We'll have no Cupid hoodwink'd with a scarf, But, let them measure us by what they will, 3 Ro. Give me a torch; 3 I am not for this ambling: Being but heavy, I will bear the light. Mer. Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. Ro. Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes, With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead, So stakes me to the ground, I cannot move. Mer. You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings, And soar with them above a common bound. Ro. I am too sore enpierced with his shaft, To soar with his light feathers; and so bound, I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe: Under love's heavy burden do I sink. Mer. And, to sink in it, should you burden love; Too great oppression for a tender thing. Ro. Is love a tender thing? it is too rough, Too rude, too boisterous; and it pricks like thorn. Mer. If love be rough with you, be rough with love; 1 A scarecrow. 2 A dance. 3 A torch-bearer was formerly an appendage to every troop of maskers. Prick love for pricking, and you' beat love down.— Give me a case to put my visage in : A visor for a visor! What care I, [putting on a mask. What curious eye doth quote1 deformities? But every man betake him to his legs. ότι sooner in, Ro. A torch for me: let wantons, light of heart, Tickle the senseless rushes 2 with their heels; For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase,I'll be a candle-holder, and look on ;— The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done. Mer. Tut! dun 's the mouse, the constable's own word: If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire Ro. Nay, that's not so. Mer. Ro. And we mean well, in going to this mask ; But 'tis no wit to go. Mer. Why, may one ask? Ro. I dreamt a dream to-night. 1 Observe. 2 Before the use of carpets it was customary to strew rooms with rushes. And so did I. Mer. Ro. Well, what was yours? Mer. That dreamers often lie. Ro. In bed, asleep, while they do dream things true. Mer. O, then, I see, queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies' midwife; and she comes In shape no bigger than an agate-stone Drawn with a team of little atomies 1 love; On courtiers' knees, that dream on courtesies straight; 1 For atoms. O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees; Sometime she driveth o'er a soldier's neck, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy ; 1 Court solicitation. Which is as thin of substance as the air; And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence, Ben. This wind, you talk of, blows us from ourselves: Supper is done, and we shall come too late. Ro. I fear, too early; for my mind misgives, With this night's revels; and expire the term [Exeunt. SCENE V. A hall in Capulet's house. Musicians waiting. Enter SERVANTS. 1 Ser. Where's Potpan, that he helps not to take away? he shift a trencher! he scrape a trencher! 2 Ser. When good manners shall lie all in one or two men's hands, and they unwashed too, 'tis a foul thing. 1 Ser. Away with the joint-stools; remove the SHAK. XIII. N |