156
ROMEO AND JULIET
[ACT IV.
| Peter. | Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger115 on your pate. I will carry no crotchets:[E 1] I'll re you, I'll fa you.[E 2] Do you note me? |
| First Mus. | An[C 1] you re us and fa us, you note us. |
| Second Mus. | Pray you, put up your dagger, and120 put out your wit. |
| Peter. | Then have at you[E 3] with my wit![C 2] I will dry- beat[E 4] you with an iron wit, and put up my iron dagger. Answer me like men: When griping grief[C 3][E 5] the heart doth wound,125 And doleful dumps the mind oppress,[C 4] Then music with her silver sound—[C 5] why "silver sound"? why "music with her silver sound"?—What say you, Simon Catling?[E 6]130 |
| First Mus.[C 6] | Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound. |
- ↑ 116. crotchets] I will bear none of your whims; the same play on the words crotchets and note occurs in Much Ado, II. iii. 58, 59.
- ↑ 116, 117. I'll re you, I'llfa you] It is possible that (as Ulrici thinks) quibbles are continued here. Ray meant to befoul; compare Taming of the Shrew, IV. i. 3: "Was ever man so beaten? was ever man so rayed?" Fay meant to cleanse, as in Burton, Anat. of Melancholy: "To … fay channels." See New Eng. Dict. for other examples; and compare the phrase "to dust one's coat." The processes of befouling and cleansing might both be accomplished by a "dry-beating." But probably no quibble is intended.
- ↑ 122. have at you] Peter takes put out not as meant, i.e. extinguish, but as the opposite of put up (your dagger), and so draw, unsheathe.
- ↑ 122, 123. dry-beat] See [[../../Act 3/Scene 1|III. i. 82]], note.
- ↑ 125. When griping grief] From a poem by Richard Edwards in the Paradise of Daintie Devices. See also the poem as given in Percy's Reliques.
- ↑ 130. Catling] A small lute or fiddle string of catgut, as in Troilus and Cressida, III. iii. 306.
