Читать книгу The Complete Works of Shakespeare онлайн

682 страница из 942

Fal. 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.

Quick. I will tell her.

Fal. Do so. Between nine and ten, say’st thou?

Quick. Eight and nine, sir.

Fal. Well, be gone; I will not miss her.

Quick. Peace be with you, sir.

[Exit.]

Fal. I marvel I hear not of Master [Brook]; he sent me word to stay within. I like his money well. O, here he comes.

[Enter] Ford [disguised].

Ford. Bless you, sir!

Fal. Now, Master [Brook], you come to know what hath pass’d between me and Ford’s wife?

Ford. That indeed, Sir John, is my business.

Fal. Master [Brook], I will not lie to you. I was at her house the hour she appointed me.

Ford. And sped you, sir?

Fal. Very ill-favoredly, Master [Brook].

Ford. How so, sir? Did she change her determination?

Fal. 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 embrac’d, kiss’d, protested, and, as it were, spoke the prologue of our comedy; and at his heels a rabble of his companions, thither provok’d and instigated by his distemper, and, forsooth, to search his house for his wive’s love.