Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done. Hot. I have done, i'faith. Wor. Then once more to your Scottish prisoners. Deliver them up without their ransome straight, And make the Douglas' son your only mean For powers in Scotland; which, for divers rea sons, Which I shall send you written,—be assur'd, [To NORTHUMberland. Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd,- Of that same noble prelate, well belov❜d, Hot. Of York, is't not? Wor. True; who bears hard His brother's death at Bristol, the lord Scroop. 8 As what I think might be, but what I know And only stays but to behold the face Of that occasion that shall bring it on. Hot. I smell it; upon my life, it will do well. North. Before the game's a-foot, thou still let'st slip.9 Hot. Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot: And then the power of Scotland, and of York,— Wor. I speak not this in estimation,] Estimation for conjecture. To save our heads by raising of a head:1 To make us strangers to his looks of love. Hot. He does, he does; we'll be reveng❜d on him. Wor. Cousin, farewell;-No further go in this, Than I by letters shall direct your course. When time is ripe, (which will be suddenly,) I'll steal to Glendower, and lord Mortimer; Where you and Douglas, and our powers at once, (As I will fashion it,) shall happily meet, To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms, Which now we hold at much uncertainty. North. Farewell, good brother: we shall thrive, I trust. Hot. Uncle, adieu:-O, let the hours be short, Till fields, and blows, and groans applaud our sport! [Exeunt. 1 by raising of a head:] A head is a body of forces. 2 The king will always, &c.] This is a natural description of the state of mind between those that have conferred, and those that have received obligations too great to be satisfied. 3 Cousin,] This was a common address in our author's time to nephews, nieces, and grandchildren. ACT II. SCENE I. Rochester. An Inn Yard. Enter a Carrier, with a Lantern in his hand. 1 Car. Heigh ho! An't be not four by the day, I'll be hanged: Charles' wain' is over the new chimney, and yet our horse not packed. What, ostler! Ost. [Within.] Anon, anon. 1 Car. I pr'ythee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle,' put a few flocks in the point; the poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cess." Enter another Carrier. 7 2 Car. Pease and beans are as dank here as a dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the bots: this house is turned upside down, since Robin ostler died. 1 Car. Poor fellow! never joyed since the price of oats rose; it was the death of him. 2 Car. I think, this be the most villainous house in all London road for fleas: I am stung like a tench. 1 Car. Like a tench? by the mass, there is ne'er a king in Christendom could be better bit than I have been since the first cock. Charles' wain-] Charles's wain is the vulgar name given to the constellation called the Bear. It is a corruption of the Chorles or Churls wain (Sax. ceoɲl, a countryman.) 5 Cut's saddle,] Cut is the name of a horse in The Witches of Lancashire, 1634, and, probably, a common one. 6 out of all cess.] i. e. out of all measure: the phrase being taken from a cess, tax, or subsidy. 7 —as dank-] i. e. wet, rotten. bots:] Are worms in the stomach of a horse. 2 Car. Why, they will allow us ne'er a jorden, and then we leak in your chimney; and your chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach." 1 Car. What, ostler! come away and be hanged, come away. 2 Car. I have a gammon of bacon, and two razes of ginger, to be delivered as far as Charing cross. 1 Car. 'Odsbody! the turkies in my pannier are quite starved.-What, ostler!-A plague on thee! hast thou never an eye in thy head? canst not hear? An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to break the pate of thee, I am a very villain.-Come, and be hanged:-Hast no faith in thee? Enter GADSHILL.1 Gads. Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock? 1 Car. I think it be two o'clock. Gads. I pr'ythee, lend me thy lantern, to see my gelding in the stable. 1 Car. Nay, soft, I pray ye; I know a trick worth two of that, i'faith. Gads. I pr'ythee, lend me thine. 2 Car. Ay, when? canst tell?-Lend me thy lantern, quoth a?-marry, I'll see thee hanged first. Gads. Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London. 2 Car. Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant thee.-Come, neighbour Mugs, we'll call up the gentlemen; they will along with company, for they have great charge. Exeunt Carriers. 9 Gads. What, ho! chamberlain! breeds fleas like a loach.] i. e. as a loach breeds. The loach is a very small fish, but so exceedingly prolifick, that it is seldom found without spawn in it. 1 Gadshill.] This thief receives his title from a place on the Kentish road, where many robberies have been committed. VOL. V. T Cham. [Within.] At hand, quoth pick-purse. Gads. That's even as fair as-at hand, quoth the chamberlain: for thou variest no more from picking of purses, than giving direction doth from labouring; thou lay'st the plot how. Enter Chamberlain. Cham. Good-morrow, master Gadshill. It holds current, that I told you yesternight: There's a franklin' in the wild of Kent, hath brought three hundred marks with him in gold: I heard him tell it to one of his company, last night at supper; a kind of auditor; one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what. They are up already, and call for eggs and butter: They will away presently. Gads. Sirrah, if they meet not with saint Nicholas' clerks, I'll give thee this neck. Cham. No, I'll none of it: I pr'ythee, keep that for the hangman; for, I know, thou wor At hand, quoth pick-purse.] This is a proverbial expression often used by Green, Nashe, and other writers of the time, in whose works the cant of low conversation is preserved. 3 -franklin —] is a little gentleman, perhaps an opulent freeholder. Fortescue, says the editor of The Canterbury Tales, Vol. IV. p. 202, (de L. L. Ang. c. xxix.) describes a franklain to be pater familias-magnis ditatus possessionibus. He is classed with (but after) the miles and armiger; and is distinguished from the Libere tenentes and valecti; though, as it should seem, the only real distinction between him and other freeholders, consisted in the largeness of his estate. Spelman, in voce Franklein, quotes the following passage from Trivet's French Chronicle. (MSS. Bibl. R: S. n. 56.) "Thomas de Brotherton filius Edwardi I. marescallus Angliæ, apres la mort de son pere esposa la fille de un Franchelyn apelee Alice." The historian did not think it worth his while even to mention the name of the Frankelein. REED. 4 saint Nicholas' clerks,] St. Nicholas was the patron saint of scholars; and Nicholas, or old Nick, is a cant name for the devil. Hence he equivocally calls robbers, St. Nicholas' clerks. |