threw this whale, with so many tuns of oil in his
belly, ashore at Windsor? How shall I be revenged
on him? I think the best way were to entertain him
with hope, till the wicked fire of lust have melted
him in his own grease. Did you ever hear the like?

10

Merry Wives of Windsor
[II, 1]

Ford

734

Were they his men?

11

Merry Wives of Windsor
[II, 1]

Page

735

Marry, were they.

12

Merry Wives of Windsor
[II, 2]

Falstaff

799

Not a penny. I have been content, sir, you should
lay my countenance to pawn; I have grated upon my
good friends for three reprieves for you and your
coach-fellow Nym; or else you had looked through
the grate, like a geminy of baboons. I am damned in
hell for swearing to gentlemen my friends, you were
good soldiers and tall fellows; and when Mistress
Bridget lost the handle of her fan, I took't upon
mine honour thou hadst it not.

13

Merry Wives of Windsor
[II, 2]

Hostess Quickly

902

That were a jest indeed! they have not so little
grace, I hope: that were a trick indeed! but
Mistress Page would desire you to send her your
little page, of all loves: her husband has a
marvellous infection to the little page; and truly
Master Page is an honest man. Never a wife in
Windsor leads a better life than she does: do what
she will, say what she will, take all, pay all, go
to bed when she list, rise when she list, all is as
she will: and truly she deserves it; for if there
be a kind woman in Windsor, she is one. You must
send her your page; no remedy.

14

Merry Wives of Windsor
[III, 2]

Mistress Page

1313

Nay, keep your way, little gallant; you were wont to
be a follower, but now you are a leader. Whether
had you rather lead mine eyes, or eye your master's heels?

15

Merry Wives of Windsor
[III, 2]

Ford

1322

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

16

Merry Wives of Windsor
[III, 3]

Falstaff

1448

Mistress Ford, I cannot cog, I cannot prate,
Mistress Ford. Now shall I sin in my wish: I would
thy husband were dead: I'll speak it before the
best lord; I would make thee my lady.

17

Merry Wives of Windsor
[III, 3]

Falstaff

1460

By the Lord, thou art a traitor to say so: thou
wouldst make an absolute courtier; and the firm
fixture of thy foot would give an excellent motion
to thy gait in a semi-circled farthingale. I see
what thou wert, if Fortune thy foe were not, Nature
thy friend. Come, thou canst not hide it.

18

Merry Wives of Windsor
[III, 3]

Mistress Ford

1513

What shall I do? There is a gentleman my dear
friend; and I fear not mine own shame so much as his
peril: I had rather than a thousand pound he were
out of the house.

19

Merry Wives of Windsor
[III, 3]

Mistress Page

1517

For shame! never stand 'you had rather' and 'you
had rather:' your husband's here at hand, bethink
you of some conveyance: in the house you cannot
hide him. O, how have you deceived me! Look, here
is a basket: if he be of any reasonable stature, he
may creep in here; and throw foul linen upon him, as
if it were going to bucking: or—it is whiting-time
—send him by your two men to Datchet-mead.

20

Merry Wives of Windsor
[III, 3]

Mistress Ford

1546

Why, what have you to do whither they bear it? You
were best meddle with buck-washing.