Rom. I pray thee chide not: fhe whom I love now Fri. Oh fhe knew well Thy love did read by rote, and could not spell. For this alliance may so happy prove, Mer. SCENE V. The Street. Enter Benvolio and Mercutio. [Exeunt. HERE the devil should this Romeo be? came he not home to-night? WHE Ben. Not to his father's, I spoke with his man. Mer. Why that fame pale hard-hearted wench, that Rofaline, torments him fo, that he will fure run mad. Ben. Tybalt, the kinfman to old Capulet, hath fent a letter to his father's house. Mer. A challenge on my life. Ben. Romeo will answer it. Mer. Any man that can write, may anfwer a letter. Ben. Nay he will answer the letter's master, ' if he be challeng❜d. Mer. Alas poor Romeo, he is already dead! ftabb'd with a white wench's black eye, run through the ear with a love-song, the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's but (haff; and is he a man to encounter Tybalt? 1 how he dares, being dared. Oh he's the couragious cap Ben. Why, what is Tybalt? Mer. More than prince of cats. tain of compliments; he fights as you fing prick-songs, keeps time, distance, and proportion; rests his minum, one, two, and the third in your bofom; the very butcher of a filk button, a duellist, à duellist; a gentleman of the very first house of the first and second caufe; ah the immortal paffado, the punto reverfo, the hay Ben. The what? m a very Mer. The pox of fuch antick lisping affected phantafies, these new tuners of accents: - Jefu, a very good blade, tall man ----- a very good whore. Why is not this a lamentable thing, grandsire, that we should be thus afflicted with these strange flies, these fashion-mongers, these pardon-me's, who stand so much on the new form that they cannot fit at ease on the old bench. O their bones, their bones! Enter Romeo. Ben. Here comes Romeo. Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring. O flesh, 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 berime her: Dido a dowdy, Cleopatra a gipfiè, Helen and Hero hildings and harlots: Thisby a gray eye or so, but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, bonjour, there's a French falutation to your French stop. Rom. Good-morrow to you both. *Mer. You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night. Rom. What counterfeit did I give you? Mer. The flip Sir, the flip: can you not conceive? Enter Rom. Pardon Mercutio, my business was great, and in such a case as mine, a man may ftrain curtefy. Mer. That's as much as to fay, fuch a cafe as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams. m turners. Rom. Enter Nurfe and her man. Mer. Two, two, a fhirt and a smock. Pet. Anon. Nurse. My fan, Peter. Mer. Do good Peter, to hide her face; for her fan's the fairer of the two. Rom. Meaning to curtfie. Mer. Thou haft most kindly hit it. Rom. A most courteous expofition. Mer. Nay, I am the very pink of courtefie. Mer. Right. Rom. Why then is my pump well flower'd. Mer. Sure wit-follow me this jeft, now, till thou haft worn out thy pump, that when the fingle fole of it is worn, the jest may remain after the wearing, foly-fingular. Rom. O fingle-fol'd jeft. Solely fingular, for the fingleness. Mer. Come between us good Benvolio, my wit faints. Rom. Switch and spurs, Switch and fpurs, or I'll cry a match. Mer. Nay, if our 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, for the goose. Mer. I will bite thee by the ear for that jeft. Rom. Nay, good goose bite not. Mer. Thy wit is a very bitter fweeting, It is a moft fharp fawce. when thou waft not there Rom. And is it not well-ferv'd in to a fweet goofe? Mer. O here's a wit of cheverel, that stretches from an inch narrow, to an ell broad. Rom. I ftretch it out for that word broad, which added to the goofe, proves thee far and wide a broad goofe. Mer. Why is not this better, 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, ftop there. Mer. Thou defireft me to ftop in my tale against the hair. 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 lon ger. VOL. VI. N n Nurfe. 1 Nurfe. God ye good-morrow, gentlemen. Mer. God ye good-den, fair gentlewoman. Nurfe. Is it good-den? Mer. 'Tis no lefs, I tell you; for the bawdy hand of the dyal is now upon the prick of noon. 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 faid: for himself to mar, quotha? Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I may find young Romeo. Rom. I can tell you: but young Romeo will be older when you have found him, than he was when you fought him: I am the youngest of that name, for fault of a worse. Nurse. You fay well. Mer. Yea, is the worst well? Yery well took, i'faith, wifely, wifely. Nurse. If you be he, Sir, I defire fome confidence with you. Ben. She will invite him to fome fupper. Mer. A bawd, a bawd, a bawd. So ho. Romeo, will you come to your father's? we'll to dinner thither, Rom. I will follow you. Mer. Farewel, ancient lady: Farewel lady, lady, lady. [Exeunt Mercutio, Benvolio. Nurfe. I pray you, Sir, what faucy merchant was this that was fo full of his roguery? Rom. A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear himself talk, So ho. Rom. What haft thou found? Mer. No hare, Sir, unless a hare Sir, in a lenten pye; that is fomething ftale 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 fcore, when it hoars ere it be spent. and 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 fuch jacks: and if I cannot, I'll find those that fhall. Scurvy knave, I am none of his flirt-gils; I am none of his skains-mates. And thou must stand by too, and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure. [To her man. Pet. I saw no man ufe you at his pleasure: if I had, my weapon fhould quickly have been out, I warrant you. I dare draw as soon as another man, if I fee occafion in a good quarrel, and the law on my fide. Nurfe. Now afore God, I am fo vext, that every part about me quivers----- Scurvy knave! Pray you, Sir, a word; and as I told you, my young lady bid me enquire you out; what she bid me fay, I will keep to my self: but first let me tell ye, if ye fhould lead her into fool's paradife, as they fay, it were a very grofs kind of behaviour, as they fay, 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. 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, fhe will be a joyful woman. Rom. What wilt thou tell her, nurse thou doft not mark me. Nurse. I will tell her, Sir, that you do proteft; which, as I take it, is a gentleman-like offer. Rom. Bid her devise some means to come to fhrift this afternoon, And there the fhall at friar Lawrence' cell Be fhriv'd and married: here is for thy pains. Nurse. No, truly Sir, not a penny. Rom. Go to, I say you fhall. |