"a very good blade!a very tall man! ' a very good whore !". 8 Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandfire, that we should be thus afflicted with thefe ftrange flies, these fashion-mongers, 9 these pardonnez-moy's, who stand so much on the new form, that they cannot fit at ease on the old bench? O, their bones, their bones! Enter Romco.. Ben. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo. Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring.flesh, flesh, how art thou fifhified! Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in: Laura, to his lady was but a kitchen-wench;-marry, fhe had a better love to berhyme her; Dido, a dowdy; Cleopatra, en to Sofron Walden, 1596, fays" Follow fome of the fe "new-fangled Galiardo's and Signor Fan aftico's," &c. So in Decker's Comedy of Old Fortunatus, 1600.-"I have danc'd "with queens, dallied with ladies, worn ftrange attires, feen fantaftico's, convers'd with humorists," &c. STEEVENS. 66 Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandfire,] Humouroully aporophifing his ancestors, whole fober times were unacquainted with the fopperies here complained of. WARB. thefe pardonnez-mois,] Pardonnez-moi became the language of doubt or hesitation among men of the fword, when the point of honour was grown fo delicate, that no other mode of contradiction would be endured. JOHNSON. 1Ò, their bones, their bones!] Mercutio is here 'ridiculing thofe frenchified tantaftical coxcombs whom he calls pardonnezmy's and therefore, I fufpect here he meant to write French too. G, their ben's! their bon's! i. e. how ridiculous they make themfelves in crying out good, and being in ecftafies with every trifle; as he has juit defcribed them before. a very good blade!" &c. THEO3. I have retained the old reading, which I think agres better with the line before, where they are reprefented as not being able to fit at cafe on the old bench. The allufion feems to be to an importation from France different from that of language or manners. So Lucio in Meaf. for Meaf. "Thy bones are hollow, impiety hath made a feart of thee." Therfites, in Troilus and Crefida, talks of the Lone-ach, aching benes, &c. STEEVENS. a gipfy; a gipfy; Helen and Hero, hildings and harlots: Thisbe, a grey eye or fo, but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, bonjour! there's a French falutation to your French flop. You gave us the counterfeit fairly laft night. Rom. Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit did I give you? Mer. The flip, Sir, the flip: can you not conceive? Rom. Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was great; and, in fuch a case as mine, a man may strain courtesy. Mer. That's as much as to fay, fuch a cafe as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams. . Rom. Meaning-to curt'fy. 2 Mer. Thou haft moft kindly hit it. Mer. Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy. Rom. Pink for flower. Mer. Right. Rom. Why, 3 then is my pump well flower'd. Mer. Your French flop.] Slops are large loose breeches or trowfers worn at prefent only by failors. They are mentioned by Jonfon in his Alchymift. 66 fix great flops Bigger than three Dutch boys." From the following old epigram it appears, that these flops were much the fashion in the time of Shakespeare. "When Tarlton clown'd it in a merry veine, "The fwagg'ring flop is Tarlton's clownish hofe." 3 then is my pump well flower'd.] Here is a vein of wit too thin to be easily found. The fundamental idea is, that Romeo wore pinked pumps, that is, pumps punched with holes in figures. JOHNSON. It was the custom to wear ribbons in the fhoes formed into the Mer. Well faid:-follow me this jest now, till thou haft worn out thy pump; that, when the fingle fole of it is worn, the jeft may remain, after the wearing, folely fingular. Rom. O fingle-fol'd jeft, folely fingular for the fingleness! Mer. Come between us, good Benvolio; my wit faints. Rom. Switch and spurs, Switch and fpurs, or-I'll cry a match. Mer. Nay, if our wits run the wild-goofe chafe, I am done: for thou haft more of the wild-goofe in one of thy wits, than, I am fure, I have in my whole five. Was I with you there for the goofe? Rom. Thou waft never with me for any thing, when thou waft not there for the gocfe. Mer. 4 I will bite thee by the ear for that jeft. 6 Mer. Thy wit is a very bitter fweeting; It is a most sharp fauce. Rom. And it is not well ferv'd in to a sweet goose? Mer. O, here's 7 a wit of cheverel, that stretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad! the fhape of refes, or any other flowers. So Middleton, in the Mafque, by the gent. of Gray's Inn, 1614. Every maker's pump was falten'd with a flower fuitable to "his cap." STEEVENS. 4 I will bite thine ear -] So Sir Epicure Mammon to Face in Jonfon's Alchymift. Slave, I could bite thine ear." STEEVENS. Good goofe, lite net, is a proverbial expreffion, to be found in Ray's Collection. STEAVENS. 6 name. a very bitter fweeting;] A fwecting, is an apple of that STEEVENS. 7a wit of cheverel,] Cheverel is foft leather for gloves. JOHNSON. So in the Two Maids of More-clacke, 1609. Drawing on love's white hand a glove of warmth, "Not cheveril firetching to fuch prophanation." From Chevreau, a Kid, Fr. So again in TEXNOTAMIA, or The Marriages of the Arts, 1618. "The quilting of Ajax his fhield was but a thin cheverel to it." STEEVENS, Rom. Rom. Iftretch it out for that word-broad, which added to the goofe, proves thee far and wide a broad goofe. Mer. Why, is not this better now, than groaning for love? Now thou art fociable, now art thou Romeo; now art thou what thou art, by art, as well as by nature for this driveling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole. Ben. Stop there, stop there. Mer. Thou defireft me to stop in my tale, against the hair. Ben. Thou wouldft elfe have made thy tale large. Mer. O, thou art deceiv'd, I would have made it fhort: for I was come to the whole depth of my tale, and meant, indeed, to occupy the argument no longer. Enter Nurfe and Peter. Rom. Here's goodly geer! Mer. A fail, a fail, a fail! Ben. Two, two; a fhirt and a fmock. Nurfe. Peter! Peter. Anon? Nurfe. My fan, Peter. Mer. Do, good Peter, to hide her face: for her fan's the fairer of the two. Nurfe. God ye good morrow, gentlemen. Mer. 'Tis no lefs, I tell you: for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon. Nurse. Out upon you! what a man are you? Rom. One, gentlewoman, that God hath made himself to mar. tell me Nurfe. By my troth, it is well faid.-For himfelf to mar, quotha? Gentlemen, can any of you where I may find the young Romeo? Rom. Rom. I can tell you.-But young Romeo will be older when you have found him, than he was when you fought him. I am the youngest of that name, for fault of a worse. Nurse. You fay well. Mer. Yea, is the worst well? Very well took, i'faith; wifely, wifely. I defire fome confidence with you 7. Ben. She will indite him to fome fupper. Rom. What haft thou found? Mer. No hare, Sir; unless a hare, Sir, in a lenten pye, that is fomething ftale and hoar ere it be fpent. An old hare hoar, And an old hare hoar, Is very good meat in Lent: 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. Mer. Farewel, ancient lady: Farewel, lady, lady, lady. [Exeunt Mercutio and Benvolio. 7 fome confidence] She will indite him, &c, In the elder quarto thefe two words are rightly fpelt; and, as the nurfe makes no other blunder of the fame kind throughout her whole character, perhaps thefe were either accidental, or were introduced by the players to fet a quantity of barren spectators a laughing. STEEVENS. 8 No hare, Sir;] Mercutio having roared out, So bo! the cry of the fportfmen when they ftart a hare; Romeo asks what he has found. And Mercutio anfwers, No hare, &c. The reft is a feries of quibbles unworthy of explanation, which he who does not understand, needs not lament his ignorance. JOHNSON. Nurfe. |