Enter KENT and OSWALD, severally. Osw. Good dawning to thee, friend: art of this house? Kent. If I had thee in Lipsbury pinfold, I would make thee care for me. Osw. Why dost thou use me thus? I know thee not. 127. business] Q, businesses F. F, after "use" (line 128) Q. ΙΟ 129. Flourish] F, omitted Q; Exeunt] Scene II. Before... Castle] Capell; omitted Q, F. Enter . severally] F (Steward). Enter Kent and Steward Q. 1, 3, etc. Osw.] Collier; Steward or Stew. Q, F. 1. dawning] F, even Q, deuen Q I (one copy); this] F, the Q. 5. lovest] F, love Q. 1. of this house?] a servant, a dependant here. See North's Plutarch (Life of Coriolanus), ed. 1595, p. 247 : "They of the house, spying him at the chimney hearth, wondered what he should be." 8. Lipsbury pinfold] a puzzle; perhaps some cant phrase, well known at the time. Capell saw in it possibly the name of a boxing-ring in some village of Lipsbury, famous for that art; but no village of the name is Kent. Fellow, I know thee. Osw. What dost thou know me for? Kent. A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave; a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable, finical rogue; 15 16. knave; a] Q, omitted F. 17. super-serviceable, finical] F, superfinicall Q. 13. eater of broken meats] a coinmon gird against serving-men. Compare Coriolanus to the servants of Aufidius. Coriolanus, IV. v. 35: "Follow your function, go, And batten on cold bits." See also Cymbeline, 11. iii. 119. 14. three-suited] Steevens quotes Ben Jonson, The Silent Woman, iv. 2. The whole passage runs thus: "Truewit. And the brace of baboons answered, Yes; and said, thou wert a pitiful poor fellow, and didst live upon posts, and hadst nothing but three suits of apparel," Gifford, ed. 1873, p. 227(6). It has been objected that one of the characters in this play speaks of "three suits to the back" as luxury itself (see Edgar's speech, III. iv. 146). Wright, however, remarks that it is probable that three suits of clothes a year were the part of a servant's allowance, quoting The Silent Woman, iii. I. Mrs. Otter, speaking to her husband, says: "Who gives you maintenance, I pray you? Who allows you your horsemeat, and man's meat, your three suits of apparel a year?" Gifford (Works), 1873, p. 217(6). 15. hundred-pound] a hit at James the First's profuse creation of knights. Steevens quotes Middleton, The Phanix, IV. iii. 55: "am I used like a hundred-pound gentleman?" See also the mock dedication prefixed to Father Hubberd's Tale, by the same writer: "a costlier exploit, and a hundred-pound feat of arms,” Bullen (Works), viii. 51. 15. worsted-stocking]. See Ben Jonson in The Silent Woman, ii. 1. Mrs. Otter addressing her husband, speaks of "your four pair of stockings, one silk, three worsted" (Gifford, 1873, p. 217(6)). 16. lily-livered] cowardly, whitelivered. As in Macbeth, v. iii. 15: "Go prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, Thou lily-liver'd boy." Lily-livered, imbellis, Coles, Dictionary, 1676. To have "the liver white and pale" was, according to Sir John Falstaff, "the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice," 2 Henry IV. Iv. iii. 113. In Nash, Jack Wilton, 1594, Gosse, 1892, p. 21, we read: "his white liver had mixed itself with the white of his eye, and both were turned upwards, as if they had offered themselves a fair white for death to shoot at." 16. action-taking] one who declines fighting out a quarrel like a man, but basely goes to law. 17. glass-gazing] vain, foppish, as in Richard III. 1. i. 15. 17. super-serviceable] over-officious, Johnson, and Schmidt's Lexicon; "above his work" (Wright). 17. finical] over-nice, affectedly fastidious. The earliest example of this word-by no means obsolete which is given in the New Eng. Dict. is from Nash, Piers Penniless. "She is so finical in her speech as though she spake nothing but what she had first sewed over before in her samplers,” Grosart (Works), ii. 33. one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst Osw. Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one that is neither known of thee Kent. What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny 20 25 30 thou knowest me! Is it two days since I Draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, 35 18. one-trunk-inheriting] F 3, one trunk-inheriting F 1, F 2; no hyphens Q. 22. one] F, omitted Q. 25. Why] F, omitted Q. 23. deniest] F, deny Q. 29. since] F, ago since Q. thee] F, beate thee, and tript up thy heeles Q. 32. yet] F, F, a'Q. Drawing his sword] Rowe; omitted Q, F. 18. one-trunk-inheriting] possessing but one trunk, one coffer of effects. To inherit has frequently the sense to possess in Shakespeare. See Tempest, II. ii. 179. Here it might have the ordinary meaning. 20. composition of] a mixture, one made up of, the several qualities of. 24. thy addition] the titles I have bestowed on you. See 1. i. 136. 32, 33. sop o' the moonshine] If the text is not corrupt, Kent must have meant that he would knock Oswald into a puddle, or pond, where he might look up at the moon. Some see in the expression a quibbling 24. thy] F, the Q. 30. tripped up.. omitted Q. 33. of] 34. Draw]Q, omitted F. allusion to a dish called "eggs in moonshine," a receipt for the making of which is to be found in Nares' Glossary, and which occurs in Gabriel Harvey, Pierces Supererogation, 1573, Grosart (Works), ii. p. 63: "I wot not what marvellous eggs in moonshine," etc. "To make a sop of" is used, more than once, by Shakespeare, as in Richard III. I. iv. 162, for to set floating, as a piece of toast was in sack, or other liquor. See Merry Wives, III. v. 3. 34. cullionly] rascally, base, vile; from cullion, a vile fellow, a very common word. See Henry V. III. Osw. Away! I have nothing to do with thee. Osw. Help, ho! murder! help! Kent. Strike, you slave; stand, rogue, stand; you neat slave, strike. 37. come with] F, bring Q. omitted Q, F. ii. 22: "Up to the breach, you dogs! avaunt, you cullions!" Also Peele, Old Wives' Tale, Bullen (Works), i. 328: "Hence, base cullion!" and see also "Coyon, a coward, cullion, scoundrel, base fellow," Cotgrave's French Dictionary. 34. barber-monger] one constant in his attendance at the barber's shop. See Antony and Cleopatra, 11. ii. 229: Antony, .. Being barber'd ten times o'er, goes to the feast." 66 38. Vanity] Like Iniquity, Vanity was a common character in the old moralities, and reference is often made to it by the dramatic writers of the time. So Marlow, The Jew of Malta, ii. 3, Havelock Ellis, 1887, p. 262: "Slave. Alas, sir! I am a very youth. Barrabas. A youth! I'll buy you, and marry you to Lady Vanity if you do will." Also Ben Jonson, The Fox, II. iii. 21 : Or Covetousness, or Lady Or old Íniquity." 40 Osw. Help, ho! murder! murder! 45 Enter EDMUND, with his rapier drawn. Edm. How now! What's the matter? [Parts them. Kent. With you, goodman boy, an you please: Enter CORNWALL, REGAN, GLOUCESTER, and Servants. He dies that strikes again. What is the matter? Reg. The messengers from our sister and the king. Corn. What is your difference? speak. Osw. I am scarce in breath, my lord. Kent. No marvel, you have so bestirred your valour. You cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee: a tailor made thee. 45. murder! murder !] F, murder, help Q. Bastard F. with. drawn] Q, omitted F. 46. Parts them] Grant White, Part F, omitted 48. ye] F, you Q. Enter Cornwall] F. 47. With you] i.e. the matter, the quarrel (is) with you. 47. goodman boy] a title of mock respect. Compare Hamlet, v. i. 14, "goodman delver." 48. flesh] initiate; originally a hunting phrase. In Palsgrave's Lesclarcissement(1530), we read: "Flesche as we do an hounde, when we give him any parte of a wyld beast, to encourage him to run well." See also Beaumont and Fletcher, Wit at Several Weapons, I. i.: "The first that fleshed me a soldier, sir, Was that great battle of Alcazar in 53. difference] quarrel, as before, II. i. 123; also Henry VIII. 1. i. 101. 50 55 Enter . . . drawn] Q, Enter 46, etc. Edm.] Bast. Q, F. 47. an] (and) Q, if F. Q. Lamb wrote, in his Specimens of English Dramatic Poets, "I have selected this scene,-the combat between Contarino and Ercole from Webster, The Devil's Law Case,-as a specimen of a well-managed and gentleman-like difference." We learn from the English Dialect Dictionary that this meaning of the word is still alive in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire for "a wordy quarrel"; while differ, "to wrangle, to quarrel," is used over a wider area. 55. bestirred your valour] you have so over-exerted your valorous self; "your valour" may be a mock title. Compare "Sir Valour," given by Ulysses to the lazy Achilles, Troilus and Cressida, 1. iii. 176. 56. disclaims in thee] renounces, disavows, all part in thee. Steevens |