Gom. Henceforth I banish flesh and wine: I'll have none stirring within these walls these twelve months.
Elv. I care not; the sooner I am starved, the sooner I am rid of wedlock. I shall learn the knack to fast o' days; you have used me to fasting nights already.
Gom. How the gipsey answers me! Oh, 'tis a most notorious hilding.
Elv. [Crying.] But was ever poor innocent creature so hardly dealt with, for a little harmless chat?
Gom. Oh, the impudence of this wicked sex! Lascivious dialogues are innocent with you!
Elv. Was it such a crime to inquire how the battle passed?
Gom. But that was not the business, gentlewoman: you were not asking news of a battle passed; you were engaging for a skirmish that was to come.
Elv. An honest woman would be glad to hear, that her honour was safe, and her enemies were slain.
Gom. [In her tone.] And to ask, if he were wounded in your defence; and, in case he were, to offer yourself to be his chirurgeon;—then, you did not describe your husband to him, for a covetous, jealous, rich, old hunks.
Elv. No, I need not; he describes himself sufficiently: but, in what dream did I do this?