SC. I.
ROMEO AND JULIET
95
|
that fights by the book of arithmetic![E 1] Why |
| Rom. | I thought all for the best.110 |
| Mer. | Help me into some house, Benvolio, Or I shall faint. A plague o'[C 1] both your houses! They have made worms' meat of me: I have it, And soundly too:[C 2] your houses![C 3] |
[Exeunt Mercutio and Benvolio.
| Rom. | This gentleman, the prince's near ally,115 My very friend, hath got his[C 4] mortal hurt In my behalf; my reputation[E 2] stain'd With Tybalt's slander, Tybalt, that an hour Hath been my cousin.[C 5] O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate,120 And in my temper soften'd valour's steel! |
Re-enter Benvolio.
| Ben. | O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's[C 6] dead! That gallant spirit hath aspired[E 3] the clouds, Which too untimely here did scorn the earth. |
- ↑ 112. o'] F 4; a Q, F.
- ↑ 114. soundly too:] Capell; soundly, to Q; soundly to Qq 3–5, F; soundly too F 2; soundly too, Ff 3–4.
- ↑ 113, 114. I have … houses] Dyce's arrangement; one line Q, F.
- ↑ 116. got his] Qq 3–5, F; got this Q; tane this Q 1.
- ↑ 119. cousin] Q, F; kinsman Q 1 and several editors.
- ↑ 122. Mercutio's] F 2, Mercutio is Q, Mercutio's is F.
- ↑ 107. arithmetic] fights by the rules of the teachers of fencing; compare II. iv. 24: "one, two, and the third in your bosom." Is it in this sense of studying rule and theory that Iago calls Cassio (who never set a squadron in the field) a "great arithmetician"?
- ↑ 117. reputation] S. Walker conjectures reputation's.
- ↑ 123. aspired] soar to, reach. So Marlowe, Tamburlaine: "And both our souls aspire celestial thrones."
