SC I
ROMEO AND JULIET
7
| Abr. | Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? |
| Sam. | [Aside to Gre.] Is the law of our side if I50 say ay? |
| Gre. | No. |
| Sam. | No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir; but I bite my thumb, sir. |
| Gre. | Do you quarrel, sir?55 |
| Abr. | Quarrel, sir! no,[C 1] sir. |
| Sam. | If[C 2] you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you. |
| Abr. | No better.[C 3] |
| Sam. | Well, sir.60 |
Enter Benvolio.
| Gre. | [Aside to Sam.] Say "better": here comes one of my master's kinsmen.[E 1] |
| Sam. | Yes, better, sir.[C 4] |
| Abr. | You lie. |
| Sam. | Draw, if you be men. Gregory, remember65 thy swashing[C 5][E 2] blow.[They fight. |
| Ben. | Part, fools![Beating down their weapons. Put up your swords; you know not what you do. |
- ↑ 61, 62. one of my master's kinsmen] Tybalt is meant, who is seen approaching.
- ↑ 66. swashing] Jonson in his Staple of News, v. i., has "I do confess a swashing blow"; and in As You Like It, i. iii. 122, we have "a swashing and a martial outside." But the washing of F, Q is possible. Daniel (who reads swashing) quotes Rich. Harvey, Plaine Percevall (1589): "A washing blow of this [a quarter-staff] is as good as a Laundresse." Baret, Alvearie, has "to swash or to make a noise with swordes against tergats."
