Osw. Why, then I care not for thee. Kent. If I had thee in Lipsbury pinfold,1 I would make thee care for me. Osw. Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not. Kent. Fellow, I know thee. Osw. What dost thou know me for? Kent. A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundredpound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; 3 one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch: one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.4 Osw. Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one that is neither known of thee nor knows thee! Kent. What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny thou know'st me? Is it two days since I tripped up thy heels, and beat thee, before the king? Draw, you rogue: for, though it be night, yet the moon shines; I'll make a sop o' 1 Lipsbury pinfold.] A pinfold is a pound for cattle; but what Lipsbury pinfold refers to has not been ascertained. 2 Three-suited, &c.] A dependent hired for three suits of clothes and a hundred pounds. The phrase a hundred-pound gentleman was a cant name for one who, with very limited means, affected to be a gentleman. 3 Lily-livered,' &c.] Falstaff says, 'The liver white and pale is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice.'-2 Henry IV. iv. 3. Actiontaking refers to one who would bring an action for assault rather than show the resentment of a man of courage. One-trunk-inheriting means possessing no other furniture than a trunk that holds all his goods. • Thy addition.] Thy descriptive titles. the moonshine1 of you, you whoreson cullionly barbermonger.2 Draw. [Drawing his sword. Osw. Away! I have nothing to do with thee. Kent. Draw, you rascal: you come with letters against the king, and take vanity the puppet's3 part, against the royalty of her father. Draw, you rogue, or I'll so carbonado 4 your shanks :—draw, you rascal! come your ways. Osw. Help, hó! murder! help! Kent. Strike, you slave! stand, rogue! stand, you neat slave !5 strike! [Beating him. Osw. Help, ho! murder! murder ! Enter EDMUND, CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOSTER, and Servants. Edm. How now! What's the matter? Part. Kent. With you, goodman boy, if you please; come, I'll flesh you; 6 come on, young master. Glo. Weapons! arms! What's the matter here? He dies that strikes again! What is the matter? 1 Sop o' the moonshine.] 'It is certain,' says Douce, 'that an equivoque is here intended, by an allusion to the old dish of eggs in moonshine, which was eggs broken and boiled in salad oil till the yolks became hard. They were eaten with slices of onions fried in oil, butter, verjuice, nutmeg, and salt.' 2 Cullionly barber-monger.] A cullion is a scoundrel; a barbermonger is one who haunts barbers' shops for news. 3 Vanity the puppet.] The vanity that mimics greatness. 4 Carbonado.] Hack or slice. Then made they ready store of carbonadoes, or rashers on the coals.'--Rabelais, i. 41. 5 You neat slave.] A quibbling allusion to neat, i.e. spruce, and neat-herd or cattle servant. I'll flesh you.] I'll stir your valour. Kent. No marvel, you have so bestirred your valour. You cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee; a tailor made thee. Corn. Thou art a strange fellow: a tailor make a man? Kent. A tailor, sir: a stone-cutter or a painter could not have made him so ill, though they had been but two hours at the trade. Corn. Speak yet, how grew your quarrel? Osw. This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spared at suit of his grey beard 2 Kent. Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter ! 3 -My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of a jakes with him.-Spare my grey beard, you wagtail? Corn. Peace, sirrah! You beastly knave, know you no reverence? Kent. Yes, sir; but anger hath a privilege. Corn. Why art thou angry ? Kent. That such a slave as this should wear a sword, Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these, Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwain 6 Which are too intrinse 5 t' unloose: smooth every passion That in the natures of their lords rebels; Bring oil to fire, snow to their colder moods; A tailor, sir.] The saying is well known-' It takes nine tailors to make a man.' 2 At suit of his grey beard.] Moved with pity by his grey beard. 3 Zed.] Here denoting the lowest letter, and a superfluous one; 'Its place,' says Stevens, may be supplied by S, and the Roman alphabet has it not.' Unbolted.] Unrefined, coarse like unsifted meal. 5 Intrinse.] Intrinsecate, i.e. involved, entangled. Lat. intrin secus. Smooth.] Caress, encourage. Renege,1 affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks 2 Kent. No contraries hold more antipathy, Corn. Why dost thou call him knave? What is his fault? Kent. His countenance likes me not. Corn. No more, perchance, does mine, nor his, nor hers. Kent. Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain; I have seen better faces in my time, 1 Renege.] To renege or reneye is an Anglo-Norman word, meaning to renounce or abjure. For we reneyed Mahound our creance.' -Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale. 2 Turn their halcyon beaks.] The halcyon is the king-fisher. 'The vulgar opinion was, that this bird, if hung up, would vary with the wind, and by that means show from what point it blew.'--Steevens. Epileptic.] Idiotic, like the expression of the countenance in epilepsy. Camelot.] By this name the poet probably refers to Winchester, which appears to have been noted for the breeding of geese. It was one of the places where King Arthur kept his Round Table; but Camelot is more frequently referred to Wales. Drayton, in his Heroical Epistles (Q. Catharine), says :-- 'And Wales, as well as haughty England, boasts Of Camilot and all her Pentecosts:' where, as a note informs us, he refers to 'Camilot, the ancient palace of King Arthur, to which place all the knights of that famous order yearly repaired at Pentecost, according to the law of the Table.' Than stands on any shoulder that I see Before me at this instant. Corn. This is some fellow, Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect A saucy roughness, and constrains the garb These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness Than twenty silly ducking observants 2 That stretch their duties nicely.3 Kent. Sir, in good faith, in sincere verity, Under the allowance of your great aspect, Whose influence, like the wreath of radiant fire Corn. What mean'st by this? Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you discommend so much. I know, sir, I am no flatterer: he that beguiled you in a plain accent, was a plain knave: which, for my part, I will not be, though I should win your displeasure to entreat me to it. Corn. What was the offence you gave him? Osw. I never gave him any. It pleased the king his master, very late, To strike at me, upon his misconstruction; When he, conjunct, and flattering his displeasure, 1 Constrains the garb, &c.] Strains the manner beyond its proper character. 2 Ducking observants.] To duck, literally to dip the head, is to make an obeisance; an observant is an obsequious attendant. In K. Rich. III. i. 3, Gloster says he cannot duck with French nods and apish courtesy.' 3 Nicely.] According to punctilio; with strict ceremony. D |