Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/82

This is she—[C 1]

Rom.	Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! 95 Thou talk'st of nothing.

Mer.

True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy, Which is as thin of substance as the air, And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes 100 Even now the frozen bosom of the north, And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence, Turning his face[C 2][E 1] to the dew-dropping south.

Ben.	This wind you talk of blows us from ourselves; Supper is done, and we shall come too late. 105

Rom.

I fear, too early: for my mind misgives Some consequence yet hanging in the stars, Shall bitterly begin his fearful date[E 2] With this night's revels, and expire the term[E 3] Of a despised life closed in my breast 110 By some vile forfeit of untimely death: But He, that hath the steerage of my course, Direct[C 3] my sail![C 4][E 4] On, lusty gentlemen.

Ben.	Strike, drum.[Exeunt.[E 5]

1. 95. she—] Ff 2–4; she. Q, F.
2. 103. face] Q1; side Q, F; tide Collier (MS. ).
3. 113. Direct] Q, F, Directs Q1
4. sail] Q1, sute Q, F.

How a man may choose a good wife from a bad; Hazlitt's Dodsley's Old Plays, ix. p. 37: "You have been often tried To be a woman of good carriage"—spoken with an equivoque.

1. 103. face] The side of Q, F may be right, used, as elsewhere in Shakespeare, of bed-fellows, and thus carrying on the metaphor of wooing the bosom.
2. 108. date] season, period; as in Lucrece, 935: "endless date of never-ending woes."
3. 109. expire the term] cause the term to expire, as in Lyly, Euphues (Arber, p. 77): "To swill the drinke that will expyre thy date."
4. 113. sail] If sute Q, F is not a misprint, it may be explained as courtship; the emendation fate has been proposed.
5. 114. Exeunt] The stage-direction F seems to show that the action proceeded without interruption: "They march about the Stage, and Servingmen come forth with their napkins." So Qq, omitting their and adding Enter Romeo.