Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/81

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SC IV.]
ROMEO AND JULIET
37

Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's[E 1] nose,[C 1]
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail
Tickling a parson's nose as a'[C 2] lies asleep, 80
Then dreams he[C 3] of another benefice;
Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,[E 2]
Of healths[E 3] five fathom deep; and then anon 85
Drums in his ear,[C 4] at which he starts and wakes,
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two,
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab
That plats the manes[E 4] of horses in the night,
And bakes the elf-locks[E 5] in foul sluttish hairs, 90
Which once untangled[C 5] much misfortune bodes;
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,[E 6]
That presses them and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage[E 7];

  1. ↑ 77. courtier's nose] Q, F; Lawers (lawyer's) lap Q1.
  2. ↑ 80. as a'] Q, F; that Q1.
  3. ↑ 81. dreams he] Q1; he dreams Q, F.
  4. ↑ 86. ear] Q1, Q; eares F.
  5. ↑ 91. untangled] Q, F; entangled F3.
  1. ↑ 77. courtier's] The courtier has been already mentioned; hence Pope read lawyer's from Q1, but lawyers have also been mentioned. Seymour conjectured lawyer's lip (Q1 lap); Collier (MS.) reads counsellor's. In the next line suit would be proper to courtier—a court request, or in a legal sense to a lawyer. The word suit (of clothes) suggested taylor's to Theobald.
  2. ↑ 84. Spanish blades] toledoes. Q1 reads countermines.
  3. ↑ 85. healths] tickling his neck makes him dream of drinking. Malone quotes from Westward Hoe, 1607: "My master and Sir Goslin are guzzling; they are dabbling together fathom deep. The knight has drunk so much health to the gentleman yonder, etc."
  4. ↑ 89. plats the manes] Douce tells of a superstition that malignant spirits, clothed in white, haunted stables and dropped the wax of tapers on horses' manes. He refers in illustration to a print by Hans Burgkmair.
  5. ↑ 90. bakes the elf-locks] Pope and others read cakes; Collier (MS.) makes. Elf-locks, hair matted by the elves. Compare Lear, II. iii. 10 : "elf all my hair in knots." Q, F misprint: Elklocks.
  6. ↑ 92. backs] So Drayton, in Nymphidia, of Queen Mab.
  7. ↑ 94. women of good carriage] So
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