Page 2474 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

MISTRESS FORD

Mistress Page! Trust me, I was going to [30] your house.

MISTRESS PAGE
And, trust me, I was coming to you. You look very ill.

MISTRESS FORD
Nay, I’ll ne’er believe that; I have to show to the contrary. [35]

MISTRESS PAGE
Faith, but you do, in my mind.

MISTRESS FORD
Well, I do, then; yet, I say, I could show you to the contrary. O Mistress Page,

give me some counsel!

MISTRESS PAGE

What’s the matter, woman? [40]

MISTRESS FORD
O woman, if it were not for one trifling respect, I could come to such honour!

MISTRESS PAGE
Hang the trifle, woman, take the honour. What is it? Dispense with trifles −
what is it?

MISTRESS FORD
If I would but go to hell for an eternal [45] moment or so, I could be
knighted.

MISTRESS PAGE

What? Thou liest! Sir Alice Ford? These knights will hack; and so thou
shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry.

MISTRESS FORD
We burn daylight. Here, read, read; [50] perceive how I might be knighted. I
shall think the worse of fat men as long as I have an eye to make difference