PROLOGUE. Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge, break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows Do, with their death, bury their parents' strife, The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours' traffick of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. PERSONS REPRESENTED. ESCALUS, Prince of Verona. PARIS, a young Nobleman, Kinsman to the Prince. MONTAGUE, CAPULET, Heads of Two Houses at variance with each other. An old Man, Uncle to Capulet. ROMEO, Son to Montague. MERCUTIO, Kinsman to the Prince, and Friend to Romeo. FRIAR LAWRENCE, a Franciscan. BALTHAZAR, Servant to Romeo. Citizens of Verona; several Men and Women, Relations to both Houses; Maskers, Guards, Watchmen, and Attendants. SCENE, during the greater Part of the Play, in Verona : once in the Fifth Act, at Mantua. Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, armed with Swords and Bucklers. Sampson. GREGORY, O' my word, we'll not carry coals1. Gre. No, for then we should be colliers. Sam. I mean, an we be in choler, we'll draw. Gre. Ay, while you live, draw your neck out of the collar. Sam. I strike quickly, being moved. Gre. But thou art not quickly moved to strike. Sam. A dog of the house of Montague moves me. Gre. To move, is-to stir; and to be valiant, is -to stand to it: therefore, if thou art mov'd, thou run'st away. 1 To carry coals is to put up with insults, to submit to any degradation. Anciently, in great families, the scullions, turnspits, and carriers of wood and coals were esteemed the very lowest of menials, the drudges of all the rest. Such attendants upon the royal household, in progresses, were called the black-guard; and hence the origin of that term. Thus in May Day, a Comedy by Geo. Chapman, 1608:- You must swear by no man's beard but your own; for that may breed a quarrel: above all things, you must carry no coals. Again, in the same play :- Now my ancient being of an un-coal-carrying spirit,' &c. And in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour: Here comes one that will carry coals; ergo will hold my dog. Again in King Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 2: At Calais they stole a fireshovel; I knew by that piece of service the mea would carry coals Sam. A dog of that house shall move me to stand: I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's. Gre. That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes to the wall. Sam. True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall: -- therefore I will push Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall. Gre. The quarrel is between our masters, and us their men. Sam. 'Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant: when I have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the maids; I will cut off their heads. Gre. The heads of the maids? Sam. Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt. Gre. They must take it in 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 John2. Draw thy tool; here comes two of the house of the Montagues3. Enter ABRAM and BALTHASAR. 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! 2 Poor John is hake, dried and salted. The disregard of concord is in character. It should be observed that the partisans of the Montague family wore a token in their hats in order to distinguish them from their enemies the Capulets. Hence throughout this play they are known at a distance. Gascoigne adverts to this circumstance in a Masque written for Viscount Montacute, in 1575: And for a further proofe, he shewed in hys hat Thys token, which the Montacutes did beare always, for that They covet to be knowne from Capels, where they pass For ancient grutch' whych long ago 'tweene these two houses was.' 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 thumb4 at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it. Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? Sam. I do bite my thumb, sir. Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? Sam. No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir; but I bite my thumb, sir. Gre. Do you quarrel, sir? Abr. Quarrel, sir? no, sir. Sam. If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you. Abr. No better. Enter BENVOLIO, at a distance. Gre. Say-better; here comes one of my master's kinsmen5. Sam. Yes, better, sir. Abr. You lie This mode of insult, in order to begin a quarrel, seems to have been common in Shakspeare's time. Decker, in his Dead Term, 1608, describing the various groups that daily frequented St Paul's Church, says, What swearing is there, what shouldering, what justling, what jeering, what byting of thumbs, to beget quarrels !' And Lodge, in his Wits Miserie, 1596- Behold, next I see Contempt marching forth, giving me the fico with his thumbe in his mouthe The mode in which this contemptuous action was performed is thus described by Cotgrave, in a passage which has escaped the industry of all the commentators: Faire la nique: to mocke by nodding or lifting up of the chinne; or more properly, to threaten or defie, by putting the thumbe naile into the mouth, and with a jerke (from the upper teeth) make it to knacke. So in Randolph's Muses' Looking Glass : Dogs and pistola ! To bite his thumb at me! Wear I a sword To see men bite their thumbs ?' Gregory is a servant of the Capulets: he must therefore mean Tybalt, who enters immediately after Benvolio. |