صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

North. Why, what a wasp-tongu'd and impatient

fool

Art thou, to break into this woman's mood;
Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own?

Hot. Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourg'd with rods,

Nettled, and ftung with pifmires, when I hear
Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.

In Richard's time-what do ye call the place?-
A plague upon't!-it is in Gloftershire

'Twas where the mad-cap duke his uncle kept,
His uncle York-where I firft bow'd my knee
Unto this king of fmiles, this Bolingbroke,
When you and he came back from Ravenspurg.
North. At Berkley-castle.

Hot. You fay true

Why what a candy'd deal of courtesy

This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
Look, when his infant fortune came to age-

And, gentle Harry Percy-and, kind coufin

The devil take fuch cozeners !-God forgive me! Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done.

Wor. Nay, if you have not, to't again;

We'll stay your leifure.

Hot. I have done, i̇'faith.

Wor. Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.

[To Hotspur.

Deliver them without their ranfom ftraight,

And make the Douglas' fon your only mean
For
powers in Scotland; which, for divers reafons
Which I fhall fend you written, be affur'd,

Will eafily be granted.-You, my lord— [To North.
Your fon in Scotland being thus employ’d—

Shall fecretly into the bofom creep

Of that fame noble prelate, well belov'd,
The archbishop.

[ocr errors]

- infant fortune came to age,] Alluding to what paffed in King Richard, at 2. fc. 3. JOHNSON.

Hot.

Hot. Of York, is't not?

Wor. True, who bears hard

His brother's death at Bristol, the lord Scroop.
2 I fpeak not this in eftimation,

As what, I think, might be, but what, I know,
Is ruminated, plotted, and fet down;
And only stays but to behold the face
Of that occafion that fhall bring it on.

Hot. I fmell it: upon my life, it will do well.
North. Before the game's a-foot, thou still 3 lett'st
flip.

Hot. Why, it cannot chufe but be a noble plotAnd then the power of Scotland, and of York, To join with Mortimer-Ha!

Wor. And fo they fhall.

Hot. In faith, it is exceedingly well-aim'd. Wor. And 'tis no little reafon bids us speed To fave our heads, 4 by raising of a head: For, bear ourfelves as even as we can,

5 The king will always think him in our debt;

And

2 I speak not this in eftimation,] Eftimation for conjecture. But between this and the foregoing verfe it appears there were fome lines which are now loft. For, confider the fenfe. What was it that was ruminated, plotted, and fet down? Why, as the text ftands at prefent, that the archbishop bore his brother's death hardly. It is plain then that they were fome confequences of that refentment which the fpeaker informs Hotspur of, and to which his conclufion of, I speak not this by conjecture but on good proof, must be referred. But fome player, I fuppofe, thinking the fpeech too long, ftruck them out. WARBURTON.

If the editor had, before he wrote his note, read ten lines forward, he would have feen that nothing is omitted. Worcefter gives a dark hint of a confpiracy. Hotfpur fmells it, that is, gueffes it. Northumberland reproves him for not fuffering Worcefter to tell his defign. Hotfpur, according to the vehemence of his temper, ftill follows his own conjecture. JOHNS. lett'ft flip. To let flip is, to loofe the greyhound.

3

JOHNSON. by raifing of a head :] A head is a body of forces. JOHNSON.

5 The king will always, &c.] This is a natural defcription

of

And think, we think ourselves unfatisfy'd,
Till he hath found a time to pay us home.
And fee already, how he doth begin

To make us ftrangers to his looks of love.

Hot. He does, he does; we'll be reveng'd on him.
Wor. Coufin, farewell.-No further go in this,
Than I by letters fhall direct your courfe.
When time is ripe (which will be fuddenly)
I'll fteal to Glendower, and lord Mortimer;
Where you and Douglas, and our powers at once
(As I will fashion it) fhall happily meet,

To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms,
Which now we hold at much uncertainty.

North. Farewell, good brother: we fhall thrive, I trust.

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

[Exeunt.

ACT II. SCENE I.

H

An inn at Rochefter.

Enter a carrier with a lanthorn in his hand.

I CARRIER.

EIGH ho! an't be not four by the day, I'll be hang'd. Charles' wain is over the new chimney,

and yet our horfe not packt. What, oftler!

Oft. [within.] Anon, anon.

of the ftate of mind between thofe that have conferred, and thofe that have received, obligations too great to be fatisfied.

That this would be the event of Northumberland's disloyalty was predicted by king Richard in the former play.

JOHNSON.

1

1 Car,

1 Car. I pr'ythee, Tom, beat Cut's faddle, put a few flocks in the point: the poor jade is wrung in the withers, out of all cefs.

I

Enter another carrier.

2 Car. Peafe and beans are 2 as dank here as a dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the 3 bots: this house is turn'd upfide down, fince Robin oftler dy'd.

1 Car. Poor fellow never joy'd fince the price of oats rofe: it was the death of him.

2 Car. I think this be the most villainous house in all London road for fleas: I am ftung like a tench.

1 Car. Like a tench? by the mafs, there's ne'er a king in Chriftendom could be better bit than I have been fince the first cock.

2 Car. Why, they will allow us ne'er a jourden, and then we leak in your chimney: and your chamber-lie breeds fleas 4 like a loach.

I Car. What, oftler!-Come away, and be hang'd,

come away.

2 Car. I have a gammon of bacon, 5 and two razes of ginger, to be delivered as far as Charing-cross.

1

out of all cefs.] The Oxford Editor not understanding this phrafe, has alter'd it to-out of all cafe. As if it were likely that a blundering tranfcriber fhould change fo common a word as cafe for cefs: which, it is probable, he understood no more than this critic; but it means out of all measure: the phrafe being taken from a cefs, tax, or fubfidy; which being by regular and moderate rates, when any thing was exorbitant, or out of measure, it was faid to be, out of all ce/s. WARBURT. —as dank-] i. e. wet, rotten. POPE.

2

3-bots:-] Are worms in the ftomach of a horfe. JOHNSON. A bots light upon you is an imprecation frequently repeated in the play of Henry V. already quoted. STEEVENS.

4

like a loach.] A loch (Scotch) a lake. WARBURT. 5--and two razes of ginger,-] As our author in feveral paffages mentions a race of ginger, I thought proper to distinguish it from the raze mentioned here. The former fignifies no more than a fingle root of it; but a raze is the Indian term for a bale of it. THEOBALD.

1 Car. 'Odfbody! the turkies in my panniers are quite starv'd.-What, oftler! a plague on thee! haft thou never an eye in thy head? canft 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 hang'd:Haft no faith in thee?

Enter Gads-bill.

Gads. Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock?
Car. 6 I think it be two o'clock.

Gads. I pr'ythee lend me thy lanthorn, to fee my gelding in the ftable.

I Car. Nay, foft, I pray ye; I know a trick worth two of that, i'faith.

Gads. I pr'ythee lend me thine.

2 Car. Ay, when? canft tell?-lend me thy lanthorn, quoth a!-marry, I'll fee thee hang'd 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 Mugges, we'll call up the gentlemen; they will along with company, for they have great charge. [Exeunt Carriers.

Enter Chamberlain.

Gads. What, ho, chamberlain!

Cham. 7 At hand, quoth pick-purse.

Gads. That's even as fair, as at hand, quoth the chamberlain for thou varieft no more from picking of purses, than giving direction doth from labouring. Thou lay'ft the plot how.

"I think it be tavo o'clock.] The carrier, who fufpected Gadshill, ftrives to mislead him as to the hour, because the firft observation made in this fcene is, that it was four o'clock.

STEEVENS. At hand, quoth pick-purse.] This is a proverbial expreffion often used by Green, Nash, and other writers of the time, in whofe works the cant of low converfation is preferved.

VOL. V.

R

STEEVENS..

Cham.

« السابقةمتابعة »