What is "now and now"

Now \Now\ (nou), adv. [OE. nou, nu, AS. n[=u], nu; akin to D., OS., & OHG. nu, G. nu, nun, Icel., n[=u], Dan., Sw., & Goth. nu, L. nunc, Gr. ny`, ny^n, Skr. nu, n[=u]. [root]193. Cf. New.]

1. At the present time; at this moment; at the time of speaking; instantly; as, I will write now.

   I have a patient now living, at an advanced age, who discharged blood from his lungs thirty years ago.
   --Arbuthnot.

2. Very lately; not long ago.

   They that but now, for honor and for plate, Made the sea blush with blood, resign their hate.
   --Waller.

3. At a time contemporaneous with something spoken of or contemplated; at a particular time referred to.

   The ship was now in the midst of the sea.
   --Matt. xiv. 2

4. 4. In present circumstances; things being as they are; -- hence, used as a connective particle, to introduce an inference or an explanation.

   How shall any man distinguish now betwixt a parasite and a man of honor?
   --L'Estrange.

   Why should he live, now nature bankrupt is?
   --Shak.

   Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber.
   --John xviii. 40.

   The other great and undoing mischief which befalls men is, by their being misrepresented. Now, by calling evil good, a man is misrepresented to others in the way of slander.
   --South.

   Now and again, now and then; occasionally.

   Now and now, again and again; repeatedly. [Obs.]
   --Chaucer.

   Now and then, at one time and another; indefinitely; occasionally; not often; at intervals. ``A mead here, there a heath, and now and then a wood.''
   --Drayton.

   Now now, at this very instant; precisely now. [Obs.] ``Why, even now now, at holding up of this finger, and before the turning down of this.''
   --J. Webster (1607).

   Now . . . now, alternately; at one time . . . at another time. ``Now high, now low, now master up, now miss.''
   --Pope.