jewel? Why, now let
me die, for I have lived long enough: this is the
period of my ambition: O this blessed hour!
O sweet Sir John!
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.
I your lady, Sir John! alas, I should be a pitiful lady!
Let the court of France show me such another. I see
how thine eye would emulate the diamond: thou hast
the right arched beauty of the brow that becomes the
ship-tire, the tire-valiant, or any tire of
Venetian admittance.
A plain kerchief, Sir John: my brows become nothing
else; nor that well neither.
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.
Believe me, there is no such thing in me.
What made me love thee? let that persuade thee
there's something extraordinary in thee. Come, I
cannot cog and say thou art this and that, like a
many of these lisping hawthorn-buds, that come like
women in men's apparel, and smell like Bucklersbury
in simple time; I cannot: but I love thee; none
but thee; and thou deservest it.
Do not betray me, sir. I fear you love Mistress Page.
Thou mightst as well say I love to walk by the
Counter-gate, which is as hateful to me as the reek
of a lime-kiln.
Well, heaven knows how I love you; and you shall one
day find it.
Keep in that mind; I'll deserve it.
Nay, I must tell you, so you do; or else I could not
be in that mind.
Mistress Ford, Mistress Ford! here's
Mistress Page at the door, sweating and blowing and
looking wildly, and would needs speak with you presently.
She shall not see me: I will ensconce me behind the arras.
Pray you, do so: she's a very tattling woman.
What's the matter? how now!
O Mistress Ford, what have you done? You're shamed,
you're overthrown, you're undone for ever!
What's the matter, good Mistress Page?
O well-a-day, Mistress Ford! having an honest man
to your husband, to give him such cause of suspicion!
What cause of suspicion?
What cause of suspicion! Out pon you!