The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (Dowden)/Act 2/Scene 4

by William Shakespeare

SCENE IV.—The Same. A Street.

Enter Benvolio and Mercutio.

Mer.	[C 1]Where[C 2] the devil should this Romeo be? Came he not home to-night[E 1]?

Ben.	Not to his father's; I spoke with his man.

Mer.	[C 3]Why,[C 4] that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline, Torments him so, that he will sure run mad. 5

Ben.	[C 5]Tybalt, the kinsman to[C 6] old Capulet, Hath sent a letter to his father's house.

Mer.	A challenge, on my life.

Ben.	Romeo will answer it.

Mer.	Any man that can write may answer a 10 letter.

Ben.	Nay, he will answer[E 2] the letter's master, how he dares, being dared.[E 3]

Mer.	Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead! stabbed[E 4] with a white wench's[E 5] black eye; shot[C 7] thorough[C 8] 15 the ear with a love-song; the very pin[E 6] of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's butt-shaft[E 7]; and is he a man to encounter Tybalt?

Ben.	[C 9]Why, what is Tybalt?

Mer.

More than prince[C 10] of cats[E 8], I can tell you. O, 20 he is[C 11] the courageous captain of compliments.[E 9] He fights as you sing prick-song,[E 10] keeps time, distance, and proportion;[E 11] rests me his minim rest,[C 12] one, two, and the third in your bosom; the very butcher of a silk button,[E 12] a duellist, a 25 duellist; a gentleman of the very first house[E 13], of the first and second cause.[E 14] Ah, the im- mortal passado![E 15] the punto reverso![E 16] the hay![E 17]

Ben.

The what?

Mer.

The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting 30 fantasticoes,[C 13][E 18] these new tuners of accents![C 14] "By[C 15] Jesu, a very good blade! a very tall[E 19] man! a very good whore!" Why, is not this a lament- able thing, grandsire,[E 20] that we should be thus afflicted with these strange flies,[E 21] these fashion-35 mongers, these pardonnez-mois[C 16][E 22], who stand so much on the new form that they cannot sit at ease on the old bench?[E 23] O, their bons,[C 17][E 24] their bons!

Enter Romeo.

Ben.	Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.[C 18]40

Mer.

Without his roe,[E 25] like a dried herring. O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in: Laura to his lady was but[C 19] a kitchen-wench; marry, she had a better love to be-rhyme her; Dido,45 a dowdy;[E 26] Cleopatra, a gipsy;[E 27] Helen and Hero, hildings[E 28] and harlots; Thisbe, a grey eye[E 29] or so, but not[E 30] to the purpose.—Signior Romeo, bon jour! there's a French salutation to your French slop.[E 31] You gave us the50 counterfeit fairly last night.

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

Mer.	The slip,[E 32] sir, the slip; can you not con- ceive?55

Rom.	Pardon, good[C 20] Mercutio, my business was great; and in such a case as mine a man may strain courtesy.[E 33]

Mer.	That's as much as to say, such a case as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams.[E 34]60

Rom.	Meaning, to court'sy.

Mer.	Thou hast most kindly[E 35] hit it.

Rom.	A most courteous exposition.

Mer.	Nay, I am the very pink[E 36] of courtesy.

Rom.	Pink for flower.65

Mer.

Right.

Rom.	Why, then is my pump well flowered.[E 37]

Mer.	Well said;[C 21] follow me this jest now till thou hast worn out thy pump, that when the single sole of it is worn, the jest may remain, after70 the wearing, solely singular.[C 22]

Rom.	O single-soled[E 38] jest, solely singular for the singleness!

Mer.	Come between us, good Benvolio; my wits faint.[C 23]75

Rom.	Switch and spurs,[E 39] switch[C 24] and spurs; or I'll cry a match.[E 40]

Mer.	Nay, if our wits[C 25] run the wild-goose chase,[E 41] I am[C 26] done; for thou hast more of the wild- goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I80 have in my whole five. Was I with you[E 42] there for the goose?

Rom.	Thou wast[C 27] never with me for any thing when thou wast not there for the goose.

Mer.	I will bite thee by the ear[E 43] for that jest.85

Rom.	Nay, good goose, bite not.[E 44]

Mer.	Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting;[C 28][E 45] it is a most sharp sauce.

Rom.	And is it not well[C 29] served in to a sweet goose?

Mer.	O, here's a wit of cheveril,[E 46] that stretches from90 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[C 30] goose.[E 47]

Mer.	Why, is not this better now than groaning for95 love? now art thou 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,[E 48] that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble[E 49] in a hole.100

Ben.	Stop there, stop there.

Mer.	Thou desirest me to stop in my tale against the hair.[E 50]

Ben.	Thou wouldst else have made thy tale large.[E 51]

Mer.	O, thou art deceived; I would have made it105 short; for[C 31] I was come to the whole depth of my tale, and meant indeed to occupy[E 52] the argument no longer.

Rom.	Here's goodly gear![E 53]

Enter Nurse and Peter.^{[C 32]}

Mer.	A sail, a sail![C 33]110

Ben.[C 34][E 54]

Two, two; a shirt and a smock.

Nurse.

Peter![C 35]

Peter.

Anon?[C 36]

Nurse.

My fan,[E 55] Peter.

Mer.	Good Peter, to hide her face;[C 37] for her fan's115 the fairer of the two.[C 38]

Nurse.

God ye[E 56] good morrow, gentlemen.

Mer.	God ye good den, fair gentlewoman.

Nurse.

Is it good den?

Mer.	'Tis no less, I tell you;[C 39] for the bawdy hand120 of the dial is now upon the prick of noon.[E 57]

Nurse.

Out upon you! what a man are you!

Rom.	One, gentlewoman, that God hath made for himself[C 40] to mar.

Nurse.

By my troth, it is well said;[C 41] "for himself to125 mar," quoth a'? Gentlemen,[C 42] 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 was130 when you sought him: I am the youngest of that name, for fault of a worse.

Nurse.

You say well.

Mer.	Yea, is the worst well?[C 43] very well took, i' faith; wisely, wisely.135

Nurse.

If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence[E 58] with you.

Ben.	She will indite[C 44][E 59] him to some supper.

Mer.	A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! So ho![E 60]

Rom.	What hast thou found?140

Mer.

No hare,[E 61] sir; unless a hare, sir, in a lenten pie, that is something stale and hoar[E 62] ere it be spent.[Sings.[C 45] An old hare hoar, And an old hare hoar,145 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'll150 to dinner thither.

Rom.	I will follow you.

Mer.	Farewell, ancient lady; farewell, [singing][C 46] "lady, lady, lady."[E 63] [Exeunt Mercutio and Benvolio.

Nurse.

Marry, farewell![C 47]—I pray you, sir, what155 saucy merchant[E 64] was this, that was so full of his ropery?[E 65]

Rom.	A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear him- self talk, and will speak more in a minute than he will stand to in a month.160

Nurse.

An[C 48] a' speak anything against me, I'll take him down, an a' were lustier than he is, and twenty such Jacks;[E 66] and if I cannot, I'll find those that shall. Scurvy knave! I am none of his flirt-gills;[C 49][E 67] I am none of his skains-mates.[C 50][E 68]165 —[To Peter.[C 51]] And thou must stand by too, and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure?

Peter.

I saw no man use you at his pleasure; if I had, my weapon should quickly have170 been out, I warrant you.[C 52] I dare draw as soon as another man, if I see occa- sion in a good quarrel, and the law on my side.

Nurse.

Now, afore God, I am so vexed, that every175 part about me quivers. Scurvy knave!—Pray you, sir, a word; and as I told you, my young lady bade me inquire you out; what she bade[C 53] me say I will keep to myself; but first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into[C 54] a fool's para-180 dise,[E 69] 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 offered to any gentlewoman, and very185 weak dealing.[E 70]

Rom.	Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. I protest[E 71] unto thee—[C 55][C 56]

Nurse.

Good heart, and, i' faith, I will tell her as much. Lord, Lord, she will be a joyful190 woman.

Rom.	What wilt thou tell her, nurse? thou dost not mark me.[C 57]

Nurse.

I will tell her, sir, that you do protest; which, as I take it, is a gentlemanlike195 offer.

Rom.	Bid[E 72] her devise Some means to come to shrift this afternoon;[C 58] And there she shall at Friar Laurence'[C 59] cell Be shrived and married. Here is for thy pains.200

Nurse.

No, truly, sir; not a penny.

Rom.	Go to; I say you shall.

Nurse.

This afternoon, sir? well, she shall be there.

Rom.

And stay,[C 60] good nurse;[E 73] behind the abbey-wall[C 61] Within this hour my man shall be with thee,205 And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair;[E 74] Which to the high top-gallant[E 75] of my joy Must be my convoy in the secret night. Farewell; be trusty, and I'll quit[C 62] thy pains; Farewell; commend me to thy mistress.[E 76]210

Nurse.

Now God in heaven bless thee! Hark you, sir.

Rom.	What say'st thou, my dear nurse?

Nurse.

Is your man secret? Did you ne'er hear say, Two may keep counsel, putting one away?[C 63][E 77]

Rom.	I warrant[C 64] thee my man's[C 65] as true as steel.215

Nurse.

[C 66]Well, sir;[E 78] my mistress is the sweetest lady —Lord, Lord! when 'twas a little prating thing[E 79]—O, there's a nobleman in town, one Paris, that would fain lay knife aboard;[E 80] but she, good soul, had as lieve see a toad, a very220 toad, as see him. I anger her sometimes, and tell her that Paris is the properer[E 81] man; but, I'll warrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as any clout[E 82] in the versal[E 83] world. Doth not rosemary[E 84] and Romeo begin both with a225 letter?

Rom.	Ay, nurse; what of that? both with an R.

Nurse.

Ah,[C 67] mocker! that's the dog's name;[C 68][E 85] R is for the— No;[C 69][E 86] I know it begins with some other letter—and she hath the prettiest230 sententious[E 87] of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it.

Rom.	Commend me to thy lady.[Exit Romeo.[C 70]

Nurse.

Ay, a thousand times. Peter![C 71]

Peter.

Anon?[C 72]235

Nurse.

Before, and apace.[C 73][E 88][Exeunt.

Critical notes

1. 1–3.] As in Steevens; prose Q, F.
2. 1. Where] Q, F; Why where Capell (getting Why from Q 1).
3. 4, 5.] verse Q 1, Q; prose F.
4. 4. Why] Q, F; Ah Q 1 and many editors.
5. 6, 7.] verse Q 1; prose Q, F.
6. 6. to] Q, F; of Q 1.
7. 15. shot] Q 1; run Q, F and several editors;
8. thorough] Q 1; through Q, F.
9. 19, 20. Why … O] Capell from Q 1; Q, F omit I can tell you.
10. 20. prince] Q, F; the prince Q 1.
11. 21. he is] Q 1; he's Q, F.
12. 23, 24. rests … rest] Q 1, Malone; he rests, his minum rests Q; he rests his minum, F.
13. 31. fantasticoes] Q1; phantacies Q, F;
14. accents] Q1; accent Q, F.
15. 32. By] Q1, Q; omitted F.
16. 36. pardonnez-mois] Collier, from Theobald; pardonmees Q1; pardons mees Q; pardona-mees Qq 4, 5; pardon-mee's F.
17. 38, 39. bons … bons] Theobald (printing bon's); bones … bones Q, F, and several editors.
18. 40. Here … Romeo] only once in Q1.
19. 44. was but] Q1; was Q, F.
20. 56. good] Q, omitted F.
21. 68. Well said] Q1, Sure wit Q, Sure wit, F.
22. 71. solely singular Q1, Q; sole-singular F.
23. 74, 75. wits faint] Q5; wits faints Q, F; wit faints Ff 2–4; wits fail Q1.
24. 76. Switch … switch] Pope; Swits … swits Q, F.
25. 78. our wits] Q, F; thy wits Q1.
26. 79. I am] Q, F; I have Q1.
27. 83. Thou wast] Q, F; Thou wert Q1.
28. 87. bitter sweeting] Q, Bitter-sweeting F.
29. 89. well] F, then well Q; in to] Q1, Q; into F.
30. 94. a broad] Q1, Q; abroad F.
31. 106. for] Q1, Q; or F.
32. 109. Enter …] Enter Nurse and her man Q, F (after longer, 108).
33. 110. A sail, a sail] Q, F (but continued to Romeo); A sail, a sail, a sail. Q1 (given to Mercutio).
34. 111. Ben.] Q1; Mer. Q, F.
35. 112–115. Peter! … Peter] Q, F; Peter, pree thee give me my fan. Mer. Pree thee doo good Peter, Q1.
36. 113. Anon?] Theobald; Anon. Q, F.
37. 115. face;] F3, face, Q, face? F.
38. 116. fairer … two] Q1, fairer face. Q, fairer face? F.
39. 120. you] F, yee Q.
40. 123, 124. for himself] Q1; himself Q, F.
41. 125. well said] Q1, Q; said F.
42. 126. Gentlemen] Q, F (some copies F Gentleman).
43. 134. well?] Q5; well, Q, F.
44. 138. indite] Q, F (endite); invite Q1, Ff 2–4.
45. 143. Sings] Q1 has "He walkes by them, and sings."
46. 153. singing] Dyce (Farmer conj.).
47. 155. Marry, farewell!] Q1; omitted Q, F.
48. 161, 162. An] Pope; And Q, F.
49. 165. flirt-gills] Q1, Q, F; gil-flurts Qq 4, 5;
50. skains-mates] hyphened first in F4.
51. 166. To Peter] Q1 has "She turnes to Peter her man."
52. 171. out, I warrant you.] Rowe, out: I warrant you Q, out, I warrant you, F.
53. 178. bade … bade] Q1; bid … bid Q, F.
54. 180. into] Q1; in Q, F.
55. 188. I … thee] Q, F; Tell her I protest Q1, Daniel;
56. thee—] F2; thee. Q, F.
57. 193. me.] Q5; me? Q, F.
58. 197, 198. Bid … afternoon] Delius; two lines ending shrift and afternoon Capell; one line Q, F; prose Qq 4, 5.
59. 199. Laurence'] Pope; Lawrence Q, F.
60. 204. stay] Q, stay thou F;
61. nurse; … wall] Grant White; nurse … wall, Q, F; nurse, … wall: Pope and many editors.
62. 209. quit] Q, quite F.
63. 213, 214. Is … away?] verse Rowe; prose Q, F.
64. 215. I warrant] Ff 2-n; Warrant Q, F;
65. man's] Q (mans), man F.
66. 216–236] verse Capell.
67. 228. Ah,] Rowe; A Q, F;
68. dog's name;] F, dog, name Q.
69. 228, 229. R is for the— No;] Ritson conj., Delius; R is for the no, Q, F; R is for thee? No; Theobald (Warburton); R is for the dog. No; Steevens, 1778 (Tyrwhitt conj.), and many editors.
70. 233. Exit Romeo] Rowe; omitted Q, F; before Peter line 234 Dyce.
71. 234. times. Peter!] Hanmer, times Peter Q, times. Peter? F.
72. 235. Anon?] Theobald; Anon. Q, F.
73. 236. Before, and apace] Q, F (without comma); Peter take my fanne, and goe before Q1, Steevens; Peter take my fan, and go before, and apace Cambridge.

Explanatory notes

1. 2. to-night] last night, as in I. iv, 50.
2. 12. answer] The same play on answer (by letter or word) and answer, encounter in person, occurs in Hamlet (see note on V. ii. 173, ed. Dowden).
3. 13. dared] challenged. So Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber), 316: "An Englishman … [cannot] suffer … to be dared by any."
4. 14, 15.] Daniel conjectures dead-stabbed, and argues for run Q, F, instead of shot.
5. 15. white wench's] White may mean only pale-complexioned; but the word was commonly used as a term of endearment or favour; so "white boy" of a favourite son; we have even "his white villaine." See Nares' Glossary.
6. 16. pin] Malone: "The clout or white mark at which the arrows [in archery] are directed was fastened by a black pin placed in the center." See Love's Labour's Lost, IV. i. 138. So Middleton, No Wit, No Help like a Woman's, II i. 27: "And I'll cleave the black pin in the midst o' the white."
7. 17. butt-shaft] an unbarbed arrow used for shooting at butts. "The marks to shoot at," says G. Markham (Country Contentments, p. 108, ed. 1616), "are three, Buts, Pricks, and Rovers. "The Butt is a level mark, and therefore would have an arrow with a very broad feather. So Love's Lab. Lost, I. ii. 181: "Cupid's butt-shaft is too hard for Hercules' club."
8. 20. prince of cats] Tybert is the cat's name in Reynard the Fox. Steevens quotes Dekker, Satiromastix, "Tybert, the long-tailed prince of cats," and Nash, Have with You to Saffron Walden: "not Tibalt prince of cats."
9. 21. captain of compliments] Johnson: "master of the laws of ceremony." Compare Lovers Labour's Lost, I. i. 169:

   "A man of complements, whom right and wrong
   Have chose as umpire of their mutiny."

10. 22. prick-song] divisions or descant upon a Plain-song or Ground, … written, or pricked down, in contradistinction to those performed extemporaneously (Grove, Dict. of Music). Ascham, Toxophilus (ed. Arber, p. 41): "I wysshe … that the laudable custome of Englande to teache chyldren their plainesonge and priksong, were not so decayed."
11. 22, 23. time, distance, and proportion] Steevens compares Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, I. iv. (Bobadil teaching Matthew to fence): "note your distance, keep your due proportion of time."
12. 25. button] Steevens quotes The Returne from Parnassus (p. 86, ed. Macray): "Strikes his poinado at a buttons breadth." Staunton quotes Silver, Paradoxes of Defence, 1599: "Signior Rocca … thou that takest upon thee to hit anie Englishman with a thrust upon anie button." So Massinger, Unnatural Combat, II. ii.: "He can teach Our modern duellists how to cleave a button."
13. 26. first house] may mean best family; or, in a heraldic sense, the sons of the original ancestors as distinguished from the issue of those sons (forming "the second house"). In Fletcher's Woman's Prize, IV. i., "a gentleman of the first house" may mean an upstart. See also Dyce's note on Fletcher's Women Pleased, I. iii. (vol. vii. p. 16), where the expression occurs.
14. 27. first and second cause] Compare Love's Labour's Lost, I. ii. 184, and As You Like It, V. iv. 52–69, for the methodised causes of quarrel. It is doubtful whether Vincentio Saviola's "Of honor and honorable Quarrels" in his Practice of the Rapier and Dagger is alluded to in As You Like It.
15. 28. passado] Explained by Saviola as a step forward or aside in fencing; see Love's Labour's Lost, I. ii. 185.
16. 28. punto reverso] a back-handed stroke; Saviola: "You may give him a punta either dritta or riversa."
17. 28. hay] a home-thrust, Ital. hai, thou hast (it). Compare Lat. habet, exclaimed when a gladiator was wounded. (New Eng. Dict.)
18. 31. fantasticoes] Steevens quotes Dekker, Old Fortunatus: "I have … seen fantasticoes, conversed with humourists."
19. 32. tall] sturdy, lusty, valiant, as frequently in Shakespeare.
20. 34. grandsire] The staid Benvolio addressed as if he belonged to an elder generation.
21. 35. flies] Compare the description of Osric as a "water-fly," Hamlet, v. ii. 84, and "gilded butterflies," courtiers in Lear, v. iii. 13.
22. 36. pardonnez-mois] The reading of Qq 4, 5 supports the form adopted by Cambridge editors, perdona-mi's. But Frenchified gallants seem to be the object of mockery. In Westward Hoe (Pearson's Dekker, ii. p. 355), we have the form pardona moy.
23. 36, 38. stand … bench] who insist so much on the new mode of manners, or of clothes, possibly the large breeches, which made sitting difficult—with a quibble on the meaning of form=seat or bench,—that they cannot sit at ease, etc.
24. 38, 39. bons] Malone confirms Theobald's emendation of bones (with, however, a play on that word), by a passage from Greene's Tu quoque, from which we learn that bon jour was the common salutation of those who affected to appear fine gentlemen: "No, I want the bon jour … which yonder gentleman has." Possibly, as Capell says, there is an allusion to "the French disease."
25. 41. roe] Seymour has the grotesque notion that Romeo without his roe is meo, or O, me! a lover's sigh. Rolfe thinks roe may mean mistress (from the female deer). Why has not an "ingenious gentleman" said that roe stands for Ro-saline? "A herring, without a roe" is the crowning comparison of Menelaus with contemptible creatures put into Thersites' mouth, Troilus and Cressida, v. i. 168.
26. 46. dowdy] slattern. Rich, Farewell to Military Profession (1581): "If plaine or homely, we say she is a doudie or a slut."
27. 46. gipsy] because Egyptian, and dark of hue. This passage is jestingly alluded to in The Returne from Parnassus, iii. i. (p. 57, ed. Macray).
28. 47. hildings] worthless persons; used by Shakespeare of both men and women. See iii. v. 168.
29. 47, 48. grey eye] In Two Gent. of Verona, iv. iv. 197, we have (Chaucer's comparison) eyes, "grey as glass"; in Sir Eglamour line 861: "eyen grey as crystalle stone"; in The Returne from Parnassus, i. i. (p. 31, ed. Macray), of silver money: "my purse wants these grey silver eyes that stand idelye in the face of a citizen's daughter." It is certain, however, that grey in Elizabethan literature (and I think in a few passages of Shakespeare) means sometimes bluish. Cotgrave has "Bluard, gray, skie coloured, blewish." Cæsius is explained by Cooper, Thesaurus (1573): "Gray, skie colour with speckes of gray, blunket" (i.e. greyish blue); Glaucus, says Cooper, "is commonly taken for blewe or gray like the skie with speckes as Cæsius is, but I thinke it rather reddie," etc. Unless we understand grey as bluish, Shakespeare nowhere speaks of blue eyes in our meaning. He praises blue-veined eyelids. "Blue eyes" with him means having a bluish circle round the eyes.
30. 48. but not] Hanmer (after Warburton) reads but now.
31. 50. French slop] large, loose trousers, as in Much Ado, iii. ii. 36.
32. 54. slip] a piece of false money (with a play on the word). Greene, in Thieves falling out, has: "certain slips, which are counterfeit pieces of money." So Troilus and Cressida, ii. iii. 27: "If I could have remembered a gilt counterfeit, thou wouldst not have slipped out of my contemplation."
33. 57, 58. strain courtesy] So Chapman, Alphonsus, v. ii.: "Here's straining courtesy at a bitter feast."
34. 60. hams] So in The Merry Devil of Edmonton (Hazlitt's Dodsley, x. 221): "do I bend in the hams?" (spoken of in a way which illustrates this passage).
35. 62. kindly] naturally, hence pertinently, appropriately.
36. 64. pink] So Beaumont and Fletcher, The Pilgrim, i. ii.: "this is the prettiest pilgrim, The pink of pilgrims."
37. 67. flowered] because Romeo's pumps were pinked, i.e. punched in holes with figures. Compare Taming of the Shrew, iv. i. 136: "And Gabriel's pumps were all unpink'd i' the heel."
38. 72. single-soled] mean, contemptible. Single is used alone (in quibbling) for simple, silly, as in Coriolanus, ii. i. 40; soled is perhaps used with a quibble on soul. Holinshed, Ireland, p. 23: "a meane tower might serve such single-soale kings as were at those days in Ireland" (Malone). Steevens quotes from Dekker's Wonderful Yeare: "a single-sold fidler"; Cotgrave defines "Gentilhomme de bas relief," a thred-bare, or single soled gentleman. Our slang "one-horse" corresponds in meaning. Singleness in line 73 means simplicity or silliness.
39. 76. Switch and spurs] So Dekker, Honest Whore, Part II. (Pearson's Dekker, ii. p. 96): "Oh, we shall ride switch and spurre."
40. 77. match] wager. Capell reads for I cry a match.
41. 78. wild-goose chase] Holt White describes this as a race of two horses; the rider who takes the lead may choose what ground he pleases; the other must follow, unless he can in turn take the lead. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy (p. 266, ed. 1632), names this among "the disports of great men."
42. 81. with you] Was I even with you, with respect to the goose? As perhaps in Taming of the Shrew, iv. i. 170: "What, do you grumble? I'll be with you straight."
43. 85. bite thee by the ear] i.e. as a sign of fondness (as one horse does another). Jonson, Alchemist, ii. iii.: "Slave, I could bite thine ear." So the French Mordre l'oreille à, explained by Cotgrave "as much as flatter ou caresser mignonnement, wherein the biting of th' eare is, with some, an usuall Action."
44. 86. bite not] Ray, Proverbs (p. 56, ed. 1768), gives, as a "joculatory proverb," "Good goose do not bite."
45. 87. bitter sweeting] The name of an apple; the usual form of the word is bitter-sweet. Huloet, Abecedarium, 1552: "Apple called a bytter swete, amarimellum."
46. 90. cheveril] kid leather (Fr. cuir de chevreuil); so Twelfth Night, iii. i. 13: "A sentence is but a cheveril glove to a good wit."
47. 94. a broad goose] Broad may mean plain, obvious; used of words it often means gross, indecent; it also means unrestrained. Other forms of spelling were broode and brood. Hence there is probably a play on brood goose, which we find in Fletcher, Humorous Lieutenant, ii. i.: "To make us cuckolds, They have no more burden than a brood-goose." Collier and Delius, retaining F abroad, read "far and wide abroad—goose," which may be right.
48. 99. natural] fool, idiot, as in As You Like It, i. ii. 52, 57.
49. 100. bauble] The fool's short stick, ornamented with a fool's head, doll, or puppet; an inflated skin or bladder, for belabouring those who offended him, was often attached (Douce and Dyce).
50. 102, 103. against the hair] as we say, against the grain. See Merry Wives, ii. iii. 41, and "merry against the hair," Troilus and Cressida, i. ii. 28.
51. 104. large] licentious; "large jests," Much Ado, ii. iii. 206.
52. 107. occupy] with a quibble on the meaning alluded to in 2 Henry IV. ii. iv. 161.
53. 109. gear] Gear is used for talk, and, in a depreciatory sense, rubbishy talk; also for stuff, and, in a depreciatory sense, rubbish. It is also used for apparel, attire. Probably Romeo refers to the preceding talk, not to the habiliments of the approaching nurse.
54. 111. Ben.] Benvolio, slow to kindle, is caught into the fire of fun; see line 138. But some editors accept the arrangement of speeches in Q, F.
55. 114. fan] Compare Love's Labour's Lost, iv. i. 147: "To see him walk before a lady and to bear her fan!" Farmer quotes The Serving Man's Comfort, 1598: "The mistress must have one to carry her cloake and hood, another her fanne."
56. 117. God ye] short for God give ye; on good den, see I. ii. 57.
57. 121. prick of noon] point or mark of noon; so "noontide prick," 3 Henry VI. i. iv. 34, and Lucrece, line 781.
58. 136. confidence] The same jest of blundering on confidence for conference appears in Merry Wives, i. iv. 172 (Mrs. Quickly), and in Much Ado, iii. v. 3 (Dogberry). Q1 here reads conference.
59. 138. indite] Benvolio follows suit and transforms invite to indite. Q1 reads invite, and omits some before supper.
60. 139. So ho!] "'As soon as he espieth her [the hare], he must cry So how.' Thus writes the author of the Noble Arte [of Venerie] … And so when Mercutio cried So ho!, Romeo … asks, 'What hast thou found?'" Madden, Diary of Master William Silence, p. 173.
61. 141. hare] The word seems to have been used for courtesan. See the use of "hare-pie" in Rowley, A Match at Midnight. (Hazlitt's Dodsley, xiii. p. 88.)
62. 142. hoar] mouldy. New Eng. Dict. quotes Sylvester's Du Bartas: "The long journey we have gone, hath … turn'd our victuals hoar." Malone supposes the quibbling verses that follow to be part of an old song.
63. 154. "lady … lady"] from the ballad of Susanna, quoted in Twelfth Night, ii. iii. 85. Perhaps part of the mockery lies in bringing the Nurse into relation with the "woman fair and virtuous, Lady, lady" of the ballad. See "a goodly lady, O lady, lady" in The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune (1589), Hazlitt's Dodsley's Old Plays, vi. p. 198.
64. 156. saucy merchant] impudent fellow; merchant is used like chap, a shortened form of chapman. Steevens quotes Churchyard's Chance, 1580: "What sausie merchaunt speaketh now, saied Venus." So Udall, Diotrephes (1588), p. ii, ed. Arber.
65. 157. ropery] rascality; altered to roguery in F4. The same change was made in Beaumont and Fletcher, The Chances, iii. i., where the first folio reads: "You'll leave this ropery When you come to my years." Steevens quotes The Three Ladies of London, 1584: "Thou art very pleasant and full of thy roperye.' Q1 has roperipe, which, as an adjective, meant ripe for hanging, lewd, ungracious, and so appears in Minsheu's and Rider's Dictionaries. Compare rope-tricks in Taming of the Shrew, i. ii. 112.
66. 163. Jacks] Often in Shakespeare and other writers used contemptuously for fellow, as in Merchant of Venice, iii. iv. 77.
67. 165. flirt-gills] Another form is gill-flirt; a woman of light or loose behaviour; also flirt-gillian (Gill and Gillian for Juliana). Gill was commonly used for wench, as in "Every Jack must have his Gill." Beaumont and Fletcher, Knight of the Burning Pestle, iv. i.: "You heard him take me up like a flirt Gill, and sing baudy songs upon me."
68. 165. skains-mates] Not explained with certainty. Malone supposed it to mean cut-throat companions, from skain or skene (a word well known to Elizabethan writers), a knife. To get the sex, that seems the more suitable, Kinnear conjectures, "I am for none of his skains-mates." Douce supposes that sempstresses is meant, from "skein" of thread. This seems to me not improbable, for sempsters (fem.) had an ill repute; so Westward Hoe (Pearson's Dekker, ii. p. 291), "as stale as … an Exchange sempster"; and compare the opening of the The Roaring Girl, where Mary Fitzallard, disguised as a sempster, is addressed as "emblem of fragility," and is assumed to have immoral designs. M. Mason suggests a blunder for kinsmates (kins-mates, Professor Littledale suggests, = mates of his kind; see Skeat's Chaucer, Glossary, Noskinnes). Walker, "scurvy mates." Staunton says that a Kentishman told him that skain was formerly a familiar term in parts of Kent for scape-grace.
69. 180. fool's paradise] Not uncommon. So Rich, Farewell to Military Profession (1581), "By praising of our beautie, you [men] think to bring us into a fooles paradise."
70. 186. weak dealing] Collier (MS.) has wicked, which perhaps the Nurse meant. Schmidt explains weak as stupid. In the following passage it may mean shifty: "The forehead sharp-pointing … declareth that man to be vayn or a liar, unstable, weak in all his doings." Cocles, Epitome of Art of Phisiognomie, Englished by T. Hyll (?1613). Possibly the word was chosen for sake of the incongruity of what is double being thereby weak. Fleay suggests wicke, used by Chaucer and still provincially for wicked.
71. 188. I protest] Daniel pleads for Q1, reading "Tell her I protest—" as responded to by the Nurse's "I will tell her."
72. 197. Bid] Hudson very ingeniously emends:

    "Bid her devise some means to come to shrift
    This afternoon at Friar Laurence' cell;
    And there she shall be shrived and married. Here
    Is for thy pains."

73. 204. nurse;] The pointing is G. White's; Romeo cannot wish to delay the Nurse on her return to Juliet. See Scene v. 76, 77.
74. 206. stair] series of steps, as in Paradise Lost, iii. 540.
75. 207. high top-gallant] Steevens quotes Markham, English Arcadia, 1607: "the high top-gallant of his valour." Top-gallant masts, small masts fixed to the heads of the main and fore top-masts.
76. 210. mistress] frequently a tri-syllable. See Walker, Shakespeare's Versification, p. 47.
77. 214. Two … away] So Titus Andronicus, iv. ii. 144: "Two may keep counsel when the third's away." Lyly has it in Euphues cited by Rushton, Shakespeare's Euphuism, p.62.
78. 216. Well, sir] Capell prints the rest of the scene as verse; the opening lines fall easily into verse, but difficulties appear as one proceeds.
79. 217, 218. Lord … thing] Follows Brooke's poem: {{block center|"A prety babe (quod she) it was when it was yong,
    Lord how it could full pretely have prated with it tong."
80. 219. lay knife aboard] So Barry, Ram Alley, 1611: "The truth is, I have laid my knife aboard, The widow, sir, is wedded," Hazlitt's Dodsley, x. 372, and compare the same, p. 282, for use of aboard. See Grosart's Nashe, v. p. 253, for another example.
81. 222. properer] handsomer, frequent in Shakespeare.
82. 224. pale … clout] a common phrase; so Tottel, Miscellany (ed. Arber, p. 233), "As pale as any clout," and Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, "At this Littlefaith looked as white as a clout," i.e. piece of cloth.
83. 224. versal] vulgarism for universal.
84. 225. rosemary] The flower for remembrance, used both at weddings and funerals. See note on Hamlet, iv. v. 174 (ed. Dowden). Compare iv. v. 79.
85. 228. dog's name] Ben Jonson, in his English Grammer, says: "R is the dog's letter, and hirreth in the sound." So Barclay names R in his Ship of Fools. The word ar serves for the name of the letter (see New Eng. Dict.) and as a verb for to growl; so Nash, Summer's Last Will, 1600: "They arre and bark at night against the moon." There is classical authority; that of Persius, and an allusion by Lucilius. A pleasant illustration appears in Baret's Alvearie, where through the loop of the large capital R, introducing the words beginning with that letter, a standing dog peers out; this design is peculiar to the letter R; the letter, says Baret jocularly, is so necessary, "no man hath any colour to barke against it.… Persius calleth R literam caninam." Milton, according to Aubrey, pronounced r very hard—on which Dryden remarked, "litera canina, the dog-letter, a certain sign of a satirical wit." Masson's Life of Milton, vi. 679.
86. 228, 229. R is for the— No;] This conjecture of Ritson is happy; but Theobald's reading "R is for thee? No" may be right. While Romeo, however, addresses the Nurse as thou, and the Nurse so addresses Peter, she addresses Romeo as you.
87. 231. sententious] I think the Nurse means sentences in the sense of adages or maxims, as in Merchant of Venice, i. ii. 11: "Good sentences and well pronounced." Possibly we should read sententions.
88. 236. Before, and apace] The "take my fan" of Q1 may have been an actor's repetition of the joke of line 114, and irresistible to an actor; but Q, F are content to let the Nurse make her exit in all haste, without now thinking of her dignity.