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Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?

Tyb. What would'st thou have with me?

Mer. Good king of cats, nothing, but one of your nine lives; that I mean to make bold withal, and, as you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears?5 make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it

be out.

Tyb. I am for you.

Rom. Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.
Mer. Come, sir, your passado.

Rom. Draw, Benvolio;

[Drawing.

[They fight.

Beat down their weapons:-Gentlemen, for shame
Forbear this outrage;-Tybalt-Mercutio-

The prince expressly hath forbid this bandying
In Verona streets :-hold, Tybalt;-good Mercutio.
[Exeunt TYB. and his Partizans.

Mer. I am hurt;

A plague o' both the houses!--I am sped:-
Is he gone, and hath nothing?

Ben.

What, art thou hurt?

Mer. Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, 'tis

enough.

Where is my page?-go, villain, fetch a surgeon.

[Exit Page.. Rom. Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much. Mer. No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve: ask for me

4 Good king of cats,] Alluding to his name. See p. 271, n. 5.

Malone.

5 Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears?] We should read pilche, which signifies a cloke or coat of skins, meaning the scabbard Warburton.

The old quarto reads scabbard. Dr. Warburton's explanation is, I believe, just. Nash, in Pierce Pennyless his Supplication, 1595, speaks of a carman in a leather pilche. Again, in Decker's Satiromastix, 1602:

"I'll beat five pounds out of his leather pilch."

Again, "Thou hast forgot how thou ambled'st in a leather pilch, by a play-waggon in the highway, and took'st mad Jeronimo's part, to get service among the mimicks."

It appears from this passage, that Ben Jonson acted the part of Hieronimo in the Spanish tragedy, the speech being addressed to Horace, under which character old Ben is ridiculed. Steevens.

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to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world:-A plague o' both your houses!-'Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetick!-Why, the devil, came you between us? I was hurt under your arm. Rom. I thought all for the best.

Mer. Help me into some house, Benvolio,

Or I shall faint.-A plague o' both your houses!
They have made worm's meat of me:

I have it, and soundly too:-Your houses!

[Exeunt MER. and BEN. Rom. This gentleman, the prince's near ally, My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt In my behalf; my reputation stain'd With Tybalt's slander, Tybalt, that an hour Hath been my kinsman:-O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate, And in my temper soften'd valour's steel.

Re-enter BENVOLIO.

Ben. O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead; That gallant spirit hath aspir'd the clouds,7

6 a grave man.] After this, the quarto, 1597, continues Mercutio's speech as follows:

-"A pox o' both your houses! I shall be fairly mounted upon four men's shoulders for your house of the Montagues and the Capulets: and then some peasantly rogue, some sexton, some base slave, shall write my epitaph, that Tybalt came and broke the prince's laws, and Mercutio was slain for the first and second cause. Where's the surgeon?

66 Boy. He 's come, sir.

"Mer. Now he 'll keep a mumbling in my guts on the other side.-Come, Benvolio, lend me thy hand: A pox o' both your houses!" Steevens.

"You shall find me a grave man." This jest was better in old language, than it is at present. Lydgate says, in his elegy upon Chaucer:

66

Farmer.

"My master Chaucer now is grave." We meet with the same quibble in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1608, where Vindici dresses up a lady's scull, and observes: she has a somewhat grave look with her." Steevens. Again, in Sir Thomas Overbury's Description of a Sexton, CHARACTERS, 1616: "At every church-style commonly there's an ale-house; where let him bee found never so idle-pated, hee is still a grave drunkard." Malone.

Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.

Rom. This day's black fate on more days doth depend ; & This but begins the woe, others must end.

Re-enter TYBALT.

Ben. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.
Rom. Alive! in triumph!9 and Mercutio slain !
Away to heaven, respective lenity,1

And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now !2.
Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again,
That late thou gav'st me; for Mercutio's soul
Is but a little way above our heads,

Staying for thine to keep him company;
Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.

Tyb. Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here, Shalt with him hence.

7

1608:

hath aspir'd the clouds,] So, in Greene's Card of Fancy,

"Her haughty mind is too lofty for me to aspire." Again, in Chapman's version of the tenth Iliad: and presently aspir'd

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"The guardless Thracian regiment." Again, in the ninth Iliad:

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and aspir'd the gods' eternal feats."

We never use this verb at present without some particle, as, to and after. Steevens.

8 This day's black fate on more days doth depend;] This day's unhappy destiny hangs over the days yet to come. There will yet be more mischief. Johnson.

Alive! in triumph! &c.] Thus the quarto, 1597: for which the quarto, 1599, has

He gan in triumph

This, in the subsequent ancient copies, was made-He gone,

&c. Malone.

1

respective lenity,] Cool, considerate gentleness. Respect formerly signified consideration; prudential caution. So, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"Respect and reason well beseem the sage." Malone. 2 And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now!] Conduct for conductor. So, in a former scene of this play, quarto, 1597:

"Which to the high top-gallant of my joy

"Must be my conduct in the secret night."

Thus the first quarto. In that of 1599, end being corruptly printed instead of ey'd, the editor of the folio, according to the usual process of corruption, exhibited the line thus:

And fire and fury be my conduct now.

Malone.

Rom.

This shall determine that.

[They fight; TYв. falls.

Ben. Romeo, away, be gone!

The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain :—

Stand not amaz'd:3-the prince will doom thee death, If thou art taken:-hence!-be gone!-away!

Rom. O! I am fortune's fool!4

Ben.

Why dost thou stay? [Exit ROM.

Enter Citizens, &c.

1 Cit. Which way ran he, that kill'd Mercutio? Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?

Ben. There lies that Tybalt.

1 Cit.

Up, sir, go with me;

I charge thee in the prince's name, obey.

Enter Prince, attended; MONTAGUE, CAPULET,
their Wives, and Others.

Prin. Where are the vile beginners of this fray?
Ben. O noble prince, I can discover all
The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl:
There lies the man, slain by young Romeo,

That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.

La. Cap. 1 ybalt, my cousin!--O my brother's child! Unhappy sight! ah me, the blood is spill'd

Of my dear kinsman!—Prince, as thou art true,
For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague.-

3 Stand not amaz'd:] i. e. confounded, in a state of confusion. So, in Cymbeline: "I am amaz'd with matter." Steevens.

40! I am fortune's fool!] I am always running in the way of evil fortune, like the Fool in the play. Thou art death's fool, in Measure for Measure. See Dr. Warburton's note. Johnson. See Pericles Prince of Tyre, Act III, sc. ii, Vol XVII. In the first copy-O! I am fortune's slave. Steevens.

5 Unhappy sight! ah me, the blood is spill'd-] The pronoun— me, has been inserted by the recommendation of the following

note.

Steevens.

The quarto, 1597, reads:

Unhappy sight! ah, the blood is spill'd ·

The quarto, 1599, and the subsequent ancient copies, have: O prince! O cousin! husband! O, the blood is spill'd, &c. The modern editors have followed neither copy. The word me was probably inadvertently omitted in the first quarto.

Unhappy sight! ah me, the blood is spill'd, &c. Malone.

O cousin, cousin!

Prin. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?

Ben. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay ; Romeo that spoke him fair, bade him bethink How nice the quarrel was, and urg❜d withal Your high displeasure:-All this-uttered With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd,Could not take truce with the unruly spleen Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast; Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point, And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats Cold death aside, and with the other sends

It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity

Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud,

Hold, friends! friends, part! and, swifter than his tongue,

His agile arm beats down their fatal points,

And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm

An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled:
But by and by comes back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertain'd revenge,
And to 't they go like lightning; for, ere I
Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain;
And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly:

This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

La. Cap. He is a kinsman to the Montague, Affection makes him false, he speaks not true:

9

as thou art true,] As thou art just and upright. Johnson. So, in King Richard III:

"And if King Edward be as true and just, -." Steevens. 7 How nice the quarrel-] How slight, how unimportant, how petty. So, in the last Act:

"The letter was not nice, but full of charge,

"Of dear import." Johnson.

See also, Antony and Cleopatra, Act III, sc. xi, Vol. XIII.

Malone.

8 and urg'd withal-] The rest of this speech was new written by the poet, as well as a part of what follows in the same scene. Steevens.

9 Affection makes him false,] The charge of falsehood on Ben volio, though produced at hazard, is very just.. The author, who

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