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Mer. Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. Rom. Not I, believe me : you have dancing fhoes, With nimble foles: I have a foul of lead,

So ftakes me to the ground, I cannot move.

Mer. You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings, And foar with them above a common bound.

Rom. I am too fore enpierced with his fhaft, To foar with his light feathers; and fo bound, I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe: Under love's heavy burden do I fink.

Mer. And, to fink in it, fhould you burden love; Too great oppreffion for a tender thing.

Rom. Is love a tender thing; it is too rough, Too rude, too boift'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 cafe to put my vifage in: [Putting on a mask. A visor for a vifor!-what care I,

What curious eye doth quote deformities"?

Here are the beetle-brows, fhall blush for me.

Ben. Come, knock, and enter; and no fooner in,

But every man betake him to his legs.

Rom. A torch for me: let wantons, light of heart1,

Tickle

6 Mer. You are a lover; &c.] The twelve following lines are not to be found in the first edition.

7 fo bound,

POPE.

I cannot bound, &c.] Let Milton's example, on this occafion, keep Shakspeare in countenance:

in contempt

"At one light bound high over-leap'd all bound

"Of hill," &c. Par. Loft, book iv. 1. 180. STEEVENS. Should you burden love;] i. e. by finking in it, you should, or ould, burden love. Mr. Heath, on whofe fuggeftion a note of interrogation has been placed at the end of this line in the late editions, entirely misunderstood the paffage. Had he attended to the first two lines of Mercutio's next fpeech, he would have feen what kind of burdens he was thinking of. See alfo the concluding lines of Mercutio's long fpeech in p. 43. MALONE.

9-doth quote deformities ] To quote is to obferve. STEEVENS. See Vol. II. p. 378, n. 6; and p. 432, n. 6. MALONE.

1 Let wantons, light of beart, &c.] Middleton has borrowed this thought in his play of Blurt Mafter-Conflable, 1602:

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64 bid

Tickle the fenfelefs rufhes with their heels2;
For I am proverb'd with a grandfire phrafe 3,-
I'll be a candle-holder, and look on,-

The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done 4.

Mer. Tut! dun's the mouse, the conftable's own word3:

"-bid him, whofe heart no forrow feels,
"Tickle the ruthes with his wanton heels;

"I have too much lead at mine." STEEVENS.

If

2 Tickle the fenfeless rushes with their beels ;] It has been already obferved, that it was anciently the custom to ftrew rooms with rubes, before carpets were in ufe. So, Hentzner, in his Itinerary speaking of Q. Elizabeth's prefence-chamber at Greenwich, fays: "The floor, after the English fashion, was strewed with bay," meaning rushes. STEEV. See Vol. VIII. p. 352, n. 7.

Shakspeare, it has been obferved, gives the manners and cuftoms of his own time to all countries and all ages. It is certainly true; but let it always be remembered that his contemporaries offended again propriety in the fame manner. Thus Marlowe in his Hero and Leander : "She, fearing on the rushes to be flung,

"Striv'd with redoubled ftrength." MALONE.

3-a grandfire phrafe,-] The proverb which Romeo means, is contained in the line immediately following: To bold the candle, is a very common proverbial expreflion, for being an idle spectator. Among Ray's proverbial fentences, is this," A good candle-bolder proves a good gamefter." STEEVENS.

The proverb to which Romeo refers, is rather that alluded to in the fine next but one. MALONE.

4 I'll be a candle-bolder, and look on,

The game was ne'er fo fair, &c ] An allufion to an old proverbial faying, which advifes to give over when the game is at the fairest.

5 Tut! dun's the mouse, the conftable's own word, &c.] fcure ftuff should have an explanation in mere charity. fwer to these two lines of Romeo:

ANONYMUS.

This poor ob-
It is an an-

The thought of
I'll be a candle-

For I am proverb'd with a grandfire phrafe ;-and The game was ne'er fo fair, and I am done. Mercutio, in his reply, anfwers the last line first. which, and of the preceding, is taken from gaming. bolder (fays Romeo) and look on. It is true, if I could play my felf, 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 loft my heart already. Mercutio catches at the word done, and quibbles with it, as if Romeo had faid, The ladies indeed are fair, but I am dun, i. e. of a dark complexion. And fo replies, Tut! dun's the moufe; a proverbial expreffion of the fame import with the French, La muit tout les chats font gris ; as much as to fay, You need not fear, night

If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire 6
Of this (fave reverence) love, wherein thou stick'st"

Up

will make all your complexions alike. And becaufe Romeo had introduced his obfervations with,

I am proverb'd with a grandfire phrase,

Mercutio adds to his reply, the conftable's own word: as much as to fay, If you are for old proverbs, I'll fit you with one; 'tis the conftable's orun word; whofe cuftom was, when he fummoned his watch, and affigned them their several stations, to give them what the foldiers call, the word. But this night-guard being distinguished for their pacific character, the conftable, as an emblem of their harmless difpofition, chofe that domeftic animal for his word, which, in time, might become proverbial. WARBURTON.

6 If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire-] A proverbial saying ufed by Mr. Thomas Heywood, in his play intitled The Dutchess of Suffolk, Act III.

"A rope for Bishop Bonner; Clunce, run,

"Call help, a rope, or we are all undone ;
"Draw dun out of the ditch." GREY.

Draw dun out of the mire, feems to have been a game. In an old collection of Satyres, Epigrams, &c. I find it enumerated among other pastimes a

"At shove-groate, venter-point, or croffe and pile,

"At leaping o'er a Midfommer bone-fier,

"Or at the drawing dun out of the myer."

Dun's the moufe is a proverbial phrafe, which I have likewife met with frequently in the old comedies. So, in Every Woman in ber Humour, 1609:

"If my host say the word, the mouse shall be dun.”

It is alfo found among Ray's proverbial fimilies. Again, in the Two Merry Milkmaids, 1620: "Why then, 'tis done, and dun's the mouse, and undone all the courtiers."

Of this cant expreffion I cannot determine the precife meaning. It is ufed again in Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webfter, 1607, but apparently in a fenfe different from that which Dr. Warburton would affix to it. STEEVENS.

Thefe paffages ferve to prove that Dr. Warburton's explanation is ill founded, without tending to explain the real fenfe of the phrafe, or fhewing why it should be the conftable's own word. MASON.

7 Of this (fave reverence) love, wherein thou flick ft-] I have follow. ed the first quarto, 1597, except that it has fur-reverence, instead of fave-reverence. It was only a different mode of fpelling the fame word; which was derived from the Latin, falva reverentia. Blount's Gloffograph. 8vo. 1681, in v. fa-reverence.

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Up to the ears.-Come, we burn day-light, ho".
Rom. Nay, that's not fo.
Mer. I mean, fir, in delay

We wafte our lights in vain, like lamps by day.
Take our good meaning; for our judgement fits
Five times in that, ere once in our five wits'.

So, in Maffinger's Very Woman:

"The beaftlieft man,

Rome

"(Sir-reverence of the company) a rank whore-mafter." Again, in the Puritan, 1607:-" ungarter'd, unbutton'd, nay, (firreverence,) untrufs`d."'

In Cymbeline we have the fame thing more delicately expreffed: "Why should his mistress not be fit too? The rather, faving reverence of the word, for 'tis faid a woman's fitnefs comes by fits."

In the Comedy of Errors, Vol. II. p. 168, the word is written as in the first copy of this play, and is ufed in the fame fenfe: "fuch a one as a man may not speak of, without he fay fir-reverence,”—And in Much ado about Netbing, it occurs as now printed in the text: "I think you will have me fay (fave reverence) a husband."

The printer of the quarto, 1599, exhibited the line thus unintelligibly:

Or, fave you reverence, love

which was followed by the next quarto, of 1609, and by the folio with a flight variation. The editor of the folio, whenever he found an error in a later quarto, feems to have corrected it by caprice, withqut examining the preceding copy. He reads,-Or, fave your reverence, &c. MALONE.

8 —we burn day-light, bo.] To burn day-light, is a proverbial expreffion, ufed when candles, &c. are lighted in the day-time. STEEV. See Vol. I. p. 221, n. 6. MALONE.

9-like lamps by day.] Lamps is the reading of the oldest quarto. The folio and fubfequent quartos read—lights lights by day. STEEVENS. 1 for our judgment fits

Five times in that, ere once in our five wits.] The quarto 1599, and the folio, have our fine wits. Shakspeare is on all occafions fo fond of antithefis, that I have no doubt he wrote five, not fine. The error has happened fo often in thefe plays, and the emendation is fo frongly confirmed by comparing thefe lines as exhibited in the enlarged copy of this play, with the paffage as it ftood originally, that I have not hesitated to give the reading which I propofed fome time ago, a place in the text

The fame mistake has happened in A Midfummer-Night's Dream, Vol. II. p. 512, where we find in all the old copies of thefe fine the fenfe," instead of "-these five." Again, in K. Henry VI. P. I. Vol. VI. p. 5: "Deck'd with fine flower-de-luces," inftead of—"five," &c. In Coriolanus, (fec Vol. VII. p. 293, n. 2.) the only authentick ancient copy

has

Rom. And we mean well, in going to this mask ;

But 'tis no wit to go.

Mer. Why, may one ask?

Rom. I dreamt a dream to-night.

Mer. And fo did I.

Rom. Well, what was yours?

Mer. That dreamers often lie.

Rom. In bed, afleep, while they do dream things

true.

Mer. O, then, I fee, queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies' midwife; and fhe comes

In

has-" the five ftrains of honour,” for “ the fine strains of honour." Indeed in the writing of Shakspeare's age, the u and were formed exactly in the fame manner: we are not to wonder therefore that ignorant transcribers fhould have confounded them. In the modern editions these errors have all been properly amended.-See alfo on the fame point, Vol. I. p. 292, n. 9; Vol. IV. p. 252, n. 9; and Vol. VIII. p. 84, n. 8.

Shakspeare has again mentioned the five wits in Much ado about Nothing, (fee Vol. II. p. 210, n. 4.) in K. Lear, and in one of his fonnets. Again, in the play before us: "Thou haft more of the wild. goofe in one of thy wits, than, I am, fure I have in my whole five." Mercutio is here also the speaker.

In the first quarto the line ftands thus:

"Three times in that, ere once in our right wits."

When the poet altered "three times" to "five times," he, without doubt, for the fake of the jingle, difcarded the word right, and substituted five in its place. The alteration, indeed, feems to have been made merely to obtain the antithefis.

Notwithstanding all these concurring circumstances, Mr. Steevens, thinks fine may be the true reading, becaufe "they would whip me with their fine wits," occurs in the Merry Wives of Windfor

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MALONE. 20, then, &c.] In the quarto 1597, after the first line of Mercu tio's fpeech, Romeo fays, Queen Mat, what's she? and the printer, by a blunder, has given all the rest of the fpeech to the fame character. STEEVENS.

3-1 fee, queen Mab bath been with you.

She is the fairies' midwife;] The fairies midwife does not mean the midwife to the fairies, but that he was the perfon among the fairies, whofe department it was to deliver the fancies of fleeping men of their dreams, those children of an idle brain. When we fay the king's judges, we do not mean perfons who are to judge the king, but perfons appointed by him to judge his fubjects. STEVENS.

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