*.
Carrier: One whose trade was conveying goods, ususally by pack horses.
1.
by the day: in the morning.
2.
Charles' wain: Charlemagne's wagon; i.e., the constellation of the Great Bear.
3.
horse: horses.
4.
Anon: at once; i.e., coming.
5-6.
beat: soften. Cut's saddle: packsaddle of the horse named Cut, meaning "bob-tailed." locks of wool in the point: tufts of wool in the pommel of the saddle (to make it more comfortable for the horse).
6.
Poor jade, is wrung in the withers: the nag is chafed (by the saddle) along the ridge between its shoulders.
7.
cess: measure, estimate.
9.
next: nearest; i.e., quickest.
10.
bots: intestinal worms, a disease of horses.
14.
house: inn.
16.
tench: spotted fish; probably an allusion to an ancient belief that the spots on certain fish were due to flea bites.
17.
king christen: Christian king.
18.
first cock: i.e., midnight.
19.
jordan: chamber pot.
20.
chamber-lie: urine.
21.
like a loach: i.e., as fast as a loach (a kind of prolific fish) spawns loaches.
22.
come away: come along, hurry up.
24.
gammon of bacon: ham. razes: roots.
25.
Charing-cross: village between London and Westminster.
26.
pannier: basket.
28-30.
An 'twere not as good deed as drink, to break the pate on thee: if it were not as good to clout you on the head as to take a drink.
39.
Ay, when? can'st tell: don't you wish I would?; i.e., never.
45-46.
they will along with company, for they have great charge: they will want to travel in a group because of the valuables they are carrying.
47.
chamberlain: servant who tended the rooms of an inn.
48.
At hand, quoth pick-purse: here I am right beside you, as the pickpocket said. Also, slang expression for "Coming immediately." Gadshill's reply shows the chamberlain's alliance with the robbers.
49.
fair: apt. Inn servants were notoriously dishonest.
50-52.
thou variest no more from picking of purses than giving direction doth from laboring; thou layest the plot how: i.e., you stand in the same relation to pickpockets as a foreman does to workmen, for you make the plans that others carry out.
53.
holds current: proves to be true. that: what.
54.
franklin: a farmer owning his own land.
55.
wild: weald (forest). three hundred marks: two hundred pounds (a mark was a coin of the value in that day of 13s, 6d).
57.
auditor: accountant.
60.
presently: at once.
61-62.
Saint Nicholas' clerks: highwaymen. In Elizabethan slang St. Nicholas was regarded as the patron of thieves.
63.
I'll none of it: i.e., I don't want your neck.
69.
Troyans: Trojans; i.e., slang for thieves, roisterers.
71.
profession: i.e., robbery.
73.
joined: associated. foot land-rakers: footpads.
74-75.
long-staff sixpenny strikers: those who, armed only with cudgels (staves), will rob a man for sixpence; i.e., petty thieves. mad mustachio purple hued malt-worms: topers (drunkards) whose mustaches are stained with ale.
76.
tranquility: those who lead easy lives. oneyers: Possibly a coinage from ones with pun on owner (?).
77.
hold in: retain secrets, keep confidence.
82.
boots: booty, with pun on "boots."
84.
hold out water in foul way: keep one dryshod in muddy roads; i.e., protect one.
85.
liquored: (1) made waterproof by oiling; (2) bribed; (3) made drunk.
86.
as in a castle: i.e., in security (with an allusion to Sir John Oldcastle, the name originally given to Falstaff in this play).
87.
receipt of fern-seed: procedure for finding fern-seed, which, almost invisible itself, was thought to confer invisibility on whoever carried it.
89.
beholding: beholden, indebted.
92.
purchase: booty. true: honest.
95.
'homo' is a common name to all men: i.e., all men are alike; you're just as bad. "Homo" is Latin for "human being, man in general." Gadshill is answering the Chamberlin's joke about Gadshill being a false thief.
97.
muddy: stupid.