We'll have no Cupid hood-wink'd with a scarf, 5 Bearing a TARTAR's painted bow of lath,] The Tartarian bows, as well as most of those used by the Asiatick nations, resemble in their form the old Roman or Cupid's bow, such as we see on medals and bas reliefs. Shakspeare used the epithet to distinguish it from the English bow, whose shape is the segment of a circle. DOUCE. 6 — like a CROW-KEEPER ;] The word crow-keeper is explained in King Lear, Act IV. Sc. VI. JOHNSON. 7 Nor no without-book prologue, &c.] The two following lines are inserted from the first edition. POPE. 8 - for our ENTRANCE:] Entrance is here used as trisyllable; enterance. MALONE. 9 We'll measure them a MEASURE,] i. e. a dance. MALONE. Give me a torch,] The character which Romeo declares his resolution to assume, will be best explained by a passage in Westward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "He is just like a torch-bearer to maskers; he wears good cloaths, and is ranked in good company, but he doth nothing." A torch-bearer seems to have been a constant appendage on every troop of masks. So, in the second part of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601: 66 As on a masque; but for our torch-bearers, "Hell cannot rake so mad a crew as I." Again, in the same play : 66 a gallant crew, "Of courtly maskers landed at the stairs; Before the invention of chandeliers, all rooms of state were illuminated by flambeaux which attendants held upright in their hands. This custom is mentioned by Froissart, and other writers who had the merit of describing every thing they saw. See a wooden cut introduced in the notes to the Winter's Tale, Act IV. Sc. III. To hold a torch, however, was anciently no degrading office. Queen Elizabeth's Gentlemen-Pensioners attended her to Cam Being but heavy, I will bear the light. * MER. Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. ROM. Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes, ROM. I am too sore enpierced with his shaft, MER. And, to sink in it, should you burden love1; Too great oppression for a tender thing. ROM. Is love a tender thing? it is too rough, Too rude, too boist'rous; and it pricks like thorn. MER. If love be rough with you, be rough with love; * Quarto A, Believe me, Romeo, I. bridge, and held torches while a play was acted before her in the Chapel of King's College, on a Sunday evening. At an entertainment also, given by Louis XIV. in 1664, no less than 200 valets-de-pied were thus employed. STEEVENS. King Henry VIII. when he went masked to Wolsey's palace, (now Whitehall,) had sixteen torch-bearers. See Henry III. Act I. Sc. IV.: MALONE. 2 Mer. You are a lover; &c.] The twelve following lines are not to be found in the first edition. POPE. 3 - so bound, I cannot bound, &c.] Let Milton's example, on this occasion, keep Shakspeare in countenance: 4 "At one slight bound high over-leap'd all bound 66 Of hill," &c. Paradise Lost, book iv. 1. 180. STEEVENS. SHOULD YOU burden love;] i. e. by sinking in it, you should, or would, burden love. Mr. Heath, on whose suggestion a note of interrogation has been placed at the end of this line in the late edition, entirely misunderstood the passage. Had he attended to the first two lines of Mercutio's next speech, he would have seen what kind of burdens he was thinking of. See also the concluding lines of Mercutio's long speech in p. 56. MALONE. Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.-() Give me a case to put my visage in: [Putting on a Mask. (1)A visor for a visor !-what care I, (||) What curious eye doth quote deformities"? But every man betake him to his legs. ROM. A torch for me: let wantons, light of heart", Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels " 8 ; doth QUOTE deformities?] To quote is to observe. So, in Hamlet: 66 I am sorry, that with better heed and judgment I had not quoted him." See note on this passage. STEEVENS. 6-let wantons, light of heart, &c.] Middleton has borrowed this thought in his play of Blurt Master-Constable, 1602: bid him, whose heart no sorrow feels, 66 "Tickle the rushes with his wanton heels, "I have too much lead at mine." STEEVENS. 7 Tickle the senseless RUSHES with their heels ;] It has been already observed, that it was anciently the custom to strew rooms with rushes, before carpets were in use. See Henry IV. Part I. Act III. Sc. I. So Hentzner, in his Itinerary, speaking of Queen Elizabeth's presence-chamber at Greenwich, says: "The floor, after the English fashion, was strewed with hay," meaning rushes. So, in The Dumb Knight, 1633 : "Thou dancest on my heart, lascivious queen, "Even as upon these rushes which thou treadest." The stage was anciently strewn with rushes. So, in Decker's Gul's Hornbook, 1609: on the very rushes when the comedy 66 is to daunce." STEEVENS. Shakspeare, it has been observed, gives the manners and customs of his own time to all countries and all ages. It is certainly true; but let it always be remembered that his contemporaries offended against propriety in the same manner. Thus, Marlowe, in his Hero and Leander: "She, fearing on the rushes to be flung, "Striv'd with redoubled strength." MALONE. 8 a grandsire phrase, &c.] The proverb which Romeo means, is contained in the line immediately following. To hold I'll be a candle-holder, and look on, The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done". MER. Tut! dun's the mouse, the constable's own word ': the candle, is a very common proverbial expression, for being an idle spectator. Among Ray's proverbial sentences, is this:"A good candle-holder proves a good gamester." STEEVENS. The proverb to which Romeo refers, is rather that alluded to in the next line but one. It appears from a passage in one of the small collections of Poetry, entitled Drolleries, of which I have lost the title, that "Our sport is at the best," or at the fairest, meant, we have had enough of it. Hence it is that Romeo says, I am done." Dun is the mouse, I know not why, seems to have meant, Peace; be still! and hence it is said to be "the constable's own word;" who may be supposed to be employed in apprehending an offender, and afraid of alarming him by any noise. So, in the comedy of Patient Grissel, 1603: “ What, Babulo! say you. Heere, master, say I, and then this eye opens; yet don is the mouse, LIE STILL. What Babulo! says Grissel. Anone, say I, and then this eye lookes up; yet doune I snug againe." 9 I'll be a candle-holder, and look on,— MALONE. The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done.] An allusion to an old proverbial saying, which advises to give over when the game is at the fairest. RITSON. " and I am done." This is equivalent to phrases in common use-I am done for, it is over with me. Done is often used in a kindred sense by our author. Thus, in King Henry VI. Part III.: my mourning weeds are done." Again, in The Rape of Lucrece : 66 as soon decay'd and done, "As in the morning's dew." STEEVENS. poor Tut! dun's the mouse, the constable's own word:] This obscure stuff should have an explanation in mere charity. It is an answer to these two lines of Romeo: "For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase:-and Mercutio, in his reply, answers the last line first. The thought of which, and of the preceding, is taken from gaming. "I'll be a candle-holder (says Romeo) and look on." It is true, if I could play myself, I could never expect a fairer chance than in the company we are going to: but, alas! I am done. I have nothing to play with: I have lost my heart already. Mercutio 2 If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire catches at the word done, and quibbles with it, as if Romeo had said, The ladies indeed are fair, but I am dun, i. e. of a dark complexion. And so replies, Tut! dun's the mouse; a proverbial expression of the same import with the French, La nuit tous les chats son gris: as much as to say, You need not fear, night will make all your complexions alike. And because Romeo had introduced his observations with— "I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase," Mercutio adds to his reply, the constable's own word: as much as to say, If you are for old proverbs, I'll fit you with one; 'tis the constable's own word; whose custom was, when he summoned his watch, and assigned them their several stations, to give them what the soldiers call, the word. But this night-guard being distinguished for their pacifick character, the constable, as an emblem of their harmless disposition, chose that domestick animal for his word, which, in time, might become proverbial. WARBURTON. 2 If thou art DUN, we'll draw thee from the mire-] A proverbial saying, used by Mr. Thomas Heywood, (Drue,) in his play, intitled The Dutchess of Suffolk, Act III. : "A rope for Bishop Bonner, Clunce run, Draw dun (a common name, as Mr. Douce observes, for a cart-horse) out of the mire, seems to have been a game. In an old collection of Satyres, Epigrams, &c. I find it enumerated among other pastimes: "At shove-groate, venter point, or crosse and pile, "At leaping o'er a Midsommer bone-fier, "Or at the drawing dun out of the myer.” Dun's the mouse is a proverbial phrase, which I have likewise met with frequently in the old comedies. So, in Every Woman in her Humour, 1609: "If my host say the word, the mouse shall be dun." It is also found among Ray's proverbial similes. Again, in The Two Merry Milkmaids, 1620: "Why then 'tis done, and dun's the mouse, and undone all the courtiers." Of this cant expression I cannot determine the precise meaning. It is used again in Westward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607, but apparently in a sense different from that which Dr. Warburton would affix to it. STEEVENS. Dun out of the mire was the name of a tune, and to this sense |