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Mer. The pox of such antick, lifping, affected phantafies, these new tuners of accents:-" A very "good blade!a very tall man! - a very good "whore!" Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandfire, that we should be thus afflicted with these strange flies, these fashion-mongers, these pardonnezmoy's, who stand so much on the new form that they cannot fit at ease on the old bench? 9 O, their bon's, their bon's!

Enter Romeo.

Ben. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo. Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring. flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified? Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in: Laura to his Lady was but a kitchen-wench; marry, she had a better love to berhyme her; Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a gipfy, Helen and Hero hildings and harlots: Thisbé a grey eye or fo, but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, bonjour; there's a French falutation to your French Slop. You gave us the contrefait fairly last night.

Rom. Good-morrow to you both: What counterfeit did I give you ?

Mer. The flip, Sir, the flip: can you not conceive? Rom. Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was great; and, in fuch a cafe as mine, a man may ftrain courtesy.

7 Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandfire!) Hamouroufly apoftrophifing hisanceitors, whose sober times were unacquainted with the fopperies here complained of.. WARBURTON,

9 O, their bones! their bones!] Mercutio is here ridiculing those frenchified fantastical coxcomts whom he calls pardonnez-moy's: and therefore, I suspect here he meant to write French too.

Mer. That's as much as to say, such a cafe as yours

constrains a man to bow in the hams.

Rom. Meaning, to curt'fy.

Mer. Thou haft most kindly hit it.
Rom. A most courteous exposition.

Mer. Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.
Rom. Pink for flower.

Mer. Right.

Rom. Why, then is my pump well flower'd. Mer. Sure wit-follow me this jest, now, till thou haft worn out thy pump, that when the single fole of it is worn, the jest may remain, after the wearing, solely fingular.

Rom. O fingle-fol'd jest,

Solely fingular, for the singleness !

Mer. Come between us, good Benvolio, my wit faints.
Rom. Switch and spurs,

Switch and spurs, or-I'll cry a match.

Mer. Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done: for thou haft more of the wild-goofe in one of thy wits, than, I am fure, I have in my whole five. Was I with you there for the goofe?

Rom. Thou wast never with me for any thing, when

thou wast not there for the goofe.

Mer. I will bite thee by the ear for that jest.

Rom. Nay, good goose, bite not.

Mer. Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting,

It is a most sharp fauce.

Rom. And is it not well serv'd in to a sweet goofe ?
Mer. O, here's a wit of cheverel, that stretches

from an inch narrow to an ell broad.

Rom. I stretch it out for that word broad, which added to the goose, proves thee far and wide a broad goofe.

' 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, pumps
punched with holes in figures.
2 a vit of cheverel,] Cheverel
is foft leather for gloves.

E 2

Mer.

..

Mer. Why, is not this better, than groaning for love? Now thou art 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 defirest me to stop in my tale, against the hair.

Ben. Thou wouldst else have made thy tale large. Mer. O, thou art deceiv'd, 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.

1

Enter Nurse, and Peter her Man.

Rom. Here's goodly Geer; a Sail! a Sail!

Mer. Two, two, a Shirt and a Smock.

Nurse. Peter,

Peter. Anon ?

Nurse. My Fan, Peter.

Mer. 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.

Nurse. Is it good den ?

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 himself to mar.

Nurse. By my troth, it is well faid. For himself to mar, quotha? 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

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you fought 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 defire fome confidence with you.

Ben. She will indite him to some fupper.
Mer. A bawd, a bawd, a bawd.
Rom. What haft thou found ?

So ho!

Mer. 3 No hare, Sir, unless a hare, Sir, in a lenten pye, 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,

But a hare, that is hoar, is too much for a score, when

it hoars ere it be spent.

Romeo, will you come to your father's? we'll to dinner thither.

Rom. I will follow you.

Mer. Farewel, ancient lady:

Farewel, lady, lady. lady.

[Exeunt Mercutio, Benvolio.

Nurse. I pray you, Sir, what faucy merchant was

this, that was so full of his ropery?

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' he were lustier than he is, and twenty fuch Jacks: and if I cannot, I'll find those that shall. Scurvy knave, I am none of his flirt-gills; I am

No bare, Sir,] Mercutio having roared out, fo bo! the cry of the sportsmen when they ftast a hare; Romeo asks what be has found, And Mercutio answers,

No bare, &c. The rest is a fefries of quibbles unworthy of explanation, which he who does not understand, needs not lament his ignorance.

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↑ 'none of his skains-mates. And thou must stand by too, and fuffer every knave to use me at his pleasure ? [To ber man.

Pet. I faw no man use you at his pleasure: if I had, my weapon should quickly have been out, I warrant you. I dare draw as foon as another man, if I fee occafion in a good quarrel, and the law on my fide.

Nurse. Now, afore God, I am fo vext, that every part about me quivers. Scurvy knave! Pray you, Sir, a word: and as I told you, my young lady bid me enquire you out'; what she bid me say, I will keep to myself. But first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into 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 of-fered to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing.

Rom. 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 will thou tell her, nurse? Thou doft not mark me.

Nurse. I will tell her, Sir, that you do proteft; which, as I take it, is a gentleman-like offer.

Rom. Bid her devise some means to come to shrift this afternoon:

And there she shall at friar Laurence' Cell
Be shriev'd and married. Here is for thy pains.
Nurse: No, truly, Sir, not a penny.
Rom. Go to, I fay, you shall.

Nurse. This afternoon, Sir? Well, she shall be there. Rom. And stay, good nurse, behind the abby-wall: Within this hour my man shall be with thee,

4 None of his skains-mates.] skains was some low play, and The word shains, mate, I do not skains-mate, a companion at such undestand, but suppose tht play.

And