Page:Romeo and Juliet (1917) Yale.djvu/32

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Rom. Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes

With nimble soles; I have a soul of lead

So stakes me to the ground I cannot move.

Mer. You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings,

And soar with them above a common bound.

Rom. I am too sore enpierced with his shaft

To soar with his light feathers; and so bound

I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe:

Under love's heavy burden do I sink.

Mer. And, to sink in it, should you burden love;

Too great oppression for a tender thing.

Rom. Is love a tender thing? it is too rough,

Too rude, too boisterous; and it pricks like thorn.

Mer. If love be rough with you, be rough with love;

Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down.

Give me a case to put my visage in:

A visor for a visor! what care I,

What curious eye doth quote deformities?

Here are the beetle brows shall blush for me.

Ben. Come, knock and enter; and no sooner in,

But every man betake him to his legs.

Rom. A torch for me; let wantons, light of heart,

Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels,

For I am proverb'd with a grandsire phrase;

I'll be a candle-holder, and look on.

The game was ne'er so fair, and I am done.

Mer. Tut! dun's the mouse, the constable's own word:

 16 So stakes: which so fastens

21 pitch: a term in falconry denoting the height of a hawk's flight

30 visor for a visor: a mask for a mask-like face

31 quote: observe

35 wantons: triflers

36 rushes: the common Elizabethan floor covering

37 proverb'd: provided with a proverb; cf. n.

grandsire phrase: old saying

40 dun's the mouse; cf. n.

