Jump to content

Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/112

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
68
ROMEO AND JULIET
[ACT II.
Ben. [C 1]Tybalt, the kinsman to[C 2] old Capulet,
Hath sent a letter to his father's house.
Mer. A challenge, on my life.
Ben. Romeo will answer it.
Mer. Any man that can write may answer a 10
letter.
Ben. Nay, he will answer[E 1] the letter's master, how he
dares, being dared.[E 2]
Mer. Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead! stabbed[E 3]
with a white wench's[E 4] black eye; shot[C 3] thorough[C 4] 15
the ear with a love-song; the very pin[E 5] of his
heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's butt-shaft[E 6];
and is he a man to encounter Tybalt?
Ben. [C 5]Why, what is Tybalt?
Mer. More than prince[C 6] of cats[E 7], I can tell you. O, 20
  1. ↑ 6, 7.] verse Q 1; prose Q, F.
  2. ↑ 6. to] Q, F; of Q 1.
  3. ↑ 15. shot] Q 1; run Q, F and several editors;
  4. ↑ thorough] Q 1; through Q, F.
  5. ↑ 19, 20. Why … O] Capell from Q 1; Q, F omit I can tell you.
  6. ↑ 20. prince] Q, F; the prince Q 1.
  1. ↑ 12. answer] The same play on answer (by letter or word) and answer, encounter in person, occurs in Hamlet (see note on V. ii. 173, ed. Dowden).
  2. ↑ 13. dared] challenged. So Lyly, Euphues (ed. Arber), 316: "An Englishman … [cannot] suffer … to be dared by any."
  3. ↑ 14, 15.] Daniel conjectures dead-stabbed, and argues for run Q, F, instead of shot.
  4. ↑ 15. white wench's] White may mean only pale-complexioned; but the word was commonly used as a term of endearment or favour; so "white boy" of a favourite son; we have even "his white villaine." See Nares' Glossary.
  5. ↑ 16. pin] Malone: "The clout or white mark at which the arrows [in archery] are directed was fastened by a black pin placed in the center." See Love's Labour's Lost, IV. i. 138. So Middleton, No Wit, No Help like a Woman's, II i. 27: "And I'll cleave the black pin in the midst o' the white."
  6. ↑ 17. butt-shaft] an unbarbed arrow used for shooting at butts. "The marks to shoot at," says G. Markham (Country Contentments, p. 108, ed. 1616), "are three, Buts, Pricks, and Rovers. "The Butt is a level mark, and therefore would have an arrow with a very broad feather. So Love's Lab. Lost, I. ii. 181: "Cupid's butt-shaft is too hard for Hercules' club."
  7. ↑ 20. prince of cats] Tybert is the cat's name in Reynard the Fox. Steevens quotes Dekker, Satiromastix, "Tybert, the long-tailed prince of cats," and Nash, Have with You to Saffron Walden: "not Tibalt prince of cats."
Retrieved from "https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Page:Romeo_and_Juliet_(Dowden).djvu/112&oldid=6552577"