[Here the Wife must lay on load upon her Husband.
HUSBAND. Good wife, be content! forgive me this fault!
I will never again do that which is naught.
WIFE. Go to, foolish calf, go to, and uprise,
And put up thy knife, I thee advise.
HUSBAND. I will do your commandments whatsoever.
WIFE. Hence away, then, and fill this with water.
HUSBAND. O merciful God, in what lamentable state
Is he, of whom the wife is the master?
Would God I had been predestinate
On my marriage day to have died with a fever!
O wretched creature, what may I do?
My grievous wife shall I return unto?
Lo, wife, behold! without further delay
The water ye sent for here I do bring.
WIFE. What, I say? what meaneth this weeping?
What aileth thee to make all this crying?
HUSBAND. I weep not, forsooth, nor cry not as yet.
WIFE. No, nor thou wilt not, if thou hast any wit;
It is not thy weeping that can ought avail,
And therefore this matter no longer bewail.
Come off, I say, and run by the river,
And wash these clothes in the water.
HUSBAND. Wife, I will thither hie me fast.