William Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor

ACT III SCENE 3. A room in FORD'S house.

[Enter MISTRESS FORD and MISTRESS PAGE.]

MRS. FORD.
What, John! what, Robert!

MRS. PAGE.
Quickly, quickly:--Is the buck-basket--

MRS. FORD.
I warrant. What, Robin, I say!

[Enter SERVANTS with a basket.]

MRS. PAGE.
Come, come, come.

MRS. FORD.
Here, set it down.

MRS. PAGE.
Give your men the charge; we must be brief.

MRS. FORD.
Marry, as I told you before, John and Robert, be
ready here hard by in the brew-house; and when I suddenly
call you, come forth, and, without any pause or
staggering, take this basket on your shoulders: that done,
trudge with it in all haste, and carry it among the whitsters
in Datchet-Mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch
close by the Thames side.

MRS. PAGE.
You will do it?

MRS. FORD.
I have told them over and over; they lack no
direction. Be gone, and come when you are called.

[Exeunt SERVANTS.]

MRS. PAGE.
Here comes little Robin.

[Enter ROBIN.]

MRS. FORD.
How now, my eyas-musket! what news with you?

ROBIN.
My Master Sir John is come in at your back-door,
Mistress Ford, and requests your company.

MRS. PAGE.
You little Jack-a-Lent, have you been true to us?

ROBIN.
Ay, I'll be sworn. My master knows not of your
being here, and hath threatened to put me into everlasting
liberty, if I tell you of it; for he swears he'll turn me away.