Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/123

part about me quivers. Scurvy knave!—Pray you, sir, a word; and as I told you, my young lady bade me inquire you out; what she bade[C 1] me say I will keep to myself; but first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into[C 2] a fool's para-180 dise,[E 1] as they say, it were a very gross kind of behaviour, as they say: for the gentlewoman is young, and therefore, if you should deal double with her, truly it were an ill thing to be offered to any gentlewoman, and very185 weak dealing.[E 2]

Rom.	Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mistress. I protest[E 3] unto thee—[C 3][C 4]

Nurse.

Good heart, and, i' faith, I will tell her as much. Lord, Lord, she will be a joyful190 woman.

Rom.	What wilt thou tell her, nurse? thou dost not mark me.[C 5]

Nurse.

I will tell her, sir, that you do protest; which, as I take it, is a gentlemanlike195 offer.

1. 178. bade … bade] Q1; bid … bid Q, F.
2. 180. into] Q1; in Q, F.
3. 188. I … thee] Q, F; Tell her I protest Q1, Daniel;
4. thee—] F2; thee. Q, F.
5. 193. me.] Q5; me? Q, F.

1. 180. fool's paradise] Not uncommon. So Rich, Farewell to Military Profession (1581), "By praising of our beautie, you [men] think to bring us into a fooles paradise."
2. 186. weak dealing] Collier (MS.) has wicked, which perhaps the Nurse meant. Schmidt explains weak as stupid. In the following passage it may mean shifty: "The forehead sharp-pointing … declareth that man to be vayn or a liar, unstable, weak in all his doings." Cocles, Epitome of Art of Phisiognomie, Englished by T. Hyll (?1613). Possibly the word was chosen for sake of the incongruity of what is double being thereby weak. Fleay suggests wicke, used by Chaucer and still provincially for wicked.
3. 188. I protest] Daniel pleads for Q1, reading "Tell her I protest—" as responded to by the Nurse's "I will tell her."