Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/119

Rom.	Here's goodly gear![E 1]

Enter Nurse and Peter.^{[C 1]}

Mer.	A sail, a sail![C 2]110

Ben.[C 3][E 2]

Two, two; a shirt and a smock.

Nurse.

Peter![C 4]

Peter.

Anon?[C 5]

Nurse.

My fan,[E 3] Peter.

Mer.	Good Peter, to hide her face;[C 6] for her fan's115 the fairer of the two.[C 7]

Nurse.

God ye[E 4] good morrow, gentlemen.

Mer.	God ye good den, fair gentlewoman.

Nurse.

Is it good den?

Mer.	'Tis no less, I tell you;[C 8] for the bawdy hand120 of the dial is now upon the prick of noon.[E 5]

Nurse.

Out upon you! what a man are you!

Rom.	One, gentlewoman, that God hath made for himself[C 9] to mar.

1. 109. Enter …] Enter Nurse and her man Q, F (after longer, 108).
2. 110. A sail, a sail] Q, F (but continued to Romeo); A sail, a sail, a sail. Q1 (given to Mercutio).
3. 111. Ben.] Q1; Mer. Q, F.
4. 112–115. Peter! … Peter] Q, F; Peter, pree thee give me my fan. Mer. Pree thee doo good Peter, Q1.
5. 113. Anon?] Theobald; Anon. Q, F.
6. 115. face;] F3, face, Q, face? F.
7. 116. fairer … two] Q1, fairer face. Q, fairer face? F.
8. 120. you] F, yee Q.
9. 123, 124. for himself] Q1; himself Q, F.

1. 109. gear] Gear is used for talk, and, in a depreciatory sense, rubbishy talk; also for stuff, and, in a depreciatory sense, rubbish. It is also used for apparel, attire. Probably Romeo refers to the preceding talk, not to the habiliments of the approaching nurse.
2. 111. Ben.] Benvolio, slow to kindle, is caught into the fire of fun; see line 138. But some editors accept the arrangement of speeches in Q, F.
3. 114. fan] Compare Love's Labour's Lost, iv. i. 147: "To see him walk before a lady and to bear her fan!" Farmer quotes The Serving Man's Comfort, 1598: "The mistress must have one to carry her cloake and hood, another her fanne."
4. 117. God ye] short for God give ye; on good den, see [[../../Act 1/Scene 2|I. ii. 57.]]
5. 121. prick of noon] point or mark of noon; so "noontide prick," 3 Henry VI. i. iv. 34, and Lucrece, line 781.