FORD.
That indeed, Sir John, is my business.
FALSTAFF.
Master Brook, I will not lie to you. I was at her house the hour she appointed me.
FORD.
And how sped you, sir?
FALSTAFF.
Very ill-favouredly, Master Brook.
FORD.
How so, sir? Did she change her determination?
FALSTAFF.
No. Master Brook, but the peaking cornuto her husband, Master Brook, dwelling in a continual ’larum of jealousy, comes me in the instant of our encounter, after we had embraced, kissed, protested, and, as it were, spoke the prologue of our comedy; and at his heels a rabble of his companions, thither provoked and instigated by his distemper, and, forsooth, to search his house for his wife’s love.
FORD.
What, while you were there?
FALSTAFF.
While I was there.
FORD.
And did he search for you, and could not find you?
FALSTAFF.
You shall hear. As good luck would have it, comes in one Mistress Page, gives intelligence of Ford’s approach; and, in her invention and Ford’s wife’s distraction, they conveyed me into a buck-basket.