Sam. "T is all one, I will show myself a tyrant : when I have fought with the men, I will be civil" with the maids, and cut off their heads. Gre. The heads of the maids? Sam. Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt. Gre. They must take it sense, that feel it. Sam. Me they shall feel, while I am able to stand: and 't is known I am a pretty piece of flesh. Gre. 'Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor John. Draw thy tool; here comes of the house of the Montagues.2 Enter ABRAM and BALTHASAR. Sam. My naked weapon is out; quarrel, I will back thee? Gre. How? turn thy back, and run? Gre. No, marry: I fear thee! Sam. Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin. Gre. I will frown, as I pass by: and let them take it as they list. Sam. Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it.3 Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? Sam. No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir; but I bite my thumb, sir. Gre. Do you quarrel, sir? Sam. If you do, sir, I am for you; I serve as C That quench the fire of your pernicious rage The quarto of 1609, which we mark as (C), drawn. For this time, all the rest depart away: MOR. Who set this ancient quarrel new Speak, nephew, were you by, when it began? La. Mon. O, where is Romeo!-saw you him to-day? Right glad am I, he was not at this fray. Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun 6 Peer'd forth the golden window of the east, Pursued my humour, not pursuing his, And makes himself an artificial night: Ben. My noble uncle, do you know the cause? Could we but learn from whence his sorrows a The first ten beautiful lines of Montague's speech are not in the original quarto; neither is Benvolio's question, "Have you importun'd him?" nor the answer. We find them in (B), the quarto of 1599. b The folio and (C) read same. Theobald gave us sun; and we could scarcely wish to restore the old reading, even if the probability of a typographical error, same for sunne, were not so obvious. Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will: Ah, word ill urged to one that is so ill!- Ben. Iaim'd so near, when I suppos'd you lov'd. Rom. A right good marksman!-And she's fair I love. Ben. A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit. Rom. Well, in that hit, you miss: she'll not be hit With Cupid's arrow, she hath Dian's wit; She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Ben. Then she hath sworn, that she will still live chaste? Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste; For beauty, starv'd with her severity, Ben. Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her. Rom. To call hers, exquisite, in question more: SCENE II.-A Street. Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant. Cap. And Montague is bound as well as I, In penalty alike; and 't is not hard, I think, For men so old as we to keep the peace. suit. Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both; And pity 't is, you liv'd at odds so long, But now, my lord, what say you to my Cap. But saying o'er what I have said before: My child is yet a stranger in the world, She hath not seen the change of fourteen years; Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride. Par. Younger than she are happy mothers made. Cap. And too soon marr'd are those so early made. Earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she, The scene ends here in (A): and the three first lines in the next scene are also wanting. (B) has them. b So (D). The folio omits And. c Lady of my earth. Fille de terre being the French phrase for an heiress, Steevens thinks that Capulet speaks of Juliet in this sense; but Shakspere uses earth for the mortal part, as in the 146th Sonnet: "Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth," and in this play, "Turn back, dull earth." |