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and proportion; he refts his minim, one, two, and the third in your bofom: the very butcher of a filk buttons, a duellift, a duellift; a gentleman of the very first houfe; of the first and fecond caufe; Ah, the immortal paffado! the punto reverío! 7 the hay!

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Ben. The what? Mer. The pox of fuch antick, lifping, affecting fantafticoes; thefe new tuners of accents! a very good blade! a very tall man! a very good whore !-- Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandfire, that we fhould be thus afflicted with thefe ftrange flies, thefe fafhion-mon

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5 the very butcher of a filk button,] So, in the Return from Parnaffus:

"Strikes his poinado at a button's breadth." STEEVENS, 6 A gentleman of the very first house; of the first and second caufe:] i. e. one who pretends to be at the head of his family, and quarrels by the book. See a note on As you like it, act v. fc. 6. WARBURTON.

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Tybalt cannot pretend to be at the head of his family, as both Capulet and Romeo barr'd his claim to that elevation. tleman of the firt boufe ;-of the firt and fecond caufe," is a gentleman of the first rank, of the first eminence among thefe duellifs; and one who understands the whole fcience of quarrelling, and will tell you of the firft caufe, and the fecond cause, for which a man is to fight.-The Clown, in As you like it, talks of the Jeventh caufe in the fame fenfe. STEEVENS.

7 the bay! All the terms of the modern fencing school were originally Italian; the rapier, or small thrufting sword, being first ufed in Italy. The bay is the word bai, you have it, ufed When a thruft reaches the antagonist, from which our fencers, on the fame occafion, without knowing, I fuppofe, any reafon for it, cry out, ha! JOHNSON.

-affecting fantafticoes.] Thus the old copies, and rightly. Modern editors and the folios read, phantafies. Nah, in his Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596, fays" Follow fome of thefe new-fangled Galiardo's and Signor Fantastico's," &c. Again, in Decker's Comedy of Old Fortunatus, 16:0:-“ I have danc'd with queens, dallied with ladies, worn ftrange attires, fcen fantaftico's, convers'd with humoritts," &c. STEEVENS.

9 Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandfire,] Humorously apoftrophifing his ancestors, whofe fober times were unacquainted with the fopperies here complained of. WARBURTON.

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thefe Pardonnez-moy's, who stand so much. on the new form 2, that they cannot fit at ease on the old bench? O, their bon's their bon's!

Enter Romeo.

Ben. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo, Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring :-0 flefh, 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 be-rhyme her: Dido, a dowdy; Cleopatra, a gipsy; Helen and Hero, hildings and harlots; Thifbé, a grey eye or so, but not to the purpofe.-Signior Romeo, bon jour! there's a French falutation to your French flop. You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night.

9-thefe pardonnez-moy's,] Pardonnez-moi became the lan guage 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.

2-ftand so much on the new form, that they cannot fit at ease on the old bench ?] This conceit is loft, if the double meaning of the word form be not attended to. FARMER.

A quibble on the two meanings of the word form occurs in Love's Labour's Loft, act i. fc. 1: -" fitting with her on the form, and taken following her into the park; which, put together, is, in manner and form following," STEEVENS.

10, their bones, their bones!] Mercutio is here, ridiculing thofe frenchified fantastical coxcombs whom he calls pardonnezmoi's and therefore, I fufpect here he meant to write French too. O, their bon's! their bon's!

i. e. how ridiculous they make themfelves in crying out, good, and being in ecftafies with every trifle; as he had juft defcribed them

before.

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a very good blade!" &c. THEOBALD.. Mr. Theobald's emendation is confirmed by a paffage in Greene's Tu Quoque, from which we learn that bon jour was the common falutation of those who affected to appear fine gentlemen in our author's time: "No, I want the bon jour and the tu quoque, which yonder gentleman has." MALONE.

4 Your French flop.] See vol. ii. p. 323-471. STEEVENS,

Rom.

Rom. Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit did I give you?

Mer. The flip, fir, the flip; Can you not conceive? Rom. Pardon, good Mercutio, my bufinefs was great; and, in fuch a cafe as mine, a man may ftrain courtefy.

Mer. That's as much as to fay-fuch a cafe as yours conftrains a man to bow in the hams.

Rom. Meaning-to curt'fy.

Mer. Thou haft moft kindly hit it.

Ren. A moft courteous expofition.

Mer. Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy,
Rom. Pink for flower.

Mer. Right.

Rom. Why, then is my pump well flower'd. Mer. Well faid: follow me this jeft now, 'till thou haft worn out thy pump; that when the fingle fole

What counterfeit, &c.?

Mer. The flip, the flip fir;] To understand this play upon the words counterfeit and flip, it fould be obferved that in our author's time there was a counterfeit piece of money distinguished by the name of a flip. This will appear in the following inftances;

And therefore he went and got him certain lips, which are "counterfeit pieces of money, being braffe, and covered over with "filver, which the common people call lips." Thieves falling out, True men come by their Goods; by Robert Greene.

Again,

"I had like t' have been

"Abus'd i' the bufinefs, had the flip flur'd on me, "A counterfeit." Magnetick Lady, act iii. fc. 6. Other inftances may be feen in Dodfley's Old Plays, vol. v. p. 396. edit. 1785. EDITOR.

5-then is my pump well flower'd.] Here is a vein of wit too thin to be eafily found. The fundamental idea is, that Romeo wrote pinked pumps, that is, punched with holes in figures. JOHNSON.

See the fhoes of the morris-dancers in the plate at the conclufion of the first part of K. Henry IV. with Mr. Tollet's remarks an nexed to it.

It was the cuftom to wear ribbons in the fhoes formed into the fhape of rofes, or of any other flowers. So Middleton, in the Mafque, by the Gent. of Gray's-Inn, 1614: "Every mafker's pump was faften'd with a fewer fuitable to his cap." STEEVENS.

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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 spurs; or I'll cry a match.

Mer. Nay, if thy 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 goofe.

Mer. I will bite thee by the ear for that jeft.
Rom. Nay, good goofe, bite not".

Mer. Thy wit is a very bitter fweeting; it is a moft fharp fauce.

Rom. And is it not well ferv'd in to a fweet goofe? Mer, O, here's 'a wit of cheverel, that ftretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad!

Rom.

6 I will bite thine ear- -] So Sir Epicure Mammon to Face in Jonfon's Alchymift:

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STEEVENS.

Slave, I could bite thine ear. 7-Good goofe, bite not,] Is a proverbial expreffion, to be found in Ray's Collection; and is ufed in The Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599. STEEVENS,

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-a very bitter faceting;] A bitter faveeting, is an apple of that name. So, in Summer's Laft Will and Teftament, 1600: "as well crabs as facetings for his fummer fruits."

Again, in Fair Em, 1631:

"what, in displeasure gone!

And left me fuch a bitter feet to gnaw upon?"

Again, in Gower, De Confeffione Amantis, lib. 8. fol. 174. ba
For all fuch tyme of love is lore,

"And like unto the bitter wete

"For though it thinke a man fyrst fwete

"He fhall well felen at lafle

"That it is fower, &c." STEEVENS.

9-a wit of cheverel,] Cheverel is foft leather for gloves.

JOHNSON.
So,

Rom. I ftretch it out for that word-broad; which added to the goofe, proves thee far and wide abroad a 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 flop in my tale against the hair.

Ben. Thou would'st else 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.

Rom. Here's goodly geer!

So, in the Tavo Maids of More-clacke, 16:9:

"Drawing on love's white hand a glove of warmth, "Not cheveril stretching to fuch prophanation." From Chevreau, a Kid, Fr. See vol. iv. p. 231. vol. vii. p. 238.

STEEVENS.

Cheveril is from chevreuil, roebuck, MUSGRAVE.

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-to hide his bauble in a hole.] It has been already obferved by Sir J. Hawkins, in a note on All's Well, &c. vol. iv. p. 129. that a bauble was one of the accoutrements of a licenfed fool or jefter. So again, in Sir W. D'Avenant's Albovine, 1629: "For fuch rich widows there, love court fools, and ufe to play with their baubles."

Again, in The longer thou liveft, the greater Fool thou art, 1570: "And as ftark an idiot as ever bare bable.”

See the plate at the end of K. Henry IV. P. I. with Mr. Tollet's obfervations on it. STEEVENS.

2-against the hair.] A contrepoil: Fr. An expreffion equivalent to one which we now ufe" against the grain." See vol. i. p. 317. vol. v. p. 408, STEEVENS.

Enter

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