Stew. What dost thou know me for? Kent. A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundredpound, filthy worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave; a whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good-service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deniest the least syllable of thy addition.1 Stew. Why, what a monstrous fellow art thou, thus to rail on one that is neither known of thee, nor knows thee! Kent. What a brazen-faced varlet art thou, to deny thou knowest me! Is it two days ago, since I tripped up thy heels, and beat thee, before the king? Draw, you rogue; for, though it be night, the moon shines; I'll make a sop o' the moonshine of you. Draw, you whoreson cullionly barber-monger, draw. [Drawing his sword. Stew. Away; I have nothing to do with thee. Kent. Draw, you rascal! you come with letters against the king; and take Vanity the puppet's part, against the royalty of her father. Draw, you rogue, or I'll so carbonado your shanks.-Draw, you rascal; come your ways. Stew. Help, ho! murder! help! Kent. Strike, you slave; stand, rogue, stand; you neat slave, strike. [Beating him. Stew. Help, ho! murder! murder ! 1 i. e. thy titles. 2 Probably alluding to some dish so called. 3 Barber-monger may mean dealer with the lower tradesmen. 4 Alluding to the moralities or allegorical shows, in which Vanity, Iniquity, and other vices, were personified. 5 You finical rascal, you assemblage of foppery and poverty. Enter EDMUND, Cornwall, REGAN, GLOSTER, and Servants. Edm. How now? what's the matter? Part. Kent. With you goodman boy, if you please; come, I'll flesh you; come on, young master. Glo. Weapons! arms! What's the matter here ? He dies, that strikes again. What is the matter? Kent. No marvel, you have so bestirred your valor. You cowardly rascal, nature disclaims in thee; a tailor made thee. Corn. Thou art a strange fellow; a tailor make a man? Kent. Ay, a tailor, sir; a stone-cutter, or a painter, could not have made him so ill, though they had been but two hours at the trade. Corn. Speak yet, how grew your quarrel ? Stew. This ancient ruffian, sir, whose life I have spared, At suit of his gray beard, Kent. Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter!-My lord, if you will give me leave, I will tread this unbolted villain into mortar, and daub the wall of a jakes with him. - Spare my gray beard, you wagtail? Corn. Peace, sirrah! You beastly knave, know you no reverence? 1 To disclaim in, for to disclaim simply, was the phraseology of the Poet's age. See Gifford's Ben Jonson, vol. iii. p. 264. 2 Zed is here used as a term of contempt, because it is the last letter in the English alphabet. Baret omits it in his Alvearie, affirming it to be rather a syllable than a letter. And Mulcaster says, "Z is much harder amongst us, and seldom seen. S is become its lieutenant-general." 3 Coarse villain. Unbolted mortar is mortar made of unsifted lime; and therefore to break the lumps, it is necessary to tread it by men in wooden shoes. Kent. That such a slave as this should wear a sword, Who wears no honesty. Such smiling rogues as these, 4 Corn. What, art thou mad, old fellow ? Say that. How fell you out? Kent. No contraries hold more antipathy, Than I and such a knave. Corn. Why dost thou call him knave? What's his offence ? Kent. His countenance likes me not.5 Corn. No more, perchance, does mine, or his, or hers. Kent. Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain; I have seen better faces in my time, Before me at this instant. Corn. This is some fellow, Who, having been praised for bluntness, doth affect 1 The quartos read, to intrench; the folio, t' intrince. Perhaps intrinse, for so it should be written, was put by Shakspeare for intrinsicate, which he has used in Antony and Cleopatra. The word too in the text is substituted for to by Mr. Singer. 2 To renege is to deny. 3 The bird called the kingfisher, which, when dried and hung up by a thread, is supposed to turn his bill to the point from whence the wind blows. 4 In Somersetshire, near Camelot, are many large moors, where are bred great quantities of geese. 5 i. e. pleases me not. A saucy roughness; and constrains the garb, These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness Kent. Sir, in good sooth, in sincere verity, Corn. What mean'st by this? Kent. To go out of my dialect, which you discommend so much. I know, sir, I am no flatterer. He that beguiled you, in a plain accent, was a plain knave; which, for my part, I will not be, though I should win your displeasure to entreat me to it.4 Corn. What was the offence you gave him? I never gave him any. It pleased the king, his master, very late, That worthied him, got praises of the king 1 "Forces his outside, or his appearance, to something totally different from his natural disposition." 2 Silly, or rather sely, is simple or rustic. Nicely here is with scrupu lous nicety, punctilious observance. 3 This expressive word is now only applied to the motion and scintillation of flame. Dr. Johnson says, that it means to flutter, which is certainly one of its oldest meanings, it being used in that sense by Chaucer. 4 "Though I should win you, displeased as you now are, to like me so well as to entreat me to be a knave." 5 A young soldier is said to flesh his sword the first time he draws blood with it. Fleshment, therefore, is here metaphorically applied to the first act of service, which Kent, in his new capacity, had performed for his master. None of these rogues, and cowards, Kent. But Ajax is their fool.1 Corn. Fetch forth the stocks, ho! You stubborn, ancient knave, you reverend braggart, We'll teach you- Sir, I am too old to learn ; Corn. Fetch forth the stocks; As I've life and honor, there shall he sit till noon. Reg. Till noon! till night, my lord; and all night too. Kent. Why, madam, if I were your father's dog, You should not use me so. Reg. Sir, being his knave, I will. [Stocks brought out. Corn. This is a fellow of the self-same color Glo. Let me beseech your grace not to do so. Are punished with ;] the king his master needs must take it ill, That he, so slightly valued in his messenger, Should have him thus restrained. Corn. I'll answer that. Reg. My sister may receive it much more worse, To have her gentleman abused, assaulted. Come, my good lord; away. [KENT is put in the stocks. [Exeunt REGAN and CORNWALL. Glo. I am sorry for thee, friend; 'tis the duke's pleasure, 1 i. e. Ajax is a fool to them. The sentence in brackets is not in the first folio. |