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- Appendix 211
character, he is not so perfect a fool but that he has the tact to dis-
play his accomplishments to win his mistress's favour. . . . Hav-
ing insinuated his rank and * possibilities,' what love-diplomacy can
surpass the patronizing, and the magnanimous indifference with
which he introduces the subject of his courage ? Anne is sent to
entreat him to dinner : —
' Slender. I had rather walk here, I thank you. I bruised my shin
the other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence,
— three veneys for a dish of stewed prunes — and, by my troth, I cannot
abide the smell of hot meat since. Why do your dogs bark so ? be
there bears i' the town ?
Anne. I think there are, sir ; I heard them talked of.
Slender. I love the sport well ; but I shall as soon quarrel at it as
any man in England. You are afraid, if you see the bear loose, are you
not?
Anne. Ay, indeed, sir.
Slender. That's meat and drink to me, now. I have seen Sacker-
son loose twenty times, and have taken him by the chain ; but, I warrant
you, the women have so cried and shrieked at it that it passed. But
women, indeed, can't abide 'em; they are very ill-favoured rough
things.'
" Does not this precisely tally with Mrs. Quickly's description of
the man, that he * holds up his head, as it were, and struts in his
gait?' . . .
" That is an excellent touch of worldly prudence on the part of
Anne's father, by the way, brought in to justify his objection to the
addresses of P'enton ; not only for his * riots past and wild societies,'
his being * galled in his expense,' which he ' seeks to heal ' by an
alliance with his daughter: but Page, moreover, being a plain,
unaspiring yeoman, is also unfavourable to Fenton, on account ot
his being 'too great of birth.' This simple, fleeting expression
places the whole character of the father before us in perfect integ-
rity and consistency. ... It also prepares us for Fenton's honest
justification of himself. And here we have one of Shakespeare's
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