A Vifor for a Vifor?

-what care I,

What curious eye doth quote deformities?
Here are the beetle-brows fhall blush for me.

Ben. Come, knock and enter; and no fooner in, But ev'ry man betake him to his legs.

Rom. A torch for me. Let wantons, light of heart, Tickle the fenfelefs rufhes with their heels; For I am proverb'd with a grandfire-phrase; I'll be a candle holder, and look on.

The game was ne'er fo fair, and I am done.
Mer. Tut! dun's the moufe, the conftable's own
word;

If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire ;
Or, fave your reverence, Love, wherein thou stickest
Up to thine ears: come, we burn day-light, ho.
Rom. Nay, that's not fo.

Mer. I mean, Sir, in delay

We burn our lights by light, and lamps by day.
Take our good meaning, for our judgment fits
Five times in That, ere once in our fine wits.
Rom. And we mean well in going to this mask;
But 'tis no wit to go.

Mer. Why, may one ask?

Rom. I dreamt a dream to-night.

Mer. And fo did I.

Rom. Well; what was yours ?

Mer. That dreamers often lie.

Rom. In bed afleep; while they do dream. things true.

Mer. O then I fee, Queen Mab hath been with

you.

you,

She

O, then I fee, Queen Mab hath been with She is the Fairies' midwife.] Thus begins that admirable Speech upon the Effects of the Imagination in Dreams. But, Queen Mab the Fairies' Midwife? What is the then Queen of? Why, the Fairies. What! and their Midwife too? Shakespear certainly wrote

the Fancy's Midwife. And this is a proper Title, as it introduces all that is faid afterwards of her Vagaries. Befides, it exactly quadrates with thefe Lines:

-I talk

She is the Fancy's midwife, and fhe comes
In fhape no bigger than an agat-ftone
On the fore-finger of an alderman ;
Drawn with a team of little atomies,
Athwart men's nofes as they lie asleep :

Her waggon-fpokes made of long fpinners' legs;
The cover, of the wings of grafhoppers;
The traces, of the smallest spider's web;
The collars, of the moonshine's watry beams;
Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lafh, of film;
Her waggoner a small grey-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm,
Prickt from the lazy finger of a maid.
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,
Made by the joiner fquirrel, or old grub,
Time out of mind the fairies" coach-makers:
And in this ftate fhe gallops, night by night,
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love:
On courtiers' knees, that dream on curtfies ftrait:
O'er lawyers' fingers, who ftrait dream on fees:
O'er ladies' lips, who ftraight on kisses dream,
Which oft the angry Mab with blifters plagues,
Because their breaths with fweet-meats tainted are.
* Sometimes the gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
-I talk of Dreams;

Which are the Children of an idle Brain,
Begot of nothing but vain Fantasy.

Sometimes fhe gallops o'er a Lawyer's nofe,

And then dreams he of fmelling out a fuit:] The old Editions have it, Courtier's nofe; and this undoubtedly is the true Reading: and for thefe Reasons. Firft, In the prefent Reading there is a vicious Repetition in this fine Speech; the fame Thought having been, given in a foregoing Line,

O'er Lawyer's Fingers who frait dream on Fees:

Nor can it be objected that there will be the fame Fault if we read Courtier's, it having been said before,-On Courtiers' knees, &c.. because they are fhewn in two Places under different Views in the first, their Foppery; in the fecond, their Rapacity is ridiculed. Secondly, In our Author's Time, a Court-folicitation was called, fimply, a Suit and a Process, a Suit at Law, to distinguish it from the other. Warb..

And then dreams he of fmelling out a fuit:
And sometimes comes fhe with a tithe-pig's tail,
Tickling the parfon as he lies a-sleep;

Then dreams he of another Benefice.
Sometimes the driveth o'er a foldier's neck,
And then he dreams of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambufcadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ears, at which he starts and wakes;
And being thus frighted, fwears a prayer or two,
And fleeps again. This is that very Mab,
That plats the manes of horfes in the night,
And cakes the elf-locks in foul flutifh hairs,
Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That preffes them, and learns them first to bear;
Making them women of good carriage:
This is fhe-

Rom. Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace;
Thou talk'ft of nothing.

Mer. True, I talk of dreams;

Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing, but vain phantafy;
Which is as thin of fubftance as the air,
And more unconftant than the wind; who woos
Ev'n now the frozen bofom of the north,
And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,
Turning his face to the dew-dropping fouth.
Ben. This wind, you talk of, blows us from our-
Supper is done, and we fhall come too late.

[felves;
Rom. I fear, too early; for my mind mifgives,
Some confequence, yet hanging in the Stars,
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

With this night's revels; and expire the term
Of a difpifed life clos'd in my breast,
By fome vile forfeit of untimely death.
But he, that hath the fleerage of my course,
Direct my fuit! On, lufty Gentlemen.

Ben.

Ben. Strike, drum.

I Sev.

[They march about the Stage, and Exeunt.

Changes to a Hall in Capulet's House.
Enter Servants, with Napkins.

WHE

HERE'S Potpan, that he helps not to take away; he shift a trencher! he

scrape a trencher!

2 Ser. When good manners shall lie all in one or two men's hands, and they unwafh'd too, 'tis a foul thing.

1 Ser. Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cup-board, look to the plate: good thou, fave me a piece of march-pane; and, as thou loveft me, let the porter let in Sufan Grindstone, and Nell. Antony, and Potpan

2 Ser. Ay, boy, ready.

1 Ser. You are look'd for, call'd for, afk'd for, and fought for, in the great chamber.

2 Ser. We connot be here and there too; cheerly, boys; be brifk a while, and the longer liver take

all.

[Exeunt. Enter all the Guests and Ladies, with the maskers. 1 Cap. Welcome, Gentlemen. Ladies, that have your feet

Unplagu'd with corns, we'll have a bout with you.
Ah me, my miftreffes, which of you all

Will now deny to dance? fhe that makes dainty,
I'll fware, hath corns; am I come near you now?
Welcome, all, Gentlemen; I've feen the day
That I have worn a visor, and could tell

A whifpering tale in a fair lady's ear,

Such as would please: 'tis gone; 'tis gone; 'tis gone!

[Mufic plays, and they dance. More light, ye knaves, and turn the tables up; And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot.

Ah,

Ah, Sirrah, this unlook'd-for fport comes well.
Nay, fit; nay, fit, good coufin Capulet,
For you and I are paft our dancing days:
How long is't now fince last yourself and I
Were in a mask?

2 Cap. By'r lady, thirty years.

[much;

i Cap. What, man! 'tis not fo much, 'tis not so 'Tis fince the nuptial of Lucentio,

Come Pentecoft as quickly as it will,

Some five and twenty years, and then we mask'd. 2 Cap. 'Tis more, 'tis more; his fon is elder, Sir : His fon is thirty.

1 Cap. Will

you tell me that?

His fon was but a ward two years ago.

Rom. What lady's That, which doth enrich the Of yonder knight?

Ser. I know not, Sir.

[hand]

Rom. O, fhe doth teach the torches to burn bright;
Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night,
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear:

Beauty too rich for ufe, for earth too dear!
So fhews a fnowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows fhows.

The measure done, I'll watch her place of Stand,
And, touching hers, make happy my rude hand.
Did my heart love 'till now? forfwear it, fight;
I never faw true beauty 'till this night.

Tyb. This by his voice fhould be a Montague.
Fetch me my rapier, boy: what! dares the slave
Come hither cover'd with an antic face,

To fleer and fcorn at our folemnity?
Now by the flock and honour of my kin,
To ftrike him dead I hold it not a fin.

Cap. Why, how now, kinfman, wherefore ftorm you fo?

Tyb. Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe: A villain, that is hither come in fpight, To scorn at our folemnity this night.

Cap.