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Mer. Why, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline,

Torments him so, that he will sure run mad.

Ben. Tybalt the kinsman of old Capulet, Hath sent a letter to his father's house.

Mer. A challenge, on my life.

Ben. Romeo will answer it.

Mer. Any man, that can write, may answer a letter.

Ben. Nay, he will answer the letter's master, how he dares, being dar'd.

351 Mer. Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead! stabb'd with a white wench's black eye, shot thorough the ear with a love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's but-shaft; And is he a man to encounter Tybalt?

Ben. Why, what is Tybalt?

Mer. More than prince of cats, I can tell you. O, he is the courageous captain of compliments: he fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion; he rests his minim, one, two, and the third in your bosom: the very butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellist; a gentleman of the very first house;-of the first and second cause: Ah, the im mortal passado! the punto reverso! the hay!.

Ben. The what?

366

Mer. The pox of such antick, lisping, affecting fantasticoes; these new tuners of accents!-By -a very good blade !a very tall man

!

a very good whore !—Why, is not this a lament

able

able thing, grandsire, that we should be thus afflicted with these strange flies, these fashion-mongers, these Pardonnez-moy's, who stand so much on the new form, that they cannot sit at ease on the old bench? O, their bon's, their bon's!

Enter ROMEO.

375

Ben. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo. Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring :~Ọ flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified!-Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in: Laura, to his lady, was but a kitchen-wench ;-marry, she had a better love to be-rhyme her: Dido, a dowdy; Cleopatra, a gipsey; Helen and Hero, hildings and harlots; Thisbé, a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose.— Signior Romeo, bon jour! there's a French salutation to your French slop. You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night. 386

Rom. Good morrow to you both. feit did I give you?

What counter

Mer. The slip, sir, the slip; Can you not conceive? Rom. Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was great; and, in such a case as mine, a man may strain courtesy.

392

Mer. That's as much as to say-such a case as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams.

Rom. Meaning to curt'sy.

Mer. Thou hast most kindly hit it.

Rom. A most courteous exposition,

Mer. Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.

Rom.

Rom. Pink for flower.

: Mer. Right.

Rom. Why, then is my pump well flower'd.

400

Mer. Well said: follow me this jest now, 'till thou hast worn out thy pump; that, when the single sole of it is worn, the jest may remain after the wearing, solely singular.

Rom. O single-sol'd jest, solely singular for the singleness!

Mer. Come between us, good Benvolio; my wit faints.

Rom. Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I'M 'cry a match.

410

Mer. Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done; for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits, than, I am sure, I have in my whole five: Was I with you there for the goose?

Rom. Thou wast never with me for any thing, when thou wast not there for the goose?

Mer. I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.
Rom. Nay, good goose, bite not.

Mer. Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; it is a most sharp sauce.

420

Rom. And is it not well serv'd in to a sweet goose? Mer. O, here's a wit of cheverel, that stretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad!

: Rom. I stretch it out for that word-broad; which added to the goose, proves thee far and wide a broad goose.

Mer. Why is not this better now than groaning

for

meo:

for love? now thou art sociable, now art thou Ronow art thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature for this driveling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.

Ben. Stop there, stop there.

432

Mer. Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against the hair.

Ben. Thou would'st else have made thy tale large.

Mer. O, thou art deceiv'd, I would have made it short: for I was come to the whole depth of my tale; and meant, indeed, to occupy the argument no longer.

Rom. Here's goodly geer!

Enter Nurse, and PETER.

Mer. A sail, a sail, a sail!

Ben. Two, two; a shirt, and a smock.

Nurse. Peter!

Peter. Anon?

Nurse. My fan, Peter.

440

Mer. Do, good Peter, to hide her face; for her fan's the fairer of the two.

Nurse. God ye good morrow, gentlemen.

Mer. God ye good den, fair gentlewoman.

Nurse. Is it good den?

450

Mer. 'Tis no less, I tell you; for the bawdy hand ·

of the dial is now upon the prick of noon.

Nurse. Out upon you! what a man are you?

Rom.

Rom. One, gentlewoman, that God hath made himself to mar.

Nurse. By my troth, it is well said;-For himself to mar, quoth'a ?-Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I may find the young Romeo?

Rom. I can tell you; but young Romeo will be older when you have found him, than he was when you sought him: I am the youngest of that name, for fault of a worse.

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Mer. Yea, is the worst well? very well took, 'faith wisely, wisely.

Nurse. If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with you.

Ben. She will indite him to some supper.

Mer. A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! So ho!
Rom. What hast thou found ?

470

Mer. No hare, sir; unless a hare, sir, in a lenten pye, that is something stale and hoar ere it be spent.

An old hare hoar,

And an old hare hoar,

Is very good meat in lent:

But a hare that is hoar,

Is too much for a score,

When it hoars ere it be spent.

480

Romeo, will you come to your father's we'll to din

ner thither.

Rom.

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