Serv. He is, my lord, an hour ago. Hot. Hath Butler brought those horses from the sheriff? Hot. What horse? a roan, a crop-ear, is it not? Hot. That roan shall be my throne. Well, I will back him straight: O esperance 18 Bid Butler lead him forth into the park. Lady. But hear you, my lord. Hot. What say'st thou, my lady? Lady. What is it carries you away? Hot. Why, my horse, my love, my horse. A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen I'll know your business, Harry, that I will. To line 10 his enterprise : but if you go, Hot. So far a-foot, I shall be weary, love. [Exit Servant. Lady. Come, come, you paraquito,11 answer me Directly to this question that I ask : In faith, I'll break thy little finger, Harry, An if thou wilt not tell me true. 8 Esperance was the motto of the Percy family. The word is French, and means hope. Here it is three syllables; later in the play it is four. 9 As the spleen was held to be the special seat of all sudden and explosive emotions, whether of mirth or anger; so it is aptly assigned here as the cause of Hotspur's skittishness, or the swift jerks of speech and action which he is playing off. 10 The Poet has line repeatedly for strengthen. So in Macbeth, i. 3: "Did line the rebel with hidden help and vantage." 11 Paraquito is a small parrot; also called perroquet and parakeet. Away, you trifler! Love? I love thee not, And pass them current too.13 — Gods me, my horse! Lady. Do you not love me? do you not, indeed? I will not love myself. Do you not love me? Hot. Come, wilt thou see me ride? Whither I must, I must; and, to conclude, Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know; Lady. How! so far? Hot. Not an inch further. But hark you, Kate: 12 Mammets were puppets or dolls, here used by Shakespeare for a female plaything; a diminutive of mam. So in Junius's Nomenclator, 1585: "Icunculæ, mammets or puppets that goe by devises of wyer or strings, as though they had life and moving." 13 A play, of course, between the two senses of crowns, that is, heads, and the coin so named. A crack in a coin sometimes made it uncurrent; and it might be big enough to make a head so too. Whither I go, thither shall you go too; Lady. It must of force. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Eastcheap. A Room in the Boar's-Head Tavern. Enter Prince HENRY. Prince. Ned, pr'ythee, come out of that fat room,2 and lend me thy hand to laugh a little. Enter POINTZ. Pointz. Where hast been, Hal? Prince. With three or four loggerheads 3 amongst three or fourscore hogsheads. I have sounded the very base-string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by their Christian names, as, Tom, 1 Eastcheap is selected with propriety for the scene of the Prince's merry meetings, as it was near his own residence; a mansion called Cold Harbour, near All-Hallows Church, Upper Thames Street, being granted to Henry, Prince of Wales. Shakespeare has hung up a sign for them that he saw daily; for the Boar's-Head Tavern was very near Blackfriars' Playhouse. 2 It does not well appear what room Pointz was in, or why it is called fat. To be sure, fat and vat were both used for what we call wine-vats. So in Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 7: "Come, thou monarch of the vine! in thy fats our cares be drown'd," &c. But, so, a fat-room would be in a place where wine was made, not in a tavern where it was drunk. See Critical Notes. 3 Loggerheads probably means blockheads. 4 Leash is properly a string or thong for leading a dog; and it came to signify a trio, because three dogs were usually coupled together. Dick, and Francis. They take it already upon their salvation, that though I be but Prince of Wales, yet I am the king of courtesy; and tell me flatly I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff, but a corinthian,5 a lad of mettle, a good boy,—by the Lord, so they call me; and, when I am King of England, I shall command all the good lads in Eastcheap. They call drinking deep, dying scarlet; and, when you breathe in your watering,6 they cry hem! and bid you play it off. To conclude, I am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour, that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou hast lost much honour, that thou wert not with me in this action. But, sweet Ned, - to sweeten which name of Ned, I give thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapp'd even now into my hand by an under-skinker ; one that never spake other English in his life than Eight shillings and sixpence, and, You are welcome; with this shrill addition, Anon, anon, sir! Score a pint of bastard in the Half-moon, 5 Corinthian and Trojan appear to have been a sort of flash terms in use among the fast young men of the time. Corinthian probably had some reference to the morals of ancient Corinth. Milton, in his Apology for Smectymnus, speaks of "the sage and rheumatic old prelatess, with all her Corinthian laity." 6 To breathe in your watering is to stop and take breath when you are drinking. So in Rowland's Letting of Humour's Blood, 1600: A pox of piece-meal drinking, William says, Play it away, we'll have no stoppes and stays. Also in Peacham's Compleat Gentleman: "If he dranke off his cups cleanely, took not his wind in his draught, spit not, left nothing in the pot, nor spilt any upon the ground, he had the prize." 7 It appears that the drawers kept sugar folded up in paper, ready to be delivered to those who called for sack.—An under-skinker is a tapster, an under-drawer. Skink is from scenc, drink; Saxon. 8 Half-moon is used as the name of a room in the tavern; and so is Pomegranate a little after.- Score was a term for keeping accounts, when or so. But, Ned, to drive away the time till Falstaff come, I pr'ythee, do thou stand in some by-room, while I question my puny drawer to what end he gave me the sugar; and do thou never leave calling Francis! that his tale to me may be nothing but anon. Step aside, and I'll show thee a precedent.9 [Exit POINTZ. Pointz. [Within.] Francis! Pointz. [Within.] Francis! Enter FRANCIS. Fran. Anon, anon, sir. - Look down into the Pomegran ate, Ralph. Prince. Come hither, Francis. Fran. My lord? Prince. How long hast thou to serve, Francis? Fran. Forsooth, five years, and as much as to — Fran. Anon, anon, sir. Prince. Five years! by'r Lady,10 a long lease for the clinking of pewter.11 But, Francis, darest thou be so valiant as to play the coward with thy indenture, and show it a fair pair of heels and run from it? Fran. O Lord, sir, I'll be sworn upon all the books in England, I could find in my heart Pointz. [Within.] Francis! Fran. Anon, anon, sir. tally-sticks were in use. Bastard, it seems, was the name of a certain wine. In the Half-moon refers to the person occupying that room. 9 A precedent here means an example or specimen. 10" By our Lady" was a common oath; referring to Saint Mary the Virgin. 11 Probably meaning pewter cups for serving wine. |