iracy
against me: now shall the devil be shamed. --What,
wife, I say!--Come, come forth! Behold what honest 105
clothes you send forth to bleaching!

_Page._ Why, this passes, Master Ford; you are not to
go loose any longer; you must be pinioned.

_Evans._ Why, this is lunatics! this is mad as a mad
dog! 110

_Shal._ Indeed, Master Ford, this is not well, indeed.

_Ford._ So say I too, sir.

_Re-enter MISTRESS FORD._

Come hither, Mistress Ford; Mistress Ford, the honest woman,
the modest wife, the virtuous creature, that hath the
jealous fool to her husband! I suspect without cause, mistress, 115
do I?

_Mrs Ford._ Heaven be my witness you do, if you suspect
me in any dishonesty.

_Ford._ Well said, brazen-face! hold it out. Come forth,
sirrah! [_Pulling clothes out of the basket._ 120

_Page._ This passes!

_Mrs Ford._ Are you not ashamed? let the clothes alone.

_Ford._ I shall find you anon.

_Evans._ 'Tis unreasonable! Will you take up your
wife's clothes? Come away. 125

_Ford._ Empty the basket, I say!

_Mrs Ford._ Why, man, why?

_Ford._ Master Page, as I am a man, there was one conveyed
out of my house yesterday in this basket: why may
not he be there again? In my house I am sure he is: my 130
intelligence is true; my jealousy is reasonable. Pluck me
out all the linen.

_Mrs Ford._ If you find a man there, he shall die a flea's
death.

_Page._ Here's no man. 135

_Shal._ By my fidelity, this is not well, Master Ford;
this wrongs you.

_Evans._ Master Ford, you must pray, and not follow the
imaginations of your own heart: this is jealousies.

_Ford._ Well, he's not here I seek for. 140

_Page._ No, nor nowhere else but in your brain.

_Ford._ Help to search my house this one time. If I
find not what I seek, show no colour for my extremity; let
me for ever be your table-sport; let them say of me, 'As
jealous as Ford, that searched a hollow walnut for his wife's 145
leman.' Satisfy me once more; once more search with me.

_Mrs Ford._ What, ho, Mistress Page! come you and the
old woman down; my husband will come into the chamber.

_Ford._ Old woman! what old woman's that?

_Mrs Ford._ Why, it is my maid's aunt of Brentford. 150

_Ford.