I

Wor. And 'tis 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

290

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;
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.

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Hot. Uncle, adieu: O, let the hours be short
Till fields and blows and groans applaud our

sport!

[Exent

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 out of all cess.

Enter another Carrier.

Sec. Car. Peas and beans are as dank here as a dog, and that is the next way to give poor 10 jades the bots: 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.

1. "by the day"; in the morning.-C. H. H.

7. "poor jade, is wrung"; a rustic or uneducated omission of the pronoun. So at 1. 13 below.-C. H. H.

14. "price of oats"; the price of grain was very high in 1596; which may have put Shakespeare upon making poor Robin thus die of one idea.-H. N. H.

I

Sec. Car. I think this be the most villainous 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 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 ginger, to be delivered as far as Charingcross.

First Car. God's body! the turkeys in my pan

20

nier are quite starved. What, ostler! A 30 plague on thee! hast thou never an eye in thy head? canst not hear? An 'twere not as good deed as drink, to break the pate on thee, I am a very villain. Come, and be hanged! hast no faith in thee?

Enter Gadshill.

17. “tench”; Dr. Farmer thought tench a mistake for trout; the red spots of the trout having some resemblance to the spots on the skin of a flea-bitten person.-H. N. H.

19. "king christen"; Christian king.-C. H. H.

23. "chamber-lie"; urine.-C. H. H.

"breeds fleas"; it appears from a passage in Holland's translation of Pliny that anciently fishes were supposed to be infested with fleas. -H. N. H.

"a loach"; a fish.-C. H. H.

29. "turkeys

starved"; this is one of the Poet's anachronisms. Turkeys were not brought into England until the reign of Henry VIII.-H. N. H.

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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.

First Car. Nay, by God, soft; I know a trick 40 worth two of that, i' faith.

Gads. I pray thee, lend me thine.

Sec. Car. Aye, when? canst tell?

Lend me thy lantern, quoth he? marry, I'll see thee hanged first.

Gads. Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London?

Sec. Car. Time enough to go to bed with a can-
dle, I warrant thee. Come, neighbor Mugs,
we 'll call up the gentleman: they will along 50
with company, for they have great charge.
[Exeunt Carriers.

Gads. What, ho! chamberlain!
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 direc-
tion doth from laboring; thou layest the plot
how.

37. "I think it be two o'clock"; the Carrier has just said,—“An't be not four by the day, I'll be hang'd." Probably he suspects Gadshill, and tries to mislead him.-H. N. H.

43. "Aye, when? canst tell?"; a scoffing retort to an inconvenient or impertinent question.-C. H. H.

53. “At hand, quoth pick-purse"; a proverbial phrase for acknowledging a summons: "immediately."-C. H. H.

57. "thou layest the plot how"; thus in The Life and Death of Gamaliel Ratsey, 1605: "He dealt with the chamberlaine of the house, to learn which way they went in the morning, which the

I

Enter Chamberlain.

Cham. Good morrow, Master Gadshill. It holds current that I told you yesternight: 60 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 pray thee, keep that for the hangman; for I know thou worshipest Saint Nicholas as truly as a man of falsehood may.

Gads. What talkest thou to me of the hang

70

man? if I hang, I'll make a fat pair of gal-
lows; for if I hang, old Sir John hangs with
me, and thou knowest he is no starveling.
Tut! there are other Trojans that thou
dreamest not of, the which for sport sake are 80
content to do the profession some grace; that
would, if matters should be looked into, for
their own credit sake, make all whole. I am

chamberlaine performed accordingly, and that with great care and diligence, for he knew he should partake of their fortunes if they sped."-H. N. H.

61. "a franklin"; this was the Franklin of the age of Elizabeth.H. N. H.

67. “eggs and butter"; a frequent breakfast dish.—C. H. H.