Ben. For what, I pray thee?

Rom. For your broken fhin.

Ben. Why, Romeo, art thou mad?

Rom. Not mad, but bound more than a mad-man is; Shut up in prifon, kept without my food,

Whipt, and tormented, and-Good-e'en, good fellow.
Serv. God gi' good e'en.-I pray, fir, can you read?
Rom. Ay, mine own fortune in my mifery.
Serv. Perhaps you have learn'd it without book:
But I pray, can you read any thing you fee?

Rom. Ay, if I know the letters, and the language.
Serv. Ye fay honeftly; Reft you merry!
Rom. Stay, fellow; I can read.

[He reads the lift.]

>

Signior Martino, and his wife, and daughters; County Anfelm, and bis beauteous fifters; The lady widow of Vitruvio; Signior Placentio, and his lovely nieces; Mercutio, and his brother Valentine; Mine uncle Capulet, bis wife, and daughters; My fair niece Rofaline; Livia; Signior Valentio, and his cousin Tybalt; Lucio, and the lively Helena.

A fair affembly; Whither should they come?
Serv. Up.

Rom. Whither? to fupper 2?

Serv. To our house.

Rom. Whofe house?

Serv. My mafter's.

The fame thought occurs in Albumazar, in the following lines: Help, Armellina, help! I'm fall'n i''the cellar:

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"Bring a fresh plantain leaf, I've broke my fhin."

Again, in The Cafe is Alter'd, by Ben Jonfon 1609, a fellow who has had his head broke, fays: ""Tis nothing, a fillip, a device : fellow Juniper, prithee get me a plantain.”

The plantain leaf is a blood-ftauncher, and was formerly applied to green wounds, STEEVENS.

to fupper?] Surely thefe words, to fupper, must belong to the fervant's answer in the next speech:

To fupper, to our house. STEEVENS.

Rom. Indeed, I should have ask'd you that before. Serv. Now I'll tell you without asking: My Mafter is the great rich Capulet; and if you be not of the houfe of Montagues, I pray, come and crufh a cup of wine 3. Reft you merry.

Ben. At this fame ancient feast of Capulet's
Sups the fair Rofaline, whom thou so lov'st;
With all the admired beauties of Verona :
Go thither; and, with unattainted eye,
Compare her face with fome that I fhall fhow,
And I will make thee think thy fwan a crow.

Rom. When the devout religion of mine eye Maintains fuch falfhood, then turn tears to fires! And these,-who, often drown'd, could never die,— Transparent hereticks, be burnt for liars!

One fairer than my love! the all-seeing fun
Ne'er faw her match, fince first the world begun.
Ben. Tut! tut! you faw her fair, none elfe being by,
Herself pois'd with herself in either eye:

But in those crystal scales, 4 let there be weigh'd
Your lady's love against some other maid
That I will fhew you, fhining at this feaft,

And she shall scant fhew well, that now fhews best,

3

crush a cup of wine.] This cant expreffion feems to have been once common among low people. I have met with it often in the old plays. So in the Tavo Angry Women of Abington, 1599: "Fill the pot, hoftefs, &c. and we'll crush it." Again, in Hoffman's Tragedy, 1631:

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we'll crush a cup of thine own country wine."
Again, in the Pinder of Wakefield, 1599, the Cobler fays:
"Come, George, we'll crush a pot before we part."
to crack a bottle. STEEVENS.

We still fay in cant language

let there be weigh'd

Your lady's love against some other maid] But the comparison was not betwixt the love that Romeo's miftrefs paid him, and the perfon of any other young woman; but betwixt Romeo's mistress herself, and fome other that fhould be matched against her. The poet therefore must certainly have wrote:

Your lady-love against fome other maid. WARBURTON. Your lady's love is the love you bear to your lady, which in our language is commonly used for the lady herself. REVISAL.

Rom.

Rom. I'll go along, no fuch fight to be shewn, But to rejoice in fplendor of mine own, [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

A room in Capulet's house.

Enter lady Capulet, and Nurfe.

La. Cap. Nurfe, where's my daughter? call her forth to me.

Nurfe. Now, by my maiden-head,- at twelve year old,

I bade her come.-What, lamb! what, lady-bird!God forbid !-where's this girl ?—what, Juliet!

Jul. Madam, I am here; what is your will? La. Cap. This is the matter:-Nurfe, give leave awhile,

We must talk in fecret.-Nurfe, come back again; I have remember'd me, thou shalt hear our counsel. Thou know'ft, my daughter's of a pretty age. Nurse. 'Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour. La. Cap. She's not fourteen.

Nurfe. I'll lay fourteen of my teeth,

And yet, 5 to my teen be it spoken, I have but four,She's not fourteen: How long is't now to Lammastide?

La. Cap. A fortnight, and odd days.

Nurfe. Even or odd, of all days in the year,

5-to my teen-] To my forrow. JOHNSON.

So, in Tancred and Guismund, 1592:

"And on his cinders wreak my cruel teen."

Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. 1. C. 9.

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for dread and doleful teen.'

This old word is introduced by Shakespeare for the sake of the jingle between teen, and four, and fourteen. STEEVENS.

Com

Come Lammas-eve at night, fhall fhe be fourteen,
Sufan and the,-God reft all Chriftian fouls!-
Were of an age.-Well, Sufan is with God
२
She was too good for me: But, as I faid,
On Lammas-eve at night shall the be fourteen,
That fhall fhe, marry; I remember it well.
Tis fince the earthquake now eleven years;
And the was wean'd,-I never fhall forget it,-
Of all the days of the year, upon that day
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
Sttting i' the fun under the dove-house wall,
My lord and you were then at Mantua :-
Nay, I do bear a brain 7; but, as I faid,
When it did tafte the worm-wood on the nipple
Of my dug, and felt it bitter, pretty fool!
To fee it teachy, and fall out with the dug.
Shake, quoth the dove-house; 'twas no need, I trow,
To bid me trudge,

And fince that time it is eleven years:

For then she could ftand alone; nay, by the rood, She

It is fince the earthquake now eleven years;] But how comes the nurfe to talk of an carthquake upon this occafion? There is no fuch circumftance, I believe, mentioned in any of the novels from which Shakespeare may be fuppofed to have drawn his ftory; and therefore it feems probable, that he had in view the earthquake, which had really been felt in many parts of England in his own time, viz. on the 6th of April, 1580, [See Stowe's Chronicle, and Gabriel Harvey's letter in the preface to Spenfer's works, ed. 1679.] If fo, one may be permitted to conjecture, that Romeo and Juliet, or this part of it at leaft, was written in 1591; after the 6th of April, when the eleven years fince the earthquake were completed; and not later than the middle of July, a fortnight and odd days before Lammas-tide. TYRWHITT.

? Well, I do bear a brain.] So, in Ram-alley, or Merry Tricks, 3611:

"Daf, we must bear fome brain." Again, in Marton's Dutch Courtejan, 1604:

nay an I bear not a brain."

Again, in Heywood's Golden Age, 1611;

As I can bear a pack, to I can bear a brain" STEEVENS, •could stand alone. The 410, 1597, reads: "could stand

She could have run and waddled all about.
For even the day before, the broke her brow:
And then my husband-God be with his foul!.
'A was a merry man ;-took up the child;
Yea, quoth he, doft thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward, when thou haft more wit
Wilt thou not, Jule? and, by my holy-dam,
The pretty wretch left crying, and faid-Ay:
To fee now, how a jeft fhall come about!
I warrant, an I fhould live a thousand years,
I never should forget it; Wilt thou not, Jule? quoth he
And pretty fool, 9 it ftinted, and faid-Ay.

La. Cap. Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy

peace.

Nurfe. Yes, madam; Yet I cannot chufe but laugh, To think it should leave crying, and fay-Ay: And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow A bump as big as a young cockrel's ftone; A par❜lous knock; and it cried bitterly. rea, quoth my husband, fall'ft upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou com'ft to age; Wilt thou not, Jule? it ftinted, and faid-Ay.

high lone, i. e. quite alone, completely alone. So in another of our author's plays, high fantaftical means entirely fantastical. STEEVENS. it ftinted. i. e. it ftopped, it forbore from weeping. So Sir Thomas North, in his tranflation of Plutarch, fpeaking of the wound which Antony received, fays: " for the blood finted a little when he was laid." So in Titus Andronicus:

1

"He can at pleasure fint their melody."

Again, in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1607:

a letter

"New bleeding from their pens, fcarce ftinted yet."

Again, in Cynthia's Revenge, by Ben Jonfon:

"Stint thy babbling tongue."

Again, in What you will, by Marston, 1607: "Pifh! for fhame ftint thy idle chat."

Again, in the Misfortunes of King Arthur, an ancient drama, 1587

Fame's but a blast that founds a while,

"And quickly flints, and then is quite forgot.” Spenfer ufes this word frequently in his Faerie Queene. STEEVENS. Nurfe. Yes, madam; yet I cannot chufe, &c.] This speech

and tautology is not in the first edition. POPE

Ful.