every part about me quivers. Scurvy knave * !— Pray you, sir, a word: and as I told you, my young lady bade me inquire you out; what she bade me say, I will keep to myself; but first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into a fool's paradise, as they say', it were a very gross kind of behaviour, as they say for the gentlewoman is young; and, therefore, if you should deal double with her, truly, it were an ill thing to be offered to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing. ROM. Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. I protest unto thee, NURSE. Good heart! and, i'faith, I will tell her as much: Lord, lord, she will be a joyful woman. ROM. What wilt thou tell her, nurse? thou dost not mark me. NURSE. I will tell her, sir,-that you do protest 2; which, as I take it, is a gentlemanlike offer. ROM. Bid her devise some means to come to shrift This afternoon; And there she shall at friar Laurence' cell * Quarto A, + Quarto A, I-if ye Jack. Bid her get leave to-morrow morning should lead her into A FOOL'S PARADISE, as they say,] So, in A Handful of Pleasant Delightes, containing sundry new Sonets, &c. 1584: "When they see they may her win, They leave then where they did begin : They prate, and make the matter nice, "And leave her in fooles paradise." So, in Barnabe Rich's Farewell : Knowing the fashion of you men to be such, as by praisyng our beautie, you think to bring us into a fooles paradize." MALONE. 2 protest;] Whether the repetition of this word conveyed any idea peculiarly comick to Shakspeare's audience, is not at present to be determined. The use of it, however, is ridiculed in the old comedy of Sir Giles Goosecap, 1606: "There is not the best duke's son in France dares say, I protest, till he be one and thirty years old at least; for the inheritance of that word is not to be possessed before." See Donne's fourth Satire. STEEVENS. (1) Be shriv'd, and married. () Here is for thy pains3. NURSE. No, truly, sir; not a penny. ROM. Go to; I say, you shall. () NURSE. This afternoon, sir? well, she shall be there. () ROM. And stay, good nurse, behind the abbeywall: Within this hour my man shall be with thee; NURSE. Now God in heaven bless thee!- ROM. What say'st thou, my dear nurse? say * Quarto A, conduct. 3 Here is for thy pains.] So, in The Tragical Hystory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562: 4 "Then he vi crowns of gold out of his pocket drew, "And gave them her;-a slight reward, quoth he; and so adieu." MALONE. like a tackled stair;] Like stairs of rope in the tackle of a ship. JOHNSON. A stair, for a flight of stairs, is still the language of Scotland, and was probably once common to both kingdoms. MALONE. 5 — TOP-GALLANT of my joy-] The top-gallant is the highest extremity of the mast of a ship. So, in Reynolds's God's Revenge against Murder, b. i. Hist. iv.: “ - which so spread the sails of his ambition, and hoysted his fame from top to top-gallant, that," &c. The expression is common to many writers; among the rest, to Markham, in his English Arcadia, 1607: beholding in the high top-gallant of his valour." Again, in Eliosto Libidinoso, 1606: "that, vailing top-gallant, she return'd," &c. STEEVENS. Top-gallant masts are small masts fixed to the heads of the main and fore top-masts. Kersey's Dict. MALONE. Two may keep counsel, putting one away"? ROM. I warrant thee; my man's as true as steel. NURSE. Well, sir; my mistress is the sweetest lady-Lord, lord!-when 'twas a little prating thing,-O,—there's a nobleman in town, one Paris, that would fain lay knife aboard; but she, good soul, had as lieve see a toad, a very toad, as see him. I anger her sometimes, and tell her that Paris is the properer man; but, I'll warrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as any clout in the varsal world. Doth not rosemary and Romeo begin both with a letter?? 6 Two may keep counsel, &c.] This proverb, with a slight variation, has been introduced in Titus Andronicus. STEEVENS. 7 I warrant thee ;] I, which is not in the quartos or first folio, was supplied by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. 8 • Well, sir; my mistress is the sweetest lady-Lord, Lord! -when 'twas a little PRATING thing,-] So, in the Poem: "And how she gave her suck in youth, she leaveth not to tell, "A pretty babe, quoth she, it was, when it was young; "Lord, how it could full prettily have prated with its tongue," &c. This dialogue is not found in Painter's Rhomeo and Julietta. MALONE. 9 Doth not ROSEMARY and Romeo begin both with a letter?] By this question the Nurse means to insinuate that Romeo's image was ever in the mind of Juliet, and that they would be married. Rosemary being conceived to have the power of strengthening the memory, was an emblem of remembrance, and of the affection of lovers, and (for this reason probably,) was worn at weddings. So, in a Handfull of Pleasant Delites, &c. 1584: "Rosemary is for remembrance, "Betweene us daie and night, "Wishing that I might alwaies have "You present in my sight." Again, in our author's Hamlet: "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance." That rosemary was much used at weddings, appears from many passages in the old plays. So, in The Noble Spanish Soldier, 1634 "I meet few but are stuck with rosemary; every one ask'd me who was to be married?" Again, in The Wit of a ROм. Ay, nurse; What of that? both with an R. NURSE. Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name. R. is for the dog. No; I know it begins with some other letter: and she hath the prettiest senten Woman, 1604: "What is here to do? Wine and cakes, and rosemary, and nosegaies? What, a wedding?" MALONE. On a former occasion, the author of the preceding note has suspected me of too much refinement. Let the reader judge whether he himself is not equally culpable in the present instance. The Nurse, I believe, is guiltless of so much meaning as is here imputed to her question. STEEVENS. What then does she mean? We are told, immediately afterwards, that Juliet has "the prettiest sententious of it." MALONE. Nurse. Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name, &c.] It is a little mortifying, that the sense of this odd stuff, when found, should not be worth the pains of retrieving it: "spissis indigna theatris "Scripta pudet recitare, et nugis addere pondus." The Nurse is represented as a prating silly creature; she says, she will tell Romeo a good joke about his mistress, and asks him, whether Rosemary and Romeo do not begin both with a letter; He says, Yes, an R. She, who, we must suppose, could not read, thought he had mocked her, and says, No, sure, I know better; our dog's name is R, yours begins with another letter. This is natural enough, and in character. R put her in mind of that sound which is made by dogs when they snarl; and therefore, I presume, she says, that is the dog's name, R in schools, being called The dog's letter. Ben Jonson, in his English Grammar, says, R is the dog's letter, and hirreth in the sound. 66 Irritata canis quod R. R. quam plurima dicat." Lucil. Dr. Warburton reads-R. is for Thee? STEEVENS. I believe we should read-R. is for the dog. No; I know it begins with some other letter. TYRWHITT. I have adopted this emendation, though Dr. Farmer has since recommended another which should seem equally to deserve attention. He would either omit name or insert letter. The dog's letter, as the same gentleman observes, is pleasantly exemplified in Barclay's Ship of Fools, 1578: "This man malicious which troubled is with wrath, tious of it, of you and rosemary, that it woulddo you good to hear it. () ROM. Commend me to thy lady. NURSE. Ay, a thousand times.-Peter! PET. Anon? [Exit. NURSE. Peter, take my fan, and go before 2. SCENE V. CAPULET'S Garden. Enter JULIET. [Exeunt. JUL. The clock struck nine, when I did send the nurse; Erasmus in explaining the adage "canina facundia,” says, “R. litera quæ in rixando prima est, canina vocatur." I think it is used in this sense more than once in Rabelais: and in the Alchemist Subtle says, in making out Abel Drugger's name, "And right anenst him a dog snarling er." DOUCE. Mr. Tyrwhitt's alteration is certainly superior to either Dr. Warburton's (Thee? no ;) or one formerly proposed by Dr. Johnson (the nonce) not but the old reading is as good, if not better, when properly regulated; e. g. Ah mocker! that's the dog's name. R is for the-no; I know it begins with some other letter. RITSON. This passage is not in the original copy of 1597. The quarto 1590 and folio read-Ah, mocker, that's the dog's name. MALONE. To the notes on this passage perhaps the following illustration may not improperly be added from Nash's Summers Last Will and Testament, 1600, of dogs: 66 They arre and barke at night against the moone." Todd. 2 Peter, take my fan, and go before.] Thus the first quarto. The subsequent ancient copies, instead of these words, haveBefore, and apace. MALONE. This custom of having a fan-carrier is also mentioned by Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, p. 603: doe you heare, good man; "Now give me pearle, and carry you my fan." STEEVENS. |
