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Eulalia. God spede, & a thousand mine old acqueintāce.
xantippa.
xan. As many agayn, my dere hert. Eulalia. me semets ye ar
warē much faire now of late.
Eula. Saye you so? gyue you me a mocke at the first dash.
xan. Nay veryly but I take you so.
Eula. Happely mi new gown maketh me to loke fayrer then I
sholde doe.
xan. Sothe you saye, I haue not sene a mynioner this many
dayes, I reken it Englishe cloth.
Eu. It is english stuff and dyed in Venis.
xan. It is softer then sylke what an oriente purpel colore
here is who gaue you so rich a gift.
Eu. How shoulde honeste women come by their gere? but by
their husbandes.
xā. Happy arte thou that hathe suche an husband, but I
wolde to god for his passyon, that I had maryed an husband of
clowts, when I had maried col my good mā.
Eula. Why say ye so. I pray you, are you at oddes now.
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xā. I shal neuer be at one wt him ye se how
beggerly I go. I haue not an hole smock to put on my backe, and he
is wel contente with all: I praye god I neuer come in heuen & I
be not ashamed oftimes to shewe my head, when I se other wiues how
net and trim they go that ar matched with farre porer mē then
he is.
Eula. The apparell of honest wiues is not in the aray of the
body, nor in the tirements of their head as saynte Peter the apostle
teacheth vs (and that I learned a late at a sermon) but in good
lyuynge and honest conuersacion and in the ornamentes of the soule,
the cōmon buenes ar painted up, to please manye mennes eies we
ar trime ynough yf we please our husbands only.
xan. But yet my good man so euyll wylling to bestow ought
vpon his wyfe, maketh good chere, and lassheth out the dowrye that
hee hadde with mee no small pot of wine.
Eulaly, where vpon?
xantipha, wheron hym lykethe beste, at the tauerne, at the
stewes and at the dyce.
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Eulalia Peace saye not so.
xan. wel yet thus it is, then when he cōmeth home to me
at midnight, longe watched for, he lyeth rowtyng lyke a sloyne all
the leue longe nyght, yea and now and thē he all bespeweth his
bed, and worse then I will say at this tyme.
Eulali. Peace thou dyshonesteth thy self, when thou doest
dishonesteth thy husbād.
xantip. The deuyl take me bodye and bones but I had leuer lye
by a sow with pigges, then with suche a bedfelowe.
Eulali. Doest thou not then take him vp, wel favoredly for stūbling.
Xantip. As he deserueth I spare no tonge.
Eulalia. what doth he thē.
xantip. At the first breake he toke me vp vengeably, trusting
that he shoulde haue shakē me of and put me to scilence with
his crabid wordes.
Eula Came neuer your hote wordes vnto hādstrokes.
xantip. On a tyme we fel so farre at wordes yt we
wer almost by ye eares togither.
Eula what say you womā?
xan. He toke vp a staffe wandryng at me, as the deuill had
bene on hym ready to laye me on the bones.
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Eula. were thou not redye to ron in at the bēch hole.
xanti. Nay mary I warrant the. I gat me a thre foted stole in
hand, & he had but ones layd his littell finger on me, he shulde
not haue founde me lame. I woulde haue holden his nose to the
grindstōe
Eulalia. A newe found shelde, ye wanted but youre dystaffe to
haue made you a speare.
xantip. And he shoulde not greatlye a laughed at his parte.
Eulali. Ah my frynde. xantyppa. that way is neither good nor
godly,
xantippa what is neither good nor godly. yf he wyll not vse
me, as hys wyfe: I wil not take him for my husbande.
Eulalya. But Paule sayeth that wyues shoulde bee boner and
buxome vnto their husbandes with all humylytye, and Peter also
bryngethe vs an example of Sara, that called her husbande Abrahame,
Lorde.
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xantippa. I know that as well as you thē ye
same paule say that men shoulde loue theyr wyues, as Christ loues
his spouse the churche let him do his duete I wil do myne.
Eula. But for all that, when the matter is so farre that the
one muste forber the other it is reason that the woman giue place
vnto the man,
xan. Is he meete to be called my husbāde that maketh me
his vnderlynge and his dryuel?
Eula. But tel me dame xātip. Would he neuer offre the
stripes after that
xātip. Not a stripe, and therin he was the wyser man for
& he had he should haue repented euery vayne in hys harte.
Eulali. But thou offered him foule wordes plentie,
xantip. And will do.
Eula. What doth he ye meane seasō.
xantip. What doth he sometyme cowcheth an hogeshed, somtime
he doth nothing but stande and laughe at me, other whyle takethe hys
Lute wheron is scarslie three strynges layenge on that as fast as he
may dryue because he would not here me.
Eula. Doeth that greue thee?
xantippa. To beyonde home, manie a tyme I haue much a do to
hold my handes.
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Eula. Neighbour. xantip. wylt thou gyue me leaue to be playn
with the.
xantippa Good leaue haue you.
Eula. Be as bolde on me agayne our olde acquayntaunce and
amite, euen frō our chyldhode, would it should be so.
xantippa. Trueth you saie, there was neuer woman kinde that I
fauoured more
Elaly Whatsoeuer thy husbād be, marke well this, chaunge
thou canst not, In the olde lawe, where the deuill hadde cast aboone
betwene the man and the wife, at the worste waye they myght be
deuorsed, but now that remedie is past, euē till death depart
you he must nedes be thy husbande, and thou hys wyfe,
xan. Il mote they thryue & thei that taken away that
liberty from vs
Eulalia. Beware what thou sayest, it was christes act.