Evermore showering? In one little body
Thou counterfeit'st a bark, a sea, a wind:
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs;
Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,-
Without a sudden calm, will overset

The tempest-tossed body.-How now, wife?
Have you deliver'd to her our decree?

La. Cap. Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives you

thanks.

I would, the fool were married to her grave!

Cap. Soft, take me with you, take me with you, wife. How! will she none? doth she not give us thanks? Is she not proud? doth she not count her bless'd, Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought

So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?

Jul. Not proud, you have; but thankful, that you have: Proud can I never be of what I hate;

But thankful even for hate, that is meant love.

Cap. How now! how now, chop-logick ! What is this? Proud, and, I thank you, and, I thank you not; And yet not proud;'-Mistress minion, you, Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds, But settle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next, To go with Paris to Saint Peter's church,

Conduits in the form of human figures, it has been already observed, were common in Shakspeare's time. See Vol. VI, p. 312, n. 1.

We have again the same image in The Rape of Lucrece: "A pretty while these pretty creatures stand,

"Like ivory conduits coral cisterns filling." Malone.

3 chop-logick!] This term, which hitherto has been divided into two words, I have given as one, it being, as I learn from The xxiiii Orders of Knaves, bl. 1. no date, a nick-name: "Choplogyk is he that whan his mayster rebuketh his servaunt for his defawtes, he will gyve hym xx wordes for one, or elles he wyll bydde the deuylles pater noster in scylence."

In The Contention betwyxte Churchyeard and Camell &c. 1560, this word also occurs:

"But you wyl choplogyck

"And be Bee-to-busse," &c. Steevens.

And yet not proud; &c.] This line is wanting in the folio.

Steevens

Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.

Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage!
You tallow-face !5

La. Cap.

Fy, fy! what are you mad? Jul. Good father, I beseech you on my knees, Hear me with patience but to speak a word.

Cap. Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch ! I tell thee what, get thee to church o' Thursday, Or never after look me in the face:

Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;

My fingers itch.-Wife we scarce thought us bless'd,
That God had sent us but this only child;
But now I see this one is one too much,

And that we have a curse in having her:
Out on her, hilding!

Nurse.

God in heaven bless her!

You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.

Cap. And why, my lady wisdom? hold your tongue, Good prudence; smatter with your gossips, go.

Nurse. I speak no treason.

Cap.

O, God ye good den!

Peace, you mumbling fool!

Nurse. May not one speak?

Cap.

Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl,
For here we need it not.

5

La. Cap.

You are too hot.

Cap. God's bread! it makes me mad: Day, night, late, early,

out, you baggage!

You tallow-face!] Such was the indelicacy of the age of Shakspeare, that authors were not contented only to employ these terms of abuse in their own original performances, but even felt no reluctance to introduce them in their versions of the most chaste and elegant of the Greek or Roman Poets. Stanyhurst, the translator of Virgil, in 1582, makes Dido call Æneas-hedgebrat, cullion, and tar-breech, in the course of one speech.

Nay, in the Interlude of The Repentance of Mary Magdalene, 1567, Mary Magdalen says to one of her attendants:

6

"Horeson, I beshrowe your heart, are you here?" Steevens.

had sent us -] So the first quarto, 1597. The subsequent ancient copies read—had lent us. Malone.

7 God's bread! &c.] The first three lines of this speech are formed from the first quarto, and that of 1599, with which the folio concurs. The first copy reads:

At home, abroad, alone, in company,

Waking, or sleeping, still my care hath been
To have her match'd: and having now provided
A gentleman of princely parentage,

Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,
Stuff'd (as they say) with honourable parts,
Proportion'd as one's heart could wish a man,-
And then to have a wretched puiing fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,
To answer—I 'll not wed,—I cannot love,
I am too young,-I pray you, pardon me;-
But, an you will not wed, I'll pardon you:
Graze where you will, you shall not house with me;
Look to 't, think on 't, I do not use to jest.
Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise:
An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;
An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die i' the streets,
For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good:
Trust to 't, bethink you, I'll not be forsworn.
Jul. Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!
Delay this marriage, for a month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.3
La. Cap. Taik not to me, for I 'il not speak a word;
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.

[Exit.

[Exit.

Jul. O God!-O nurse! how shall this be prevented? My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven; How shall that faith return again to earth,

"God's blessed mother, wife, it makes me mad,
"Day, night, early, late, at home, abroad,
"Alone, in company, waking or sleeping,
"Still my care hath been to see her match'd."

The quarto, 1599, and the folio, read:

"God's bread, it makes me mad.

"Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,
“Alone, in company, still my care hath been

"To have her match'd," &c. Malone.

8 In that dim monument &c.] The modern editors read dun monument. I have replaced dim from the old quarto, 1597, and the folio. Steevens.

Unless that husband send it me from heaven
By leaving earth?-comfort me, counsel me.—
Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems
Upon so soft a subject as myself!-

What say'st thou ? hast thou not a word of joy?
Some comfort, nurse.

Nurse.

'Faith, here 'tis : Romeo

Is banished; and all the world to nothing,

That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you ;
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the county.9
O, he's a lovely gentleman!

Romeo's a dishclout to him; an eagle, madam,
Hath not so green,1 so quick, so fair an eye,

9 'Faith, here 'tis: Romeo

Is banished; and all the world to nothing,

That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you ; —
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,

I think it best you married with the county.] The character of the Nurse exhibits a just picture of those whose actions have no principles for their foundation. She has been unfaithful to the trust reposed in her by Capulet, and is ready to embrace any expedient that offers, to avert the consequences of her first infidelity. Steevens.

This picture, however, is not an original. In The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562, the Nurse exhibits the same readiness to accommodate herself to the present conjuncture:

"The flattering nurse did praise the friar for his skill,

"And said that she had done right well, by wit to order

will;

"She setteth forth at large the father's furious rage,
"And eke she praiseth much to her the second marriage;
"And county Paris now she praiseth ten times more

"By wrong, than she herself by right had Romeus prais'd be

fore:

"Paris shall dwell there still; Romeus shall not return;
"What shall it boot her all her life to languish still and

mourn?" Malone.

Sir John Vanbrugh, in The Relapse, has copied in this respect the character of his Nurse from Shakspeare. Blackstone.

1 so green,

an eye,] So, the first editions. Sir T. Han

mer reads-so keen. Johnson.

Perhaps Chaucer has given to Emetrius, in The Knight's Tale, eyes of the same colour:

"His nose was high, his eyin bright citryn." i. e. of the hue of an unripe lemon or citron.

As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first: or if it did not,

Your first is dead; or 'twere as good he were,
As living here and you no use of him.

Jul. Speakest thou from thy heart?

Jul. Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much. Go in; and tell my lady I am gone,

Having displeas'd my father, to Laurence' cell,

To make confession, and to be absolv'd.

Nurse. Marry, I will; and this is wisely done. [Exit. Jul. Ancient damnation !4 O most wicked fiend!

Is it more sin-to wish me thus forsworn,

Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
Which she hath prais'd him with above compare

Again, in The Two Noble Kinsmen, by Fletcher and Shakspeare, Act V, sc. i:

66 oh vouchsafe,

"With that thy rare green eye," &c.

I may add, that Arthur Hall (the most ignorant and absurd of all the translators of Homer), in the fourth Iliad (4to, 1581,) calls Minerva

"The greene eide Goddese-" Steevens.

What Shakspeare meant by this epithet here, may be easily collected from the following lines, which he has attributed to Thisbé in the last Act of A Midsummer Night's Dream: "These lily lips,

"This cherry nose,

"These yellow cowslip cheeks,

"Are gone, are gone!

"His eyes were green as leeks." Malone.

2 As living here -] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, as living hence, that is, at a distance, in banishment; but here may signify, in this world. Johnson.

3 To what?] The syllable-To, which is wanting towards the measure, I have ventured to supply. When Juliet says-- Amen! the Nurse might naturally ask her to which of the foregoing sentiments so solemn a formulary was subjoined. Steevens.

4 Ancient damnation!] This term of reproach occurs in The Malcontent, 1604:

66

out, you ancient damnation!" Steevens.