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8
ROMEO AND JULIET
[ACT I

Enter Tybalt.

Tyb. What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds[E 1]?70
Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.
Ben. I do but keep the peace: put up thy sword,
Or manage it to part these men with me.
Tyb. What, drawn[C 1], and talk of peace! I hate the word,
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:75
Have at thee, coward![They fight.

Enter several of both houses, who join the fray; then enter Citizens and Peace-officers, with clubs.[C 2]

First Off.[C 3][E 2] Clubs[E 3], bills[E 4], and partisans[E 5]! strike! beat them down!
Down with the Capulets! down with the Montagues!

Enter old Capulet in his gown, and Lady Capulet.

Cap. What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho!
Lady Cap. A crutch, a crutch! why call you for a sword?80
  1. 74. drawn] Q, draw F and several editors.
  2. 76. Enter … clubs] Capell, substantially; Enter three or foure Citizens with Clubs or partysons Q; so F, omitting "or partisans."
  3. 77. First Off.] Offi. Q, F; Cit. Steevens; 1 Cit. Malone; Citizens Dyce.
  1. 70. heartless hinds] A play here on both words; hind, a menial, hind, a female deer; so with a play on hart and heart in Drayton, Polyolbion, v. 228, "heartless deer."
  2. 77. First Off.] So Cambridge editors, who conjecture that line 78 belongs to Citizens.
  3. 77. Clubs] Dyce: "Originally the cry to call forth the London apprentices, who employed their clubs to preserve the public peace." Compare Henry VIII. v. iv. 53 and Titus And. II. i. 37.
  4. 77. bills] a kind of pike or halbert used by constables of the watch, and by foot-soldiers. See Much Ado, III. iii. 44.
  5. 77. partisans] Fairholt: "A sharp two-edged sword placed on the summit of a staff." See Hamlet, i, i, 140.