Why, what a candy deal of courtesy

This fawning greyhound then did proffer me !
Look, "when his infant fortune came to age,"
And "gentle Harry Percy," and "kind cousin ;"
O, the devil take such cozeners! God forgive me!
Good uncle, tell your tale; I have done.

WOR. Nay, if you have not, to it again;
We will stay your leisure.

I have done, i' faith.

HOT.
WOR. Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.
Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
And make the Douglas' son your only mean

For powers in Scotland; which, for divers reasons
Which I shall send you written, be assured,

Will easily be granted. You, my lord, [To Northumberland.
Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd,

Shall secretly into the bosom creep

Of that same noble prelate, well beloved,
The archbishop.

HOT. Of York, is it not?

WOR. True; who bears hard

His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.

251 what... courtesy] what a deal of sugary courtesy. 261-262 mean For powers] means or agent for raising forces. 266–267 into the bosom creep Of] ingratiate yourself with.

271 His brother's ... Lord Scroop] Shakespeare adopts Holinshed's error of making "the Lord Scroop," William le Scrope, Earl of Wiltshire, whom Henry IV had executed at Bristol in 1399, a brother of Archbishop Scrope. Cf. Rich. II, III, ii, 141. They were very distant cousins.

260

270

I speak not this in estimation,

As what I think might be, but what I know
Is ruminated, plotted and set down,
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 is a-foot, thou still let'st slip.
HOT. Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot:
And then the power of Scotland and of York,
To join with Mortimer, ha?

WOR.
And so they shall.
HOT. In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd.
WOR. And 't is no little reason bids us speed,
To save our heads by raising of a head;
For, bear ourselves as even as we can,
The king will always think him in our debt,
And think we think ourselves unsatisfied,
Till he hath found a time to pay us home:
And see already how he doth begin
To make us strangers to his looks of love.

HOT. He does, he does: we'll be revenged 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;

272 in estimation] on conjecture, mere inference.

278 Before slip] These are hunting phrases. "Let slip" is applied

...

to letting hounds loose from their chains or leashes.

284 head] force, army.

292 Cousin] Kinsman; here nephew.

280

290

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.

301

EIGH-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 out of all

Enter another CARRIER

SEC. CAR. Peas and beans are as dank here as a dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the bots:

1 by the day] by the morning light.

2 Charles' wain] The popular name of the constellation called "Ursa Major" or Great Bear.

this house is turned upside down since Robin Ostler died.

FIRST CAR. Poor fellow, never joyed since the price of oats rose; it was the death of him.

SEC. CAR. I think this be the most villanous house in all London road for fleas : I am stung like a tench.

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 chamberlie breeds fleas like a loach.

5 beat Cut's saddle] Cut, properly a horse with a docked tail, was a term often bestowed on horses generally. Cf. Tw. Night, II, iii, 176: “call me cut," and infra, II, iv, 187: "call me horse." "Beat” here means "soften by beating."

5-6 put a few flocks in the point] put a few pieces of wool on the point of the saddle, where the leather galls the horse by its hardness.

6 is wrung in the withers] is galled at the back of the neck (where the shoulder-blades meet).

7 out of all cess] out of all measure.

8 dank... as a dog] moist as a sweating dog.

9 bots] worms.

14 stung like a tench] Elizabethan naturalists doubtfully asserted that many fishes, including the tench, were the habitual prey of insect parasites.

16 a king christen] Thus the Quarto. The Folios read, a king in Christendome.

18-19 jordan . . . leak . . . chimney] chamber-pot leak... . . . make water ... fireplace.

19 chamber-lie] urine.

20 like a loach] The loach, a very small fish, was credited with incalculably great reproductive power.

10

20