Man and wife are as one person, because they are one flesh and blood. A man may not grant nor give his tenements to his wife, during the coverture, for that his wife and he be but one person in law (Litt. S. 168). If a joint estate be made of land to a husband and wife and to a third person, in this case the husband and wife have in law in their right but the moiety, and the third person shall have as much as the husband and the wife, viz. the other moiety. And the cause is, for that the husband and wife are but one person in law, and are in like case as if an estate be made to two joint tenants, where the one hath by force of the jointure the one moiety in law, and the other the other moiety (Litt. S. 221): for the husband and wife are accounted to be one person in law, Duæ animæ in carne una (Lex divina, and see 4 Rep. 118). _Fal._ Of what quality was your love, then? _Ford._ Like a fair house, built upon another man’s ground; so that I have lost my edifice, by mistaking the place where I erected it. _Merry Wives of Windsor_, Act ii. Scene 2. _Quick._ Marry, sir, I come to your worship from Mistress Ford. _Fal._ Mistress Ford! I have had ford enough; I was thrown into the ford; I have my belly full of ford. _Quick._ Alas the day! good heart, that was not her fault: she does so take on with her men; they mistook their erection. _Fal._ So did I mine, to build upon a foolish woman’s promise. _Merry Wives of Windsor_, Act iii. Scene 5.