SCENE I.--2. _The day is hot._ "It is observed that in Italy almost all

assassinations are committed during the heat of summer" (Johnson).

3. _Scape._ Not "'scape," as often printed. The word is used in prose; as in _M. of V._ ii. 2. 174, etc.

6. _Me._ See on ii. 4. 23 above. We have the same construction in _him_, two lines below, where some eds. have "it" (from 1st quarto).

8. _Operation._ Effect. Cf. _2 Hen. IV._ iv. 3. 104: "A good sherris-sack hath a twofold operation in it," etc.

11. _Am I_, etc. "The quietness of this retort, with the slight but significant emphasis which we imagine thrown upon the _I_, admirably gives point to the humorous effect of Mercutio's lecturing Benvolio--the sedate and peace-making Benvolio, and lectured by Mercutio, of all people!--for the sin of quarrelsomeness" (Clarke).

12. _Jack._ See on ii. 4. 127 above.

14. _Moody._ Angry. Cf. _2 Hen. IV._ iv. 4. 39: "But, being moody, give him line and scope," etc.

31. _Tutor me from._ Teach me to avoid.

39. _Good den._ See on i. 2. 57 above.

43. _Apt enough to._ Ready enough for. Cf. iii. 3. 157 below.

47. _Consort'st with._ Keepest company with. Cf. _V. and A._ 1041, _M.N.D._ iii. 2. 387, _T. and C._ v. 3. 9, etc.

48. _Consort._ The word (with accent on first syllable) sometimes meant a company of musicians. Cf. _T.G. of V._ iii. 2. 84:--

"Visit by night your lady's chamber-window With some sweet consort; to their instruments Tune a deploring dump," etc.

See also _2 Hen. VI._ iii. 2. 327. In these passages the modern eds. generally read "concert." Milton has _consort_ in the same sense in the _Ode at a Solemn Musick_, 27:--

"O, may we soon again renew that song, And keep in tune with Heaven, till God ere long To his celestial consort us unite, To live with him, and sing in endless morn of light!"

Cf. _Ode on Nativ._ 132: "Make up full consort to the angelic symphony;" _Il Pens._ 145: "With such consort as they keep," etc. "The _consorts_ of S.'s time were not only concerted music, but generally composed of such instruments as belonged to one family. If, for example, only viols were employed, the consort was called _whole_, but if virginal, lute, or flute came into the combination, it was a _broken consort_, or _broken music_" (Elson). Cf. _A.Y.L._ i. 2. 150, etc.

51. _Zounds._ Like _'swounds_ (see _Ham._ ii. 2. 604), an oath contracted from "God's wounds!" and generally omitted or changed in the folio in deference to the statute of James I. against the use of the name of God on the stage. Here the folio has "Come."

54. _Reason coldly._ Talk coolly or dispassionately. Cf. _M. of V._ ii. 8. 27: "I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday;" and _Much Ado_, iii. 2. 132: "bear it coldly but till midnight," etc.

"Benvolio presents a triple alternative: either to withdraw to a private place, or to discuss the matter quietly where they were, or else to part company; and it is supremely in character that on such an occasion he should perceive and suggest all these methods of avoiding public scandal" (White).

55. _Depart._ Perhaps = part. Cf. 3 _Hen. VI._ ii. 6. 43: "A deadly groan, like life and death's departing," etc. So _depart with_ = part with; as in _K. John_, ii. 1. 563:--

"John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole, Hath willingly departed with a part," etc.

In the Marriage Ceremony "till death us do part" was originally "us depart." The word is used in the same sense in Wiclif's Bible, _Matthew_, xix. 6. On the other hand, _part_ often = depart; as in _T.N._ v. 1. 394, _Cor._ v. 6. 73, _T. of A._ iv. 2. 21, etc.

57. _I._ The repetition of the pronoun at the end of the sentence is common in S. Cf. _T.G. of V._ v. 4. 132: "I care not for her, I;" _Rich._ _III._ iii. 2. 78: "I do not like these several councils, I;" _T.A._ v. 3. 113: "I am no vaunter, I;" _Id._ v. 3. 185: "I am no baby, I," etc. See also iii. 5. 12 below.

62. _The hate I bear thee._ The reading of 1st quarto. The other early eds. have "love"; but Tybalt is not given to irony.

64. _Love._ Delius says that this "is of course ironical," but the reiteration in the next speech shows that it is not. Romeo's love for Juliet embraces, in a way, all her kindred. His heart, as Talfourd expresses it in _Ion_,--

"Enlarge'd by its new sympathy with one, Grew bountiful to all."

65. _Appertaining rage_, etc. That is, the rage appertaining to (belonging to, or becoming) such a greeting. Cf. _Macb._ iii. 6. 48:--

"our suffering country Under a hand accurst."

68. _Boy._ Often used contemptuously; as in _Much Ado._ v. 1. 83, 187, _Cor._ v. 6. 101, 104, 117, etc.

73. _Tender._ Regard, cherish. Cf. _Ham._ i. 3. 107: "Tender yourself more dearly," etc.

76. _A la stoccata._ Capell's emendation of the "Alla stucatho" or "Allastucatho" of the early eds. _Stoccata_ is the Italian term for a thrust or stab with a rapier. It is the same as the "stoccado" of _M.W._ ii. 1. 234, the "stock" of _Id._ ii. 3. 26, and the "stuck" of _T.N._ iii. 4. 303 and _Ham._ iv. 7. 162. _Carries it away_ = carries the day.

79. _King of cats._ See on ii. 4. 20 above. On _nine lives_, cf. Marston, _Dutch Courtezan_: "Why then thou hast nine lives like a cat," etc. A little black-letter book, _Beware the Cat_, 1584, says that it was permitted to a witch "to take on her a cattes body nine times." Trusler, in his _Hogarth Moralized_, remarks: "The conceit of a cat's having nine lives hath cost at least nine lives in ten of the whole race of them. Scarce a boy in the streets but has in this point outdone even Hercules himself, who was renowned for killing a monster that had but three lives."

81. _Dry-beat._ Beat soundly. Cf. _L. L. L._ v. 2. 263: "all dry-beaten with pure scoff." See also iv. 5. 120 below. S. uses the word only three times; but we have "dry basting" in _C. of E._ ii. 2. 64.

83. _Pilcher._ Scabbard; but no other example of the word in this sense has been found. _Pilch_ or _pilche_ meant a leathern coat, and the word or a derivative of it may have been applied to the leathern sheath of a rapier.

87. _Passado._ See on ii. 4. 27 above.

89. _Outrage._ A trisyllable here. Cf. _entrance_ in i. 4. 8.

91. _Bandying._ Contending. Cf. 1 _Hen. VI._ iv. 1. 190: "This factious bandying of their favourites." For the literal sense, see on ii. 5. 14 above.

92. The 1st quarto has here the stage-direction, _"Tibalt under Romeos arme thrusts Mercutio in and flyes_;" which some modern eds. retain substantially.

93. _Sped._ Dispatched, "done for." Cf. _M. of V._ ii. 9. 72: "So begone; you are sped;" _T. of S._ v. 2. 185: "We three are married, but you two are sped," etc. See also Milton, _Lycidas_, 122: "What need they? They are sped" (that is, provided for).

100. _Grave._ Farmer cites Lydgate's _Elegy on Chaucer_: "My master Chaucer now is grave;" and Steevens remarks that we have the same quibble in _The Revenger's Tragedy_, 1608, where Vindice dresses up a lady's skull and says: "she has a somewhat grave look with her." Cf. John of Gaunt's play on his name when on his death-bed (_Rich. II._ ii. 1. 82).

104. _Fights by the book of arithmetic_. Cf. ii. 4. 22 above: "keeps time, distance," etc.

111. _Your houses!_ "The broken exclamation of a dying man, who has not breath to repeat his former anathema, 'A plague o' both your houses!'" (Marshall).

113. _My very friend._ Cf. _T.G. of V._ iii. 2. 41: "his very friend;" _M. of V._ iii. 2. 226: "my very friends and countrymen," etc.

116. _Cousin._ Some editors adopt the "kinsman" of 1st quarto; but _cousin_ was often = kinsman. See on i. 5. 32 above.

120. _Aspir'd._ Not elsewhere used transitively by S. Cf. Chapman, _Iliad_, ix.: "and aspir'd the gods' eternal seats;" Marlowe, _Tamburlaine_: "our souls aspire celestial thrones," etc.

121. _Untimely._ Often used adverbially (like many adjectives in -_ly_); as in _Macb._ v. 8. 16, _Ham._ iv. 1. 40, etc. See also v. 3. 258 below.

122. _Depend._ Impend (Schmidt). Cf. _R. of L._ 1615: "In me moe woes than words are now depending;" and _Cymb._ iv. 3. 23: "our jealousy Doth yet depend."

126. _Respective._ Considerate. Cf. _M. of V._ v. 1. 156: "You should have been respective," etc.

127. _Conduct._ Conductor, guide. Cf. _Temp._ v. 1. 244:--

"And there is in this business more than nature Was ever conduct of;"

_Rich. III._ i. 1. 45: "This conduct to convey me to the Tower," etc. See also v. 3. 116 below.

129. _For Mercutio's soul_, etc. The passage calls to mind one similar yet very different in _Hen. V._ iv. 6. 15 fol.:--

"And cries aloud, 'Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk! My soul shall keep thine company to heaven; Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast, As in this glorious and well-foughten field We kept together in our chivalry!'"

133. _Consort._ Accompany. Cf. _C. of E._ i. 2. 28: "And afterward consort you till bedtime;" _J.C._ v. 1. 83: "Who to Philippi here consorted us," etc. For the intransitive use of the word, see on 43 above.

137. _Doom thee death._ Cf. _Rich. III._ ii. 1. 102: "to doom my brother's death;" _T.A._ iv. 2. 114: "The emperor, in his rage, will doom her death." _Amazed_ = bewildered, stupefied; as often.

139. _Fortune's fool._ Made a fool of by fortune, the sport of fortune. Cf. _Lear_, iv. 6. 195: "The natural fool of fortune." See also _Ham._ i. 4. 54: "we fools of nature;" and cf. _M. for M._ iii. 1. 11, _Macb._ ii. 1. 44, etc.

145. _Discover._ Uncover, reveal. See on ii. 2. 106 above.

146. _Manage._ "Bringing about" (Schmidt); or we may say that _all the manage_ is simply = the whole course. The word means management, administration, in _Temp._ i. 2. 70: "the manage of my state;" _M. of V._ iii. 4. 25: "The husbandry and manage of my house," etc. It is especially used of horses; as in _A.Y.L._ i. 1. 13, etc.

156. _Spoke him fair._ Spoke gently to him. Cf. _M.N.D._ ii. 1. 199: "Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?" _M. of V._ iv. 1. 275: "Say how I lov'd you, speak me fair in death" (that is, speak well of me after I am dead), etc.

157. _Nice._ Petty, trivial. Cf. _Rich. III._ iii. 7. 175: "nice and trivial;" _J.C._ iv. 3. 8: "every nice offence," etc. See also v. 2. 18 below.

160. _Take truce._ Make peace. Cf. _V. and A._ 82: "Till he take truce with her contending tears;" _K. John_, iii. 1. 17: "With my vex'd spirits I cannot take a truce," etc. _Spleen_ = heat, impetuosity. Cf. _K. John_, iv. 3. 97: "thy hasty spleen;" _Rich. III._ v. 3. 350: "Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!" etc.

167. _Retorts._ Throws back; as in _T. and C._ iii. 3. 101:--

"Heat them, and they retort that heat again To the first giver," etc.

171. _Envious._ Malicious; as often.

173. _By and by._ Presently. See on ii. 2. 151 above, and cf. iii. 3. 76 and v. 3. 284 below.

180. _Affection makes him false._ "The charge, though produced at hazard, is very just. The author, who seems to intend the character of Benvolio as good, meant, perhaps, to show how the best minds, in a state of faction and discord, are detorted to criminal partiality" (Johnson).

188. _Concludes._ For the transitive use (= end), cf. _2 Hen. VI._ iii. 1. 153: "Will not conclude their plotted tragedy."

190. _Exile._ Accented by S. on either syllable. So also with the noun in iii. 3. 20 and v. 3. 211 below.

193. _Amerce._ Used by S. only here.

196. _Purchase out._ Cf. buy out in _C. of E._ i. 2. 5, _K. John_, iii. 1. 164, _Ham._ iii. 3. 60, etc.

198. _Hour._ Metrically a dissyllable; as in ii. 5. 11 above. Cf. _Temp._ v. 1. 4. etc.

200. _Mercy but murthers_, etc. Malone quotes Hale, _Memorials_: "When I find myself swayed to mercy, let me remember likewise that there is a mercy due to the country."