Page:Romeo and Juliet (1917) Yale.djvu/56

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very butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duel-

list; a gentleman of the very first house, of the

first and second cause. Ah! the immortal

passado! the punto reverso! the hay!

Ben. The what?

Mer. The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting

fantasticoes, these new tuners of accents!—'By

Jesu, a very good blade!—a very tall man! a very

good whore.'—Why, is not this a lamentable

thing, grandsire, that we should be thus afflicted

with these strange flies, these fashion-mongers,

these pardonnez-mois, who stand so much on

the new form that they cannot sit at ease on

the old bench? O, their bons, their bons!

Ben. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo.

Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring.

O flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! Now is he

for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in: Laura

to his lady was a kitchen-wench; marry,

she had a better love to be-rime her; Dido a

dowdy; Cleopatra a gipsy; Helen and Hero

hildings and harlots; Thisbe, a grey eye or so,

but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, bon

jour! there's a French salutation to your French

slop. You gave us the counterfeit fairly last

night.

 25 silk button; cf. n.

26 house: school of fencing

27 cause: formal reason for a duel (?)

28 passado hay: technical fencing terms: forward thrust, backhanded thrust, home thrust

30 the pox of: plague take

31 fantasticoes: absurd persons

accents: language

32 tall: valiant

34 grandsire; cf. n.

35 flies: worthless persons

36 pardonnez-mois; cf. n.

40 roe; cf. n.

41 flesh: human nature

42 Petrarch; cf. n.

46 hildings: baggages

49 slop: loose breeches

counterfeit: counterfeit coins were called slips

