In Frogmore the servant Simple is leading Hugh Evans around the town as they search for Doctor Caius. Evans is carrying a sword and a book (a Bible). He does not really want to fight, but he pretends to act bravely. His nervousness and fear reveal themselves in the song he sings, for the song is an odd mixture of love poetry (adapted from Christopher Marlowe’s “Come Live with Me and Be My Love”) and religious lines from the Psalms. Evans is not thinking clearly.
Simple and Evans soon meet up with Shallow, Slender, and Page. Shallow greets Evans and then says to him, “Keep a gamester from the dice and a good student from his book, and it is wonderful” (32- 33). Shallow sees that Evans is holding a book, and so his line refers to Evans directly. Shallow, along with the others, is in a merry mood as he anticipates the comic duel between Caius and Evans. The event, the duel, is odd and unusual. It is a break from the usual routine and monotony of life. To break up the usual routine is a source of wonder, a matter of curiosity. Shallow is suggesting that just as keeping a gambler away from his gambling is rare and extraordinary, so too is a duel involving a parson, a man of peace.
Page and Shallow inform the parson that