me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone, and Nell.-Antony! and Potpan! 2 Serv. Ay, boy; ready. 1 Serv. You are looked for, and called for, asked for, and sought for, in the great chamber. 2 Serv. We cannot be here and there too.Cheerly, boys; be brisk a while, and the longer liver take all. [They retire behind. Enter CAPULET, &c. with the Guests and the Maskers. Cap. Gentlemen, welcome! ladies, that have their toes you: Unplagu❜d with corns, will have a bout with A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear, Such as would please;-'tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone: You are welcome, gentlemen!-Come, musicians, play. A hall! a hall 5! give room, and foot it, girls. [Musick plays, and they dance. More lights, ye knaves; and turn the tables up, 5 An exclamation commonly used to make room in a crowd for any particular purpose, as we now say a ring! a ring! So Marston, Sat. iii.: A hall! a hall! Roome for the spheres, the orbs celestial The passages are numberless that may be cited in illustration of this phrase. 6 The ancient tables were flat leaves or boards joined by hinges and placed on tressels; when they were to be removed they were therefore turned up. The phrase is sometimes taken up. Thus in Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, ed. 1825, p. 198 :-' After that the boards-end was taken up.' And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot.- 2 Cap. By'r lady, thirty years. 1 Cap. What, man! 'tis not so much, 'tis not so much: 'Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio, Come pentecost as quickly as it will, Some five and twenty years; and then we mask’d. 2 Cap. 'Tis more, 'tis more: his son is elder, sir: His son is thirty. 1 Cap. Will you tell me that? His son was but a ward two years ago 8. Rom. What lady's that, which doth enrich the hand Of yonder knight? Serv. I know not, sir. Rom. O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she9 hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear: Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! 7 Cousin was a common expression for kinsman. Thus in Hamlet, the king, his uncle and stepfather, addresses him with—~ 'But now, my cousin Hamlet and my son.' 8 This speech stands thus in the quarto of 1597:--'Will you tell me that? it cannot be so: His son was but a ward three years ago; Good youths, i'faith!—Oh, youth's a jolly thing!' There are many trifling variations in almost every speech of this play; but when they are of little consequence I have not encumbered the page with them. The last of these three lines, however, is natural and pleasing.-Steevens. 9 Steevens reads, with the second folio: 'Her beauty hangs upon,' &c. Shakspeare has the same thought in his 27th Sonnet :'Which like a jewel hung in ghastly night, Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new.' Lyly, in his Eupheus, has A fair pearl in a Morian's ear.' So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand, Tyb. This, by his voice, should be a Montague:Fetch me my rapier, boy:-What! dares the slave Come hither, cover'd with an antick face, To fleer and scorn at our solemnity? 1 Cap. Why, how now, kinsman? wherefore storm you so? Tyb. Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe; Tyb. 'Tis he, that villain Romeo. 1 Cap. Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone, He bears him like a portly gentleman; And, to say truth, Verona brags of him, To be a virtuous and well govern'd youth: I would not for the wealth of all this town, Here in my house, do him disparagement: Therefore be patient, take no note of him, It is my will; the which if thou respect, Show a fair presence, and put off these frowns, An ill beseeming semblance for a feast. Tyb. It fits, when such a villain is a guest; I'll not endure him. 1 Cap. He shall be endur'd; What, goodman boy?--I say, he shall;—Go to;— Am I the master here, or you? go to. You'll not endure him!—God shall mend my soul— You'll make a mutiny among my guests! You will set cock-a-hoop! you'll be the man! Tyb. Why, uncle, 'tis a shame. 1 Cap. Go to, go to. Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting. [To JULIET. This holy shrine, the gentle fine is thisMy lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. Jul. Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, Rom. Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? 10 i. e. do you an injury. The word has still this meaning in Scotland. See vol. vi. p. 175, note 8. 11 A pert forward youth. The word is apparently a corruption of the Latin præcox. 12 There is an old adage-' Patience perforce is a medicine for a mad dog.' To which this is an allusion. 13 Juliet had said before, that 'palm to palm was holy palmer's kiss.' She afterwards says, that 'palmers have lips that they must use in prayer.' Romeo replies, That the prayer of his lips was, that they might do what hands do; that is, that they might kiss. Jul. Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake. Rom. Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purg'd. [Kissing her 14. Jul. Then have my lips the sin that they have took. Rom. Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urg'd! sin again Give me my Jul. You kiss by the book. Nurse. Madam, your mother craves a word with you. Rom. What is her mother? Nurse. Marry, bachelor! Her mother is the lady of the house, And a good lady, and a wise, and virtuous: I nurs❜d her daughter, that you talk'd withal: I tell you, he, that can lay hold of her, Shall have the chinks. Rom. Is she a Capulet? O dear account! my life is my foe's debt. Ben. Away, begone; the sport is at the best. Rom. Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest. 1 Cap. Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone; We have a trifling foolish banquet towards 15.Is it e'en so? Why, then I thank you all; I thank you, honest gentlemen 16; good night: 14 The poet here, without doubt, copied from the mode of his own time; and kissing a lady in a public assembly, we may conclude, was not then thought indecorous. In King Henry VIII. Lord Sands is represented as kissing Anne Boleyn, next whom he sits at supper. 15 Towards is ready, at hand. A banquet, or rere-supper, as it was sometimes called, was similar to our dessert. See vol. iii. p. 438, note 2. 16 Here the quarto of 1597 adds :— I promise you, but for your company, I would have been in bed an hour ago: |