Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/125

Rom.	I warrant[C 1] thee my man's[C 2] as true as steel.215

Nurse.

[C 3]Well, sir;[E 1] my mistress is the sweetest lady —Lord, Lord! when 'twas a little prating thing[E 2]—O, there's a nobleman in town, one Paris, that would fain lay knife aboard;[E 3] but she, good soul, had as lieve see a toad, a very220 toad, as see him. I anger her sometimes, and tell her that Paris is the properer[E 4] man; but, I'll warrant you, when I say so, she looks as pale as any clout[E 5] in the versal[E 6] world. Doth not rosemary[E 7] and Romeo begin both with a225 letter?

Rom.	Ay, nurse; what of that? both with an R.

Nurse.

Ah,[C 4] mocker! that's the dog's name;[C 5][E 8] R is for the— No;[C 6][E 9] I know it begins with some

1. 215. I warrant] Ff 2-n; Warrant Q, F;
2. man's] Q (mans), man F.
3. 216–236] verse Capell.
4. 228. Ah,] Rowe; A Q, F;
5. dog's name;] F, dog, name Q.
6. 228, 229. R is for the— No;] Ritson conj., Delius; R is for the no, Q, F; R is for thee? No; Theobald (Warburton); R is for the dog. No; Steevens, 1778 (Tyrwhitt conj.), and many editors.

keep counsel when the third's away." Lyly has it in Euphues cited by Rushton, Shakespeare's Euphuism, p.62.

1. 216. Well, sir] Capell prints the rest of the scene as verse; the opening lines fall easily into verse, but difficulties appear as one proceeds.
2. 217, 218. Lord … thing] Follows Brooke's poem: {{block center|"A prety babe (quod she) it was when it was yong,
   Lord how it could full pretely have prated with it tong."
3. 219. lay knife aboard] So Barry, Ram Alley, 1611: "The truth is, I have laid my knife aboard, The widow, sir, is wedded," Hazlitt's Dodsley, x. 372, and compare the same, p. 282, for use of aboard. See Grosart's Nashe, v. p. 253, for another example.
4. 222. properer] handsomer, frequent in Shakespeare.
5. 224. pale … clout] a common phrase; so Tottel, Miscellany (ed. Arber, p. 233), "As pale as any clout," and Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, "At this Littlefaith looked as white as a clout," i.e. piece of cloth.
6. 224. versal] vulgarism for universal.
7. 225. rosemary] The flower for remembrance, used both at weddings and funerals. See note on Hamlet, iv. v. 174 (ed. Dowden). Compare [[../../Act 4/Scene 5#75|iv. v. 79.]]
8. 228. dog's name] Ben Jonson, in his English Grammer, says: "R is the dog's letter, and hirreth in the sound."
9. 228, 229. R is for the— No;] This conjecture of Ritson is happy; but Theobald's reading "R is for thee? No" may be right. While Romeo, however, addresses the Nurse as thou, and the Nurse so addresses Peter, she addresses Romeo as you.