Page:Romeo and Juliet (1917) Yale.djvu/140

128 and which may throw light on the reason for introducing this scene.

Heart's ease. A popular tune. 'My heart is full of woe' was the refrain of a familiar ballad.

give you the minstrel. The minstrel was a gleeman or 'gleekman'; hence this is a punning phrase repeating the idea of 'give you the gleek.' The minstrel's reply seems to be only the stupid retort, If I'm 'only a minstrel,' you're only a servant.

These are the opening lines of a song printed in The Paradise of Dainty Devices (1576).

Catling. Shakespeare's names for these musicians were connected with their art. A 'catling' is a small lute-string of catgut; a 'rebeck,' a three-stringed predecessor of the violin; a 'sound-post,' a part of a stringed instrument.

flattering truth. 'The verisimilitude of visions presented during sleep. "Flattering" is here used in the sense of "illusive. (Clarke.)

beggarly account, etc. A few boxes which, being empty, amount to almost nothing.

Depart again. After these words the second and third Quartos and the Folios have:

Since these lines do not appear in the other Quartos, and since much of what they contain is later repeated, they are omitted from modern texts. Miss Porter, however, argues with some force that unless Romeo takes the poison at this point its effect is amazingly quick.