With this night's revels; and expire the term SCENE V.9 A Hall in Capulet's House. Musicians waiting. Enter Servants. [Exeunt. 1 Serv. Where's Potpan, that he helps not to take away? he shift a trencher!1 he scrape a trencher! 2 Serv. When good manners shall lie all in one or two men's hands, and they unwashed too, 'tis a foul thing. 1 Serv. Away with the joint-stools, remove the court and expire the term Of a despised life,] So, in The Rape of Lucrece: "An expir'd date, cancell'd ere well begun." Malone. 7 Direct my sail!] I have restored this reading from the elder quarto, as being more congruous to the metaphor in the preceding line. Suit is the reading of the folio. Steevens. Suit is the corrupt reading of the quarto, 1599, from which it got into all the subsequent copies., Malone. Direct my suit!] Guide the sequel of the adventure. Johnson. 8 Strike, drum ] Here the folio adds: They march about the stage, and serving men come forth with their napkins. Steevens. 9 Scene V.] This scene is added since the first copy. Steevens. 11 he shift a trencher! &c.] Trenchers were still used by persons of good fashion in our author's time. In the Houshold Book of the Earls of Northumberland, compiled at the beginning of the same century, it appears that they were common to the tables of the first nobility. Percy. To shift a trencher was technical. So, in The Miseries of Enforst Marriage, 1608, Sig. E 3: "-learne more manners, stand at your brothers backe, as to shift a trencher neately" &c. Reed. They were common even in the time of Charles I. See Vol. II, p. 74, n. 4. Malone. They continued common much longer in many publick societies, particularly in colleges and inns of court; and are still retained at Lincoln's-Inn. Nichols. On the books of the Stationers' Company, in the year 1554, is the following entry: "Item, payd for x dosyn of trenchers, xxi d." Steevens. cupboard, look to the plate:-good thou, save me a piece of marchpane; and, as thou lovest 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 court-cupboard,] I am not very certain that I know the exact signification of court-cupboard. Perhaps it served the purpose of what we call at present the side-board. It is however frequently mentioned in the old plays. So, in A Humorous Day's Mirth, 1599: " shadow these tables with their white veils, and accomplish the court-cupboard" Again, in Monsieur D'Olive, 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 Honest 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," &c. 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 publick festivals the flaggons, cans, cups, beakers, and other antique silver vessels of the company, some of which (with the names of the donors inscribed on them) are remarkably large. Nichols. By "remove the court-cupboard," the speaker means, I think, remove the flaggons, cups, ewers, &c. contained in it. A courtcupboard was not strictly what we now call a side-board, but a recess fitted up with shelves to contain plate, &c. for the use of the table. It was afterwards called a buffet, and continued to be used to the time of Pope: "The rich buffet well colour'd serpents grace, "And gaping Tritons spew to wash your face." The side-board was, I apprehend, introduced in the present century. Malone. A court-cupboard was a moveable; a beaufet, a fixture. The former was open, and made of plain oak; the latter had folding doors, and was both painted and gilded on the inside. Steevens. 3 save me a piece of marchpane;] Marchpane was a confection made of pistacho-nuts, almonds, and sugar, &c. and in high esteem in Shakspeare'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 marchpane, and two sugar-loaves. Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, Vol. II, p. 29. Grey. 2 Serv. We cannot be here and there too.-Cheerly, boys; be brisk a while, and the longer liver take all. [They retire behind. Enter CAPULET, &c. with the Guests, and the Maskers: Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty, she, A whispering tale in a fair lady's ear, Such as would please;-'tis gone, 'tis gone, 'tis gone: You are welcome, gentlemen!5-Come, musicians, play. A hall! a hall! give room, and foot it, girls. [Musick plays, and they dance. More light, ye knaves; and turn the tables up,7 4 their toes] Thus all the ancient copies. The modern editors, following Mr. Pope, read, with more delicacy, their feet. -An editor by such capricious alterations deprives the reader of the means of judging of the manners of different ages; for the word employed in the text undoubtedly did not appear indelicate to the audience of Shakspeare's time, though perhaps it would not be endured at this day. Malone. It was endured, at least, in the time of Milton. Thus, in Comus, 960: 5 You are welcome, gentlemen! These two lines, omitted by the modern editors, I have replaced from the folio. Johnson. 6 A hall! a hall!] 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 hall! a hall!" Again, in Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub: 66 Then cry, a hall! a hall!" Again, in an Epithalamium, by Christopher Brooke, published at the end of England's Helicon, 1614: "Cry not, a hall, a hall; but chamber-roome; "Dancing is lame," &c. and numberless other passages. Steevens. 7 turn the tables up,] Before this phrase is generally intelligible, it should be observed that ancient tables were flat leaves, And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot.-- For 9 you and I are past our dancing days: How long is 't now, since last yourself and I Were in a mask? 2 Cap. By'r lady, thirty years. 1 Cap. What, man! 'tis not so much, 'tis not so much: joined by hinges, and placed on tressels. When they were to be removed, they were therefore turned up. So, in the ancient translation of Marco Paolo's Voyages, 1579: "After dinner is done, and the tables taken uppe, everie man goeth aboute his busi nesse." Again, in The Seventh Mery Fest of the Widdow Edyth, 1573: "And when that taken up was the borde, 8 "And all payde for," &c. Steevens. good cousin Capulet;] This cousin Capulet is uncle in the paper of invitation; but as Capulet is described as old, cousin 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, as she tells Juliet, is but eight-and-twenty. Johnson. Cousin was a common expression from one kinsman to another, out of the degree of parent and child, brother and sister. Thus in Hamlet, the king his uncle and step-father addresses him with: "But now my cousin Hamlet and my son." And in this very play, Act III, lady Capulet says: Tybalt my cousin!-O my brother's child." 66 So, in As you Like it: "Ros. Me uncle? "Duke. You cousin!" And Olivia, in Twelfth Night, constantly calls her uncle Toby cousin. Ritson. Shakspeare and other contemporary writers use the word cousin to denote any collateral relation, of whatever degree, and sometimes even to denote those of lineal descent. Richard III, during a whole scene calls his nephew York, cousin; who in his answer constantly calls him uncle. And the old Duchess of York in the same play calls her grandson, cousin: "Why, my young cousin, it is good to grow. "York. Grandam, one night, as we did sit at supper," &c. And in Fletcher's Women Pleased, Sylvio styles Rhodope, at one time, his aunt-at others, his cousin-to the great annoyance of Mr. Sympson, the editor. M. Mason. See also Vol. XI, p. 64, n. 6. Malone. 9 our dancing days:] Thus the folio: the quarto reads "our standing days." Steevens. 'Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio, Come pentecost as quickly as it will, Some five and twenty years; and then we mask'd. 2 Cap. 'Tis more, 'tis more: his son is elder, sir; His son is thirty. 1 Cap. Will you tell me that?1 His son was but a ward two years ago. Rom. What lady's that, which doth enrich the hand Of yonder knight?" Serv. I know not, sir. Rom. O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night3 Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear:4 Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. 1 Willy 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 foreborne to encumber the page by the insertion of them. The last, however, of these three lines, is natural, and worth preserving. 2 What lady's that, which doth enrich the hand Steevens. Of yonder knight?] Here is another proof that our author had the poem, and not Painter's Novel, in his mind. In the latter we are told-" A certain lord of that troupe took Juliet by the hand to dance." In the poem of Romeus and Juliet, as in the play, her partner is a knight: "With torch in hand a comely knight did fetch her forth to dance." Malone. 3 Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night-] Shakspeare has the same thought in his 27th Sonnet: "Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night, "Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new." The quartos 1597, 1599, 1609, and the folio 1623, coldly read: It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night. It is to the folio 1632, that we are indebted for the present reading, which is certainly the more elegant, if not the true one. The repetition, however, of the word beauty, in the next line but one, in my opinion, confirms the emendation of our second folio. Steevens. 4 Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear:] So, in Lyly's Euphues: "A fair pearl in a Morian's ear." H. White. Z VOL. XII. |