ROM. In faith, I will:-Let me peruse this face; to the following speech of Romeo, is thus given in the quarto 1597: "Enter County Paris and his Page, with flowers and sweet water. "Par. Put out the torch, and lie thee all along "Under this yew-tree, keeping thine ear close to the hollow ground. "And if thou hear one tread within this churchyard, 66 Straight give me notice. 66 Boy. I will, my lord. [Paris strews the tomb with flowers. "Par. Sweet flower, with flowers I strew thy bridal bed : "Sweet tomb, that in thy circuit dost contain "The perfect model of eternity: "Fair Juliet, that with angels dost remain, Accept this latest favour at my hands, "That living honour'd thee, and being dead, "With funeral praises do adorn thy tomb. 66 Boy whistles and calls. My lord. "Enter Romeo and Balthasar, with a torch, a mattock, and a crow of iron. "Par. The boy gives warning, something doth approach. "What cursed foot wanders this way to-night, "To stay my obsequies and true love's rites? What, with a torch? muffle me, night, a while. "Rom. Give me this mattock, and this wrenching iron; "And take these letters: early in the morning, "See thou deliver them to my lord and father. "So get thee gone, and trouble me no more. "Why I descend into this bed of death, "A precious ring which I must use "In dear employment: but if thou wilt stay, "Further to pry in what I undertake, "By heaven, I'll tear thee joint by joint, "And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs. "The time and my intents are savage, wild. "Balt. Well, I'll be gone, and not trouble you. "Rom. So shalt thou win my favour; take thou this; "Commend me to my father; farewell, good fellow. "Balt. Yet for all this will I not part from hence. [Romeo opens the tomb. "Rom. Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death, Mercutio's kinsman, noble county Paris :- "Gor'd with the dearest morsel of the earth. 1 "Par. This is that banish'd haughty Montague. "That murder'd my love's cousin; I will apprehend him "Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague! "Can vengeance be pursu'd further than death? "The law condemns thee, therefore thou must die. "By shedding of thy blood. I do protest "And do attach thee as a felon here. "What, dost thou tempt me? then have at thee, boy. [They fight. "Boy. O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch. "Par. Ah! I am slain: if thou be merciful, 'Open the tomb; lay me with Juliet. "Rom. I'faith, I will; let me peruse this face; "Mercutio's kinsman? noble county Paris? "What said my man, when my betossed soul "Did not regard him as we pass'd along? "Did he not say Paris should have married "Juliet? Either he said so, or I dream'd it so. "But I will satisfy thy last request; "For thou hast priz'd thy love above thy life. "Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd. "How oft have many, at the hour of death, "Been blithe and pleasant? which their keepers call "A lightning before death. But how may I "Call this a lightning?" BOSWELL. or did I dream it so ?] Here the quarto 1597 not inele gantly subjoins: "But I will satisfy thy last request, "For thou hast priz'd thy love above thy life." A following addition, however, obliged our author to omit these lines, though perhaps he has not substituted better in their room. STEEVENS. (I) Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet, A grave? O, no; a lantern 2, slaughter'd youth, [Laying Paris in the Monument. 2 A grave? O, no; a LANTERN,] A lantern may not, in this instance, signify an enclosure for a lighted candle, but a louvre, or what in ancient records is styled lanternium, i. e. a spacious round or octagonal turret full of windows, by means of which cathedrals, and sometimes halls, are illuminated. See the beautiful lantern at Ely Minster. The same word, with the same sense, occurs in Churchyard's Siege of Edinbrough Castle : "This lofty seat and lantern of that land, "Like lodestarre stode, and lokte o'er eu'ry streete." Again, in Philemon Holland's translation of the 12th chapter of the 35th book of Pliny's Natural History: - hence came the louvers and lanternes reared over the roofes of temples," &c. 3. 66 presence] A presence is a publick room. STEEVENS. JOHNSON. A presence means a publick room, which is at times the presencechamber of the sovereign. So, in The Two Noble Gentlemen, by Beaumont and Fletcher, Jacques says, his master is a duke,His chamber hung with nobles, like a presence." 66 Again, in Westward for Smelts, 1620: “ M. MASON. the king sent for the wounded man into the presence." MALONE. This thought, extravagant as it is, is borrowed by Middleton in his comedy of Blurt Master Constable, 1602: "The darkest dungeon which spite can devise - by a dead man interr'd.] Romeo being now determin'd to put an end to his life, considers himself as already dead. MALONE. Till I read the preceding note, I supposed Romeo meant, that he placed Paris by the side of Tybalt who was already dead, and buried in the same monument. The idea, however, of a man's receiving burial from a dead undertaker, is but too like some of those miserable conceits with which our author too frequently counteracts his own pathos. STEEVENS. 5 Ι How oft when men are at the point of death, O, HOW may I Call this a lightning ?] I think we should read: O, now may I Call this a lightning? JOHNSON. The reading of the text is that of the quarto 1599. The first copy reads-But how, &c. which shows that Dr. Johnson's emendation cannot be right. MALONE. How is certainly right and proper. Romeo had, just before, been in high spirits, a symptom which, he observes, was sometimes called a lightning before death: but how, says he, (for no situation can exempt Shakspeare's characters from the vice of punning) can I term this sad and gloomy prospect a lightning? RITSON. I see no pretence for accusing Shakspeare of a pun in this passage. The words sad and gloomy, which are supposed to be put in contrast with lightning, are of Mr. Ritson's invention. The reading of the first quarto furnishes, I think, the better meaning. Some men are merry before death, but how little cause have I for such a feeling at this moment. BOSWELL. So, This idea occurs frequently in the old dramatick pieces. in the Second Part of The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601: "I thought it was a lightning before death, 66 Again, in Chapman's translation of the 15th Iliad: since after this he had not long to live, "This lightning flew before his death." Again, in his translation of the 18th Odyssey: 66 extend their cheer "To th' utmost lightning that still ushers death." STEEVENS. 6 Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath, Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, b. iii. : "Death being able to divide the soule, but not the beauty from her body." STEEVENS. So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1594: Decayed roses of discolour'd cheeks 66 Do yet retain some notes of former grace, 66 And ugly death sits faire within her face." MALONE. Is crimson in thy lips, and in thy cheeks, 7 -beauty's ENSIGN yet Is crimson in thy lips, and in thy cheeks, And DEATH'S PALE flag, &c.] So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1594 : "And nought respecting death (the last of paines) "Plac'd his pale colours (th' ensign of his might) 66 Upon his new-got spoil," &c. In the first edition of Romeo and Juliet, Shakspeare is less florid in his account of the lady's beauty; and only says: ah, dear Juliet, "How well thy beauty doth become this grave!" The speech as it now stands is first found in the quarto 1599. STEEVENS. "And death's pale flag is not advanced there." An ingenious friend some time ago pointed out to me a passage of Marini, which bears a very strong resemblance to this: "Morte la 'nsegna sua pallida e bianca Rime lugubri, p. 149, edit. Venet. 1605. Daniel, who was an Italian scholar, may have borrowed this thought from Marini. MALONE. 8 Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?] So, in Painter's translation, tom. ii. p. 242 : what greater or more cruel satisfaction canst thou desyre to have, or henceforth hope for, than to see hym which murdered thee, to be empoysoned wyth hys owne handes, and buryed by thy syde?" STEEVENS. So, in the old poem: 66 Ah cosin dere, Tybalt, whereso thy restles sprite now be, "With stretched handes to thee for mercy now I crye, "For that before thy kindly howre I forced thee to dye. "But if with quenched lyfe not quenched be thine yre, "But with revengeing lust as yet thy hart be set on fyre, What more amendes or cruell wreake disyrest thou "To see on me, then this which here is shewd forth to thee now? "Who reft by force of armes from thee thy loving breath, 66 The same with his owne hand, thou seest, doth poison himselfe to death. "And for he caused thee in tombe too soone to lye, “Too soone also, yonger then thou, himselfe he layeth by." BOSWELL. |