SC. IV.]
ROMEO AND JULIET
73
| Mer. | Come between us, good Benvolio; my wits faint.[C 1]75 |
| Rom. | Switch and spurs,[E 1] switch[C 2] and spurs; or I'll cry a match.[E 2] |
| Mer. | Nay, if our wits[C 3] run the wild-goose chase,[E 3] I am[C 4] 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 4] there for the goose? |
| Rom. | Thou wast[C 5] never with me for any thing when thou wast not there for the goose. |
| Mer. | I will bite thee by the ear[E 5] for that jest.85 |
| Rom. | Nay, good goose, bite not.[E 6] |
| Mer. | Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting;[C 6][E 7] it is a most sharp sauce. |
| Rom. | And is it not well[C 7] served in to a sweet goose? |
- ↑ 74, 75. wits faint] Q5; wits faints Q, F; wit faints Ff 2–4; wits fail Q1.
- ↑ 76. Switch … switch] Pope; Swits … swits Q, F.
- ↑ 78. our wits] Q, F; thy wits Q1.
- ↑ 79. I am] Q, F; I have Q1.
- ↑ 83. Thou wast] Q, F; Thou wert Q1.
- ↑ 87. bitter sweeting] Q, Bitter-sweeting F.
- ↑ 89. well] F, then well Q; in to] Q1, Q; into F.
- ↑ 76. Switch and spurs] So Dekker, Honest Whore, Part II. (Pearson's Dekker, ii. p. 96): "Oh, we shall ride switch and spurre."
- ↑ 77. match] wager. Capell reads for I cry a match.
- ↑ 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."
- ↑ 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."
- ↑ 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."
- ↑ 86. bite not] Ray, Proverbs (p. 56, ed. 1768), gives, as a "joculatory proverb," "Good goose do not bite."
- ↑ 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."
