Page images
PDF
EPUB

ROM. Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was great; and, in such a case as mine, a man may strain courtesy. MER. That's as much as to say such a case as yours

constrains a man to bow.

ROм. Meaning to court'sy.

[ocr errors]

MER. Thou hast most kindly hit it.
ROM. A most courteous exposition.

MER. Nay, I am the very pink1 of courtesy.
ROM. Pink for flower.

MER. Right.

ROM. Why, then is my pump? well flowered.

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-soled3 jest, solely singular for the singleness!

MER. Come between us, good Benvolio; my wits fail. ROM. Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I'll cry a match. 5

MER. Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chase, I have 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.
ROм. Nay, good goose, bite not.

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

ROм. And is it not well served in to a sweet goose?

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

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. 2

MER. Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo; now art thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature. ROM. Here's goodly geer!3

Enter Nurse and PETER.

MER. A sail, a sail, a sail!

NURSE. Peter!

PET. Anon?4

NURSE. My fan, 5 Peter.

MER. Pr'ythee, 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?

MER. 'Tis no less, I tell you; for the hand of the dial" is now upon the point of noon.

NURSE. 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 'faults of a worse.

1) A soft stretching leather, spelled | ed out; this was one of the offices also cheveril, from the French che- of her gentleman usher. The Nurse vreuil. This leather being of a very affects this dignity. (Nares' Glosflexible nature, was often allud- sary.) Compare the last line of ed to in comparisons. Thus a very this scene. pliant conscience was proverbially compared to it.

[ocr errors]

2) To afford some meaning to this poor but intended witticism, Dr. Farmer would read "proves thee far and wide abroad, goose. Steevens. 3) Obsolete spelling for jeer, biting jest, mockery.

4) Immediately, or presently. Anon, Sir! was the customary, answer of waiters, as they now say, "Coming, Sir."

5) It was a piece of state for a servant to attend, on purpose to carry the lady's fan when she walk

--

6) God give you a good even. Good den is a mere corruption of good e'en, for good evening. Upon being thus corrected, the nurse asks, whether it is good den? that is, whether the time is come for using that expression rather than the other? to which Mercutio replies, that it is; for the dial now points the hour of noon.

7) A plate marked with lines, where a hand or shadow shows the hour.

8) For 'fault of, i. e. for, or in default, for want of.

NURSE. You say well.

MER. Yea, is the worse well? very well took,1 i' faith; wisely, wisely.

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

BEN. She will indite2 him to some supper.

MER. Romeo, will you come to your father's? we'll to dinner thither.

ROM. I will follow you.

MER. Farewell, ancient lady; farewell, lady, lady, lady. 3 [Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO. NURSE. Marry, farewell! I pray you, sir, what saucy merchant was this, that was so full of his ropery?5

[ocr errors]

ROM. A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself talk; and will speak more in a minute, than he will stand to in a month.

NURSE. An 'a speak any thing against me, I'll take him down an 'a were lustier than he is, and twenty such Jacks; and if I cannot, I'll find those that shall. Pray you, sir, a word: and, as I told you, my young lady bade me inquire you out; what she bade me say, I will keep to myself: but first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into a fool's paradise, as they say, it were a very gross kind of behaviour, as they say: for the gentlewoman is young: and, therefore, if you should deal double with her, truly, it were an ill thing to be offered to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing.

ROM. Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. protest unto thee,

I

NURSE. Good heart! and, 'i faith, I will tell her as much: She will be a joyful woman.

1) Well taken, or understood.

2) To indite, endite or endict is still used in the meaning of to charge any man by a written accusation before a court of justice; here it is, to invite, to ask to any place.

3) The burden of an old song. Steevens.

4) The term merchant which was, and even now is, frequently applied to the lowest sort of dealers, seems anciently to have been used on these familiar occasions in contradistinction to gentleman; signifying that

the person showed by his behaviour he was a low fellow. The term chap, i. e. chapman, a word of the same import with merchant in its less respectable sense, is still in common use among the vulgar, as a general denomination for any person of whom they mean to speak with freedom or disrespect. Steevens,

5) Anciently used in the sense of roguery, rogue's tricks. 6) If he.

7) To deceive, acting two parts,

ROM. What wilt thou tell her, nurse? thou dost not

mark me.

NURSE. I will tell her, sir, that you

as I take it, is a gentleman-like offer.

do protest; which,

ROм. Bid her devise some means to come to shrift1

This afternoon;

And there she shall at friar Laurence' cell.

Be shriv'd, and married. Here is for thy pains.
NURSE. No, truly, sir; not a penny.

ROM. Go to; I say you shall.

NURSE. This afternoon, sir; well, she shall be there. ROM. And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall: Within this hour my man shall be with thee;

And bring the cords made like a tackled stair,2
Which to the high top-gallant of my joy

Must be my convoy in the secret night.

Farewell! Be trusty, and I'll quit thy pains.
Farewell! Commend me to thy mistress.
NURSE. Now, heaven bless thee!

sir.

Hark you, ROM. What say'st thou, my dear nurse? NURSE. Is your man secret? Did you ne'er hear say Two may keep counsel, putting one away?

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

ROM. I warrant thee; my man's as true as steel. NURSE. Well, sir; my mistress is the sweetest lady: when 'twas a little prating thing, 0, there's a nobleman in town, one Paris, that would fain lay knife aboard;5 but she, good soul, had as lieve see a toad, a very toad, as see him. I anger her sometimes, and tell her that Paris is the properer man; but, I'll warrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as any clout in the varsal' world. Doth not rosemary and Romeo begin both with a letter?

1) Confession, made to a priest. The verb is to shrive, to hear or receive the confession of any man, as a priest.

2) Like stairs of rope in the tackle of a ship. Johnson. A stair, for a flight of stairs, is still in the language of Scotland, and was probably once common to both kingdoms. Malone.

3) The highest extremity of the mast of a ship, proverbially applied to any thing elevated.

4) To requite, to recompense. 5) To endeavour to conquer, win her.

to

6) Lieve or lief, gladly, willingly, used in familiar speech in the phrase, I had as lief go as not. It has been supposed that had, in this phrase, is a corruption of would. At any rate, it is anomalous.

7) A mutilation of universal, for whole.

8) Rosemary was an emblem of remembrance, and of the affection

1

Rом. Ay, nurse; What of that? both with an R.

NURSE. Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name, R. is for the dog. No; I know it begins with some other letter;1 and she hath the prettiest sententious of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it.

ROM. Commend me to thy lady.

NURSE. Ay, a thousand times.- Peter!
PET. Anon?

NURSE. Peter, take my fan, and go before.

SCENE V. Capulet's Garden.

Enter JULIET.

Exit.

[Exeunt.

JUL. The clock struck nine, when I did send the nurse; In half an hour she promis'd to return.

Perchance she cannot meet him: that's not so.
O, she is lame! love's heralds should be thoughts,
Which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams,
Driving back shadows over low'ring hills:
Therefore do nimble-pinion'd3 doves draw love,
And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
Now is the sun upon the highmost hill

Of this day's journey; and from nine till twelve
Is three long hours, yet she is not come.
Had she affections, and warm youthful blood,
She'd be as swift in motion as a ball;

My words would bandy her to my sweet love,
And his to me:

of lovers, and for this reason was
worn at weddings.

1) The Nurse, says Warburton, is represented as a prating silly creature; she says, she will tell Romeo a good joke about his mistress, and asks him, whether Rosemary and Romeo do not begin both with a letter: He says, Yes, an R. She, who, we must suppose, could not read, thought he had mocked her, and says, No, sure, I know better, it begins with another letter. R put her in mind of that sound which is made by dogs when they snarl; and therefore, I presume, she says, that is the dog's name, R in schools, being called The dog's letter. Ben Jonson, in his English Grammar, says, R is

the dog's letter, and hirreth in the sound. "Irritata canis quod R. R. quam plurima dicat," as says Lucilius, the Roman satirist.

2) By chance, perhaps.

3) Furnished with nimble pinions, i. e. wings. So, a deer is called nimble-footed. Pinion originally means the joint of a bird's wing, remotest from the body.

4) To drive, to agitate. To bandy properly means, to toss or beat to and fro, as a ball in playing at bandy; a bandy meaning a bat or baddledore, a club with a knob, or bent at the lower part for striking the ball when playing this game; and the play itself with such a club.

« PreviousContinue »