ncivil kernes of Ireland" (Ib., Part 2,
Act 3, Sc. 1), and in the same play the crowd makes itself ridiculous by
shouting, "A miracle," when the fraudulent beggar Simpcox, who had
pretended to be lame and blind, jumps over a stool to escape a whipping
(Act 2, Sc. 1). Queen Margaret receives petitioners with the words
"Away, base cullions" (Ib., Act 1, Sc. 3), and among other flattering
remarks applied here and there to the lower classes we may cite the
epithets "ye rascals, ye rude slaves," addressed to a crowd by a porter
in Henry VIII., and that of "lazy knaves" given by the Lord Chamberlain
to the porters for having let in a "trim rabble" (Act 5, Sc. 3). Hubert,
in King John, presents us with an unvarnished picture of the common
people receiving the news of Prince Arthur's death:

"I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus,
The whilst his iron did on his anvil cool,
With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news;
Who, with his shears and measure in his hand,
Standing on slippers (which his nimble haste
Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet),
Told of a many thousand warlike French
That were embattailed and rank'd in Kent.
Another lean, unwashed artificer,
Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death."
(Act 4, Sc. 2.)

Macbeth, while sounding the murderers whom he intends to employ, and who
say to him, "We are men, my liege," answers:

"Ay, in the catalogue, ye go for men
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
Shoughs, water-sugs, and demi-wolves, are cleped
All by the name of dogs."
(Act 3, Sc. 1.)

As Coriolanus is held up to our view as a pattern of noble bearing
toward the people, so Richard II. condemns the courteous behavior of the
future Henry IV. on his way into banishment. He says:

"Ourselves, and Bushy, Bagot here and Green
Observed his courtship to the common people;
How he did seem to dive into their hearts
With humble and familiar courtesy;
What reverence he did throw away on slaves;
Wooing poor craftsmen with the craft of smiles
And patient overbearing of his fortune,
As 'twere to banish their effects with him.
Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench;
A brace of draymen did God speed him well
And had the tribute of his supple knee,
With 'Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends.'"
(Richard II., Act 1, Sc. 4.)