Page 3238 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

Then will I give you the serving-creature.

PET ER

Then will I lay the serving-creature’s dagger on your pate. I will carry no
crotchets. I’ll re you, I’ll fa you. [115] Do you note me?

1 MUSICIAN

And you re us and fa us, you note us.

2 MUSICIAN

Pray you put up your dagger and put out your wit.

PET ER

Then have at you with my wit. I will dry-beat [120] you with an iron wit,
and put up my iron dagger. Answer me like men.

‘When griping griefs the heart doth wound,
And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
Then music with ber silver sound’ - [125]
Why ‘silver sound’? Why ‘music with her silver sound’? What say you, Simon
Catling?

1 MUSICIAN

Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.

PET ER

Prates. What say you, Hugh Rebeck?

2 MUSICIAN

I say ‘silver sound’ because musicians sound [130] for silver.

PET ER

Prates too. What say you, James Soundpost?

3 MUSICIAN

Faith, I know not what to say.

PET ER

O, I cry you mercy, you are the singer. I will say for you. It is ’music with
her silver sound’ because [135] musicians have no gold for sounding.