So shall you share all that he doth poffefs, Nurse. No less? nay, bigger; women grow by men, Enter a Servant. Serv. Madam, the guests are come, fupper serv'd up, you call'd, my young lady ask'd for, the nurse curs'd in the pantry, and every thing in extremity. I must hence to wait; I beseech you, follow straight. La. Cap. We follow thee. - Juliet, the county stays. Nurse. Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days. [Exeunt. Enter Romeo, Mercutios, Benvolio, with five or fix Maskers, Torch-bearers, and others. Rom. What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse ? Or Canus, one of the popish doctors, proclaims the author to have been homo ferrei oris, plumbei cordis JOHNSON. The poet may mean nothing more than to fay, that those books are most eftcemed by the world, where valuable contents are embellished by as valuable binding. STEEVENS. 3-endart mine eye,] The quarto, 1597, reads : " engage mine eye." STEEVENS. 4 To this speech there have been likewise additions since the elder quarto, but they are not of fufficient consequence to be quoted. STEEVENS. - another 5 Mercutio.] Shakspeare appears to have formed this character on the following flight hint in the original story : gentleman called Mercutio, which was a courtlike gentleman, very well Or shall we on without apology? Ben. The date is out of fuch prolixity: : wel beloved of all men, and by reason of his pleasant and curteous behavior was in al companies wel intertained." Painter's Palace of Pleasure, tom. ii. p. 221. STEEVENS. 8 The date is out of fuch prolixity.] i. e. Masks are now out of fashion. That Shakspeare was an enemy to these fooleries, appears from his writing none; and that his plays discredited such entertainments, is more than probable. But in James's time, that reign of false taste as well as false politics, they came again in fashion; and a deluge of this affected nonsense overflowed the court and country. WARBURTON." The diversion going forward at present is not a masque but a masquerade. In Henry VIII. where the king introduces himself to the entertainment given by Wolfey, he appears, like Romeo and his companions, in a mask, and sends a messenger before, to make an apology for his intrusion. This was a custom observed by those who came uninvited, with a defire to conceal themselves for the fake of intrigue, or to enjoy the greater freedom of conversation. Their entry on these occafions was always prefaced by fome speech in praise of the beauty of the ladies, or the generofity of the entertainer; and to the prolixity of fuch introductions, I believe Romeo is made to allude. So, in Hiftriomaftix, 1610, a man expresses his wonder that the maskers enter without any compliment: "What come they in so blunt, without device?" In the accounts of many entertainments given in reigns antecedent to that of Elizabeth, I find this custom preserved. Of the fame kind of masquerading, see a specimen in Timon, where Cupid precedes a troop of ladies with a speech. STEEVENS. Shakspeare has written a masque which the reader will find introduced in the 4th act of the Tempest. It would have been difficult for the reverend annotator to have proved they were discontinued during any period of Shakspeare's life. PERCY. 9-like a crow-keeper;] The word crow-keeper is explained in K. Lear, act iv. fc. 6. JOHNSON. Nor no without-book prologue, &c.) The two following lines are inserted from the first edition. POPE, VOL. X. : D We'll We'll measure them a measure, and be gone. 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. 3 Mar. You are a lover; borrow Cupid'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 + so 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 oppreffion for a tender thing. Rom. Is love a tender thing; it is too rough, Too rude, too boist'rous; and it pricks like thorn. *Give me a torch,] The character which Romeo declares his resolution to assume, will be best explained by a paffage in Westward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "He is just like a torch-bearer to maskers; he wears good cloaths, and is ranked in good company, but he doth nothing." A torch-bearer seems to have been a constant attendant on every troop of masks. So, in the second part of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601: 66 - As on a masque; but for our torch-bearers, "Hell cannot rake so mad a crew as I." Again, in the fame play: a gallant crew, " Of courtly maskers landed at the flairs; "Before whom, unintreated, I am come, "Who, with his torch is enter'd." STEEVENS. 3 Mer. You are a lover, &c.] The twelve following lines are not to be found in the first edition. POPE. 4 -fo bound, I cannot bound, &c.] Let Milton's example, on this occafion, keep Shakspeare in countenance: -in contempt "At one flight bound high over-leap'd all bound "Of hill, &c." Par. Loft, book iv. 1. 180. STEEVENS. Mer Mer. If love be rough with you, be rough with love; Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.Give me a cafe to put my visage in : [Putting on a mask. A visor for a visor!-- what care I, Rom. A torch for me: 3 let wantons, light of heart, 2-doth quote deformities ?] To quote is to observe, See vol. i. p. 168. STEEVENS. 3 Let awantons light of heart, &c.] Middleton has borrowed this thought in his play of Blurt Master-Constable, 1602: - bid him, whose heart no forrow feels, * Tickle the fenfeless rufhes with their heels ;) It has been already observed, that it was anciently the custom to strew rooms with rushes, before carpets were in use. See vol. v. p. 378. So Hentzner in his Itinerary, speaking of Q. Elizabeth's prefence-chamber at Greenwich, says: The floor, after the English fashion, was strewed with hay," meaning rushes. So, in the Dumb Knight, 1633: "Thou dancest on my heart, lafcivious queen, The flage was anciently strewn with rushes. So, in Decker's Gul's Hornbook, 1609: "- on the very rushes when the commedy is to daunce." STEEVENS. s-a grandfire phraft,-] The proverb which Romeo means, is contain'd in the line immediately following: To hold the candle, is a very common proverbial expression, for being an idle speca tator. Among Ray's proverbial fentences, is this, -" A good candle-holder proves a good gamester." STEEVENS. I'll be a candle-holder, &c.] An allusion to an old proverbial faying, which advises to give over when the game is at the fairest. REMARKS. Mer. Tut! dun's the mouse, the constable's own word: If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire, Or Tut! dun's the mouse, the conflable's own word:) This poor obscure stuff should have an explanation in mere charity. It is an answer to these two lines of Romeo : For I am proverb'd with a grandfire phrase ;-and 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 (fays Romeo) and look on. It is true, If I could play myfelf, I could never expect a fairer chance than in the company we are going to: but, alas! Iam done. I have nothing to play with: I have lost my heart already. Mercutio catches at the word dore, 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! dun's the mouse; a proverbial expression of the same import with the French, La nuit tous les chats fon gris: as much at to fay, You need not fear, night will make all your complexions alike. And because Romeo had introduced his observations with, I am proverb'd with a grandfire phrafe, 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; 'tis the constable's own word; whose 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 distinguished for their pacific character, the constable, as an emblem of their harmless difpofition, chose that domeftic animal for his word, which, in time, might become proverbial. WARBURTON. A proverbial saying, used by Mr. Tho. Heywood, in his play, intitled The Dutchess of Suffolk, act iii. • A rope for Bishop Bonner, Clunce rún, Draw dan out of the mire, seems to have been a game. In an old collection of Satyres, Epigrams, &c. I find it enumerated among other pastimes : "At shove-groate, venter-point, or crosse and pile, Dun's the mouse is a proverbial phrafe, which I have likewife met with frequently in the old comedies. So in Every Woman ix ber Humour, 1609: "If my host say the word, the mouse shall be dun." It is also found among Ray's proverbial fimilies. Again |