SCENE I.--2. _Dull earth._ "Romeo's epithet for his small world of man,

the earthlier portion of himself" (Clarke). Cf. _Sonn._ 146. 1: "Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth."

5. _Orchard._ That is, garden; the only meaning in S.

6. _Conjure._ Accented by S. on either syllable, without regard to the meaning.

7. _Humours!_ Fancies, caprices. Some read "Humour's madman! Passion-lover!" See on 29 below.

10. _Ay me!_ Often changed here and elsewhere to "Ah me!" which occurs in the old eds. of S. only in v. 1. 10 below. _Ay me!_ is found thirty or more times. Milton also uses it often.

11. _My gossip Venus._ Cf. _M. of V._ iii. 1. 7: "if my gossip Report be an honest woman of her word."

13. _Young Abraham Cupid._ The 2d and 3d quartos have "Abraham: Cupid;" the other early eds. "Abraham Cupid." Upton conjectured "Adam Cupid," with an allusion to the famous archer, Adam Bell, and was followed by Steevens and others. Theobald suggested "auborn," and it has since been shown that _abraham_, _abram_, _aborne_, _aborn_, _abron_, _aubrun_, etc., were all forms of the word now written _auburn_. In _Cor._ ii. 3. 21 the 1st, 2d, and 3d folios read: "our heads are some browne, some blacke, some Abram, some bald;" the 4th folio changes "Abram" to "auburn." In _T.G. of V._ iv. 4. 194, the folio has "Her haire is _Aburne_, mine is perfect _Yellow_." These are the only instances of the word in S. "Auburn" is adopted by a few editors, and is explained as = "auburn-haired," but that surely is no _nickname_. Schmidt understands "Young Abraham Cupid" to be used "in derision of the eternal boyhood of Cupid, though in fact he was at least as old as father Abraham." Cf. _L. L. L._ iii. 1. 182: "This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;" and _Id._ v. 2. 10: "For he hath been five thousand years a boy." Furness in his Variorum ed. gives "Adam," but he now prefers "Abraham" = the young counterfeit, with his sham make-up, pretending to be _purblind_ and yet _shooting so trim_. He thinks the allusion to the _beggar-maid_ also favours this explanation. _Abraham-man_, originally applied to a mendicant lunatic from Bethlehem Hospital, London, came to be a cant term for an impostor wandering about and asking alms under pretence of lunacy. Herford says that "Adam" is made almost certain by _Much Ado_, i. 1. 260; but it is by no means certain that the allusion there is to Adam Bell, as he assumes.

_Trim._ The reading of 1st quarto; the other early eds. have "true." That the former is the right word is evident from the ballad of _King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid_ (see Percy's _Reliques_), in which we read:--

"The blinded boy that shoots so trim From heaven down did hie, He drew a dart and shot at him, In place where he did lie."

For other allusions to the ballad, see _L. L. L._ iv. 1. 66 and _2 Hen._ _IV._ v. 3. 106.

16. _Ape._ As Malone notes, _ape_, like _fool_ (see on i. 3. 31 above), was sometimes used as a term of endearment or pity. Cf. _2 Hen. IV._ ii. 4. 234: "Alas, poor ape, how thou sweatest!"

22. _Circle._ Alluding to the ring drawn by magicians. Cf. _A.Y.L._ ii. 5. 62: "a Greek invocation, to call fools into a circle." See also _Hen._ _V._ v. 2. 320.

25. _Spite._ Vexation. Cf. i. 5. 64 above.

29. _Humorous._ Humid. Delius (like Schmidt) sees a quibble in the word: "_moist_ and _capricious_, full of such humours as characterize lovers, and as whose personification Mercutio had just conjured Romeo under the collective name _humours_."

32. _Truckle-bed._ Trundle-bed; one made to run under a "standing-bed," as it was called. Cf. _M.W._ iv. 5. 7: "his standing-bed and truckle-bed." The former was for the master, the latter for the servant. Mercutio uses the term in sport, and adds a quibble on _field-bed_, which was a camp-bed, or a bed on the ground.