SCENE II.--2. _Twenty cunning cooks._ Ritson says: "Twenty cooks for

half a dozen guests! Either Capulet has altered his mind strangely, or S. forgot what he had just made him tell us" (iii. 4. 27). But, as Knight remarks, "Capulet is evidently a man of ostentation; but his ostentation, as is most generally the case, is covered with a thin veil of indifference." Cf. i. 5. 124: "We have a trifling foolish banquet towards."

According to an entry in the books of the Stationers' Company for 1560, the preacher was paid six shillings and twopence for his labour; the minstrel, twelve shillings; and the cook, fifteen shillings. But, as Ben Jonson tells us, a master cook is--

"a man of men For a professor; he designs, he draws, He paints, he carves, he builds, he fortifies, Makes citadels of curious fowl and fish.

* * * * *

He is an architect, an engineer, A soldier, a physician, a philosopher, A general mathematician."

6. _'Tis an ill cook_, etc. Cf. Puttenham, _Arte of English Poesie_, 1589:--

"As the old cocke crowes so doeth the chick: A bad cooke that cannot his owne fingers lick."

14. _Harlotry._ S. uses the noun only in this concrete sense: literally in _Oth._ iv. 2. 239; and in a loose contemptuous way, as here (= silly wench), in 1 _Hen. IV._ iii. 1. 198: "a peevish, self-willed harlotry, one that no persuasion can do good upon." For _peevish_ = foolish, childish, cf. _A.Y.L._ iii. 5. 110, _M.W._ i. 4. 14, etc.

17. _Learn'd me._ Taught myself, learned; not elsewhere used reflexively by S. Cf. iii. 2. 12 above.

18. _In disobedient opposition._ This line has but two regular accents, the others being metrical. See p. 159 above. _Opposition_ has five syllables.

26. _Becomed._ Becoming. Cf. "lean-look'd" = lean-looking in _Rich. II._ ii. 4. 11, "well-spoken" in _Rich. III._ i. 3. 348, etc. We still say "well-behaved."

33. _Closet._ Chamber; as in _Ham._ ii. 1. 77, iii. 2. 344, iii. 3. 27, etc. Cf. _Matthew_, vi. 6.

34. _Sort._ Select. Cf. iii. 5. 108 above.

38. _Short in our provision._ Very feminine and housewifely! Cf. _Lear_, ii. 4. 208:--

"I am now from home, and out of that provision Which shall be needful for your entertainment."

41. _Deck up her._ Such transpositions are not rare in S. The 1st quarto has "prepare up him" in 45 just below.