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PETER Anon!
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PETER I’m at your service.
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NURSE My fan, Peter.
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NURSE Give me my fan, Peter.
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MERCUTIO Good, Peter, to hide her face, for her fan’s the fairer
face.
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MERCUTIO Good Peter, give her her fan to hide her face. Her fan is prettier
than her face.
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NURSE God ye good morrow, gentlemen.
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NURSE Good morning, gentlemen.
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MERCUTIO
55God ye good e'en, fair gentlewoman.
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MERCUTIO Good afternoon, fair lady.
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NURSE Is it good e'en?
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NURSE Is it now afternoon?
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MERCUTIO 'Tis no less, I tell you, for the bawdy hand of the dial
is now upon the prick of noon.
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MERCUTIO It’s not earlier than that, I tell you. The
lusty handAgain, Mercutio’s language is full of offensive sexual innuendo. lusty hand of the clock is now pricking noon. |
NURSE Out upon you! What a man are you?
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NURSE Get out of here! What kind of man are you?
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MERCUTIO One, gentlewoman, that God hath made, himself to mar.
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MERCUTIO I’m a man, my lady, that God has made for himself to
ruin.
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NURSE
60By my troth, it is well said. “For himself to
mar,” quoth he? Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where
I may find the young Romeo?
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NURSE I swear, you speak the truth. “For himself to
ruin,” he says. Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where
I can find young Romeo?
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ROMEO I can tell you, but young Romeo will be older when you have found
him than he was when you sought him. I am the youngest of that name,
for fault of a worse.
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ROMEO I can tell you, but young Romeo will be older when you find him
than he was when you started looking for him. I am the youngest man
by that name, because there is no one younger, or worse.
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NURSE You say well.
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NURSE You speak well.
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