Page 2556 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

truant, and whipped top, I knew not what ’twas to be beaten, till lately.
Follow me; I’ll tell you strange things of this knave Ford, on whom to-night I
[25] will be revenged, and I will deliver his wife into your hand. Follow.
Strange things in hand, Master Brook! Follow.

Exeunt.

Scene II IT

Enter Page, Shallow, and Slender.

PAGE
Come, come, we’ll couch i’ th’ castle-ditch till we see the light of our fairies.

Remember, son Slender, my daughter.

SLENDER

Ay, forsooth; I have spoke with her, and we have a nay-word how to know
one another: I come to her in [5] white, and cry ‘mum’; she cries ‘budget’;
and by that we know one another.

SHALLOW
That’s good too; but what needs either your ‘mum’ or her ‘budget’? The white

will decipher her well enough. It hath struck ten o’clock. [10]

PAGE
The night is dark; light and spirits will become it well. Heaven prosper our
sport! No man means evil but the devil, and we shall know him by his horns.
Let’s away; follow me.
Exeunt.

Scene III IT

Enter Mistress Page, Mistress Ford, and Doctor Caius.

MISTRESS PAGE
Master Doctor, my daughter is in green: when you see your time, take her by
the hand, away with her to the deanery, and dispatch it quickly. Go before