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Nurse. No less? Nay, bigger; Women grow by

Men.

La. Cap. Speak briefly, can you like of Paris'

love?

Jul. I'll look to like, if looking liking move.
But no more deep will I indart mine eye,
Than your consent gives strength to make it fly.

Enter a Servant.

Serv. Madam, the guests are come, supper serv'd up, you call'd, my young lady afk'd for, the nurse curst in the pantry, and every thing in extremity. I must hence to wait; I beseech you, follow ftrait.

La. Cap. We follow thee. Juliet, the County

stays.

Nurse. Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days. [Exeunt.

[blocks in formation]

Enter Romeo, Mercutio, Benvolio, with five or fix other maskers, torch-bearers, and drums.

Rom.

HAT, shall this speech be spoke for our

WHAT,

excuse?

Or shall we on without apology?

Ben. The date is out of such prolixity.

3 The date is out of such pro. lixity.] i. e. Masks are now out of fashion. That Shakespear was an enemy to these fooleries, ap

We'll

pears from his writing none: and that his plays difcredited fuch entertainments is more than probable. But in James's time, that C 4 reign reign of false taste as well as false politics, they came again in faihon: and a deluge of this atfected nonfense overflowed the court and country. WARE.

We'll have no Cupid, hood-wink'd with a scarf,
Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath,
Scaring the ladies + like a crow-keeper :
Nor a without-book prologue faintly spoke
After the prompter, for our enterance.
But let them measure us by what they will,
We'll measure them a measure, and be gone.

Rom. Give me a torch, I am not for this ambling. Being but heavy, I will bear the Light.

Mer. Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. Rom. Not I, believe me, you have dancing shoes With nimble soles; I have a foul of lead, So stakes me to the ground, I cannot move.

Mer. You are a Lover; borrow Cupia's Wings, And foar with them above a common Bound. Rom. I am too fore enpearced with his Shaft, To foar with his light Feathers; and fo bound, I cannot bound a pitch above dull Woe. Under Love's heavy burden do I fink.

Mer. And to fink in it, should you burden Love, Too great Oppression for a tender Thing!

Rom. Is Love a tender Thing? It is too rough, Too rude, too boist'rous; and it pricks like Thorn. Mer. If Love be rough with you, be rough with

Love; Prick Love for pricking, and you heat Love down. Give me a Cafe to put my visage in ?

[Putting on his Mask.

A Visor for a Vifor! - what care I,
What curious eye doth quote deformities ?

4-like a crow-keeper :) The word crow-k-eper is explained n Lear

5 Nor a without-bock prologue, &c.] The two following lines are infested from the first edition. POPE.

6 Mer. You are a Lover; &c.] The twelve following lines are not to be found in the first editio 1.

POPE

Here Rom.

Here are the beetle-brows shall blush for me.

Ben. Come, knock and enter; and no fooner in,

But ev'ry man betake him to his legs.

Rom. A torch for me. Let wantons, light of heart, Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels; For I am proverb'd with a grandfire-phrase; I'll be a candle-holder, and look on.

The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done.

Mer. Tut! dun's the mouse, the conftable's own word;

If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire;

8

* Or, save your reverence, Love, wherein thou stickest Up to thine ears: come, we burn day-light, ho.

Tut! dun's the mouse, the conftable's own word; ] This poor obscure stuff should have an explanation in mere charity. It is an answer to these two lines of Rome,

For I am proverb'd with a
grandfire's phrafe,
and

The game was ne'er fo fair, and
I am done.

Mercutio, in his reply, answers the last line first. The thought of which, and of the preceding, is taken from gaming, I'll be a candle-holder (lays Romco) and Lok on. It is true, if I could play myself, I could never expect a fairer chance than in the company we are going to: but, alas! I am done. I have nothing to play with; I have lost my heart already. Mercutio catches at the word done, and quibbles with it, as if Romeo had faid, The ladies indeed are fair, but I am dun, i. e. of a dark complexion. And fo replies, Tut! don's the mouse; a proverbial expreffion of

the fame import with the French, La nuit tous les chats font gris. As much as to say, You need not fear, night will make all your complexions alike. And because Romeo had introduced his obfervation with,

I am proverb'd with a grandfire's phrase,

Mercutio adds to his reply, the conftable's own word. As much as to fay, if you are for old proverbs, I'll fit you with one; lis the conftable's own word: whole custom was, when he summoned his watch, and affigned them their several stations, to give them what the foldiers call, the word. But this night guard being diftinguished or their pacific character, the conftable, as an emblem of their harmless difpofition, chose that domeftic animal for his word: which, in time, might become proverbial. WARB.

8 Or, fave your reverence, Love,] The word or obscures the sentence; we should read O! for or Love. Mercutio having called the affection with which Romeo was entangled by so disrespectful a word as mire, cries

Rom. Nay, that's not so.

Mer. I mean, Sir, in delay

We waste our lights in vain, like lights by day.
Take our good meaning, for our judgment fits
Five times in that, ere once in our fine wits.

Rom. And we mean well in going to this mask;

But 'tis no wit to go.

Mer. Why, may one afk ?

Rom. I dreamt a dream to-night.

Mer. And fo did I.

Rom. Well what was yours?

Mer. That dreamers often lye.

Rom. -In bed asleep; while they do dream things

true.

Mer. O, then I fee, Queen Mab hath been with

you.

She is the Fancy's mid-wife, and she comes

out,

O! fave your reverence, Love. 9 O, then I fee, Queen Mab bath been with you.

She is the FAIRIES' midwife.] Thus begins that admirable speech upon the effects of the imagination in dreams. But, Queen Mab the fairies' midwife? What is the then Queen of? Why, the fairies. What! and their midwife too? But this is not the greatest of the abfurdities. Let us fee upon what occafion she is introduced, and under what quality. It is as a Being that has great power over human imaginations. But then the title given her, must have reference to the employment she is put upon: First then, she is

called Queen: which is very pertinent; for that designs her power: Then she is called the fairies' midwife; but what has that to do with the point in hand? If we would think that Shakespear wrote sense, we must say, he wrote the FANCY'S midwife: and this is a proper title, as it introduces all that is faid afterwards of her vagaries. Besides, it exactly quadrates with these lines:

-1 talk of dreams;

Which are the children of an idle brain,

Begot of nothing but vain fan

tafie.

These dreams are begot upon fantasie, and Mab is the midwife to bring them forth. And fancy's midwife is a phrase altogether in the manner of our author.

WARBURTON. anonymous

In shape no bigger than an agat-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies,
Athwart mens' noses as they lie asleep :
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs;
The cover, of the wings of grashoppers;
The traces, of the smallest spider's web;
The collars, of the moonshine's watry beams;
Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film ;
Her waggoner a small grey-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm,
Prickt from the lazy finger of a maid.
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,
Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub,
Time out of mind the fairies' coach-makers.
And in this State she gallops, night by night,
Through lover's brains, and then they dream of love;
On courtiers' knees, that dream on court'fies strait;
O'er lawyers fingers, who strait dream on fees;
O'er ladies' lips, who strait on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blifters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweet-meats tainted are.
'Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a fuit;

Sometimes she gallops d'er a
LAWYER's nose,

And then dreams he of smelling

out a fuit;) The old editions have it, cOURTIER's nose; and this undoubtedly is the true reading: and for these reasons. Firft, In the present reading there is a vicious repetition in this fine speech; the fame thought having been given in the foregoing line, O'er lawyers' fingers, who ftrait dream on fees :

Nor can it be objected that there

And

will be the fame fault if we read courtier's, it having been faid before.

On courtiers' knees, that dream on curifies ftrait :

because they are shewn in two places under different views: in the first, their foppery; in the second, their rapacity is ridiculed, Secondly, In our author's time, a court-folicitation was called, simply, a fuit: and a process, a fuit at law, to diftinguish it from the other. The King (fays an

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