Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor 17
SLY. Are you my wife, and will not call me husband? My men should call me lord: I am your goodman.
PAGE. My husband and my lord, my lord and husband; I am your wife in all obedience.
SLY. I know it well. What must I call her? LORD. Madam. SLY. Al ' ce madam, or Joan madam? LORD. Madam, and nothing else; so lords call ladies.
SLY. Madam wife, they say that I have dream ' d And slept above some fifteen year or more.
PAGE. Ay, and the time seems thirty unto me, Being all this time abandon ' d from your bed.
SLY. ' Tis much. Servants, leave me and her alone. Madam, undress you, and come now to bed.
PAGE. Thrice noble lord, let me entreat of you To pardon me yet for a night or two; Or, if not so, until the sun be set: For your physicians have expressly charg ' d, In peril to incur your former malady, That I should yet absent me from your bed: I hope this reason stands for my excuse.
SLY. Ay, it stands so that I may hardly tarry so long; but I would be loath to fall into my dreams again: I will therefore tarry, in despite of the flesh and the blood.
[ Enter a SERVANT.]
SERVANT. Your honour ' s players, hearing your amendment, Are come to play a pleasant comedy; For so your doctors hold it very meet, Seeing too