Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall, When it did taste the worm-wood on the nipple Shake, quoth the dove-house: 'twas no need, I trow, And since that time it is eleven years: For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood, I warrant, an I should live a thousand years, La. Cap. Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace. Nurse. Yes, madam; yet I cannot choose but laugh, To think it should leave crying, and say-Ay: And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow Yea, quoth my husband, fall'st upon thy face?. La. Cap. Marry, that marry is the very theme Jul. It is an honour that I dream not of. Nurse. An honour! were not I thine only nurse, I'd say, thou hadst suck'd wisdom from thy teat. La. Cap. Well, think of marriage now: younger than you, [6] Stinted-stopped, forbore from weeping. STEEVENS. Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, Are made already mothers: by my count, Nurse. A man, young lady! lady, such a man, La. Cap. Verona's summer hath not such a flower. And see how one another lends content; The fish lives in the sea; and 'tis much pride, Nurse. No less? Nay, bigger; women grow by men. Serv. Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you called, my young lady asked for, the nurse cursed in the pantry, and every thing in extremity. I must hence to wait; I beseech you, follow straight. La. Cap. We follow thee.-Juliet, the county stays. [7] So, in Wily Beguiled: "Why he's a man as one should picture him in wax." STEEVENS. [8] This ridiculous speech is full of abstruse quibbles. The unbound lover, is a quibble on the binding of a book, and the binding in marriage; and the word cover is a quibble on the law phrase for a married woman, who is styled a femme couverte in law french. MASON. [9] The golden story is perhaps the golden legend, a book in the darker ages of popery much read, and doubtless often exquisitely embellished, but of which Canus, one of the popish doctors, proclaims the author to have been homo ferrei oris, plumbei cordis. JOHNSON. The poet may mean nothing more than to say, that those books are most esteemed by the world, where valuable contents are embellished by as valuable binding. STEEVENS. Nurse. Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days. SCENE IV. [Exeunt. A Street. Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with five or six Maskers, Torch-bearers, and others. Rom. What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse? Or shall we on without apology? Ben. The date is out of such prolixity.1 But, let them measure us by what they will, Rom. Give me a torch, 3-I am not for this ambling. Being but heavy, I will bear the light. Mer. Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. Rom. Not I, believe me : you have dancing shoes, With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead, So stakes me to the ground, I cannot move. Mer. You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings, And soar with them above a common bound. Rom. I am too sore enpierced with his shaft, To soar with his light feathers; and so bound, I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe: Under love's heavy burden do I sink. Mer. And, to sink in it, should you burden love ; Too great oppression for a tender thing. Rom. Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, Too rude, too boist'rous; and it pricks like thorn. Mer. If love be rough with you, be rough with love; [1] In Henry VIII. where the king introduces himself to the entertainment given by Wolsey, he appears like Romeo and his companions in a mask, and sends a messenger before, to make an apology for his intrusion. This was a custom observed by those who came uninvited, with a desire to conceal themselves for the sake of intrigue, or to enjoy the greater freedom of conversation. Their entry on these occasions was always prefaced by some speech in praise of the beauty of the ladies, or the generosity of the entertainer; and to the prolixity of such introductions I believe Romeo is made to allude. STEEVENS. [2] See King Lear, p. 89. [3] To hold a torch was anciently no degrading office. Queen Elizabeth's gentlemen pensioners attended her to Cambridge, and held torches while a play was acted before her in the chapel of King's college, on a sunday evening. Before the invention of chandeliers all rooms of state were illuminared by flambeaux which attendants held upright in their hands. STEEV. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.- What curious eye doth quote deformities ?4 Ben. Come, knock, and enter; and no sooner in, But every man betake him to his legs. Rom. A torch for me: let wantons, light of heart, Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels; For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase,— I'll be a candle-holder, and look on,— The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done.5 Mer. Tut! dun's the mouse, the constable's own word If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire Of this (save reverence) love, wherein thou stick'st Up to the ears.-Come, we burn day-light, ho. Rom. Nay, that's not so. Mer. I mean, sir, in delay We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day. Rom. And we mean well, in going to this mask; Mer. Why, may one ask? Rom. I dreamt a dream to-night. Mer. And so did I. Rom. Well, what was yours? Mer. That dreamers often lie. Rom. In bed, asleep, while they do dream things true. Mer. O, then, I see, queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies' midwife; and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore-finger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep : Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs; [4] To quote is to observe. STEEVENS. [5] An allusion to an old proverbial saying, which advises to give over, when the game is at the fairest. RITSON. Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid: Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub, And in this state she gallops night by night Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love; Rom. Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace; Mer. True, I talk of dreams ; Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy ; Which is as thin of substance as the air; 8 And more inconstant than the wind, who woos And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence, [6] Kissing-comfits. These artificial aids to perfume the breath are men. tioned by Falstaff in the Merry Wives of Windsor. MALONE. [7] A sword is called a toledo from the excellence of the Toledan steel. So Grotius, -Glaudius Toletanus "Unda Tagi non est uno celebranda metallo; "Utilis in cives est ibi lamna sucs." JOHNSON. [8] This was a common superstition; and seems to have had its rise from the horrid disease called Plica Polonica. WARBURTON.. |