into the ford; I have my belly full of ford.
Alas the day! good heart, that was not her fault:
she does so take on with her men; they mistook their erection.
So did I mine, to build upon a foolish woman's promise.
Well, she laments, sir, for it, that it would yearn
your heart to see it. Her husband goes this morning
a-birding; she desires you once more to come to her
between eight and nine: I must carry her word
quickly: she'll make you amends, I warrant you.
Well, I will visit her: tell her so; and bid her
think what a man is: let her consider his frailty,
and then judge of my merit.
I will tell her.
Do so. Between nine and ten, sayest thou?
Eight and nine, sir.
Well, be gone: I will not miss her.
Peace be with you, sir.
I marvel I hear not of Master Brook; he sent me word
to stay within: I like his money well. O, here he comes.
Bless you, sir!
Now, master Brook, you come to know what hath passed
between me and Ford's wife?
That, indeed, Sir John, is my business.
Master Brook, I will not lie to you: I was at her
house the hour she appointed me.
And sped you, sir?
Very ill-favoredly, Master Brook.
How so, sir? Did she change her determination?
No, Master Brook; but the peaking Cornuto her
husband, Master Brook, dwelling in a continual
'larum of jealousy, comes me in the instant of our
encounter, after we had embraced, kissed, protested,
and, as it were, spoke the prologue of our comedy;
and at his heels a rabble of his companions, thither
provoked and instigated by his distemper, and,
forsooth, to search his house for his wife's love.
What, while you were there?
While I was there.
And did he search for you, and could not find you?
You shall hear. As good luck would have it, comes
in one Mistress Page; gives intelligence of Ford's
approach; and, in her invention and Ford's wife's
distraction, they conveyed me into a buck-basket.
A buck-basket!
By the Lord, a buck-basket! rammed me in with foul
shirts and smocks, socks, foul stockings, greasy
napkins; that, Master Brook, there was the rankest
compound of villanous smell that ever offended nostril.
And how long lay you there?
Nay, you shall hear, Master Brook, what I have
suffered to bring this woman to evil for your good.
Being thus crammed in the basket, a couple