Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
And pluck up drowned honour by the locks;
So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear,
Without corrival, all her dignities:

But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship 18!

Wor. He apprehends a world of figures 19 here, But not the form of what he should attend.— Good cousin, give me audience for a while.

Hot. I cry you mercy.

Wor.

That are your prisoners,

Hot.

Those same noble Scots,

I'll keep them all;

By heaven, he shall not have a Scot of them:
No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not:
I'll keep them, by this hand.

Wor.

You start away,

And lend no ear unto my purposes.-
Those prisoners you shall keep.

Hot.
Nay, I will; that's flat:-
He said, he would not ransom Mortimer;
Forbad my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
But I will find him when he lies asleep,
And in his ear I'll holla-Mortimer!

Nay,

I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak
Nothing but Mortimer, and give it him,
To keep his anger still in motion.

able to do much, and eager to do more; as the dark expression of indetermined thoughts. The passage from Euripides is surely not allegorical; yet it is produced, and properly, as parallel.'-In the Knight of the Burning Pestle, Beaumont and Fletcher have put this rant into the mouth of Ralph the apprentice, who, like Bottom, appears to be fond of acting parts to tear a cat in.

18 Half-faced, which has puzzled the commentators, seems here meant to convey a contemptuous idea of something imperfect. As in Nashe's Apology of Pierce Pennilesse:-' With all other ends of your half-faced English.'

19 Shapes created by his imagination.

Wor.

Cousin; a word.

Hear you,

Hot. All studies here I solemnly defy 20,
Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke:
And that same sword-and-buckler 21 prince of
Wales,-

But that I think his father loves him not,
And would be glad he met with some mischance,
I'd have him poison'd with a pot of ale 22.

Wor. Farewell, kinsman! I will talk to you,
When you are better temper'd to attend.

North. Why, what a wasp-tongue23 and impatient fool

20 To defy was sometimes used in the sense of to renounce, reject, refuse, by Shakspeare and his cotemporaries. Thus Constance, in King John, says:

'No, I defy all counsel, all redress."

21Sword and buckler prince' is here used as a term of contempt. The following extracts will help us to the precise meaning of the epithet :-'This field, commonly called West Smithfield, was for many years called Ruffians' Hall, by reason it was the usual place for frayes and common fighting, during the time that sword and bucklers were in use; when every serving man, from the base to the best, carried a buckler at his back, which hung by the hilt or pomel of his sword.'-Stowe's Survey of London. There was a poem, published in 1602, entitled Sword and Buckler, or Serving-man's Defence,' by William Bas. And John Florio, in his First Fruites, 1578:- What weapons bear they? Some sword and dagger, some sword and buckler.-What weapon is that buckler? A clownish dastardly weapon, and not fit for a gentleman.'

22 This is said in allusion to low pot-house company, with which the prince associated.

23 The first quarto, 1598, reads wasp-stung, which Steevens thought the true reading. The quarto of 1599 reads wasp-tongue, which Malone strenuously contends for; and I think with Mr. Nares that he is right. He who is stung by wasps has a real cause for impatience; but waspish, which is often used by Shakspeare, is petulant from temper; and wasp-tongue therefore very naturally means petulant-tongue, which was exactly the accusation meant to be urged.' The folio altered it unnecessarily to wasptongued.

VOL. V.

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 stung with pismires, when I hear
Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.

In Richard's time,-What do you call the place?——
A plague upon't!-it is in Gloucestershire;-
'Twas where the mad-cap duke his uncle kept:
His uncle York;-where I first bow'd my
knee
Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke,
When you and he came back from Ravenspurg.
North. At Berkley castle.

Hot. You say true:

Why, what a candy 24 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, for I have done.

Wor. Nay, if you have not, to't again; We'll stay your leisure.

Hot.

I have done, i'faith. 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 assur'd, Will easily be granted.-You, my lord,—

[TO NORTHUMBERLAND.

Your son in Scotland being thus employed,-
Shall secretly into the bosom creep
Of that same noble prelate, well belov❜d,
The archbishop.

24 i. e. what a deal of candy courtesy.'

Hot. Of York, is't not?

Wor. True; who bears hard

His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.
I speak not this in estimation 25,

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's a-foot, thou still let'st slip 26.

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 'tis no little reason bids us speed,
To save our heads by raising of a head27;
For, bear ourselves as even as we can,
The king will always think him in our debt 28;
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 reveng❜d on him.
Wor. Cousin 29, farewell :-No further go in this,

25 Conjecture.

:

26 This phrase is taken from hunting. To let slip is to loose a greyhound. So in The Taming of the Shrew :Lucentio slipped me, like his greyhound.'

27 A body of forces.

28 This is a natural description of the state of mind between those that have conferred, and those that have received obligations too great to be satisfied. That this would be the event of Northumberland's disloyalty was predicted by King Richard in the former play.

29 This was a common address in Shakspeare's time to nephews, nieces, and grand-children. See Holinshed, passim. Hotspur was Worcester's nephew.

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.

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

ACT II.

SCENE I. Rochester. An Inn Yard.

Enter a Carrier, with a lantern in his hand.

1 Car. Heigh ho! An't be not four by the day, I'll be hanged: Charles' wain1 is over the new chimney, and yet our horse not packed. What, ostler!

Ost. [Within.] Anon, anon.

1 Car. I pr'ythee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point: the poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cess 2.

1 Charles' wain was the vulgar name for the constellation called the great bear. It is a corruption of Chorles or Churl's wain. Chorl is frequently used for a countryman in old books, from the Saxon ceorl.

2 Out of all cess' is 'out of all measure.' Excessively, præter modum. To cess, or assess, was to number, muster, value, measure, or appraise.