SC I]
ROMEO AND JULIET
9
| Cap. | My sword, I say! Old Montague is come, And flourishes his blade in spite of me[E 1]. |
Enter old Montague and Lady Montague.
| Mon. | Thou villain Capulet!—Hold me not; let me go. |
| Lady Mon. | Thou shalt not stir one[C 1] foot to seek a foe. |
Enter Prince Escalus[C 2], with his Train.
| Prince. | Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace,85 Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel[C 3],— Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts, That quench the fire of your pernicious rage With purple fountains issuing from your veins, On pain of torture, from those bloody hands90 Throw your mistemper'd[E 2] weapons to the ground, And hear the sentence of your moved prince Three civil brawls[C 4], bred of an airy word, By thee, old Capulet, and Montague, Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets,95 And made Verona's ancient citizens Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments[E 3], To wield old partisans, in hands as old, Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate[E 4]: |
- ↑ 82. in spite of me] in despite (scornful defiance) of me. See New Eng. Dict. "despite," 5.
- ↑ 91. mistemper'd] wrathful, or perhaps, as Schmidt explains, tempered to an ill end.
- ↑ 97. grave beseeming] Walker would insert hyphen: grave-beseeming, i.e. beseeming gravity; but in 1 Henry VI. v. i. 54, we find "grave ornaments."
- ↑ 99. Canker'd … hate] The first canker'd means corroded. Compare Bible, James v. 3: "Your gold and silver is cankered," The second
