Page 1105 - Shakespeare - Vol. 3

house, sir, was, as they say, plucked down in the suburbs; and now she
professes a hot-house; which I think is a very ill house too. [65]

ESCALUS
How know you that?

ELBOW
My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour −

ESCALUS
How? Thy wife?

ELBOW
Ay, sir: whom I thank heaven is an honest [70] woman −

ESCALUS
Dost thou detest her therefore?

ELBOW
I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that this house, if it be not
a bawd’s house, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house. [75]

ESCALUS
How dost thou know that, constable?

ELBOW
Marry, sir, by my wife, who, if she had been a woman cardinally given, might
have been accused in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there.

ESCALUS

By the woman’s means? [80]

ELBOW

Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone’s means; but as she spit in his face, so she
defied him.

POMPEY