now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo; now art thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature: for this drivelling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole. Ben. Stop there, stop there. Mer. Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against the hair. Ben. Thou wouldst else have made thy tail large. Mer. Oh! thou art deceived: I would have made it short; for I was come to the whole depth of my tale, and meant, indeed, to occupy the argument no longer. Rom. Here's goodly geer! Enter Nurse and PETER. Mer. A sail, a sail'! Ben. Two, two; a shirt, and a smock. Nurse. Peter, pr'ythee give me my fan. 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. Mer. 'Tis no less, I tell you; for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon. Nurse. Out upon you! what a man are you. Rom. One, gentlewoman, that God hath made for himself to mar3. Nurse. By my troth, it is well said;-for himself to mar, quoth'a ?-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 fault of a worse. Nurse. You say well. Mer. Yea! is the worst well? very well took, i' faith; wisely, wisely. Nurse. If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with you'. 7 A sail, a sail!] Thus the 4to, 1597. In the later copies these words are erroneously given to Romeo, and the next speech to Mercutio. 8 that God hath made FOR himself to mar.] "For" is from the 4to, 1597: it is left out in subsequent copies, but the repetition of the words by the Nurse, "for himself to mar," shows that it had been improperly omitted. 9 I desire some CONFIDENCE with you.] The 4to, 1597, has conference, all Ben. She will indite him to some supper. Rom. What hast thou found? Mer. No hare, sir; unless a hare, sir, in a lenten pie, that is something stale and hoar ere it be spent. An old hare hoar, and an old hare hoar, Is very good meat in lent: [Singing. But a hare that is hoar, is too much for a score, 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'. [Singing. [Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO. Nurse. Marry, farewell!-I pray you, sir, what saucy merchant was this, that was so full of his ropery '? 3 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. Scurvy knave! I am none of his flirt-gills; I am none of his skains-mates *. other editions "confidence ;" and Benvolio's observation, in the 4to, 1597, is, "Oh! belike she means to invite him to supper." 1 - ere it be spent.] We print this, not very intelligible, fragment of some ballad as we find it in the earliest 4to: preceding it is the stage-direction, "He walks by them and sings." 2- lady, lady, lady.] In "Twelfth-Night," Vol. ii. p. 667, Sir Toby sings a snatch of a song, to which " 'lady, lady," is the burden. It was a very favourite tune, and Mercutio, according to the corr. fo. 1632, here sang a part of it. The 4to, 1597, gives his speech, before his exit with Benvolio, thus :-" Farewell, ancient lady; farewell, sweet lady." 3 what saucy MERCHANT was this, that was so full of his ROPERY?] See Vol. iii. p. 676, for instances of the use of the word "merchant' as a term of abuse. Ropery" is a word found in "The Three Ladies of London," a play first printed in 1584: it was used in a sense somewhat similar to roguery. The 4to, 1597, prints it roperipe; and Churchyard, in his "Choice," (Sign. C c iii.) uses roperipe as an adjective: "But gallows lucke and roperipe happe." - I am none of his SKAINS-MATES.] Possibly, as Malone suggests, "skainsmates" means knife companions, or cut-throat companions, from skain or skene, a knife or short dagger. Skene is used by many writers of the time: R. Armin, in his "Nest of Ninnies," 1608 (reprinted by the Shakespeare Society in 1842), has this passage, "If I do stick in the bogs, help me out-not with your good skene And thou must stand by, too, and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure? Pet. I saw no man use you at his pleasure; if I had, my weapon should quickly have been out, I warrant you. I dare draw as soon as another man, if I see occasion, in a good quarrel, and the law on my side. Nurse. Now, afore God, I am so vexed, that every part about me quivers.-Scurvy knave!-Pray you, sir, a word; and as I told you, my young lady bade me inquire you out: what she bid me say, I will keep to myself; but first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her in 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 wicked dealing. Rom. Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. I protest unto thee, Nurse. Good heart! and, i' faith, I will tell her as much. Lord, lord! she will be a joyful woman. Rom. What wilt thou tell her, nurse? thou dost not mark me". Nurse. I will tell her, sir,-that you do protest; which, as I take it, is a gentlemanlike offer. Rom. Bid her devise some means to come to shrift This afternoon; And there she shall, at friar Laurence' cell', Be shriv'd, and married. Here is for thy pains. head me." A skene seems to have been especially used by the Irish. The objection taken by the Rev. A. Dyce to this explanation merely is, that the Nurse must necessarily allude to the female companions of Mercutio. Just the contrary; for she has already referred to his female companions as "flirt-gills." She means that she is no companion of his, whether female or male. 5 and very WICKED dealing.] So the corr. fo. 1632; and Mr. Singer, seeing that such an emendation could not altogether be passed over (it is "weak dealing' in the old copies), observes "that the Nurse is not very precise in her language, and confounds weak and wicked." No commentator ever thought of this want of precision, until it was shown in our Vol. of "Notes and Emendations," p. 388, that "wicked" had been misprinted weak. 6 thou dost not mark me.] These words are not found in the 4to, 1597. And there she shall, at friar Laurence' cell,] The 4to, 1597, gives the first two lines of Romeo's speech as follows: "Bid her get leave to-morrow morning To come to shrift at friar Laurence' cell:" after which that edition breaks off, until the line, "And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall." It places Romeo's reward to the Nurse afterwards, near the end of the scene. Nurse. No, truly, sir; not a penny. Rom. Go to; I say, you shall. [Giving her money. 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, 8 And bring thee cords, made like a tackled stair, you, sir. Nurse. Now, God in heaven bless thee!-Hark Rom. I warrant thee; my man's as true as steel. Nurse. Well, sir; my mistress is the sweetest lady-Lord, lord!-when 'twas a little prating thing,-Oh!-There's a nobleman in town, one Paris, that would fain lay knife aboard; 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? Rom. Ay, nurse; what of that? both with an R. R is for and rosemary, thee? no': I know it begins with some other letter; and she hath the prettiest sententious of it, of you 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. [Exit. [Exeunt. 8 Must be my coNVOY] Conduct, 4to, 1597. In Webster's "White Devil" (Edit. Dyce, i. 94), "cunning" is misprinted convoy, "Pandar, ply your convoy," which the editor unluckily permitted to pass. 1 Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name. R is for THEE? no:] The meaning of this passage seems to have been hitherto mistaken, owing to "thee" in the old copies (as was often the case) having been misprinted the: it there runs thus, "R is for the no." The Nurse means to ask, "how can R, which is the dog's name, be for thee?" And she answers herself, "no: I know it begins with some other letter." The modern text, at the suggestion of Tyrwhitt, has usually been, "R is for the dog. No; I know," &c., but no change is necessary beyond the mere alteration of the to "thee." It is singular that this trifling change should not have been suggested long ago. SCENE V. CAPULET'S Garden. Enter JULIET. Jul. The clock struck nine, when I did send the nurse; Perchance, she cannot meet him :-that's not so.- Of this day's journey; and from nine till twelve My words would bandy her to my sweet love, But old folks, many feign as they were dead; 2 Oh! she is LAME: love's heralds should be thoughts,] The 4to, 1597, reads lazy, for "lame" of the later editions; and in that copy the thirteen next lines are wanting. Throughout this scene the variations are so considerable, that it is impossible to point them out in detail. The 4to, 1597, follows up the line above quoted thus: "And run more swift, than hasty powder fir'd What succeeds in the later editions is not in the 4to, 1597, until we come to "I am weary," and then it is inserted with much greater brevity. 3 Driving BACK shadows over lowering hills:] We make no change here, though the corr. fo. 1632 would induce us to believe that "back" ought to be black. Juliet is probably referring to the rapid manner in which the sun's light drives back the shadows in which the hills are involved. Here, perhaps, the old corrector misheard "back," and wrote black in his margin in consequence. — and pale as lead.] The corr. fo. 1632 puts this couplet as follows:"As his to me but old folks seem as dead, Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and dull as lead." There seems no reason why Juliet should complain that old folks are pale as lead," but still we make no alteration-not even to remedy the hemistich. |