Page:Henry IV Part 1 (1917) Yale.djvu/134

120 sixpenny strikers, fellows who would knock a man down to get sixpence from him; mustachio-purple-hued malt worms, fellows whose moustaches are so constantly immersed in ale that they have become purple; tranquillity, people who live at ease; great oneyers, great ones (with a play on the words one and own which were pronounced alike); such as can hold in, such as can keep their own counsel (an accomplishment which Gadshill seems to find it difficult to imitate).

 Greasing of boots to make them waterproof was called 'liquoring' them; the play on the word here is obvious.

 receipt of fern-seed. According to popular superstition, fern-seed was visible only on Saint John's Eve (June 23), and those who gathered it then, according to a certain rite, were themselves rendered invisible.

 frets like a gummed velvet. Velvet stiffened with gum very soon chafed.

 The writer of this letter is not specified.

 I could divide myself into two parts and then fight with myself.

 Kate. The actual Hotspur's wife's name was Elizabeth, not Kate; cf. genealogical table on page 118. Shakespeare seems to have had a peculiar fondness for the name Kate.

 Why have you allowed musing and melancholy, which have made you 'thick-eyed,' i.e., blind to all outward things, to make you forget your attention to me, which is my 'treasure'?

 The basilisk cannon was named from the fabulous monster whose look was reputed to kill. The culverin is also named from a serpent.

 crowns. Used quibblingly: broken