SCENE V.--3. _Sweet-heart._ Accented on the last syllable; as regularly

in S. (cf. _Hen. VIII._ i. 4. 94, etc.) except in _W. T._ iv. 4. 664: "take your sweet-heart's hat." Schmidt would print it as two words (as is common in the old eds.) except in this latter passage.

28. _Will not let me speak._ Malone remarks: "S. has here followed the poem closely, without recollecting that he had made Capulet, in this scene, clamorous in his grief. In _Romeus and Juliet_, Juliet's mother makes a long speech, but the old man utters not a word:--

"'But more then all the rest the fathers hart was so Smit with the heauy newes, and so shut vp with sodain woe, That he ne had the powre his daughter to bewepe, Ne yet to speake, but long is forsd his teares and plaint to kepe.'"

The poem may have suggested Capulet's speech; but S. is not at fault in making him afterwards find his tongue and become "clamorous in his grief." That was perfectly natural.

36. _Life, living._ There is no necessity for emendation, as some have supposed. _Living is_ = means of living, possessions; as in _M. of V._ v. 1. 286: "you have given me life and living," etc.

37. _Thought._ Expected, hoped; as in _Much Ado_, ii. 3. 236, etc.

41. _Labour._ Referring to the toilsome progress of time, as in _T. of A._ iii. 4. 8 (Delius).

44. _Catch'd._ Also used for the participle in _L. L. L._ v. 2. 69 and _A. W._ i. 3. 176; and for the past tense in _Cor._ i. 3. 68. Elsewhere S. has _caught_.

45. _O woe!_ White thinks that in "this speech of mock heroic woe" S. ridicules the translation of Seneca's _Tragedies_ (1581); but it is in keeping with the character. Probably this and the next two speeches belong to the early draft of the play, with much that precedes and follows.

52. _Detestable._ For the accent on the first syllable (as always in S.), cf. _K. John_, iii. 4. 29, _T. of A._ iv. 1. 33, and v. 3. 45 below.

55. _Despis'd, distressed_, etc. In this line, as in 51, note the mixture of contracted and uncontracted participles.

56. _Uncomfortable._ Cheerless, joyless; the one instance of the word in S.

60. _Buried._ A trisyllable here; as in v. 3. 176 below.

61. _Confusion's._ Here, the word is = ruin, death; but in the next line it is = confused lamentations. Cf. _R. of L._ 445: "fright her with confusion of their cries."

66. _His._ Its. _Heaven_ is not personified here.

67. _Promotion._ A quadrisyllable here.

72. _Well._ Often thus used of the dead. Cf. _W.T._ v. 1. 30, 2 _Hen. IV._ v. 2. 3, _Macb._ iv. 3. 179, _A. and C._ ii. 5. 33, etc. See also v. 1. 17 below.

75. _Rosemary._ That is, the rosemary that had been brought for the wedding; for it was used at both weddings and funerals. Cf. Herrick, _The Rosemarie Branch:_--

"Grow for two ends, it matters not at all, Be 't for my bridall or my buriall;"

and Dekker, _Wonderful Year_: "The rosemary that was washed in sweet water to set out the bridal, is now wet in tears to furnish her burial." Cf. ii. 4. 198 above.

76. _As the custom is._ See on iv. 1. 110 above.

78. _Fond._ Foolish (cf. iii. 3. 52 above), as opposed to _reason_.

80. _All things_, etc. Cf. Brooke's poem:--

"Now is the parentes myrth quite chaunged into mone, And now to sorrow is retornde the ioy of euery one; And now the wedding weedes for mourning weedes they chaunge, And Hymene into a Dyrge; alas! it seemeth straunge: In steade of mariage gloues, now funerall gloues they haue, And whom they should see maried, they follow to the graue. The feast that should haue been of pleasure and of ioy Hath euery dish and cup fild full of sorow and annoye."

95. _Case._ There is a play upon the other sense of the word (a case for a musical instrument); as in _W.T._ iv. 4. 844: "but though my case be a pitiful one, I hope I shall not be flayed out of it" (that is, out of my skin).

96. _Enter Peter._ From the quartos we learn that William Kempe played the part of Peter, as he did that of Dogberry in _Much Ado_.

In explanation of the introduction of this part of the scene, Knight remarks: "It was the custom of our ancient theatre to introduce, in the irregular pauses of a play that stood in place of a division into acts, some short diversions, such as a song, a dance, or the extempore buffoonery of a clown. At this point of _R. and J._ there is a natural pause in the action, and at this point such an interlude would probably have been presented, whether S. had written one or not.... Will Kempe was the Liston of his day, and was as great a popular favourite as Tarleton had been before him. It was wise, therefore, in S. to find some business for Will Kempe that should not be entirely out of harmony with the great business of his play. The scene of the musicians is very short, and, regarded as a necessary part of the routine of the ancient stage, is excellently managed. Nothing can be more naturally exhibited than the indifference of hirelings, without attachment, to a family scene of grief. Peter and the musicians bandy jokes; and though the musicians think Peter a 'pestilent knave,' perhaps for his inopportune sallies, they are ready enough to look after their own gratification, even amidst the sorrow which they see around them. A wedding or a burial is the same to them. 'Come, we'll in here; tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner.' So S. read the course of the world--and it is not much changed."

"To our minds," says Clarke, "the intention was to show how grief and gayety, pathos and absurdity, sorrow and jesting, elbow each other in life's crowd; how the calamities of existence fall heavily upon the souls of some, while others, standing close beside the grievers, feel no jot of suffering or sympathy. Far from the want of harmony that has been found here, we feel it to be one of those passing discords that produce richest and fullest effect of harmonious contrivance."

Furness states that in Edwin Booth's acting copy this scene of Peter and the musicians is transposed to i. 5. 17 above.

99. _Heart's ease._ A popular tune of the time, mentioned in _Misogonus_, a play by Thomas Rychardes, written before 1570.

101. _My heart is full of woe._ The burden of the first stanza of _A Pleasant new Ballad of Two Lovers_: "Hey hoe! my heart is full of woe" (Steevens).

102. _Dump._ A mournful or plaintive song or melody. Calling it _merry_ is a joke of Peter's. Cf. _T.G. of V._ iii. 2. 85: "A deploring dump." See also _R. of L._ 1127.

109. _Gleek._ Scoff. Cf. 1 _Hen. VI._ iii. 2. 123: "Now where's the Bastard's braves, and Charles his gleeks?" _To give the gleek_ was "to pass a jest upon, to make a person ridiculous." It is impossible to say what is the joke in _give you the minstrel_. Some suppose that _gleek_ suggests _gleeman_, one form of which in Anglo-Saxon was _gligman_, but no such form is found in English, if we may trust the _New Eng. Dict._ The reply of the musician may perhaps mean "that he will retort by calling Peter the servant to the minstrel" (White).

114. _I will carry no crotchets._ I will bear none of your whims; with a play on _crotchets_, as in _Much Ado_, ii. 3. 58. Cf. _carry coals_ in i. 1. 1 above. The play on _note_ is obvious.

120. _Drybeat._ See on iii. 1. 81 above. For _have at you_, cf. i. 1. 64 above.

122. _When griping grief_, etc. From a poem by Richard Edwards, in the _Paradise of Daintie Devises_. See also Percy's _Reliques_.

126. _Catling._ A small string of _catgut_. Cf. _T. and C._ iii. 3. 306: "unless the fiddler Apollo get his sinews to make catlings on."

132. _Pretty._ Some of the German critics are troubled by _pretty_, because Peter does not intend to praise; and irony, they say, would be out of place. It is simply a jocose patronizing expression = That's not bad in its way, but you haven't hit it. The _rebeck_ was a kind of three-stringed fiddle. Cf. Milton, _L'All._ 94: "And the jocund rebecks sound," etc.

141. _Pestilent._ Often used in an opprobrious sense; as in _Lear_, i. 4. 127: "A pestilent gall to me!" _Oth._ ii. 1. 252: "A pestilent complete knave," etc.

142. _Jack._ See on iii. 1. 12 above; and for _stay_ = wait for, on ii. 5. 36.