Page images
PDF
EPUB

Enter Nurse and PETER.

MER. A sail, a sail, a sail!

BEN. Two, two; a shirt, and a smock.

[blocks in formation]

MER. Pr'ythee, do, good Peter, to hide her face; for her fan's the fairer of the two.

NURSE. God ye good morrow, gentlemen.
MER. God ye good den, fair gentlewoman.
NURSE. Is it good den?

MER. 'Tis no less, I tell you; for the bawdy hand of the dial' is now upon the prick of noon.2

7 Mer. A sail, a sail, Thus the quarto, 1597. In the subsequent ancient copies these words are erroneously given to Romeo. MALONE.

• My fan, Peter.] The business of Peter carrying the Nurse's fan, seems ridiculous according to modern manners; but I find such was formerly the practice. In an old pamphlet called The Serving Man's Comfort, 1598, we are informed, "The mistress must have one to carry her cloake and hood, another her fanne." FARMER.

Again, in Love's Labour's Lost:

"To see him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan." Again, in Every Man out of his Humour: "If any lady, &c. wants an upright gentleman in the nature of a gentleman-usher, &c. who can hide his face with her fan," &c. STEEVENS.

9 God ye good den,] i. e. God give you a good even. The first of these contractions is common among the ancient comick writers. So, in R. Brome's Northern Lass, 1633:

1

" God you good even, sir." STEEVENS.

hand of the dial &c.] In The Puritan Widow, 1607, which has been attributed to our author, is a similar expression: " - the feskewe of the diall is upon the chrisse-crosse of noon." STEEVENS.

[ocr errors][merged small]

the prick of noon.] I marvel much that mine associates

NURSE. Out upon you! what a man are you? Rom. One, gentlewoman, that God hath made himself to mar.

NURSE. By my troth, it is well said; -For himself to mar, quoth'a? -Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I may find the young Romeo?

RoM. I can tell you; but young Romeo will be older when you have found him, than he was when you sought him: I am the youngest of that name, for 'fault of a worse.

NURSE. You say well.

MER. Yea, is the worst well? very well took, i'faith; wisely, wisely.

NURSE. If you be he, sir, I desire some confidence with you.

BEN. She will indite him to some supper.
MER. A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! So ho!

Rom. What hast thou found?

MER. No hare, sir; unless a hare, sir, in a len

in the task of expounding the darker phrases of Shakspeare, should have overlooked this, which also hath already occurred in King Henry VI. P. III. Act I. sc. iv:

" And made an evening at the noon-tide prick." Prick meaneth point, i. e. punctum, a note of distinction in writing, a stop. So, in Timothy Bright's Characterie, or an Arte of Shorte, &c. writing by Characters, 12mo. 1588: "If the worde, by reason of tence ende in ed, as, I loved, then make a prick in the character of the word, on the left side." - Again: "The present tence wanteth a pricke, and so is knowen from other tences." Again: "A worde of doing, that endeth in ing, as eating, drinking, &c. requireth two prickes under the bodie of the character," &c. AMNER.

* No hare, sir; Mercutio having roared out, So ho! the cry of the sportsmen when they start a hare, Romeo asks what he has found. And Mercutio answers, No hare, &c. The rest

ten pie, that is something stale and hoar ere it be spent.

An old hare hoar,
And an old hare hoar,

Is very good meat in lent :
But a hare that is hoar,

Is too much for a score,
When it hoars ere it be spent.-

Romeo, will you come to your father's? we'll to dinner thither.

ROM. I will follow you.
MER. Farewell, ancient lady; farewell, lady, lady,

lady.5

[Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO. NURSE. Marry, farewell! -I pray you, sir, what

is a series of quibbles unworthy of explanation, which he who does not understand, needs not lament his ignorance. JOHNSON.

So ho! is the term made use of in the field when the hare is found in her seat, and not when she is started. A. C.

* An old hare hoar,] Hoar or hoary, is often used for mouldy, as things grow white from moulding. So, in Pierce Pennyless's Supplication to the Devil, 1595: " -as hoary as Dutch butter." Again, in F. Beaumont's Letter to Speght on his edition of Chaucer, 1602: "Many of Chaucer's words are become as it were vinew'd and hoarie with over long lying." Again, in Every Man out of his Humour: _ mice and rats

66

" Eat up his grain; or else that it might rot

"Within the hoary ricks e'en as it stands." STEEVENS.

These lines appear to have been part of an old song. In the quarto, 1597, we have here this stage-direction; "He walks between them. [i. e. the Nurse and Peter,] and sings."

5

MALONE.

-lady, lady, lady.] The burthen of an old song. See Vol. V. p. 297, n. 8. STEEVENS..

• Marry, farewell!] These words I have recovered from the quarto, 1597. MALONE.

saucy merchant was this," that was so full of his ropery?

ROM. A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself talk; and will speak more in a minute, than he will stand to in a month.

NURSE. An 'a speak any thing against me, I'll take him down an 'a were lustier than he is, and twenty such Jacks; and if I cannot, I'll find those that shall. Scurvy knave! I am none of his flirtgills; I am none of his skains-mates: -And thou

7

what saucy merchant was this, &c.] The term merchant, which was, and even now is, frequently applied to the lowest sort of dealers, seems anciently to have been used on these familiar occasions in contradistinction to gentleman; signifying that the person showed by his behaviour he was a low fellow. So, in Churchyard's Chance, 1580:

"What sausie marchaunt speaketh now, saied Venus in her rage."

The term chap, i. e. chapman, a word of the same import with merchant in its less respectable sense, is still in common use among the vulgar, as a general denomination for any person of whom they mean to speak with freedom or disrespect.

8

See Vol. XIII. p. 63, n. 1. MALONE.

of his ropery? sense as roguery is now. 1584:

STEEVENS.

Ropery was anciently used in the same
So, in The Three Ladies of London,

"Thou art very pleasant and full of thy roperye." Rope-tricks are mentioned in another place. STEEVENS.

9

See Vol. IX. p. 60, n. 3. MALONE.

-none of his skains-mates.) None of his skains-mates means, I apprehend, none of his cut-throat companions.

MALONE.

A skein or skain was either a knife or a short dagger. By skains-mates the Nurse means none of his loose companions who frequent the fencing-school with him, where we may suppose the exercise of this weapon was taught.

The word is used in the old tragedy of Soliman and Perseda, 1599:

must stand by too, and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure?

PET. I saw no man use you at his pleasure; if I had, my weapon should quickly have been out, I warrant you: I dare draw as soon as another man, if I see occasion in a good quarrel, and the law on my side.

NURSE. Now, afore God, I am so vexed, that 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

" Against the light-foot Irish have I serv'd,
" And in my skin bare tokens of their skeins."

Again, in the comedy called Lingua, &c. 1607. At the opening of the piece Lingua is represented as apparelled in a particular manner, and among other things having "a little skene tied in a purple scarf."

Green, in his Quip for an Upstart Courtier, describes, " an ill-favoured knave, who wore by his side a skeine like a brewer's bung-knife."

Skein is the Irish word for a knife.

Again, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608:

[ocr errors]

with this frantick and untamed passion, "To whet their skeins."

Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. V. ch. xxvi :

" And hidden skeines from underneath their forged gar

ments drew."

Again, in Chapman's translation of Homer's Hymn to Apollo:

"Let every man purvey

"A skeane, or slaughtering steel" &c.

Mr. M. Mason, however, supposes the Nurse uses skains-mates

for kins-mates, and ropery for roguery. STEEVENS.

1

if ye 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 :

« PreviousContinue »