Two of these court-cupboards are still in Stationers' Hall. STEEVENS. Line 647. save me a piece of marchpane ;] Marchpane was a confection made of pistacho-nuts, almonds, and sugar, &c. and in high esteem in Shakspeare's time. GREY. Line 671. A hall! a hall!] This explanation occurs frequently in the old comedies, and signifies make room. STEEVENS. Line 675. good cousin Capulet ;] This cousin Capulet is uncle in the paper of invitation; but as Capulet is described as old, cousin is probably the right word in both places. I know not how Capulet and his lady might agree, their ages were very disproportionate; he has been past masking for thirty years, and her age, as she tells Juliet, is but eight-and-twenty. JOHNSON. -to scath you ;] i. e. to do you an injury. Line 739. 741. STEEVENS. -You are a princox; go:] A princox is a cor- comb, a conceited person. Line 788. We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.] Towards is ready, at hand. STEEVENS. Enter CHORUS.] The use of this chorus is not easily discovered; it conduces nothing to the progress of the play, but relates what is already known, or what the next scene will show and relates it without adding the improvement of any moral sentiment. JOHNSON. ACT II. SCENE I. Line 16. Young Adam Cupid,] Alluding to the famous archer, Adam Bell. GREY. Line 17. When king Cophetua &c.] Alluding to an old ballad preserved in the first volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of ancient English Poetry. STEEVENS. Line 21. By her high forehead,] It has already been observed that a high forehead was in Shakspeare's time thought eminently beautiful. MALONE. Line 35. —the humorous night:] I suppose Shakspeare means humid, the moist dewy night. STEEVENS. ACT II. SCENE II. Line 46. He jests at scars,] That is, Mercutio jests, whom he overheard. JOHNSON. Line 53. Be not her maid,] Be not a votary to the moon, to Diana. JOHNSON. Line 71. 0, that I were a glove upon that hand,] This passageappears to have been ridiculed by Shirley in The School of Com pliments, a comedy, 1637: STEEVENS. "O that I were a flea upon that lip," &c. Line 89. Thou art thyself though, not a Montague.] Juliet is simply endeavouring to account for Romeo's being amiable and excellent, though he is a Montague. And to prove this, she asserts that he merely bears that name, but has none of the qualities of that house. MALONE. Line 125. -no let to me.] i, e. no stop or hinderance. MAL. 134. And, but thou love me, let them find me here :] “ But thou love me," here means, unless thou love me. Line 136. Than death prorogued,] i. e. delayed, deferred to a more distant period. MALONE. Line 234. To lure this tassel-gentle back again!] It appears from the old books on this subject that certain hawks were considered as appropriated to certain ranks. The tercel-gentle was appropriated to the prince; and thence, we may suppose, was chosen by Juliet as an appellation for her beloved Romeo. ACT II. SCENE III. MALONE Line 275. And flecked darkness-] Flecked is spotted, dappled, streaked, or variegated. STEEVENS. Line 281. The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb;] Omniparens, eadem rerum commune sepulchrum." 66 Lucretius. "The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave." Milton.. STEEVENS. ACT II. SCENE IV. Line 394. -the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bowboy's butt-shaft ;] The allusion is to archery. The clout or white mark at which the arrows are directed, was fastened by a black pin placed in the centre of it. To hit this was the highest ambition of every marksman. MALONE. Line 398. More than prince of cats,] Tybert, the name given to the cat, in the story-book of Reynard the Fox. WARBURTON. Line 399. courageous captain of compliments.] A complete master of all the laws of ceremony, the principal man in the doctrine of punctilio. JOHNSON. Line 401. his minim rest,] A minim is a note of slow time in musick, equal to two crotchets. Line 402. MALONE. the very butcher of a silk button,] So, in The Return from Parnassus, 1606: "Strikes his poinado at a button's breadth." STEEVENS. Line 403. -a gentleman of the very first house,-of the first and second cause:] i. e. a gentleman of the first rank, of the first eminence among these duelists; and one who understands the whole science of quarrelling, and will tell you of the first cause, and the second cause, for which a man is to fight. STEEVENS. Line 406. —the hay!] All the terms of the modern fencingschool were originally Italian; the rapier, or small thrusting sword, being first used in Italy. The hay is the word hai, you have it, used when a thrust reaches the antagonist, from which our fencers, on the same occasion, without knowing, I suppose, any reason for it, cry out, ha! JOHNSON. Line 413. these pardonnez-moy's,] Pardonnez-moi became the language of doubt or hesitation among men of the sword, when the point of honour was grown so delicate, that no other mode of contradiction would be endured. JOHNSON. Line 416. 0, their bons, their bons!] i. e. how ridiculous they (frenchified coxcombs) make themselves in crying out, good, and being in ecstasies with every trifle. Line 426. -your French slop.] Slops are large loose breeches or trowsers, worn at present only by sailors. STERVENS. Line 430. What counterfeit &c.? Mer. The slip, sir, the slip;] To understand this play upon the words counterfeit and slip, it should be observed that in our author's time there was a counterfeit piece of money distinguished by the name of a slip. Line 443. then is my pump well flowered.] Here is a vein of wit too thin to be easily found. The fundamental idea is, that Romeo wore pinked pumps, that is, punched with holes in figures. JOHNSON. Line 462. -a very bitter sweeting;] A bitter sweeting, is an apple of that name. Line 466. gloves. Line 475. STEEVENS. -a wit of cheverel,] Cheverel is soft leather for JOHNSON. -to hide his bauble in a hole.] It has been observed by Sir J. Hawkins, that a bauble was one of the accoutrements of a licensed fool or jester. So again, in Sir William D'Avenant's Albovine, 1629: "For such rich widows there love court fools, and use to play with their baubles." STEEVENS. Line 478. against the hair.] A contrepoil: Fr. An expression equivalent to one which we now use-" against the grain.” STEEVENS. MALONE. Line 483. - -to оссиру the argument no longer.] Here we have another wanton allusion. Line 494. God ye good den,] i. e. God give you a good even. STEEVENS, 516. No hare, sir ;] Mercutio having roared out, So, ho! the cry of the sportsmen when they start a hare, Romeo asks what he has found. And Mercutio answers, No hare, &c. The rest is a series of quibbles unworthy of explanation, which he who does not understand, needs not lament his ignorance. JOHNSON, Line 518. lady, lady, lady.] The burthen of an old song. STEEVENS. 531. of his ropery?] Ropery was anciently used in the same sense as roguery is now. Line 540. STEEVENS. -none of his skains-mates.] None of his skains mates means, I apprehend, none of his cut-throat companions. MALONE, Line 579. —like a tackled stair;] Like stairs of rope in the tackle of a ship. JOHNSON. ACT II. SCENE VI. Line 718. Too swift arrives-] He that travels too fast is as long before he comes to the end of his journey, as he that travels slow. Precipitation produces mishap. JOHNSON. Line 721. A lover may bestride the gossomers-] The gossomer is the long white filament which flies in the air in summer. STEEVENS. Line 2. The day is hot,] It is observed, that, in Italy, almost all assassinations are committed during the heat of summer. JOHNSON, Line 79. A la stoccata-] Stoccata is the Italian term for a thrust or stab with a rapier. STEEVENS. Line 82. Good king of cats,] Alluding to his name. MAL. 128. This day's black fate on more days doth depend;] This day's unhappy destiny hangs over the days yet to come. There will yet be more mischief. JOHNSON. Line 149. O! I am fortune's fool!] I am always running in the way of evil fortune, like the Fool in the play. Thou art death's fool, in Measure for Measure. Line 164. JOHNSON. -as thou art true,] As thou art just and upright. JOHNSON. 171. How nice the quarrel-] How slight, how unimportant, how petty. JOHNSON. Line 197. Affection makes him false,] The charge of falsehood on Benvolio, though produced at hazard, is very just. The author, who seems to intend the character of Benvolio as good, meant perhaps to show, how the best minds, in a state of faction and discord, are detorted to criminal partiality. JOHNSON. Line 215. Nor tears, nor prayers, shall purchase out abuses,] This was probably designed as a covert stroke at the church of Rome, by which the different prices of murder, incest, and all other crimes, were minutely settled, and as shamelessly received. STEEVENS. |