Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes.
This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs?,
That preffes them, and learns them first to bear,
Making them women of good carriage.
This is fhe

Rom. Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace;
Thou talk'ft of nothing.

Mer. True, I talk of dreams;

Which are the children of an idle brain,
Begot of nothing but vain phantafy;
Which is as thin of substance as the air;
And more inconftant than the wind, who wooes
Even now the frozen bofom of the north,
And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence 1,
Turning his face to the dew-dropping fouth.

Ben. This wind, you talk of, blows us from our felves;

Supper is done, and we fhall come too late.
Rom. I fear, too early: for my mind mifgives,
Some confequence, yet hanging in the stars,
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date

With this night's revels; and expire the term
Of a defpifed life, clos'd in my breaft,
By fome vile forfeit of untimely death:

But He, that hath the fteerage of my course,

when maids, &c.] So, in Dravton's Nymphidia:

And Mab, his merry Queen, by Night

HtftriJes young Folks that lie upright
(L. elder Times the Mare that high)

Whicb plagues them out of measure.

So, in Gen-afe of Tilbury, Dec. I. C. 17. Vidimus quosdam dæmones tanto zelo muliercs amare, quod ad inaudita prorumpunt ludibria, et cum ad concubitum earum accedunt, mird mole cas opprimunt, nec ab aliis videntur.

—of g°od carriage.] So, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act i. Sc. 2. let them be men ot good repute and carriage. Moth. Sampson, master; he was a man of good carriage; great carriage; tor he carried the (own-gates, &c." STEEVENS. frem thencc.] The quarto 1597, reads:

"in haste." Steevens.

• Direct my sail!-On, lusty gentlemen.

Ben, Strike, drum 3.

SCENE

[Exeunt.

V.

A Hall in Capulet's House.

Enter Servants.

1 Serv. 4 Where's Porpan, that he helps not to take away? he shift a trencher 5! he scrape a trencher! 2 Serv. When good manners shall lie all in one or two mens* hands, and they unwashed too, 'tis a foul thing.

i Serv. Away with the joint-stools, remove the 6 court-cupboard, look to the plate:—good thou, save

* DinB my sail!] I have restored this reading from the elder quarto, as being more congruous to the metaphor in the preceeding line. Suit is the reading of the folio. STEEVENS.

Direct my suit n Guide the sequel of the adventure. Johnson. 3 Strike drum.] Here the folio adds: They march about the stage, and serving men come forth vxth their napkins. STEEVENS.

This scene is added since the first copy. STEEVENS.

be fhift a trencher, &c.] Trenchers were still used by perfons of good fashion in our author's time. In the houshold book of thl earls of Northumberland, compiled at the beginning of the fume century, it appears that they were common to the tables of the first nobility. Percy.

They continued common much longer in many public societies, particularly in colleges and inns of court; and are still retained at Lincoln's-Inn. Nichols.

—enurt-cupboard,] I am not very certain that I know the exact signification ot court-cupboard. Perhaps it is what we call at present the side-board. It is however frequently mentioned in the old plays: ib, in a Humorous Day's Mirth, 1599: fhadow these tables with their white veils, and accompiilh the court cupboard." Again, in Mcnfieur D'Olivc, 1606, by Chapman :

"Here shall stand my court-cupboard with its furniture of plate." Again, in the Roaring Girl, 1611:

"Place that in the court cupboard."

Again, in Decker's Honejl Whore, 1635:

they are together on the cupboard of the court, or the court

cupboard?'
Again, in Chapman's May-Day, 1611:

Court-cupboards planted with Flaggons, Cans, Cups, Beakers, ic "

Two

• fave me a piece of march-pane; and, as thou lov'st me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone, and Nell. —Antony! and Potpan!

2 Serv. Ay, boy; ready.

1 Serv. You are looked for, and called for, asked for, and sought for, in the great chamber.

2 Serv. We cannot be here and there too.—Cheerly, boys; be brisk a while, and the longer liver take all.

Exeunt.

Enter Capulet, &c. with the Guests and the Maskers. I Cap. Welcome, gentlemen! ladies, that have their feet

Unplagu'd with corns, will have a bout with you:— Ah ha, my mitresses! which of you all;

Two of these court-cupboards are still in Stationers' Hall.

Steevens.

The use which to this day is made of those cupboards is exactly described in the above-quoted line of Chapman; to display at public festivals the flaggous, cans, cups, beakers, and other antique silver vessels of the company, feme ot which (with the names of the donors inscribed on them) are remarkably large. Nichol6.

7 Save me a piece ef march-pane ;] Maich-pane was a confection made of pistacho-nurs, almonds, and sugar, &c. and in high esteem in Shakespeare's time; as appears from the account of Queen Elizabeth's entertainment in Cambridge. It is said that the university presented Sir William Cecil their chancellor with two pair of gloves, a marcb-pane, and two sugar-loaves.

·Peck's Desiderata Curio/a, vol. ii. p. ag. Gray. March-pane was a kind of sweet bread or biscuit; called by some almond-cake. HermcLius barbarus terms it maxepanis, vulgarly martins pants. G. macepain and mafjcpain. It. maropane. H, macafan. B. marcepeyn, i, e, majsa pura. But, as tew understood the meaning of this term, it began to be generally though corruptly called mafjppeyn, marcepevn, martsrpeyn; and in consequence ot this mistake ot theirs it soon took the name of martins panis, an ap pellation transferred afterwards into other languages. See Junius. HAWKINS.

66

March-pane was a constant article in the deserts ot our an cestors. So, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1519: feeing that the iifue of the table, fruits and chese or wafers hypocras and marcbpanes or comfyturcs, be brought in."

See Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. p. I33. Steevens,

Will

Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty, the,
I'll swear, hath corns; Am I come near you now?
You are welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day,
That I have worn a visor; and could tell
A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear,

Such as would please;—'tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone; ?xq are welcome, gentlemen.—Come,muficians, play. 9 A hall! a hall! give room, and foot it, girls.

[Mustek plays, and they dance. "More light, ye knaves; and turn the tables up, And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot.— Ah, sirrah, this unlook'd-for sport comes well. Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet;

For

You're welcome, gentlemen.} These two lines, omitted by the modern editors, I have replaced from the folio. JOHNSON.

* A ball! a bail!} Such is the old reading, and the true one, though the modern editors read, A ball! a ball! The former exclamation occurs frequently in the old comedies, and signifies, make room. So, in the comedy of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600:

"Room! room! a ball! a hall!"

Again, in Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub:

Again, in an Epithalamium by Christopher Brooke, published at the end of England's Helicon, 1614:

"Cry not, a ball, a ball; but chamber-roome;
"Dancing is lame, &c."

Again, in the Widow's Tears, a comedy, by Chapman, 161J:

"A ball! a hall! who's without there?"—

"A ball! a ball! let no more citizens in there."

Again, va Herod and Antipater, 1622:

"A ball, a ball! let all the deadly fins

"Come in, and here accuse me !—'.

8

Again, in Decker's Satiromastix:

"His grace comes.—A hall, varlets!—Where be my men P.

Again, in the Two Maids of More-clacke, 1609:

66

Hall, a ball there, musick found."

Again, in Woman will have her will, 1631:

"She comes, (he comes; A ball, a ball !"

Steevens.

Mr. Steevens reads very rightly: "A ball! a ball! So, in Mnrston's Satires :—“ A ball, a ball! Room for the spheres! &c." And Davies, in one of his Epigrams: "A ball! my masters, give Rotundas room." FARMER.

I

-good cousin Capulet,] This coufin Capulet is unkle in the paper of invitation; but as papulet is described as old, confin

6

is

2

For you and I are past our dancing days:
How long is't now, fince laft yourself and I
Were in a mask?

2 Cap. By'r lady, thirty years.

I Cap. What, man! 'tis not fo much, 'tis not fo much :.

'Tis fince the nuptial of Lucentio,

Come pentecoft as quickly as it will,

Some five and twenty years; and then we mafk'd. 2 Cap. 'Tis more, 'tis more: his fon is elder, fir; His fon is thirty.

1 Cap. 3 Will you tell me that?

His fon was but a ward two years ago.

Rom. What lady's that, which doth enrich the hand Of yonder knight?

Serv. I know not, fir.

Rom. O, fhe doth teach the torches to burn bright! Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night 4 Like a rich jewel in an Athiop's ear:

is probably the right word in both places. I know not how Capulet and his lady might agree, their ages were very disproportionate; he has been past masking for thirty years, and her age, a* The tells Juliet, is but eight-and-twenty. JOHNSON.

2

our dancing days:] Thus the folio: the quarto reads, "our standing days." Steevens.

3 will you tell me, &c.] This speech stands thus in the first copy:

Will you tell me that it cannot be so?

His son was but a ward three years ago;

Good youths i'faith!—Oh, youth's a jolly thing! There are many trifling variations in almost every speech of this play; but when they are of little consequence I have forebofn to encumber the page by the insertion of them. The last, however, of theie three lines is natural, and worth preserving. STEEVENS. cheek of night.] Shakespeare has the fame thought in hit 27th sonnet:

"Which, like a jewel hung in gastly night, "Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new." The quartos, 1597. 1599. 1609, 1637, and the folio 1623, read: It seems he hangs upon the cheek of night.

It is to the tolio 1632, that we are indebted for the present read. ing; but I know not that it is the true one. Steevens.

Beauty