Page images
PDF
EPUB

'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
And she was wean'd,1 I never shall forget it,
Of all the days in the year, upon that day:
For I had then laid wormwood to my teat,
Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall,
My lord and you were then at Mantua:
Nay, I do bear a brain,2 - but, as I said,
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
And felt it bitter, O the pretty fool!

To see it tetchy, and fall out with the teat.
Shake, quoth the dove-house: 5 'twas no need, I trow,
To bid me trudge.

And since that time it is eleven years:

For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood,'
She could have run and waddleds all about,,

For even the day before, she broke her brow,

LA. CAP. Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace. 10
JUL. And hold thy peace, I pray the nurse, say I.

NURSE. Peace, I have done. Heaven mark thee to its
grace!

Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nurs'd:
An I might live to see thee married once,
I have my wish. 11

LA. CAP. Marry, that marry is the very theme
I came to talk of: Tell me, daughter Juliet,
How stands your disposition to be married?

[ocr errors]

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,

Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,

Are made already mothers: by my count,

1) To wean, from the root of wone, | trauen, to trust, to believe, to supwont, the German entwöhnen.

2) That is, I have a perfect remembrance or recollection.

3) Tetchy, corrupted from touchy, peevish, irritable.

4) To quarrel, to be angry. 5) The nurse, in her simple and rustic manner, describes the effect of the earthquake.

pose.

7) The rood, the cross.

8) This seems to be a diminutive formed on the root of wade, the La

tin vado, to go; the German waten,

whence watscheln.

[blocks in formation]

6) To trow (pron. tro), the German filled

I was your mother much upon these years1
That you are now a maid. Thus then, in brief:
The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.

NURSE. A man, young lady! lady, such a man,
As all the world - Why, he's a man of wax.2

LA. CAP. Verona's summer hath not such a flower. NURSE. Nay, he's a flower; in faith, a very flower. LA. CAP. What say you? can you love the gentleman? This night you shall behold him at our feast: Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face, And find delight writ there with beauty's pen; Examine every married lineament,

4

And see how one another lends content:3
And what obscur'd in this fair volume lies,
Find written in the margin of his eyes."
This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him only lacks a cover: 5
The fish lives in the sea; and 'tis much pride,
For fair without the fair within to hide:
That book in many's eyes doth share the glory,
That in gold clasps locks in the golden story;
So shall you share all that he doth possess,
By having him, making yourself no less. -
Speak briefly; can you like of Paris' love?
JUL. I'll look to like, if looking liking move:

1) i. e. at the same age.

8

woman, who is styled a femme con2) Well made, as if he had been verte in law French. modelled in wax.

3) That is Examine how nicely one feature depends upon another, or accords with another, in order to produce that harmony of the whole face which seems to be implied in the word content. Steevens.

[ocr errors]

6) i. e. is not yet caught. Fishskin covers to books anciently were

not uncommon.

It is evident that

this speech is to show the advantage of having a handsome person to cover a virtuous mind.

7) A clasp means a hook to hold any thing close; an embrace.

[ocr errors]

4) The comments on ancient books were always printed in the margin. 8) By the golden story is meant no 5) To lack, to want, to need. particular legend, but any valuable This ridiculous speech, says Mason, writing. The poet may mean nois full of abstruse quibbles. The un- thing more than to say, that those bound lover, is a quibble on the bind-books are most esteemed by the ing of a book, and the binding in mar- world, where valuable contents are riage; and the word cover is a quibble embellished by as valuable binding. on the law phrase for a married Steevens.

But no more deep will I endart1 mine eye,

Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.

Enter a Servant.

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.

2

LA. CAP. We follow thee. Juliet, the county stays. 4

[Exeunt.

[blocks in formation]

Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with five or six Maskers, Torchbearers, 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: 5

We'll have no Cupid hood-wink'd with a scarf,
Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath,"
Scaring the ladies like a crow - keeper: 8
Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke

6

1) To endart, or indart, to dart in, | praise of the beauty of the ladies, or to thrust or strike in; here, to engage.

2) Pantry, the Latin panarium, from panis; a closet in which provisions are kept.

3) That is, in an extreme state of confusion, in the utmost turbulence. 4) i. e. the count attends you; count Paris waits for you.

5) i. e. such prolixity is now out of fashion. The diversion going forward at present is a masquerade. 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

ROMEO AND JULIET.

[ocr errors]

the generosity of the entertainer; and to the prolixity of such introductions Romeo is made to allude. Steevens.

6) To hoodwink, to blind by covering the eyes. Scarf is the French écharpe. — In Timon, Cupid precedes a troop of ladies with a speech.

7) The Tartarian bows, as well as most of those used by the Asiatic nations, resemble in their form the old Roman or Cupid's bow, such as we see on medals and bas reliefs. Shakspeare used the epithet to distinguish it from the English bow, whose shape is the segment of a circle. Malone.

8) In several counties to this day, they call a stuffed figure, representing a man, and armed with a bow and arrow, set up to fright the crows from the fruit and corn, a crowkeeper, as well as a scare - crow.

To scare, to fright, to terrify sud

denly.

2

After the prompter, for our entrance:1

But, let them measure us by what they will,
We'll measure them a measure,2
,2 and be gone.

ROM. Give me a torch, 3 I am not for this ambling;+ Being but heavy, 5 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 sores enpierced with his shaft
To soar with his light feathers; and so bound,
I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe:9
Under love's heavy burden do I sink.

MER. And, to sink in it, should you burden love; 10 Too_great_oppression for a tender thing.

ROM. Is love a tender thing? it is too rough.

MER. If love be rough with you, be rough with love.

Give me a case to put my visage in;

A visor 11 for a visor! what care 1,

[Putting on a Mask.

What curious eye doth quote 12 deformities?

Here are the beetle brows, 13 shall blush for me.
BEN. Come, knock, and enter; and no sooner in,

But every man betake him to his legs.

1) The person who aids a public speaker when at a loss, by suggesting the next words of his piece, is called a prompter. - Entrance is here used as a trisyllable, enterance. Malone.

2) A measure, a dance.

3) Before the invention of chandeliers, all rooms of state were illuminated by flambeaux which attendants held upright in their hands. To hold a torch, however, 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. Steevens. 4) To amble, from the Latin ambulare, to pace, to move, employed with respect to the dance.

[blocks in formation]

ROM. A torch for me: let wantons, light of heart,
Tickle the senseless rushes1 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. 2

MER. Tut! dun's the mouse, the constable's own word: 3 If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire1 Of this (save reverence) 5 love, wherein thou stick'st Up to the ears. Come, we burn day-light," ROM. Nay, that's not so.

6 ho.

MER.
I mean, sir, in delay.
We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day.
Take our good meaning: for our judgment sits
Five times in that, ere once in our five wits.7

1) It was anciently the custom to strew rushes on the floors, before the luxury of carpets was introduced.

2) This is the proverb to which Romeo refers. "Our sport is at the best," or at the fairest, is the old proverbial saying, which advises to give over, when the game is at the fairest, meaning, we have had enough of it. Hence it is that Romeo says, "I am done," I am done for, it is over with me.

[ocr errors]

racter, the constable, as an emblem of their harmless disposition, chose that domestic animal for his word, which, in time, might become proverbial. Warburton. Nares adds, that this proverbial saying is of rather vague signification, alluding to the colour of the mouse, but frequently employed with no other intention than that of quibbling on the word done.

4) To draw Dun out of the mire, was a rural pastime, in which Dun meant a dun horse, supposed to be stuck in the mire, and sometimes represented by one of the persons who played.

5) Mercutio having called the affection with which Romeo was entangled by so disrespectful a word as mire, adds, save reverence, the Latin_ salva reverentia, which by misunderstanding or negligent contraction has also been spelled surreverence and sirreverence.

3) Mercutio catches at the word done, and quibbles with it, as if Romeo had said, The ladies indeed are fair, but I am dun, i. e. of a dark complexion. And so replies, Tut! dun's the mouse; a proverbial expression of the same import with the French, La nuit tous les chats sont gris: as much as to say, You need not fear, night will make all your complexions alike, And because Romeo had introduced his observations with, I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase, Mercutio adds to his reply, the constable's own word: as much as to say, If you are for old proverbs, 7) Shakspeare has again mentionI'll fit you with one; 'tis the consta-ed the five wits in this play (Act IV. ble's own word; whose custom was, sc. 2): "Thou hast more of the wildwhen he summoned his watch, and goose in one of thy wits, than, I am assigned them their several stations, sure, I have in my whole five." Merto give them what the soldiers call, cutio is here also the speaker. the word. But this night-guard being The five wits apparently in the meandistinguished for their pacific cha-ing of the five or senses.

6) To burn daylight is a proverbial expression, used when candles, etc. are lighted in the day time.

« PreviousContinue »