Host. It is more than for some, my lord; it
is for all I have. He hath eaten me out of
house and home; he hath put all my substance
into that fat belly of his: but I will have some of 84
it out again, or I will ride thee o' nights like the
mare.
Fal. I think I am as like to ride the mare if
I have any vantage of ground to get up. 88
Ch. Just. How comes this, Sir John? Fie!
what man of good temper would endure this
tempest of exclamation? Are you not ashamed
to enforce a poor widow to so rough a course to 92
come by her own?
Fal. What is the gross sum that I owe thee?
Host. Marry, if thou wert an honest man,
thyself and the money too. Thou didst swear 96
to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my
Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a sea-
coal fire, upon Wednesday in Wheeson week,
when the prince broke thy head for liking his 100
father to a singing-man of Windsor, thou didst
swear to me then, as I was washing thy wound,
to marry me and make me my lady thy wife.
Canst thou deny it? Did not goodwife Keech, 104
the butcher's wife, come in then and call me
gossip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of
vinegar; telling us she had a good dish of
prawns; whereby thou didst desire to eat some, 108
whereby I told thee they were ill for a green
wound? And didst thou not, when she was gone
down stairs, desire me to be no more so famili-
86 mare: nightmare
90 temper: character
97 parcel-gilt: partly gilded
98 sea-coal: mineral coal (brought by boat from Newcastle)
99 Wheeson: Whitsun
104 Keech: literally 'a lump of fat'
109 green: fresh
