And see already how he doth begin To make us strangers to his looks of love. Than I by letters shall direct your course. To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms, 290 295 North. Farewell, good brother: we shall thrive, I trust. Till fields and blows and groans applaud our sport! 300 [Exeunt. 293, 294. course. When... suddenly,] Capell (subst.); course When · suddenly, Q1;_course. When suddenly: Qq 2-8, Ff 1-3; course; When suddenly, F 4, Rowe, Theobald. 295. Lord] Lo: Q1; to Q 8; loe, or 301. the] omitted Ff 2-4. 302. groans] groues Qq lo, the rest. 7, 8. 302 Exeunt.] Exit. F. 294. suddenly] at once, immediately, as in III. iii. 5 fost; and Beaumont and Fletcher, The Island Princess, 111. iii: "Your magazine's a-fire, sir; help, help suddenly!" ACT II SCENE I.-Rochester. An Inn Yard. Enter a Carrier with a lantern in his hand. First Car. Heigh-ho! an it 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. First Car. I prithee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point; poor jade, is wrung in the withers "In bed at morwe . . Me thocht Aurora, with her crys- In at the window lukit by the day, And halsit me.' "By the day" is an archaic expression, introduced, perhaps, to mark the rustic speech of the carriers. "By the day' or "by this day," like "by the week," was a mild imprecation in every-day use. Mr. Craig suggested to me that "by the day" may be a parallel expres sion to by the clock," meaning to judge by the appearance of the day." 66 2. Charles' wain] the seven stars in Ursa Major, called also the Plough. Cotgrave: "Ours: ... also the Northerlie starres called Charles Waine," and Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, iii: "the two Stars in Charles' Wain never leave pointing at the PoleStar." 3. What, ostler] I say, ostler! 5 4. Within] I. an it] an 't Ff. 6. jade, is] Cambridge; iade "What" is an exclamation of impatience, as often. See 5. Cut's] A pet name frequently given to a "curtal" or docked horse. See Heywood, The Witches of Lancashire, 1. i: "I must spur Cutt the faster for 't"; and Munday, Drayton, Wilson and Hathaway, Life of Sir John Oldcastle, 1. ii: Let me spose my men: Tom upon cutte, Dicke upon hobbe, Hodge upon Ball," etc. "Cut" is an abbreviation of "curtal." Minshew, Guide into Tongues; "a Curtall horse without a taile pourceque il est court de queue and Greene, Life and Death of Ned Browne (Grosart, xi. pp. 1, 18): "I could ride him one part of the day like a goodly Gelding with a large Tayle hanging to his feetlockes, and the other part of the day I could make him a Cut, for I had an artificiall taile so cunningly counterfeited, that the Ostler, when hee drest him coulde not perceiue it." 5, 6. fut... point] put a few locks or tufts of wool in the pommel of the saddle. Cotgrave: "Floc de laine. A locke, or flocke of wooll." 6. poor jade, is] So Cambridge editors, noting that here and in line 12 post either the article or the pronoun was Enter another Carrier. Sec. Car. Peas and beans are as dank here as a dog, and Sec. Car. I think this be the most villanous house in all ΙΟ 15 12. fellow,] Cambridge; 10. Ostler] the Ostler Ff. 9. that] this Ff. fellow? Capell; fellow Qq, Ff. intentionally omitted in order to give rusticity to the carriers' language. F supplies the article in the former passage-the poor Iade is, though it omits it in the latter-Poor fellow, never. Qq read poor iade is. 6, 7. wrung cess] galled excessively on the ridge between the shoulder bones by the saddle. For "out of all cess," immoderately, see Cotgrave: “Sans cesse . . . excessively, immoderately, out of all cesse and crie"; and cf. the parallel expressions "out of all ""out of all measure," compass,' 99 66 out of all suit,' ," "out of all cry," "out of all ho," ""out of all speech.' "Cess" = assessment; cf. North's Plutarch, Marcus Cato: "It was their office also, to cess and rate every citizen according to the estimation of their goods.' 8. dank] damp, and therefore mouldy and unfit for food. "As dank as a dog' is as meaningless as most other alliterative similes. Cf. the collection of similes in Appius and Virginia, 1575 (Hazlitt's Dodsley, iv. 118). Dyce quotes from Taylor, The World runnes on Wheeles: "Í haue heard a Man say, I am as hot as a Dogge, or, as colde as a Dogge; I sweat like a Dogge (when indeed a Dogge neuer sweates), as drunke as a Dogge." 9. next way] nearest, shortest way, the best way. Cf. Hickscorner (Hazlitt's Dodsley, i. 194); "Then to heaven ye shall go the next way"; and The Parson's Wedding, III. v (Hazlitt's Dodsley, xiv. 456). 9. bots] worms in the stomach and intestines of a horse. G. Markham (Maister-Peece of Farriery, 1615) de scribes the bots as "little short wormes with great read heads, and long white tails" and says that they are "ingendred by foule and naughty feeding." Blundevill (The foure chiefest Offices belonging to Horsemanship, 1580) attributes the bots to the same cause. See also Holland's Plinie, XXVIII. xi. Reginald Scot (Discoverie of Witchcraft, ed. 1584, p. 248) cites a charm for the bots in a horse: "I conjure thee, O worme that thou neither eat nor drink the flesh blood or bones of this horse." The bots are now known to be the larvæ of a dipterous fly which become attached to leaves and are swallowed by the horse. 10. Robin Ostler] In Munday, Drayton, Wilson and Hathaway, The Life of Sir John Oldcastle, the ostler is summoned by a carrier; "Ho! John Hostler." 12, 13. never... rose] Cf. Heywood, The Fair Maid of the West, 1. i: "Bess. How long is't since he died? Clem. Marry, the last dear year; for when corn grew to be at a high rate, my father never doughed after. See Introd. p. x. 15. stung like a tench] Perhaps an allusion to a parasite, which infests loach and tench, and which is well known to anglers as the common carplouse. Ellacombe (Shakespeare as an Angler) thinks the reference may be to the once popular notion "that tench, in sucking from each other the slimy substance secreted on their scales, were biting and-nibbling at each other." Malone suggests that "the similitude consists in the spots of the tench, and those made by the bite of vermin." First Car. Like a tench! by the mass, there is ne'er a king christen could be better bit than I have been since the first cock. Sec. Car. Why, they will allow us ne'er a jordan, and then we leak in your chimney; and your chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach. First Car. What, ostler! come away and be hanged! come away. Sec. Car. I have a gammon of bacon and two razes of 20 25 19. 17. christen] in Christendome Ff. 26. God's body] omitted Ff. 26. pannier] panniers 16. by the mass] omitted Ff. they] you Qq 5-8, Ff. Ff 2-4. 16, 17. a king christen] a Christian king, as opposed to "paynim kings." Nashe, Works (Grosart, ii. 222): "all christen souls." F reads a king in Christendome. Dekker, Old Fortunatus (Pearson, i. 163): "I care not for any king in Christendome"; and T. Cooper, An Admonition (Arber, p. 98): "the Princes Catholike in christendom." 20. leak in your chimney] For "leak " cf. S. Rowlands, The Knave of Clubs, 1609 (Hunterian Club ed., ii); and J. Howell, English Proverbs (ed. 1659, p. 12). Chimney, fireplace or hearth, as in Cymbeline, II. iv. 80, and Milton's L'Allegro. A. Borde, whose ideas of sanitation were in advance of his age, condemns the practice referred to in the text (Dyetary of Helth, 1542, Early Eng. Text. Soc. ed., pp. 236, 237). See also Overbury, Characters, Newes from the Chimney corner. 21. breeds fleas like a loach] Steevens quotes Holland's Plinie (Bk. IX. ch. xlvii) to prove the existence of a belief that "some fishes there be, which of themselves are given to breed fleas and lice." Ellacombe thinks the reference is simply to the fecundity of the loach. See Badham, Prose Halieutics, p. 278. The same explanation is given by M. Mason, and has the approval of Malone. Warburton conjectured loch for loach, and Coleridge leach. Coleridge suggested also that "loach" or "lutch may be some lost word for dovecote, notorious for breeding fleas. 22. come away] come hither, as in Twelfth Night, II. iv. 52. 24, 25. razes of ginger] roots of ginger, and not, as. Theobald explains, bales of ginger. O.F. raiz, Lat. radicem, a root. New Eng. Dict. quotes Borde, Breviarie of Health, 1547: "Take and eate a race of grene ginger." Ginger was considered to be 66 expullsitive in two degrees," and "a great comfort to the hart" (A Lookingglas, 1. ii). The "two razes of ginger" were, no doubt, a trifling gift sent by some one in the country to a friend in London. In the History of Thomas, Lord Cromwell, 1602, a "race of ginger" is among the gifts from his servant in England conveyed by Hodge to his master in the Low Countries. Cf. Jonson, The Gipsies Metamorphosed (Cunningham's Gifford, iii. p. 154): "Prudence. They have robbed me too of a dainty race of ginger"; and Lodge and Greene, A Looking-glas for London and England (pr. 1594), 11. iï. Ale, toast, nutmeg and ginger were the ingredients of a "pot of ale." In The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth Dericke, one of the carriers who has been robbed, says: "hee hath beaten and wounded my packe, and hath taken the great rase of ginger, that bouncing Bess should haue had.' quite starved. What, ostler! A plague on thee! Enter GADSHILL. Come, and be 30 Gads. Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock ? First Car. I think it be two o'clock. Gads. I prithee, lend me thy lantern, to see my gelding in the stable. 35 First Car. Nay, by God, soft; I know a trick worth two of that, i' faith. Gads. I pray thee, lend me thine. Sec. Car. Ay, when? canst tell? Lend me thy lantern, Gads. Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to Sec. Car. Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I 40 29. An] Pope; And Qq, Ff. 29. good] Qq 1-3; good a the rest. 30. on] Qq 1-4; of the rest. 32, 33. o'] Theobald; a Qq, Ff. 34. lantern] lantherne Qq 5, 6; Lanthorne Q 7, Ff. 36. by God, soft] Qq 7, 8; by God soft Qq 1-6; soft I pray ye Ff. 37. i'faith] omitted Ff. 38. pray thee] Qq 1, 2; prethee the rest. 39. when?] Qq 7, 8; when Q1; when, the rest. 39. lantern] Lanthorne or Lanthorn Ff. 40. quoth he !] (quoth he) Qq; (quoth-a) Ff; quoth a! Rowe; quoth a? Capell; quoth he? Cambridge. 28. hast head?] A common expression. See N. Breton, Crossing of Proverbs, 1616, Part II.: "Prov. Hee that hath his eyes in his head wil looke about him"; and Nashe, Pierce Penilesse, his Supplication to the Divell (McKerrow, i. 208): "never an eye in your head to lead you over the threshould." 29. as good... drink] Proverbial. Cf. Twelfth Night, 11. iii. 135: ""Twere as good a deed as to drink when a man's a-hungry." 36. soft] gently, go easy. 36, 37. I know... that] A common saying. 39. Ay, when? canst tell?] A scoffing retort-used to parry an inconvenient request. So in Heywood, A Mayden-head well lost, 11. i: Moun sieur. Your bottle quickly sirrah, come I say. Clowne. Yes, when? can you tell? doe you thinke I am such an Asse, to part so lightly with my liquor." Cf. Comedy of Errors, III. i. 52, and Jonson, The Case is Altered, v. i: "You wait for Rachel too: when! can you tell ? " 43. Time... candle] A proverbial saying. Cf. Cooke, Greene's Tu Quoque (Hazlitt's Dodsley, vii. 91): " time to go to church, and not a man unroosted: this age has not seen a young gallant rise with a candle," and Sir Gyles Goosecappe, ii (Bullen, Old English Plays, iii. 40): "glowe wormes; whose lights a has so perfectly done, that you may goe to bed in the Chamber without a Candle." |