MER. O calm, dishonourable, vile submission! A la stoccata1 carries it away. Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk? TYB. What wouldst thou have with me? [Draws. MER. Good king of cats, 2 nothing, but one of your nine lives; that I mean to make bold withal, and as you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher5 by the ears? make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it be out. TYB. I am for you. ROM. Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up. Beat down their weapons: [Drawing. [They fight. Gentlemen, for shame; Forbear this outrage; Tybalt Mercutio The prince expressly hath forbid this bandying In Verona streets: MER. I am hurt; hold, Tybalt; -good Mercutio. A plague o' both the houses! I am sped:" Is he gone, and hath nothing?9 BEN. What, art thou hurt? MER. Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, 'tis enough. Where is my page?-go, villain, fetch a surgeon. [Exit Page. ROM. Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much. MER. No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve: ask for me tomorrow, and 10 shall find me a grave man. you I am pep 1) The Italian term for a thrust | common in comic language, nor, or stab with a rapier, an attack, like perhaps, altogether disused. Nares. passado, a pass, or motion forwards. 7) To cease, to abstain from any 2) Alluding to his name. See p. thing. 38, 5). 3) That I demand or claim. To make bold, to take a liberty, a common, but not a correct phrase. 4) To dry up by beating, to deprive of any thing which enlivens. 5) Pilcher, pilch, something lined with fur, from the French pelisse, the Latin pellis, skin, meaning the case or scabbard. 8) To speed, to dispatch in haste, to kill. 9) Without being hurt. 10) This jest was better in old language, than it is at present. Lidgate says, in his elegy upon Chaucer: "My master Chaucer now is grave." Farmer. We meet with the same quibble in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1608, where Vindici dresses up a lady's skull, and observes: "- she has a somewhat grave look with her." 6) Your put without any possessive meaning, nearly equivalent to a. It is a sort of vulgarism not un-Steevens. pered, I warrant, for this world: A plague o' both your houses! A dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetick! Why, the devil, came you between us? I was hurt under your arm. ROM. I thought all for the best. MER. Help me into some house, Benvolio, Or I shall faint. A plague o' both your houses! I have it, and soundly too: Your houses! [Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO. ROM. This gentleman, the prince's near ally, My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt In my behalf; my reputation stain'd With Tybalt's slander, Tybalt, that an hour Re-enter BENVOLIO. BEN. O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead; That gallant spirit hath aspir'd2 the clouds, Which too untimely3 here did scorn the earth. ROм. This day's black fate on more days doth depend; This but begins the woe, others must end. Re-enter TYBALT. BEN. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again. ROM. Alive! in triumph! and Mercutio slain! Away to heaven, respective lenity, 4 And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct5 now! Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him. 6 TYB. Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here, Shalt with him hence. 1) A boaster; a vain fellow. 3) Before the natural time. Respect formerly signified consideration; prudential caution. Malone. 5) Literally, the act of leading, guidance; here, conductor, guide, leader. 6) To accompany. ROM. This shall determine that. [They fight; TYBALT falls. BEN. Romeo, away, be gone! Stand not amaz'd: 1- the prince will doom thee death, BEN. away! Why dost thou stay? [Exit ROMEO. Enter Citizens, &c. 1 CIT. Which way ran he, that kill'd Mercutio! Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he? BEN. There lies that Tybalt. 1 CIT. Up, sir, go with me; I charge thee in the prince's name, obey. Enter Prince, attended; Montague, Capulet, their Wives, and others. The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl: That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio. LA. CAP. Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother's child! Unhappy sight! ah me, the blood is spill'd3 Of my dear kinsman! Prince, as thou art true,1 PRIN. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray? BEN. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay; Romeo that spoke him fair, bade him bethink How nice the quarrel was, and urg'd withal Your high displeasure: All this - uttered With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd, 1) Confounded, in a state of confusion. 2) I am always running in the way of evil fortune, like the fool in the play. Johnson. 3) To shed; to waste. 4) As thou art just and upright. Johnson. 5) How slight, how unimportant, how petty. 6) To fight with rapiers; to rush, as in combat. Cold death aside, and with the other sends It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud, Hold friends! friends part! and, swifter than his tongue, And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm LA. CAP. He is a kinsman to the Montague, PRIN. Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio; PRIN. And, for that offence, I have an interest in your hates' proceeding, I will be deaf to pleading and excuses; Nor tears, nor prayers, shall purchase out abuses; 1) Excited or directed by envy; as an envious attack. 2) So we say, to go a fishing, a begging; this letter a is prefixed to a participle, to denote an action still continued. It is something like a preposition, yet it is not exactly either on, at, to, in, or any thing else. The force seems to be its own. Nares, 3) A verb formed from a, for on or at, and the French merci, mercy; or from the Latin merces, reward; meaning, to inflict a penalty at mercy; to punish by a pecuniary penalty, the amount of which is not fixed by law, but left to the discretion or mercy of the judge. Bear hence this body, and attend our will: JUL. Gallop apace,1 you fiery-footed steeds, [Exeunt. Come, night! - Come, Romeo! come, thou day in night! Whiter than new snow on a raven's back. Enter Nurse, with Cords. Here comes my nurse, And she brings news; and every tongue, that speaks, Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there, the cords, NURSE. Ay, ay, the cords. [Throws them down. JUL. Ah me! what news! why dost thou wring thy hands? NURSE. Ah well-a-day! he's dead, he's dead, he's dead! We are undone, lady, we are undone! Alack the day! he's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead! JUL. Can heaven be so envious? Romeo can, Romeo! Though heaven cannot: 0 Romeo! Romeo! 1) With a quick pace, fast, spee-woe on woe; as Dr. Johnson, on ma dily. 2) Grave, solemn. 3) Gaudy, showy. ture inquiry, determined. Now corrupted to well-a-day; often written welladay, welaway, and wealaway, as if dirived from weal, prosperity, hap 4) Alas; from walawa, Saxon, for piness. |