Within the infant rind of this weak flower

Poison hath residence, and medicine power:

For this, being smelt, with that act cheers each part *;
Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart.
Two such opposed kings' encamp them still
In man as well as herbs, grace, and rude will;
And where the worser is predominant,

Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

Enter ROMEO.

Rom. Good morrow, father!

Fri.

Benedicite!

What early tongue so sweet saluteth me?-
Young son, it argues a distemper'd head,
So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed:
Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie;

But where unbruised youth, with unstuff'd brain,
Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.
Therefore, thy earliness doth me assure,

Thou art up-rous'd by some distemperature;
Or if not so, then here I hit it right-

Our Romeo hath not been in bed to-night.

Rom. That last is true; the sweeter rest was mine.
Fri. God pardon sin! wert thou with Rosaline?
Rom. With Rosaline? my ghostly father, no;

I have forgot that name, and that name's woe.

Fri. That's my good son: but where hast thou been, then?
Rom. I'll tell thee, ere thou ask it me again.

I have been feasting with mine enemy;
Where, on a sudden, one hath wounded me,

That's by me wounded: both our remedies

For this, being smelt, with that ACT cheers each part;] i. e. With the "act" of smelling. We adopt this emendation from the corr. fo. 1632, the common reading being

"For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part." This is certainly wrong, the old printer having caught with his eye the last word of the line, and composed it twice over by mistake.

Two such opposed KINGS] The editions after the first substitute kings for "foes." May not the true reading be kinds? Still, the verb " encamp" is opposed to this change, and of course we adhere to the old word.

6 But where UNBRUISED youth,]

Unbusied youth" in the corr. fo. 1632; but so questionably, that we do not think it expedient to disturb the received and authorised text.

Within thy help and holy physic lies:
I bear no hatred, blessed man; for, lo!
My intercession likewise steads my foe.

Fri. Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift: Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.

Rom. Then plainly know, my heart's dear love is set On the fair daughter of rich Capulet:

As mine on her's, so her's is set on mine;

And all combin'd, save what thou must combine
By holy marriage. When, and where, and how,
We met, we woo'd, and made exchange of vow,
I'll tell thee as we pass; but this I pray,
That thou consent to marry us to-day.

Fri. Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!
Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear,
So soon forsaken? young men's love, then, lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
Jesu Maria! what a deal of brine
Hath wash'd thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline!
How much salt water thrown away in waste
To season love, that of it doth not taste!
The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears,
Thy old groans ring yet in my ancient ears;
Lo! here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit
Of an old tear, that is not wash'd off yet.
If e'er thou wast thyself, and these woes thine,
Thou and these woes were all-for Rosaline :

And art thou chang'd? pronounce this sentence, then-
Women may fall, when there's no strength in men.
Rom. Thou chidd'st me oft for loving Rosaline.
Fri. For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.

Rom. And bad'st me bury love.

Fri.

To lay one in, another out to have.

Not in a grave,

Rom. I pray thee, chide not: she, whom I love now, Doth grace for grace, and love for love allow :

The other did not so.

Fri.

Oh! she knew well,

Thy love did read by rote, and could not spell.
But come, young waverer, come, go with me,
In one respect I'll thy assistant be;
For this alliance may so happy prove,
To turn your households' rancour to

pure love.

Rom. Oh! let us hence; I stand on sudden haste.
Fri. Wisely, and slow: they stumble that run fast.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

A Street.

Enter BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO.

Mer. Where the devil should this Romeo be ?— Came he not home to-night?

Ben. Not to his father's: I spoke with his man.

Mer. Why, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline,

Torments him so, that he will sure run mad.

Ben. Tybalt, the kinsman to old Capulet, Hath sent a letter to his father's house.

Mer. A challenge, on my life.

Ben. Romeo will answer it.

Mer. Any man that can write may answer a letter. Ben. Nay, he will answer the letter's master, how he dares, being dared'.

Mer. Alas, poor Romeo! he is already dead: stabbed with a white wench's black eye; run thorough the ear with a lovesong; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bowboy's butt-shaft; and is he a man to encounter Tybalt?

Ben. Why, what is Tybalt?

8

Mer. More than prince of cats, I can tell you. Oh! he is the courageous captain of compliments. He fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion; rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom : the very butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellist; a gentleman of

8

- how he dares, being dared.] "If he be challenged," in the 4to, 1597.

- the very PIN of his heart cleft] The "pin" was the peg by which the white mark or clout, at which archers shot, was fastened. See "Love's Labour's Lost," Vol. ii. p. 128.

• More than prince of cats,] Tybalt, or Tybert was the name of a cat; and the cat in the old allegory of "Reynard the Fox" was called Tybert. Nash, in his "Have with you to Saffron Walden," 1596 (not 1598 as the date is given by Steevens), has the expression, "Tybalt, prince of cats." The words, "I can tell you," in the text, are from the 4to, 1597. Lower down, "fantasticoes" is from the same edition, other impressions reading fantasies.

the very first house, of the first and second cause. Ah, the immortal passado! the punto reverso; the hay!

Ben. The what?

Mer. The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting fantasticoes, these new tuners of accents!" By Jesu, a very good blade! -a very tall man!-a very good whore!"-Why, is not this a lamentable 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? Oh, their bons, their bons!

Enter ROMEO.

Ben. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.

Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring.-Oh flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified!-Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in: Laura, to his lady, was 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. What counterfeit did I give you?

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.

Mer. That's as much as to say-such a case as your's 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 flowered.

10 - a French SALUTATION to your French SLOP.] Slops were loose breeches or trowsers: (see Vol. ii. p. 44.) The 4to, 1597, has courtesy for "salutation;" and above it has " kitchen-drudge" for " kitchen-wench;" but the variations in this part of the scene, though numerous, are of little importance.

1 The SLIP, sir, the SLIP:] "In our author's time," says Steevens, "there was a counterfeit piece of money distinguished by the name of a slip." This statement is capable of proof from many writers of the time. See "Troilus and Cressida," A. ii. sc. 3, Vol. iv. p. 517.

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.

Rom. O single-soled jest! solely singular for the single

ness.

Mer. Come between us, good Benvolio, for my wits fail. Rom. Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I'll cry a

match.

Mer. Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chace, 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; it is a most sharp

sauce.

Rom. And is it not well served in to a sweet goose?

Mer. O! here's a wit of cheverel', 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 abroad-goose 3.

Mer. Why, is not this better, now, than groaning for love?

2 O single-soled jest!] i. e. Contemptible, foolish jest. The word often occurs in authors of the time in this sense; and Steevens quotes the following couplet in point from Bishop Hall's "Satires," B. ii. sat. 2:

"And scorne contempt itselfe, that doth excite

Each single sol'd squire to set you at so light."

If Steevens be accurate (and Mr. Singer quotes the very same words), the reprint made of Hall's "Satires" in 1824 is wrong, for there "excite" is printed incite : the meaning is nearly the same, and we are only anxious to be accurate, not having at hand any original copy of Hall's "Satires."

3 - a very bitter SWEETING;] A bitter sweeting, is an apple of that name. 4 - a wit of CHEVEREL,] "Cheverel" was kid-skin, easily stretched. See "Twelfth Night," A. iii. sc. 1, Vol. ii. p. 683, and “ Henry VIII.," A. ii. sc. 3, Vol. iv. p. 399.

proves thee far and wide ABROAD-goose.] The Rev. Mr. Dyce is emphatic upon the word "goose " ("Remarks," p. 170), and wishes us to print a broad goose." He does not explain what he means by "a broad goose;" and we never heard of one even among tailors. What Romeo plainly means is, that Mercutio has proved himself "far and wide abroad" a goose: we print the text accordingly; and we thus add "broad" to " goose in the way intended, and preserve whatever force there may be in the retort.

6

""

than groaning for love?] In "Love's Labour's Lost," A. iv. sc. 3, Vol. ii. p. 140, Biron asks when he had "groaned for love," not "groaned for Joan," or Ione, as it has been hitherto misprinted.