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ROMEO AND JULIET
[ACT I
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asked for and sought for, in the great 15 |
| Fourth Serv. | We cannot be here and there too. —Cheerly, boys; be brisk awhile, and the longer liver[E 1] take all.[They retire behind. |
Enter[C 1] Capulet, with Juliet and others of his house, meeting the Guests and Maskers.
| Cap. | Welcome, gentlemen![E 2] ladies that have their toes 20 Unplagued with corns will have a bout[C 2][E 3] with you:— Ah ha, my[C 3] mistresses! which of you all Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty,[E 4] She, I'll swear, hath corns; am I come near[E 5] ye now?— Welcome,[E 6] gentlemen! I have seen the day 25 That I have worn a visor, and could tell A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear, Such as would please; 'tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone:— |
- ↑ 19. longer liver] Proverbial: so Dekker, Honest Whore, Part II.: "If I have meat to my mouth, and rags to my back.… when I die, the longer liver take all" (Pearson's Dekker, ii. p. 115).
- ↑ 20. gentlemen] For gentlemen as a dissyllable, see Walker, Shakespeare's Versification, xxxiv.
- ↑ 21. have a bout] Daniel defends walk a bout: to tread a measure or to walk a measure is common, and here the bout is a bout of dancing. The same expression with the same meaning, as Daniel thinks, occurs in Much Ado, II. i. 89; but we cannot be sure that walk about in Much Ado refers to the dance.
- ↑ 23. makes dainty] is chary (of dancing). New Eng. Dict, quotes Preston, New Cov. (1628): "make not dainty of applying the promises."
- ↑ 24. come near] Schmidt: "touch to the quick," as in 1 Henry IV. I. ii. 14.
- ↑ 25. Welcome] Addressed to the masked friends of Romeo (Delius).
