SCENE II

_The Kentish Coast opposite the Isle of Sheppy._

_Here enters Arden and Franklin._

_Arden._ Oh, ferryman, where art thou?

_Here enters the Ferryman._

_Ferryman._ Here, here, go before to the boat, and I will follow you.

_Arden._ We have great haste; I pray thee, come away.

_Ferryman._ Fie, what a mist is here!

_Arden._ This mist, my friend, is mystical, Like to a good companion’s smoky brain, That was half drowned with new ale overnight.

_Ferryman._ ’Twere pity but his skull were opened to make more chimney room. 10

_Franklin._ Friend, what’s thy opinion of this mist?

_Ferryman._ I think ’tis like to a curst wife in a little house, that never leaves her husband till she have driven him out at doors with a wet pair of eyes; then looks he as if his house were a-fire, or some of his friends dead.

_Arden._ Speaks thou this of thine own experience?

_Ferryman._ Perhaps, ay; perhaps, no: For my wife is as other women are, that is to say, governed by the moon. 20

_Franklin._ By the moon? how, I pray thee?

_Ferryman._ Nay, thereby lies a bargain, and you shall not have it fresh and fasting.

_Arden._ Yes, I pray thee, good ferryman.

_Ferryman._ Then for this once; let it be midsummer moon, but yet my wife has another moon.

_Franklin._ Another moon?

_Ferryman._ Ay, and it hath influences and eclipses.

_Arden._ Why, then, by this reckoning you sometimes play the man in the moon? 30

_Ferryman._ Ay, but you had not best to meddle with that moon, lest I scratch you by the face with my bramble-bush.

_Arden._ I am almost stifled with this fog; come, let’s away.

_Franklin._ And, sirrah, as we go, let us have some more of your bold yeomanry.

_Ferryman._ Nay, by my troth, sir, but flat knavery.

[_Exeunt._

IV. ii. 5. This mist is not in Holinshed. It is our poet’s invention.

IV. ii. 30. Cf. _Midsummer Night’s Dream_, V. i. 237, etc.