In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies

14

Over men's noses as they lie asleep:
Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners' legs
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;
The traces, of the smallest spider's web;
The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams:
Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film:
Her wagoner, a small gray-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm
Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid:
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,
Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub,
Time out of mind the fairies' coach-makers.
And in this state she gallops night by night
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of
love :

15

On courtiers' knees, that dream on courtesies

straight:

O'er lawyer's fingers, who straight dream on fees: 16
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream;
Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues,
Because their breaths with sweet-meats tainted are.
Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit:

children of an idle brain. When we say the king's judges, we do not mean persons who judge the king, but persons appointed by him to judge his subjects. - STEEVENS.

14 So all the old copies except the first quarto, which has Athwart instead of Over. The metrical arrangement of this speech is found only in the quarto of 1597; the other old copies printing it all as prose except the last four lines.

H.

15 Maid is from the first quarto; the other old copies reading man. The next three lines are not in the first quarto.

H.

16 This line also is wanting in the quarto of 1597, which has lawyer's lap instead of courtier's nose in the fourth line below.

H.

And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig's tail,
Tickling a parson's nose as 'a lies asleep;
Then dreams he of another benefice:
Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes,
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two,
And sleeps again. This is that very Mab,
That plats the manes of horses in the night; 17
And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs,
That presses them, and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage.

This, this is she

Rom.

Peace, peace! Mercutio, peace! Thou talk'st of nothing.

17 This alludes to a singular superstition, not yet forgotten in some parts of the continent. It was believed that certain malignant spirits assumed occasionally the likenesses of women clothed in white; that in this character they sometimes haunted stables in the night, carrying in their hands tapers of wax, which they dropped on the horses' manes, thereby plaiting them into inextri cable knots, to the great annoyance of the poor animals, and the vexation of their masters. There is a very uncommon old print, by Hans Burgmair, relating to this subject. A witch enters the stable with a lighted torch; and, previously to the operation of entangling the horse's mane, practises her enchantments on the groom, who is lying asleep on his back, and apparently influenced by the night-mare. The belamites or elf-stones were regarded as charms against the last-mentioned disease, and against evil spirits of all kinds. The next line, "And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs," seems to be unconnected with the preceding, and to mark a superstition which, as Dr. Warburton has observed, may have originated from the plica Polonica, which was supposed to be the operation of the wicked elves; whence the clotted hair was called elf-locks, or elf-knots. Thus Edgar talks of "elfing all his hair in knots."-DOUCE.

H.

Mer.

True, I talk of dreams,

Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy;

Which is as thin of substance as the air;
And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes
Even now the frozen bosom of the north,
And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence,
Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.18
Ben. This wind, you talk of, blows us from our.
selves:

Supper is done, and we shall come too late.

Rom. I fear, too early; for my mind misgives,
Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars,
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

With this night's revels; and expire the term
Of a despised life,1o clos'd in my breast,
By some vile forfeit of untimely death:

18 Face, in this line, is from the quarto of 1597; the other old copies having side, which Mr. Collier's second folio changes to tide. Coleridge has the following on Mercutio: "O! how shall I describe that exquisite ebullience and overflow of youthful life, vafted on over the laughing waves of pleasure and prosperity, as wanton beauty that distorts the face on which she knows her lover is gazing enraptured, and wrinkles her forehead in the triumph of its smoothness? Wit ever wakeful, fancy busy and procreative as an insect, courage, an easy mind that, without cares of its own, is at once disposed to laugh away those of others, and yet to be interested in them, these and all congenial qualities, melting into the common copula of them all, the man of tank and the gentleman, with all its excellences and all its weaknesses, constitute the character of Mercutio!"

H.

19 This way of using expire was not uncommon in the Poet's time. So in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond:

"Thou must not think thy flow'r can always flourish,
And that thy beauty will be still admir'd;

But that hose rays which all these flames do nourish,
Cancell with time, will have their date expir'd."

H.

But He, that hath the steerage of my course,
Direct my sail! 20-On, lusty gentlemen.

Ben. Strike, drum.21

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.' A Hall in CAPULET'S House.

Musicians waiting. Enter Servants.

1 Serv. Where's Potpan, that he helps not to take away he shift a trencher! he scrape a trencher!

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

4

1 Serv. Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cupboard, look to the plate. Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane; and, as thou lovest me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone, and Nell. Antony! and Potpan!

2 Serv. Ay, boy; ready.

20 So in the first quarto; the other old copies have suit instead of sail.

H.

21 Here the folio adds: "They march about the stage, and serving men come forth with their napkins."

The opening of this scene, down to the entrance of Capulet,

is not in the quarto of 1597.

H.

Trenchers were used in

2 To shift a trencher was technical. Shakespeare's time and long after by persons of good fashion and quality.

3 The court cupboard was the ancient sideboard: it was a cuin brous piece of furniture, with stages or shelves gradually receding, like stairs, to the top, whereon the plate was displayed at festivals. They are mentioned in many old comedies.

A Marchpane was a constant article in the desserts of our ances. tors. It was a sweet cake, composed of filberts, almonds, pistachios, pine kernels, and sugar of roses, with a small portion of four. They were often made in fantastic forms.

1 Serv. You are look'd for and call'd for, ask'd for and sought for, in the great chamber.

2 Serv. We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly, boys! be brisk awhile, and the longer liver take all. [They retire behind.

Enter CAPULET, &c., with the Guests and the

Maskers.

Cap. Welcome, gentlemen! ladies, that have their

toes

Unplagued with corns, will have a bout with you :". Al ha, my mistresses! which of you all

Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty, she,

I'll swear, hath corns: Am I come near you now? You are welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day, That I have worn a visor, and could tell

A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear,

Such as would please; 'tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis

gone.

You are welcome, gentlemen! - Come, musicians,

play.

A hall! a hall! give room, and foot it, girls.

7

[Music plays, and they dance. More lights, ye knaves! and turn the tables up,' And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot. Ah, sirrah! this unlook'd-for sport comes well. Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet;"

5 So the first quarto; the other old copies, "will walk about with you."

H.

6 An exclamation to make room in a crowd for any particular purpose, as we now say a ring! a ring!

7 The ancient tables were flat leaves or boards joined by hinges and placed on trestles; when they were to be removed they were therefore turned up.

8 Cousin was a common expression for kinsman.