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

Nurse. God ye good morrow, gentlemen.
Mer. God ye good den 19, 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 20 of noon.

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

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. 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.'

19 i. e. God give you a good even.' tractions is common in our old dramas. Lass: God you good even, sir.'

The first of these con-
So in Brome's Northern

20 So in King Henry VI. Part III. Act i. Sc. 4:

And made an evening at the noontide prick.'

i. e. the point of noon. A prick is a point, a note of distinction in writing, a stop. So in Bright's Charactery, or Arte of Short Writing, 1588:- If the worde end in ed, as I loved, then make a pricke in the character of the word on the left side.

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

Rom. I will follow you.

Mer. Farewell, ancient lady; farewell, lady, lady, lady 22.

[Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO. Nurse. Marry, farewell!-I pray you, sir, what saucy merchant 23 was this, that was so full of his ropery 24?

Rom. A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself talk; and will speak more in a minute, than he will stand to in a month.

Nurse. An 'a speak any thing against me, I'll take him down an 'a were lustier than he is, and twenty such Jacks; and if I cannot, I'll find those that shall. Scurvy knave! I am none of his flirtgills; I am none of his skains-mates 25:-And thou

21 Hoar, or hoary, is often used for mouldy, as things grow white from moulding. These lines seem to have been part of an old song. In the quarto, 1597, we have this stage direction: "He walks by them [i. e. the Nurse and Peter] and sings.'

22 The burthen of an old song. See Twelfth Night, Act ii. Sc. 3.

23 See vol. vi. p. 41, note 6.

24 Ropery was anciently used in the same sense as roguery is So in The Three Ladies of London, 1584 :

now.

Thou art very pleasant, and full of thy roperye.' See vol. iii. p. 268, note 10.

25 By skains-mates the old lady probably means swaggering companions. A skain, or skean, was an Irish knife or dagger, a weapon suitable to the purpose of ruffling fellows. Green, in his Quip for an Upstart Courtier, describes an ill favoured knave, who wore by his side a skeine, like a brewer's bung knife.'

must stand by too, and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure?

Pet. I saw no man use you at his pleasure; if I had, my weapon should quickly have been out, I warrant you: I dare draw as soon as another man, if I see occasion in a good quarrel, and the law on my side.

ye,

Nurse. Now, afore God, I am so vexed, that every part about me quivers. Scurvy knave! 'Pray you, sir, a word: and as I told you, my young lady bade me inquire you out; what she bade me say, I will keep to myself: but first let me tell if ye should lead her into a fool's paradise, as they say, it were a very gross kind of behaviour, as they say: for the gentlewoman is young; and, therefore, should deal double with her, truly, it were an ill thing to be offered to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing.

if

you

Rom. Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. I protest unto thee,

Nurse. Good heart! and, i'faith, I will tell her as much Lord, lord, she will be a joyful woman.

Rom. What wilt thou tell her, nurse? thou dost not mark me.

Nurse. I will tell her, sir,—that you do protest; which, as I take it, is a gentlemanlike offer.

Rom. Bid her devise some means to come to shrift This afternoon;

And there she shall at friar Laurence' cell

Be shriv'd, and married. Here is for thy pains.
Nurse. No, truly, sir; not a penny.

Rom. Go to; I say, you shall.

Nurse. This afternoon, sir? well, she shall be there.

Rom. And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey

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Within this hour my man shall be with thee;
And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair 26,
Which to the high top-gallant of my joy

Must be my convoy in the secret night.
Farewell! Be trusty, and I'll quit thy pains.
Farewell!-Commend me to thy mistress.

Nurse. Now God in heaven bless thee!-Hark you, sir.

Rom. What say'st thou, my dear nurse?
Nurse. Is your man secret? Did you ne'er hear

say

Two may keep counsel, putting one away?

Rom. I warrant thee; my man's as true as steel. Nurse. Well, sir; my mistress is the sweetest lady,-lord, lord!-when 'twas a little prating thing 27,-0,-there's a nobleman in town, one Paris, that would fain lay knife aboard: but she, good soul, had as lieve see a toad, a very toad, as see him. I anger her sometimes, and tell her that Paris is the properer man: but, I'll warrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as any clout in the varsal world. Doth not rosemary and Romeo begin both with a letter 28 ?

Rom. Ay, nurse; What of that? both with an R.

26 i. e. like stairs of rope in the tackle of a ship. A stair, for a flight of stairs, is still the language of Scotland, and was once common to both kingdoms.

27 So in Arthur Brooke's poem :

A pretty babe, quoth she, it was, when it was young,

Lord, how it could full prettily have prated with its tongue.' 28 The Nurse is represented as a prating, silly creature; she says that she will tell Romeo a good joke about his mistress, and asks him whether rosemary and Romeo do not both begin with a letter he says, Yes, an R. She, whom we must suppose could not read, thought he mocked her, and says, No, sure I know better, R is the dog's name, your's begins with some other letter. This is natural enough, and in character. R put her in mind of that sound which dogs make when they snarl. Ben

Nurse. Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name. Ꭱ is for the dog. No; I know it begins with some other letter: and she hath the prettiest sententious of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it.

Rom. Commend me to thy lady.

Nurse. Ay, a thousand times.-Peter!

Pet. Anon?

Nurse. Peter, take my fan, and go before.

SCENE V. Capulet's Garden.

Enter JULIET.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

Jul. The clock struck nine, when I did send the

nurse;

In half an hour she promis'd to return.

Perchance, she cannot meet him: that's not so.-
O, she is lame! love's heralds should be thoughts',
Jonson, in his English Grammar, says R is the dog's letter, and
hirreth in the sound.'

'Irritata canis quod R. R. quam plurima dicat.'

Lucil.

Nashe, in Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600, speaking of dogs, says :

'They arre and barke at night against the moone.' And Barclay, in his Ship of Fooles, pleasantly exemplifies it :'This man malicious which troubled is with wrath, Nought els soundeth but the hoorse letter R, Though all be well, yet he none auns were hath, Save the dogges letter glowming with nar, nar.' Erasmus, in explaining the adage Canina facundia,' says, ' R, litera quæ in rixando prima est, canina vocatur.'

It is used more than once in this sense in Rabelais. And in the Alchemist, Subtle says, in making out Abel Drugger's name, 'And right anenst him a dog snarling er.'

1 The speech is thus continued in the quarto, 1597 :—

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should be thoughts,

And run more swift than hasty powder fir'd
Doth hurry from the fearful cannon's mouth.
Oh, now she comes! Tell me, gentle nurse,
What says my love?'

The greatest part of this scene is likewise added since that

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