me, 'As jealous as Ford, Chat searched a hollow
walnut for his wife's leman.' Satisfy me once more;
once more search with me.
What, ho, Mistress Page! come you and the old woman
down; my husband will come into the chamber.
Old woman! what old woman's that?
Nay, it is my maid's aunt of Brentford.
A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean! Have I not
forbid her my house? She comes of errands, does
she? We are simple men; we do not know what's
brought to pass under the profession of
fortune-telling. She works by charms, by spells,
by the figure, and such daubery as this is, beyond
our element we know nothing. Come down, you witch,
you hag, you; come down, I say!
Nay, good, sweet husband! Good gentlemen, let him
not strike the old woman.
Come, Mother Prat; come, give me your hand.
I'll prat her.
Out of my door, you witch, you hag, you baggage, you
polecat, you runyon! out, out! I'll conjure you,
I'll fortune-tell you.
Are you not ashamed? I think you have killed the
poor woman.
Nay, he will do it. 'Tis a goodly credit for you.
Hang her, witch!
By the yea and no, I think the 'oman is a witch
indeed: I like not when a 'oman has a great peard;
I spy a great peard under his muffler.
Will you follow, gentlemen? I beseech you, follow;
see but the issue of my jealousy: if I cry out thus
upon no trail, never trust me when I open again.
Let's obey his humour a little further: come,
gentlemen.
Trust me, he beat him most pitifully.
Nay, by the mass, that he did not; he beat him most
unpitifully, methought.
I'll have the cudgel hallowed and hung o'er the
altar; it hath done meritorious service.
What think you? may we, with the warrant of
womanhood and the witness of a good conscience,
pursue him with any further revenge?
The spirit of wantonness is, sure, scared out of
him: if the devil have him not in fee-simple, with
fine and recovery, he will never, I think, in the
way of waste, attempt us again.
Shall we tell our husbands how we have served him?
Yes, by all means; if it be but to scrape the
figures out of your husband's brains. If they can
find in their hearts the poor unvirtuous fat knight
shall be any further afflicted, we two will still be
the ministers.
I'll