Saddle white Surrey for the field to-morrow.— Look that my staves be sound, and not too heavy. Ratcliff, Rat. My lord? K. Rich. Saw'st thou the melancholy Lord Northumberland 9? Rat. Thomas the earl of Surrey, and himself, Much about cock-shut 10 time, from troop, to troop, Went through the army, cheering up the soldiers. curious rhiming Latin Version of that poem which I possess in manuscript. This word [morter] doth plainely intimate Jeffery Chaucer to have been an esquire of the body in ordinary to the king, whose office it is, after he hath chardged and set the watch of the gard, to carry in the morter and to set it by the king's bed-side, for he takes from the cupboard a silver bason, and therin poures a litle water, and then sets a round cake of virgin wax in the middest of the bason, in the middle of which cake is a wicke of bumbast, which being lighted burnes as a watch-light all night by the king's bed-side. It hath, as I conceive, the name of morter for the likenes it hath when it is nere consumed unto a morter wherin you bray spices, for the flame first hollowing the middle of the waxe cake, which is next unto it, the waxe by degrees, like the sands in a houre glasse, runs evenly from all sides to the middle to supply the wicke. This royal ceremony Chaucer wittily faines to be in Cresseid's bedchamber, calling this kind of watch-light by the name of morter, which very few courtiers besides esquires of the body (who only are admitted after ALL NIGHT is served to come into the king's bedchamber), do understand what is meant by it.' Kinaston was himself esquire of the body to King Charles I. Baret mentions 'watching lamps, or candles; lucernæ vigiles:' and watching candles are mentioned in many old plays. Steevens says that he has seen them represented in some of the pictures [qu. prints?] of Albert Durer. 8 i. e. the staves or poles of his lances. It was the custom to carry more than one into the field. 9 Richard calls him melancholy because he did not join heartily in his cause. Holinshed says He stood still and mixed not in the battle, but was incontinently [after] received into favour [of Richmond] and made of the counsaile." 10 i. e. twilight. Thus in Ben Jonson's Masque of Gypsies :For you would not yesternight Kiss him in the cock-shut light.' A cock-shut was a large net stretched across a glade, and so sus K. Rich. So, I am satisfied. Give me a bowl of wine: I have not that alacrity of spirit, Nor cheer of mind, that I was wont to have.- Rat. It is, my lord. K. Rich. Bid my guard watch; leave me. About the mid of night, come to my tent, [KING RICHARD retires into his Tent. RICHMOND'S Tent opens, and discovers him, and Officers, &c. Enter STANLEY. Stan. Fortune and victory sit on thy helm! Richm. All comfort that the dark night can afford, Be to thy person, noble father-in-law! Tell me, how fares our loving mother? Stan. I, by attorney 11, bless thee from thy mother, Who prays continually for Richmond's good: So much for that.-The silent hours steal on, And flaky darkuess breaks within the east. In brief, for so the season bids us be, Prepare thy battle early in the morning; And put thy fortune to the arbitrement Of bloody strokes, and mortal-staring war, I, as I may (that which I would, I cannot), With best advantage will deceive the time, pended upon poles as easily to be drawn together, and was employed to catch woodcocks. These nets were chiefly used in the twilight of the evening, when woodcocks take wing to go and get water, flying generally low; and when they find any thoroughfare, through a wood or range of trees, they venture through.' The artificial' glade made for them to pass through were called cock-roads. Hence cock-shut time and cock-shut light were used to express the evening twilight. 11 i. e. by deputation. And aid thee in this doubtful shock of arms: Farewell: The leisure 13 and the fearful time [Sleeps. 12 This is from Holinshed. The young nobleman, whom the poet calls George Stanley, was created Lord Strange in right of his wife by Edward IV. in 1482. 13 We have still a phrase equivalent to this, however harsh it may seen. 'I would do this if leisure would permit,' where leisure stands for want of leisure. Thus in another place: The Ghost 16 of Prince Edward, Son to Henry the Sixth, rises between the two Tents. Ghost. Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow! [TO KING RICHARD. Think, how thou stab'dst me in my prime of youth The Ghost of King Henry the Sixth rises. Ghost. When I was mortal, my anointed body [TO KING RICHARD. By thee was punched 17 full of deadly holes : Think on the Tower, and me; Despair, and die; Harry the Sixth bids thee despair and die.— Virtuous and holy, be thou conqueror! [To RICHMOND. Harry, that prophesy'd thou should'st be king 18, Doth comfort thee in thy sleep; Live, and flourish! 16 The hint for this scene is furnished by Holinshed, who copies from Polydore Virgil. It seemed to him being asleepe, that he saw diverse ymages like terrible devilles which pulled and haled him, not sufferynge him to take any quiet or reste. The which strange vision not so sodaynely strake his heart with a sodayne feare, but it stuffed his head with many busy and dreadful imaginations. And least that it might be suspected that he was abashed for fear of his enemies, and for that cause looked so piteously, he recited and declared to his familiar friends of the morning his wonderfull vysion and fearefull dreame.' The Legend of King Richard III. in The Mirror for Magistrates, and Drayton in the twenty-second Song of his Polyolbion, have passages founded upon Shakspeare's description. 17 The verb to punch, according to its etymology, was formerly used to prick or pierce with a sharp point. Thus Chapman, in his version of the sixth Iliad : With a goad he punch'd each furious dame.' 18 See the prophecy in King Henry VI. Part III. Act iv. Sc. 6. The Ghost of Clarence rises. Ghost. Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow! And fall 20 thy edgeless sword; Despair, and die!— The Ghosts of Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan, rise. Riv. Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow, [TO KING RICHARD. Rivers, that died at Pomfret! Despair, and die! Grey. Think upon Grey, and let thy soul despair! [TO KING RICHARD. Vaugh. Think upon Vaughan; and, with guilty fear, Let fall thy lance! Despair, and die!— [To KING RICHARD. All. Awake! and think, our wrongs in Richard's bosom [To RICHMOND. Will conquer him;-awake, and win the day! The Ghost of Hastings rises. Ghost. Bloody and guilty, guiltily awake; [To KING RICHARD. 19 i. e. teeming or superabundant wine. Shakspeare seems to have forgot that Clarence was killed before he was thrown into the Malmsey butt, and consequently could not be washed to death. I find fulsome habundance' in Lidgate's Siege of Thebes, Part III. See vol. iii. p. 19, note 7. 20 Fall is here a verb active, signifying to drop or let fall. As in Othello :-- If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, Each drop she fulls would prove a crocodile.' |