thing, grandsire," that we should be thus afflicted with these strange flies, these fashion-mongers, these pardonnez-mois, who stand so much on the new form, that they cannot sit at ease on the old bench? O, their bons, their bons!

Enter ROMEO.

Ben. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo. Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring.- 0, flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! - Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in: Laura, to his lady, was but a kitchen-wench; marry, she had a better love to be-rhyme her: Dido, a dowdy; Cleopatra, a gipsy; Helen and Hero, hildings and harlots; Thisbe, a grey eye or so,' but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, bon jour! there's a French salutation to your French slop. You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night.

Rom. Good morrow to you both.

terfeit did I give you?

What coun

Mer. The slip, sir, the slip: Can you not conceive?

Rom. Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was great; and in such a case as mine a man may strain courtesy.

Humorously apostrophising his ancestors, whose sober times were unacquainted with the fopperies here complained of.

During the ridiculous fashion which prevailed of great "boul. stered breeches," it is said to have been necessary to cut away hollow places in the benches of the House of Commons, without which those who stood on the new FORM could not sit at ease on the old bench.

7 A grey eye appears to have meant what we now call a blue ere He means to admit that Thisbe had a tolerably fine eye. 8 The slop was a kind of wide-kneed breeches, or rather trow. See Much Ado about Nothing, Act ii. sc. 2, note 5

sers.

In the Poet's time, there was a counterfeit coin called a slip See Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. sc. 3, note 4.

H

Mer. That's as much as to say, such a case as

yours constrains a man to bow in the hams.

Rom. Meaning, to courtesy.

Mer. Thou hast most kindly hit it.

Rom. A most courteous exposition.

Mer. Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.
Rom. Pink for flower.

Mer. Right.

Rom. Why, then is my pump well flower'd."

Mer. Well said:" Follow me this jest now, till thou hast worn out thy pump; that, when the single sole of it is worn, the jest may remain, after the wearing, solely singular.

12

Rom. O single-sol'd jest,'' solely singular for the singleness.

Mer. Come between us, good Benvolio, for my wits fail.13

Rom. Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I'll cry a match.

Mer. Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase,"

10 Romeo wore pinked pumps, that is, punched with holes in figures. It was the custom to wear ribbons in the shoes formed in the shape of roses or other flowers. Thus in The Masque of Gray's Inn, 1614: "Every masker's pump was fastened with a flower suitable to his cap."

11 So the quarto of 1597; the other old copies, Sure wit.

H.

12 Single was often used for simple or silly. Single-souled had also the same meaning: "He is a good sengyll soule, and can do no harm; est doli nescius non simplex.". Horman's Vulgaria. It sometimes was synonymous with threadbare, coarse-spun, and this is its meaning here. Cotgrave explains Monsieur de trois au boisseau et de trois à un épce a threadbare, coarse-spun, single-sole.l gentleman." See Macbeth, Act i. sc. 3, note 14; and 2 Henry IV., Act i. sc. 2, note 20.

13 So the first quarto; other old copies, "my wits faints."

H.

14 One kind of horserace which resembled the flight of wild, geese, was formerly known by this name. Two horses were started to

I have done; for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits, than, I am sure, I have in my whole five. Was I with you there for the goose?

Rom. Thou wast never with me for any thing, when thou wast not there for the goose.

Mer. I will bite thee by the ear for that jest
Rom. Nay, good goose, bite not.

Mer. Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting; 15 it is a most sharp sauce.

Rom. And is it not well serv'd in to a sweet goose? Mer. O here's a wit of cheverel,16 that stretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad.

Rom. I stretch it out for that word broad; which added to the goose, proves thee far and wide a broad goose.

Mer. Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo; now art thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature for this drivelling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole."

Ben. Stop there, stop there.

gether, and whichever rider could get the lead, the other rider was obliged to follow him wherever he chose to go. This explains the pleasantry kept up here. My wits fail," says Mercutio. Romeo exclaims briskly, Switch and spurs, switch and spurs." To which Mercutio rejoins, "Nay, if our wits run the wild goose chase,"

&c.

15 The allusion is to an apple of that name.

16 Soft stretching leather, kid-skin. See King Henry VIII., Act ii. sc. 3, note 2.

17 Natural was often used, as it still is, for a fool. The bauble was the professional fool's "staff of office." See All's Well that Ends Well Act iv. sc. 5, note 3; and Titus Andronicus, Act . sc. 1, note 4.

H.

Mer. Thou desirest me stop in my tale against the hair.18

Ben. Thou would'st else have made thy tale large.

Mer. O, thou art deceiv'd! I would have made it short; for I was come to the whole depth of my tale, and meant, indeed, to occupy the argument no longer.

Rom. Here's goodly gear'

Enter the Nurse and PETER.

Mer. A sail, a sail!

Ben. Two, two; a shirt, and a smock.

Nurse. Peter, pr'ythee, give me my fan."

Mer. 'Pr'ythee, do, good Peter, to hide her face; for her fan's the fairer of the two.20

Nurse. God ye good morrow, gentlemen.
Mer. God ye good den," fair gentlewoman.
Nurse. Is it good den?

Mer. 'Tis no less, I tell you; for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon.'

22

18 This phrase, of French extraction, à contre poil, occurs again in Troilus and Cressida: "Merry against the hair."

19 In The Serving Man's Comfort, 1598, we are informed, "The mistresse must have one to carry her cloake and hood, another her fanne." So in Love's Labour's Lost: " To see him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan."

20 We here follow the quarto of 1597. In the other old copies we have the passage thus: Nurse. Peter. Peter. Anon.Nurse. My fan, Peter.-Mer. Good Peter, to hide her face; for her fan's the fairer face." Divers modern editions have compounded a third reading out of the two; which is hardly allowable anywhere, and something worse than useless here, even if it were allowable.

H.

21 That is, "God give you a good even." The first of these contractions is common in our old dramas.

22 That is. the point of noon. So in Bright's Charactery, or Arte of Short Writing, 1588: "If the worde end in ed, as I loved,

Nurse. Out upon you! what a man are you? Rom. One, gentlewoman, that God hath made for himself to mar."

23

Nurse. By my troth, it is well said: For himself to mar, quoth'a ? — Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I may find the young Romeo?

Rom. I can tell you; but young Romeo will be older when you have found him, than he was when you sought him. I am the youngest of that name, for 'fault of a worse.

Nurse. You say well.

Mer. Yea! is the worst well! very well took, i'faith; wisely, wisely.

Nurse. If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence

with you.

Ben. She will indite him to some supper.

Mer. A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! So ho!

Rom. What hast thou found?

Mer. No hare, sir; unless a hare, sir, in a lenten pie, that is something stale and hoar ere it be spent.

An old hare hoar, and an old hare hoar,24

Is very good meat in lent:

But a hare that is hoar, is too much for a score,

When it hoars ere it be spent.

Romeo, will you come to your father's? we'll to dinner thither:

Rom. I will follow you.

then make a pricke in the character of the word on the left side." See 3 Henry VI., Act i. sc. 4, note 3.

23 The preposition for is from the first quarto. The repetition of it by the Nurse shows that it was not rightly left out of the other old copies.

H.

24 Hoar, or hoary, is often used for mouldy, as things grow white from mod ding. These lines seem to have been part of an old song. In the quarto of 1597, we have this stage direction He walks by them and sings."