Enter BENVOLIO, at a distance. when I have fought with the men, I will be cruela with the maids; I will* cut off their heads. GRE. The heads of the maids? SAM. Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maiden-heads; take it in what sense thou wilt. GRE. They must take it int sense, that feel it. SAM. Me they shall feel, while I am able to stand: and, 'tis known, I am a pretty piece of flesh. GRE. 'Tis well, thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor John.b Draw thy tool; here comes of the house of the Montagues.(1) Enter ABRAM and another Servant of MONTAGUE. SAM. My naked weapon is out; quarrel, I will back thee. GRE. How? turn thy back, and run? SAM. Fear me not. GRE. No, marry; I fear thee! SAM. Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin. GRE. I will frown, as I pass by; and let them take it as they list. SAM. Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it. ABR. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? ABR. DO you bite your thumb at us, sir? GRE. No. a I will be cruel with the maids;] The quarto of 1599, that of 1609, and the folio, 1623, which was printed from it, concur in reading civill. The correction appears in a quarto edition without date, published by John Smethwicke, " at his shop in Sainte Dunstanes Church, in Fleete Street, under the Dyall." Smethwicke also published the quarto, 1609; and the undated edition, which contains several important corrections of previous typographical errors, was probably issued soon after. b Poor John.] The fish called hake, an inferior sort of cod, when dried and salted, was probably the staple fare of servants and the indigent during Lent; and this sorry dish is perpetually ridiculed by the old writers as " poor John." c I will bite my thumb at them:] This contemptuous action, though obsolete in this country, is still in use both in France and Italy; but Mr. Knight is mistaken in supposing it identical with what is called giving the fico. Biting the thumb is performed by biting the thumb nail; or, as Cotgrave describes it, "by putting the thumbe naile into the mouth, and with a jerke (from the CAP. What noise is this?-Give me my long sword, ho! LA. CAP. A crutch, a crutch!-why call you for a sword? CAP. My sword, I say!-Old Montague is come, And flourishes his blade in spite of me. (*) First folio omits sir. (†) Old copies, except the undated quarto, washing. (1) First folio, draw. upper teeth) make it to knacke." The more offensive gesticulation of giving the fico was by thrusting out the thumb between the fore-fingers, or putting it in the mouth so as to swell out the cheek. d Remember thy swashing blow.] To swash perhaps originally meant, as Barret in his " Alvearie," 1580, describes it, "to make a noise with swords against tergats;" but swashing blow here, as in Jonson's "Staple of News," Act V. Sc. 2, "I do confess a swashing blow," means evidently a smashing, crushing blow. e Enter several Followers, &c.] A modern direction. The old copies have merely-"Enter three or four citizens with clubs or partysons." f Clubs, bills, and partizans!-] Shakespeare, whose wont it is to assimilate the customs of all countries to those of his own, puts the ancient call to arms of the London 'prentices in the mouth of the Veronese citizen. Enter PRINCE, with Attendants. PRIN. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, That quench the fire of your pernicious rage Speak, nephew, were you by, when it began? BEN. Here were the servants of your adversary, LA. MON. O, where is Romeo!-saw you him a That most are busied when they are most alone,-] This is the reading of the quarto, 1597. Subsequent editions, including the folio, 1623, read thus :- "Which then most sought, where most might not be found; b Many a morning hath he there been seen,-] This, and the Right glad am I, he was not at this fray. sun Peer'd forth the golden window of the east, MON. Many a morning hath he there been seen,b BEN. My noble uncle, do you know the cause? BEN. But new struck nine. ROM. Ay me! sad hours seem long. Was that father that went hence so fast? my BEN. It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours? ROM. Not having that, which, having, makes them short. BEN. In love? ROм. Out BEN. Of love? ROM. Out of her favour, where I am in love.(3) BEN. Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof! ROM. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!" Where shall we dine ?-O me!-What fray was here? Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. Here's much to-do with hate, but more with love : Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate! BEN. Tell me in sadness, who is that you love? But sadly tell me, who. ROM. Bid a sick man in sadness maket his A word ill urg'd to one that is so ill !— BEN. I aim'd so near, when I suppos'd you lov'd. ROM. A right good mark-man!—And she's fair I love. BEN. A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit. ROM. Well, in that hit, you miss: she'll not be hit With Cupid's arrow, she hath Dian's wit; And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd, From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm’d.* She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes, Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold: O, she is rich in beauty; only poor, That, when she dies, with beautyd dies her store.(4) BEN. Then she hath sworn, that she will still live chaste? ROM. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste; For beauty, starv'd with her severity, Cuts beauty off from all posterity. She hath forsworn to love; and, in that vow, BEN. Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her. ROM. O, teach me how I should forget to think. BEN. By giving liberty unto thine eyes; Examine other beauties.(5) ROM. "Tis the way To call hers, exquisite, in question more: (*) First folio omits bid. (+) First folio, makes. She lives unharm'd.] So the quarto of 1597. The subsequent quartos and the folio, 1623, read "uncharm'd." d With beauty dies her store.] The reading of all the ancient copies, which Theobald altered to "with her dies beauty's store." e To call hers, exquisite, in question more:] This is generally conceived to refer to the beauty of Rosaline. It may mean, however, "that is only the way to throw doubt upon any other beauty I may see;" an interpretation countenanced by the after lines:"Show me a mistress that is passing fair, What doth her beauty serve, but as a note, CAP. But Montague is bound as well as I, In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think, For men so old as we to keep the peace. PAR. Of honourable reckoning are you both, And pity 'tis, you liv'd at odds so long. But now, my lord, what say you to my suit? CAP. But saying o'er what I have said before: My child is yet a stranger in the world, She hath not seen the change of fourteen years; Let two more summers wither in their pride, (*) First folio omits But. a And Servant.] The old editions have,-"Enter Capulet, Countie Paris, and the Clowne." By Clown was meant the merryman; and a character of this description was so general in the plays of Shakespeare's early period, that his title here ought perhaps to be retained. 6 She is the hopeful lady of my earth:] A gallicism. Steevens Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride. PAR. Younger than she are happy mothers made. CAP. And too soon marr'd are those so early made.* The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she, (*) The first quarto, 1597, reads married. (+) First folio omits The. says, Fille de terre being the French phrase for an heiress. But Shakespeare may have meant by, "my earth," my corporal part, as in his 146th Sonnet, "Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth." ACT I.] Earth-treading stars, that make dark heaven light: " about Through fair Verona; find those persons out, Whose names are written there, [gives a paper.] and to them say, My house and welcome on their pleasure stay. [Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS. SERV. Find them out, whose names are written here? It is written-that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am sent to find those persons, whose names are here† writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned:-In good time Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO. BEN. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning, One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish ; Take thou some new infection to thy eye, ROM. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that. For your broken shin. Shut up in prison, kept without my food, ROM. Ay, mine own fortune in my misery. -that make dark heaven's light." Mr. Knight adheres to the old reading, "as passages in the masquerade scene would seem to indicate that the banqueting room opened into a garden." A better reason for abiding by the original text is to consider that the "dark heaven," in Shakespeare's mind, was most probably the Heaven of the stage, hung, as was the custom during the performance of tragedy, with black. b Such, amongst view of many,-] The reading of the quarto, 1597. The quarto, 1599, that of 1609, and the folio, 1623, have, "Which one more view," &c. Neither reading affords a clear sense. SERV. Up.c ROM. Whither to supper? ROM. Indeed, I should have asked you that before. SERV. Now I'll tell you without asking. My master is the great rich Capulet; and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine: rest you merry. [Exit. BEN. At this same ancient feast of Capulet's Sups the fair Rosaline, whom thou so lov'st; With all the admired beauties of Verona : Go thither; and, with unattainted eye, Compare her face with some that I shall show, And I will make thee think thy swan a crow. ROM. When the devout religion of mine eye Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires!* And these,-who, often drown'd, could never die,— BEN. Tut! you saw her fair, none else being by, (*) Old editions, fire. (†) First folio, she shew scant shell, well, &c. e Up.] Is this a misprint for "to sup?" d Come and crush a cup of wine:] This, like the crack a bottle of later times, was a common invitation of old to a carouse. The following instances of its use, which might be easily multiplied, were collected by Steevens : Fill the pot, hostess, &c., and we'll crush it." The Two Angry Women of Abingdon, 1599. —we'll crush a cup of thine own country wine." HOFFMAN'S Tragedy, 1631. "Come, George, we'll crush a pot before we part." The Pinder of Wakefield, 1599. • Your lady's love-] A corruption, I suspect, for "lady-love." It was not Romeo's love for Rosaline, or hers for him, which was to be poised, but the lady herself "against some other maid." |