Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/90

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46
ROMEO AND JULIET
[ACT I

Thus from my lips, by thine[C 1], my sin is purged. 110
[Kissing her.[E 1]

Jul. Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
Rom. Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.
Jul. You kiss by the book.[E 2]
Nurse. Madam, your mother craves a word with you.
Rom. What[E 3] is her mother?
Nurse. Marry, bachelor, 115
Her mother is the lady of the house,
And a good lady, and a wise, and virtuous:
I nursed her daughter that you talk'd withal;
I tell you he that can lay hold of her
Shall have the chinks.[E 4]
Rom. Is she a Capulet? 120
O dear account! my life is my foe's debt.[E 5]
Ben. Away, be gone; the sport is at the best.[E 6]
Rom. Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest.
Cap. Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone;
We have a trifling foolish banquet towards[E 7].— 125
  1. 110. thine] Q, F; yours Q1.
  1. 110. Kissing her] Shakespeare, says Malone, copied from the mode of his own time. Compare Henry VIII. i. iv. 29.
  2. 113. by the book] in a methodical way; there is here probably no reference to any Book of Manners.
  3. 115. What] Who, as frequently in Shakespeare. Compare line 131.
  4. 120. chinks] cash ; Cotgrave, "Quinquaille, chinkes, coyne."
  5. 121. debt] Staunton explains: Bereft of Juliet he should die, therefore his life is at Capulet's mercy; so in Brooke's poem: "Thus hath his foe in choyse to give him life or death." Q1 has thrall for debt. Cambridge editors conjecture that the rhyming debt and the next two lines are inserted by some other hand than Shakespeare's.
  6. 122. at the best] Perhaps a reference to the proverbial saying to give over when the game is at the fairest. See I. iv. 39.
  7. 125. banquet towards] Towards, ready, at hand, as toward in Hamlet, I. i. 77. Banquet, a course of sweetmeats, fruit, and wine. New Eng. Dict, quotes Cogan, Haven of Health, 1588: "Yea, and after supper for fear lest they be not full gorged, to