Читать книгу The Complete Works of Shakespeare онлайн

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Page.

My husband and my lord, my lord and husband,

I am your wife in all obedience.

Sly.

I know it well. What must I call her?

Lord.

Madam.

Sly.

Al’ce madam, or Joan madam?

Lord.

Madam, and nothing else, so lords call ladies.

Sly.

Madam wife, they say that I have dream’d,

And slept above some fifteen year or more.

Page.

Ay, and the time seems thirty unto me,

Being all this time abandon’d from your bed.

Sly.

’Tis much. Servants, leave me and her alone.

Madam, undress you, and come now to bed.

Page.

Thrice-noble lord, let me entreat of you

To pardon me yet for a night or two;

Or if not so, until the sun be set.

For your physicians have expressly charg’d,

In peril to incur your former malady,

That I should yet absent me from your bed.

I hope this reason stands for my excuse.

Sly. Ay, it stands so that I may hardly tarry so long. But I would be loath to fall into my dreams again. I will therefore tarry in despite of the flesh and the blood.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess.

Your honor’s players, hearing your amendment,