Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will:-e Ah, word ill urged to one that is so ill!— Ben. Iaim'd so near, when I suppos'd you lov'd. Rom. A right good marksman!-And she's fair I love. Ben. A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit. Rom. Well, in that hit, you miss: she'll not be hit With Cupid's arrow, she hath Dian's wit; e So (4). The folio and (C), “A sick man in sadness makes." So (4). The folio and (C), uncharm'd, That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.a Ben. Then she hath sworn, that she will still live chaste ? Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste; For beauty, starv'd with her severity, Ben. Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her. Rom. To call hers, exquisite, in question more: These happy masks, that kiss fair ladies' brows, Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair; He that is strucken blind, cannot forget The precious treasure of his eyesight lost: Show me a mistress that is passing fair, What doth her beauty serve, but as a note Where I may read, who pass'd that passing fair? Farewell thou canst not teach me to forget. Ben. I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt. [Exeunt. : SCENE II-A Street. Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant. Cap. And Montague is bound as well as I, In penalty alike; and 't is not hard, I think, For men so old as we to keep the peace. Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both; And pity 't is, you liv'd at odds so long, But now, my lord, what say you to my suit. Cap. But saying o'er what I have said before: My child is yet a stranger in the world, She hath not seen the change of fourteen years; Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride. Par. Younger than she are happy mothers made. Cap. And too soon marr'd are those so early made. Earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she, a The scene ends here in (4): and the three first lines in the next scene are also wanting. (B) has them. b 8o (D). The folio omits And. Lady of my earth. Fille de terre being the French phrase for an heiress, Steevens thinks that Capulet speaks of Juliet in this sense; but Shakspere uses earth for the mortal part, as in the 146th Sonnet: "Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth," and in this play, Turn back, dull earth." But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart, more. b At my poor house, look to behold this night Earth-treading stars, that make dark heaven light: Such comfort, as do lusty young men feel And like her most, whose merit most shall be: My house and welcome on their pleasure stay. [Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS. Serv. Find them out, whose names are written here? It is written-that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am sent to find those persons, whose names are writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned :-In good time. My will to her consent. In proportion to, or with reference to, her consent. Warburton calls this line non b Earth-treading stars, &c. sense, and would read, "Earth-treading stars that make dark even light." Monck Mason would read, "Earth-treading stars that make dark, heaven's light," that is, stars that make the light of heaven appear dark in comparison with them. It appears to us unnecessary to alter the original reading, and especially as passages in the masquerade scene would seem to indicate that the banqueting room opened into a garden-as, "Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night." So the folio and (C), with the exception of one for on. (-4), Such, amongst view of many. TRAGEDIES.-VOL. I. с eye, Take thou some new infection to the Rom. Shut up in prison, kept without my food, Whipp'd, and tormented, and--Good-e'en, good fellow. Serv. God gi' good e'en.-I pray, sir, can you read? Rom. Ay, mine own fortune in my misery. Serv. Perhaps you have learn'd it without book: But I pray, can you read anything you see? Rom. Ay, if I know the letters, and the lan Signor Martino, and his wife and daughters; County Anselme, and his beauteous sisters; the lady widow of Vitruvio; Signor Placentio, and his lovely nieces; Mercutio, and his brother Valentine; Mine uncle Capulet, his wife, and daughters; My fair niece Rosaline; Livia; Signor Valentio, and his cousin Tybalt; Lucio, and the lively Helena. A fair assembly; [gives back the note.] Whither should they come? Serv. Up. Rom. Whose house? Serv. My master's. pa And these, who, often drown'd, could never die, Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars ! Herself pois'd with herself in either eye: Rom. I'll go along, no such sight to be shown, But to rejoice in splendour of mine own. [Exeunt. Were of an age.-Well, Susan is with God; To bid me trudge. And since that time it is eleven years: For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood, Wilt thou not, Jule? and, by my holy dam, And, pretty fool, it stinted," and said-Ay. La. Cap. Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace. Nurse. Yes, madam; yet I cannot choose but laugh, To think it should leave crying, and say—Ay: Wilt thou not, Jule? it stinted, and said—Ay. a Bear a brain. Have a memory-a common expression. b It stinted. It stopped. Thus Gascoigne,— "Then stinted she as if her song were done." To stint is used in an active signification for to stop. Thus in those fine lines in Titus Andronicus, which it is difficult to believe any other than Shakspere wrote, "The eagle suffers little birds to sing, And is not careful what they mean thereby, What a picture of a despot in his intervals of self satisfying forbearance. c Parlous. A corruption of the word perilous. Jul. And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, Say I. Nurse. Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace! Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nurs❜d: La. Cap. Marry, that Jul. It is an honour that I dream not of. Nurse. An honour!" were not I thine only than you, Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, Are made already mothers: by my count, Nurse. A man, young lady! lady, such a man, As all the world-Why, he's a man of wax. La. Cap. Verona's summer hath not such a flower. Nurse. Nay, he's a flower; in faith, a very flower. gentleman ? 13 This night you shall behold him at our feast: Nurse. No less? nay, bigger; women grow by men. La. Cap. Speak briefly, can you like of Paris' love? Jul. I'll look to like, if looking liking move : But no more deep will I endart mine eye, Than your consent gives strength to make it fly. So (A). The folio and (C) have hour, both in Juliet's and the Nurse's speeches. b The next seventeen lines are wanting in (4). c (B), married; which reading has been adopted by Steevens and Malone, in preference to several, in the folio and (C). Enter a Servant. Serv. Madam, the guests are come, supper served up, you called, my young lady asked for, the nurse cursed in the pantry, and every thing in extremity. I must hence to wait; I beseech you, follow straight. La. Cap. We follow thee.-Juliet, the county stays. Nurse. Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days. [Exeunt. SCENE IV.—A Street. Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with Five or Six Maskers, Torch-Bearers, and others. Rom. What, shall this speech be spoke for our excuse ? Or shall we on without apology? Ben. The date is out of such prolixity: We'll have no Cupid hood-wink'd with a scarf,1 Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath, Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper; Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke After the prompter, for our entrance: But, let them measure us by what they will, We'll measure them a measure,15 and be gone. Rom. Give me a torch,16-I am not for this ambling; Being but heavy I will bear the light. Mer. Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. Rom. Not I, believe me: you have dancing shoes, With nimble soles: I have a soul of lead, Mer. You are a lover; borrow Cupid's wings, And soar with them above a common bound. Rom. I am too sore enpierced with his shaft, To soar with his light feathers; and so bound, I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe: Under love's heavy burden do I sink. Mer. And, to sink in it, should you burden love: Too great oppression for a tender thing. Rom. Is love a tender thing? it is too rough, Too rude, too boist'rous; and it pricks like thorn. Mer. If love be rough with you, be rough So bound, in (C); to bound, in folio. A visor for a visor!-what care I But every man betake him to his legs. Rom. A torch for me: let wantons, light of heart, Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels; 17 Mer. Tut! dun's the mouse, 18 the constable's own word: If thou art dun, we'll draw thee from the mire Of this, sir reverence," 19 love,b wherein thou stick'st Up to the ears.-Come, we burn daylight, ho. I mean, sir, in delay We waste our lights in vain, lights, lights, by day.° Take our good meaning; for our judgment sits Mer. Rom. Well, what was yours? And so did I. That dreamers often lie. Rom. In bed, asleep, while they do dream things true. Mer. O, then, I see queen Mab hath been with you. She is the fairies' midwife; and she comes Drawn with a team of little atomies d Time out o' mind the fairies' coach makers. On courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight: O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees: O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream; Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, Because their breaths with sweetmeats tainted are. Sometime she gallops o'er a courtier's nose, A suit. A court solicitation was called a suit;-a process, a suit at law. b It is desirable to exhibit the first draft of a performance so exquisitely finished as this celebrated description, in which every word is a study. And yet it is curious, that in the quarto of 1609, and in the folio (from which we print), and in both of which the corrections of the author are ap parent, the whole speech is given as if it were prose. The original quarto of 1597 gives the passage as follows: "Ah then I see queen Mad hath been with you. Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love. And then dreams he of smelling out a suit; Of healths five fathom deep, and then anon |