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ROM. And we mean well, in going to this mask;'

"But 'tis no wit to go.

MER.

Why, may one ask?
ROM. I dreamt a dream to-night.
MER.

And so did I.

That dreamers often lie.

ROм. Well, what was yours?
MER.

ROм. 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;2 and she comes

In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the forefinger of an alderman, 3
Drawn with a team of little atomies 4
Athwart 5 men's noses as they lie asleep:

Her waggon-spokes made of long spinner's legs;
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;
The traces, of the smallest spider's web;
The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams:
Her whip, of cricket's bone: the lash, of film:
Her waggoner, a small grey-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid:6
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,
Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub,
Time out of mind the fairies' coach-makers.

1) Masquerade.

2) Steevens is of opinion, that queen Mab is called the fairies' midwife, i. e. the midwife among the fairies, because it was her department to deliver the fancies of sleeping men of their dreams; to which others oppose, that she is so called, because it was her peculiar employment to steal the new born babe in the night, and to leave another in its place. The poet here uses her general appellation and character, which yet has so far a proper reference to the present train of fiction, as that her illusions were practised on persons in bed or asleep; for she not only haunted women in childbed, but was likewise the incubus or nightmare: Shakspeare, by employing her here, alludes at large to her midnight

pranks performed on sleepers; but denominates her from the most notorious one, of her personating the drowsy midwife, who was insensibly carried away into some distant water, and substituting a new birth in the bed or cradle. It would clear the appellation to read "the fairy midwife."

3) In the pictures of dignitaries the ring was generally placed on the fore- finger, whilst other persons wore this ornament on the thumb.

4) Atomy is an obsolete substitute for atom.

5) Across, tranverse to any thing. 6) To prick, properly to pierce with a small puncture; here, to catch with pricked up fingers, with the tip of the fingers. From, often used for with, by. He alludes to a flea. 7) From time immemorial.

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And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love:
On courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight:
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees:1
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream;
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breath with sweet-meats 2 tainted are.
Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;3
And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pig's tail,
Tickling a parson's nose as 'a lies asleep,
Then dreams he of another benefice:6
Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,"
Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear; at which he starts, and wakes;
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two,
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab.

This, this is she

ROM.

Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace; Thou talk'st of nothing.

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;
And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes
Even now the frozen bosom of the north,
And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,
Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.

BEN. This wind you talk of, blows us from ourselves;
Supper is done, and we shall come too late.
ROм. I fear, too early: for my mind misgives,

1) Fee, reward paid to lawyers. 2) Kissing-comfits, artificial aids to perfume the breath. Their breath is tainted, i. e. corrupted in consequence of eating too many sweet-meats.

3) A place in court.

4) A pig assigned, in payment of tithes, for the maintenance of the clergy.

5) He.

6) An ecclesiastical living.

7) A sword is called a toledo, from the excellence of the Toledo steel.

8) So, in Westward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "truth, sir, my master and sir Goffin are guzzling; they are dabbling together fathom deep. The knight has drunk so much health to the gentleman yonder, on his knees, that he hath almost lost the use of his legs." Malone.

Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

With this night's revels; and expire the term
Of a despised life, clos'd in my breast,
By some vile forfeit of untimely death:
But He, that hath the steerage of my course,
Direct my sail! On, gentlemen.

BEN. Strike, drum.

SCENE V. A Hall in Capulet's House.

Musicians waiting. Enter Servants.

[Exeunt.

1 SERV. Where's Potpan, that he helps not to take away? he shift a trencher!1 he scrape a trencher!2

2 SERV. When good manners shall lie all in one or two men's hands, and they unwashed too, 'tis a foul thing.

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1 SERV. Away with the jointstools, remove the courtcupboard, look to the plate:- good thou, save me a piece of march-pane; 5 and, as thou lovest me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone, and Nell. — Antony! and Potpan! 2 SERV. Ay, boy; ready.

1 SERV. You are looked for, and called for, asked for, and sought for, in the great chamber.

2 SERV. We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys; be brisk a while, and the longer liver take all.

[They retire behind.

Enter CAPULET, &c. with the Guests and the Maskers. CAP. Gentlemen, welcome! ladies, that have their toes Unplagu'd with corns, will have a bout' with you: — Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all

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Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty, she
I'll swear, hath corns; Am I come near you now?
You are welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day,
That I have worn a visor; and could tell

A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear,

1) To shift, to change; a trencher, a wooden plate.

2) To scrape, the primitive way of cleaning it.

3) A stool or seat consisting of

parts inserted in each other.

4) A sideboard on which the plate was placed.

5) A kind of sweet bread or biscuit,

almond-cake, the Italian marzapane, the French massepain.

6) This phrase did not appear indelicate to the audience of Shakspeare's time, though perhaps it would not be endured at this day.

7) A turn, an opportunity of danc

ing.

Such as would please; 'tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone: You are welcome, gentlemen! Come, musicians, play, A hall! a hall! give room, and foot it, girls.

[Musick plays, and they dance. More light, ye knaves; and turn the tables up, And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot. Ah, sirrah, this unlook'd-for sport comes well. Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin2 Capulet; For you and I are past our dancing days: How long is't now, since last yourself and I Were in a mask?

2 CAP.

By'r lady, thirty years.

1 CAP. What, man! 'tis not so much, 'tis not so much: 'Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio,

Come Pentecost as quickly as it will, 3

Some five and twenty years; and then we mask'd.
2 CAP. 'Tis more, 'tis more: his son is elder, sir:
His son is thirty.

1 CAP.

Will you tell me that? His son was but a ward two years ago.

ROM. What lady's that which doth enrich the hand Of yonder knight?

SERV. I know not, sir.

ROм. Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear:

Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!
So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows,

The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand,
And, touching hers, make happy my rude hand.
Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.

TYB. This, by his voice, should be a Montague:
Fetch me my rapier, boy: What! dares the slave
Come hither, cover'd with an antick facę,

1) i. e. make room.

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2) Cousin was a common expression from one kinsman to another, out of the degree of parent and child, brother and sister, used sometimes even to denote those of lineal descent, as a nephew or grandson.

3) i. e. as soon as we shall have Pentecost.

4) The knight took Juliet by the hand to dance.

5) The dance being over.
6) Odd, strange, fantastical.

To fleer1 and scorn at our solemnity?
Now, by the stock and honour of my kin,
To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.

1 CAP. Why, how now, kinsman? wherefore storm you so ?
TYB. Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe;

A villain, that is hither come in spite,

To scorn at our solemnity this night.

1 CAP. Young Romeo is't?

TYB.

"Tis he, that villain Romeo.

2

1 CAP. Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone,
He bears him like a portly gentleman;.
And, to say truth, Verona brags 3 of him,
To be a virtuous and well-govern'd youth:
I would not for the wealth of all this town,
Here in my house, do him disparagement:4
Therefore be patient, take no note of him,
It is my will; the which if thou respect,
Show a fair presence, and put off these frowns,
An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.

TYB. It fits, when such a villain is a guest;
I'll not endure him.

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What, goodman boy! I say, he shall; - Go to; -
Am I the master here, or you? go to.

You'll make a mutiny among my guests!

You will set a cock-a-hoop! you'll be the man!
TYB. Why, uncle, 'tis a shame.

1 CAP.

You are a saucy? boy:

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Go to, go to,

Is't so indeed?

This trick may chance to scath you;8
You must contráry me! marry, 'tis time
Well said, my hearts: 10

I know what.

-You are a princox; 11 go:

1) To mock, to jest with insolence and contempt (at our festivity).

2) Of a noble appearance.
3) To boast, to tell with pride.
4) Injury, disgrace.

5) A wrinkled look, expressing displeasure, dislike, anger.

6) Cock-a-hoop, or cock-on-the-hoop, à phrase denoting triumph; triumphant, exulting; compare the French, coq à huppe.

7) Impudent, transgressing the rules of decorum.

8) To do you an injury.

9) To contráry, to contradict or oppose, the use of which is common to the old writers; it is now obsolete in this sense, and accented on the first syllable.

10) Fondly, for friends, kinsmen.

11) A ludicrous word, but little used, for coxcomb, a conceited person, a pert young rogue.

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