That you are now a maid. Thus, then, in brief;- Nurse. A man, young lady! lady, such a man, La. Cap. Verona's summer hath not such a flower. Nurse. Nay, he's a flower; in faith, a very flower. La. Cap. What say you? can you love the gentleman ? This night you shall behold him at our feast: Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,13 And find delight writ there with beauty's pen; Examine every several lineament, b And see how one another lends content; The fish lives in the sea; and 't is much pride, Nurse. No less? nay, bigger; women grow by men. But no more deep will I endart mine eye, Enter a Servant. Serv. Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you called, my young lady asked for, the nurse cursed in the pantry, and everything in extremity. I must hence to wait; I beseech you, follow straight. La. Cap. We follow thee.-Juliet, the county stays. a The next seventeen lines are wanting in (A). [Exeunt. b (B), married; which reading has been adopted by Steevens and Malone, in preference to several in the folio and (C). SCENE IV.-A Street. Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with Five or Six Maskers, Torchbearers, and others. Rom. What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse ? Or shall we on without apology? Ben. The date is out of such prolixity: We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf," Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke Rom. Give me a torch,"-I am not for this ambling; Mer. Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. Mer. You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings, Rom. I am too sore enpierced with his shaft, To soar with his light feathers; and to bound-b I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe: Under love's heavy burthen do I sink. Mer. And, to sink in it, should you burthen love: 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; Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down. Give me a case to put my visage in: A visor for a visor!—what care I, What curious [Putting on a mask. c Here are the beetle-brows shall blush for me. a These two lines in (A) are omitted in the subsequent old editions. b To bound, in folio; so bound, in (C). c Quote-observe. Ben. Come, knock, and enter; and no sooner in, Rom. A torch for me: let wantons, light of heart, The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done. Mer. Tut! dun 's the mouse, the constable's own word: If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire Of this, sir reverence," love," wherein thou stick'st Up to the ears.-Come, we burn daylight, ho. Mer. I mean, sir, in delay We waste our lights in vain, lights, lights, by day." Take our good meaning; for our judgment sits Five times in that, ere once in our five wits. Rom. And we mean well in going to this mask; But 't is no wit to go. Mer. Why, may one ask? Rom. I dreamt a dream to-night. Mer. Rom. Well, what was yours? And so did I. That dreamers often lie. Rom. In bed, asleep, while they do dream things true. Mer. O, then, I see, queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies' midwife; and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone Prick'd from the lazy finger of a maid:a a 20 (4), maid; folio and (C), man,—clearly an error in the latter. b A suit. A court solicitation was called a suit;—a process, a suit at law. c It is desirable to exhibit the first draft of a performance so exquisitely finished as this celebrated description, in which every word is a study. And yet it is curious that in the quarto of 1609, and in the folio (from which we print), and in both of which the corrections of the author are apparent, the whole speech is given as if it were prose. The original quarto of 1597 gives the passage as follows :— "Ah, then I see queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies' midwife, and doth come In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the forefinger of a burgomaster, Drawn Rom. Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace, Thou talk'st of nothing. Mer. True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Which is as thin of substance as the air; Ben. This wind, you talk of, blows us from ourselves; 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, Drawn with a team of little atomy, Athwart men's noses when they lie asleep. Pick'd from the lazy finger of a maid. And in this sort she gallops up and down Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love; O'er courtiers' knees, who straight on courtesies dream; O'er ladies' lips, who dream on kisses straight, Sometimes she gallops o'er a lawyer's lap, And then dreams he of smelling out a suit; Of breaches, ambuscadoes, countermines, And swears a prayer or two, and sleeps again: This is that Mab that makes maids lie on their backs, And proves them women of good carriage. This is the very Mab, That plaits the manes of horses in the night, And plaits the elf-locks in foul sluttish hair, Which once untangled much misfortune breeds." a Thus (A). (C) and the folio, side. |