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44
ROMEO AND JULIET
[ACT I

You'll make a mutiny among my[C 1] guests!
You will set cock-a-hoop![E 1] you'll be the man!

Tyb. Why, uncle, 'tis a shame.
Cap. Go to, go to; 85
You are a saucy boy: is't so[E 2] indeed?
This trick may chance to scathe[E 3] you,—I know what:
You must contrary[E 4] me! marry, 'tis time.—
Well said, my hearts!—You are a princox;[E 5] go:
Be quiet, or—More light, more light!—For shame![C 2] 90
I'll make you quiet.—What! cheerly, my hearts!
Tyb. Patience perforce[E 6] with wilful choler meeting
Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.
I will withdraw: but this intrusion shall, 94
Now seeming sweet, convert to bitter[C 3] gall.[E 7][Exit.
  1. 83. my] Q, the F.
  2. 90. or … shame!] or more … light for shame, Q, F.
  3. 95. bitter] bittrest Q (alone).
  1. 84. cock-a-hoop] New Eng. Dict. says "of doubtful origin," and its history further obscured by attempts to analyse it; various conjectures are given. "To set (the) cock on (the) hoop, apparently to turn on the tap, let the liquor flow; hence drink without stint," and, by extension, give a loose to all disorder. New Eng. Dict. cites, among other examples, Daus. tr. Sleidan's Comm., 1560: "There be found divers … which setting cocke on hoope beleve nothinge at all, neither regard they what reason, what honesty, or what thing conscience doth prescribe."
  2. 86. is't so] I understand this to refer to Tybalt's 'tis a shame. Furness seems to approve Ulrici's supposition that it is an answer to a as remark of some guest.
  3. 87. scathe] injure; used by Shakespeare as a verb only here.
  4. 88. contrary] oppose, cross; accent on second syllable. J. Hooker, Girald. Ireland in Holinshed: "The more noble were his good and worthie attempts, the more he was crossed and contraried" (New Eng. Dict.).
  5. 89. princox] a forward youth, Steevens quotes The Return from Parnassus, 1606: "Your proud University princox." Archbishop Bancroft, angry with young Tobie Matthew, addresses him as a "Princox" in Matthew's unpublished account of his conversion.
  6. 92. Patience perforce] compulsory patience, a proverbial expression. Steevens quotes the adage, "Patience perforce is a medicine for a mad dog," or, as Nares has it, "a mad horse."
  7. 95. Now … gall] Hudson, following Lettsom, regards convert transitive, governing sweet (substantive), and reads, Now-seeming sweet convert. "Convert" (intrans.) occurs several times in Shakespeare.