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

Shakspeare certainly knew, as Mr. Steevens has obferved, that the fting of a wafp lay in his tail; nor is there in my apprehenfion any thing couched under the epithet wafp-tongue, inconfiftent with that knowledge. It means only, having a tongue as peevish and mifchievous (if fuch terms may be applied to that inftrument of the mind) as a wafp. Thus, in As you Like it, wafpifh is used without any particular reference to any action of a wasp, but merely as fynonymous to peevish or fretful:

By the ftern brow and wafpish action

"Which fhe did ufe as she was writing of it,
"It bears an angry tenour."

In The Tempest, when Iris fpeaking of Venus, fays, "Her wafpifh-headed fon has broke his arrows,"

the meaning is perfectly clear; yet the objection that Shakspeare knew the fting of a wafp was in his tail, not in his head, might, I conceive, be made with equal force, there, as on the present occafion.

Though this note has run out to an unreasonable length, I muft add a paffage in The Taming of the Shrew; which, while it shows that our author knew the fting of a wafp was really fituated in its tail, proves at the fame time that he thought it might with propriety be applied metaphorically to the tongue :

"Pet. Come, come, you wasp; i'faith you are too angry. "Cath. If I be wafpifh, beft beware my fting.

"Pet. My remedy is then to pluck it out.

"Cath. Ay, if the fool could find out where it lies. "Pet. Who knows not where a wasp does wear his fting? · "In his tail.

"Cath. In his tongue.

"Pet. Whofe tongue?

"Cath. Yours, if you talk of tails," &c.

This paffage appears to me fully to juftify the reading that I have chofen. Independent however of all authority, or reference to other paffages, it is fupported by the context here. A perfon ftung by a wafp would not be very likely to claim all the talk to himfelf, as Hotspur is defcribed to do, but rather in the agony of pain to implore the affiftance of those about him; whereas the wafp-tongue fool" may well be fuppofed to "break into a woman's mood," and to liften" to no tongue but his own."

Mr. M. Mason thinks that the words afterwards ufed by Hotspur are decifively in favour of wafp-ftung," Nettled and flung with pifmires;" but Hotspur ufes that expreffion to mark the poignancy

Hor. 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 you call the place?—
A plague upon't!-it is in Glocefterfhire;-
'Twas where the mad-cap duke his uncle kept;
His uncle York ;-where I first bow'd my knee
Unto this king of fmiles, this Bolingbroke,
When you and he came back from Ravenspurg.
NORTH. At Berkley castle.

Hor. You fay true:

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 coufin,-
O, the devil take fuch cozeners!" -God forgive
me!-

Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done.

of his own feelings; Northumberland uses the term wafp-tongue to denote the irritability of his fon's temper, and the petulance of his language. MALONE.

I may feem to be overlaid by the foregoing note, but do not think myself defeated. The reader's patience, however, shall be no further exercised on the present occafion. STEEVENS.

4 what a candy deal of courtesy-] i. e. what a deal of candy courtesy. Mr. Pope and the fubfequent editors read-candy'd, without neceffity. See alfo K. Richard III:

66

Grofsly grew captive to his honey words." not honey'd words. See the laft note. MALONE.

5

infant fortune came to age,] Alluding to what paffed in King Richard, A&t II. fc. iii. JOHNSON.

6

-the devil take fuch cozeners!] The fame jingle occurs in Two Tragedies in One, &c. 1601:

Come pretty coufin, cozened by grim death." Again, in Monfieur Thomas, by Beaumont and Fletcher :

coufin,

"Cazen thyfelf no more."

Again, in The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601: "To fee my cousin cozen'd in this fort." STEEVENS.

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

Hor.

I have done, i'faith.

WOR. Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.
Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
And make the Douglas' fon your only mean
For powers in Scotland; which,-for divers rea-
fons,

Which I fhall fend you written,-be affur'd,
Will eafily be granted.-You, my lord,-

[To NORTHUMBERLAND. Your fon in Scotland being thus employ'd,Shall fecretly into the bofom creep

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

Hor. 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,"

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 shall bring it on.

Hor. I fmell it; upon my life, it will do well. NORTH. Before the game's afoot, thou still let'ft flip.8

Hor.Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot :And then the power of Scotland, and of York,To join with Mortimer, ha?

I speak not this in eftimation,] Eftimation for conjecture.

WARBURTON.

8 — let'ft flip.] To let flip, is to loose the greyhound.

So, in The Taming of a Shrew:

JOHNSON.

"Lucentio flip'd me, like his greyhound." STEEVENS.

WOR.

And fo they fhall.

Hor. In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd.
WOR. And 'tis no little reafon bids us fpeed,
To fave 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 unfatisfied,
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.

Hor. He does, he does; we'll be reveng'd on

him.

2

WOR. Coufin, farewell:-No further

go in this,
Than I by letters fhall direct your course.
When time is ripe, (which will be fuddenly,)
I'll steal 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 ftrong arms,
Which now we hold at much uncertainty.

NORTH. Farewell, good brother: We shall thrive,
I trust.

Hor. Uncle, adieu :-O, let the hours be fhort, Till fields, and blows, and groans applaud our sport!

[Exeunt.

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

So, in King Henry VI. P. III:

JOHNSON.

Making another head, to fight again." STEEVENS.

9 The king will always &c.] This is a natural defcription of the ftate of mind between thofe that have conferred, and those that have received obligations too great to be fatisfied.

That this would be the event of Northumberland's difloyalty, was predicted by King Richard in the former play. JOHNSON.

2 Coufin,] This was a common address in our author's time to nephews, nieces, and grandchildren. See Holinfhed's Chronicle, paffim. Hotfpur was Worcester's nephew. MALONE.

Enter a Carrier, with a lantern in his hand.

I CAR. Heigh 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 pack'd. What, oftler! OST. [Within.] Anon, anon.

I CAR. I pry'thee, Tom, beat Cut's faddle, put a few flocks in the point; the poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cefs.'

3

Enter another Carrier.

2 CAR. Pease and beans are as dank here as a

Charles' wain-] Charles's wain is the vulgar name given to the conftellation called the Bear. It is a corruption of the Chorles or Churls wain (Sax. ceoɲl, a countryman.) RITSON.

See alfo Thorefby's Leeds, p. 268. REED.

Chorl is frequently used for a countryman in old books. "Here begynneth the chorle and the byrde," printed for Wynkyn de Worde. See also the Gloffaries of Skinner and Junius, v. Churl. DOUCE.

Cut's faddle,] Cut is the name of a horfe in The Witches of Lancashire, 1634, and, I suppose, was a common one.

See Vol. IV. p. 67, n. 3. MALONE.

STEEVENS.

out of all cefs.] i. c. 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 cefs. WARBURTON.

6 —as dank-] i. e. wet, rotten. POPE.

In the directions given by Sir Thomas Bodley, for the prefervation of his library, he orders that the cleanfer thereof fhould,