Thou wilt fall backward, when thou com'st to age; Jul. And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I. La. Cap. Marry, that marry is the very theme I came to talk of :-Tell me, daughter Juliet, How stands your disposition to be married? Jul. It is an honour that I dream not of. Nurse. An honour! were not I thine only nurse, I'd say, thou hadst suck'd wisdom from thy teat. La. Cap. Well, think of marriage now; younger than Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, Are made already mothers: by my count, [you, Nurse. A man, young lady! lady, such a man, This night you shall behold him at our feast: And see how one another lends content; The fish lives in the sea; and 'tis much pride, 5- a man of wax.] i. e. Well made, as if he had been modelled in wax. -S. W. h the margin of his eyes.] The comments on ancient books were always printed in the margin.-STEEVENS. The fish lives in the sea; &c.] i. e. Is not yet caught. Fish-skin covers to books anciently were not uncommon.-STEEVENS. That book in many's eyes doth share the glory, Nurse. No less? nay, bigger; women grow by men. But no more deep will I endart mine eye, Enter a Servant. Serv. Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you called, my young lady asked for, the nurse cursed in the pantry, and every thing in extremity. I must hence to wait; I beseech you, follow straight. La. Cap. We follow thee.-Juliet, the country stays. SCENE IV. A Street. [Exeunt. Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with five or six Maskers, Torch-bearers, and others. Rom. What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse? Or shall we on without apology? Ben. The date is out of such prolixity :" We'll have no Cupid hood-wink'd with a scarf, Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke k -golden story;] i. e. Any valuable writing.-M. MASON. Mercutio,] Shakspeare appears to have formed this character on the following slight hint in the original story:-" Another gentleman, called Mercutio, which was a courtlike gentleman, very wel beloved of all men, and by reason of his pleasant and curteous behaviour, was in al companies wel entertained." Painter's Palace of Pleasure, tom. ii. p. 221. STEEVENS. The date is out of such prolixity:] Introductory speeches are out of date or fashion. a Tartar's bow-] Resembles in its form the old Roman or Cupid's bow, such as we see on medals and bas reliefs. Shakspeare uses the epithet to distinguish it from the English bow, whose shape is the segment of a circle.DOUCE. After the prompter, for our entrance : Rom. Give me a torch, I am not for this ambling; Being but heavy, I will bear the light. Mer. Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. Rom. 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. Rom. 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. Rom. Is love a tender thing? it is too rough, What curious eye doth quote deformities? Ben. Come, knock, and enter; and no sooner in, Rom. A torch for me: let wantons, light of heart, The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done. Mer. Tut! dun's the mouse, the constable's own word: • We'll measure them a measure,] i. e. We'll dance a dance. P Give me a torch,] A torch-bearer seems to have been a constant appendage on every troop of masks, and was not reckoned a degrading office. STEEVENS. १ quote] i. e. Observe. Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels;] It has been already observed, that it was anciently the custom to strew rooms with rushes, before carpets were in use, STEEVENS. • I'll be a candle-holder, and look on, The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done.] An allusion to an old proverbial saying, which advises to give over when the game is at the fairest.-RITSON, If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the miret Rom. Nay, that's not so. Mer. I mean, sir, in delay We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day. Rom. And we mean well, in going to this mask; But 'tis no wit to go. Why, may one ask? Rom. I dreamt a dream to-night. Rom. Well, what was yours? And so did I. That dreamers often lie. Rom. 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 - dun's the mouse, &c.] A proverbial saying of rather vague signification, alluding to the colour of the mouse, but frequently employed with no other intent than that of quibbling on the word done. Why it is attributed to a constable, I know not.-NARES. game, at which Mr. Gifford remembers playing, and which he thus describes. "Dun out of the mire," was the name of a "A log of wood is brought into the midst of the room: this is dun, (the carthorse,) and a cry is raised that he is stuck in the mire: two of the company advance, either with or without ropes, to draw him out. After repeated attempts, they find themselves unable to do it, and call for more assistance. The game continues till all the company take part in it, when dun is extricated of course; and the merriment arises from the awkward and affected efforts of the rustics to lift the log, and sundry arch contrivances to let the ends of it fall on one another's toes." Ben Jonson, vol. viii. p. 283. u - save reverence-] An allusion to the good old custom of apologizing for the introduction of a free expression, by bowing to the principal person in company, and saying, Sir, with reverence, or, Sir, reverence. -GIFFORD. Ben Jonson, vol. vi. p. 149. * five wits. wits.] i. e. Five senses. the fairies' midwife;] was her peculiar employment to steal the new-born babe in the night, and to i. e. The midwife among the fairies, because it leave another in its place. The poet here uses her general appellation, and character, which yet has so far a proper reference to the present train of fiction, as that her illusions were practised on persons in bed or asleep; for she not only haunted women in child-bed, but was likewise the incubus or nightmare. Shakspeare, by employing her here, alludes at large to her midnight pranks performed one, of her personating the drowsy midwife, who was insensibly carried away erformed on sleepers : but denominates her from the most notorious into some distant water, and substituting a new birth in the bed or cradle. It would clear the appellation to read the fairy midwife. The poet avails himself of Mab's appropriate province, by giving her this nocturnal agency. T. WARTON. On the fore-finger of an alderman, Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep : 2 a b of little atomies] An obsolete substitute for atoms. Spanish blades,] A sword is called a toledo, from the excellence of the Toletan steel. - STEEVENS. • And cakes the elf-locks-] Elf-locks are locks of hair clotted together. It was supposed to be a spiteful amusement of queen Mab, and her subjects, to twist |