P. 549, Notes 1. 18. Have a conceit left them. &c.] This quotation is also found in the Preface to Dryden's Fables: "Just John Littlewit in Bartholomew Fair, who had a conceit (as he tells you) left him in his misery; a miserable conceit." STEEVENS.

PROLOGUE.

P. 549, c. 1, l. 16. This prologue, after the first copy was published in 1597, received several alterations, both in respect of correctness and versification. In the folio it is omitted.-The play was originally performed by the Right Hon. the Lord of Hunsdon his servants.

In the first of king James I. was made an act of parliament for some restraint or limitation of noblement in the protection of players, or of players under their sanction. STEEVENS.

Under the word PROLOGUE, in the copy of 1599, is printed Chorus, which I suppose meant only that the prologue was to be spoken by the same person who personated the chorus at the end of the first act.

The original prologue, in the quarto of 1599, stands thus:

"Two household frends, alike in dignitie,

"In faire Verona, where we lay our scene, "From civill broyles broke into enmitie,

"Whose civill warre makes civill handes uncleane. "From forth the fatal loynes of these two foes

"A paire of starre-crost lovers tooke their life; Whose misadventures, piteous overthrowes, "(Through the continuing of their fathers' strife, "And death-markt passage of their parents' rage,) "Is now the two howres traffique of our stage. "The which, if you with patient eares attend, "What here we want, wee'll studie to amend." MALONE.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Id. I 21.—we'll not carry coals.] A phrase formerly used to signify the bearing injuries. Id. c. 2, l. 15. poor John.] is hake, dried, and salted. Id l. 16. here comes two of the house of the Montagues] It should be observed, that the partizans of the Montague family wore a token in their hats, in order to distinguish them from their enemies, the Capulets. Hence, throughout this play, they are known at a distance.

weapons.

Id. c. 2, 1. 38. "to the same." MALONE. Id. 1. 63. to his will!] i. e. that the blind god should yet be able to direct his arrows at those whom he wishes to hit, that he should wound whomever he wills, or desires to wound. P. 551, c. 1, l. 1. Why, such is love's transgression.] Such is the consequence of unskilful and mistaken kindness.

Id. 1. 17. Tell me in sadness,] that is, gravely, or seriously. Id. 1. 30. And in strong proof, &c.] As this play was written in the reign of queen Elizabeth, I cannot help regarding these speeches of Romeo as an oblique compliment to her majesty, who was not liable to be displeased at hearing her chastity praised after she was suspected to have lost it, or her beauty commended in the 67th year of her age, though she never Her possessed any when she was young. declaration, that she would continue unmarried, increases the probability of the present supposition. STEEVENS.

Id. l. 48.-wisely too fair, &c.] There is in her too much sanctimonious wisdom united with beauty, which induces her to continue chaste with the hopes of attaining heavenly bliss.

Id. 1. 51. To call hers, exquisite, in question more:] More into talk; to make her unpa

ralleled beauty more the subject of thought and conversation.

Id. l. 52. These happy masks, &c.] i. e. the masks worn by female spectators of the play. Id. 1. 57. What doth her beauty serve,] i. e. what end does it answer.

SCENE II.

ld. 1. 78. She is the hopeful lady of my earth:] This is a Gallicism: Fille de terre is the French phrase for an heiress.

Id. c 2, 1. 2. My will to her consent is but a part;]

To, in this instance, signifies in comparison with, in proportion to.

Id. 1. 15. Inherit at my house;] To inherit, in the language of Shakspeare's age, is to possess. Id. 1. 42. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.] The plantain leaf is a blood-stauncher, and was formerly applied to green wounds. Id. l. 75. crush a cup of wine.] This cant

Id 1. 70. The date is out of such prolixity:] Introductory speeches are out of date or fashion.

Id 1 77. We'll measure them a measure, dance.

c. a

Id 1.78. Give me a torch, A torch-bearer seems to have been a constant appendage on every troop of masks, and was not reckoned a degrading office.

P. 553. c. 1. 7. 23. To quote is to observe. Id. l. 28. Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels; It has been already observed, that it was anciently the custom to strew rooms with rushes, before carpets were in use. Id. 131. Pll be a candle holder, and look on,

doth quote deformities!]

The game was neer so fair, and I am done. An allusion to an old proverbial saying, which advises to give over when the game is at the fairest.

Id. 1.52. She is the fairies' midwife: I apprehend,

and with no violence of interpretation, that by the fairies' midwife," the poet means, the midwife among the fairies, because it was her peculiar employment to steal the new-born babe in the night, and to leave another in its place. The poet here uses her general appellation, and character, which yet has so far a proper reference to the present train of fiction, as that her illusions were practised on persons in bed or asleep; for she not only haunted women in child-bed, but was likewise the ineubus or night-mare. Shakspeare, by employing her here, alludes at large to her midnight pranks performed on sleepers: but denominates her from the most notorious one, of her personating the drowsy midwife, who was insensibly carried away into some distant water, and substituting a new birth in the bed or cradle. It would clear the appellation to read the fairy midwife. The poet avails himself of Mab's appropriate province, by giving her this noctural agency. T. WARTON,

Id. l. 55. of little atomies-] An obsolete substitute for atoms.

Id 1 77. And then dreams he of smelling out a sait, &c. In our author's time, a court solcitation was called, simply, a suit, and a process, a suit at law, to distinguish it from the other. Id c. 2. 3. Spanish blades.] A sword is called a toledo, from the excellence of the Toledan steel.

Id. l. 9. And bakes the elf locks, &c.] This was a

common superstition; and seems to have had its rise from the horrid disease called the Plica Polonica.

Id l. 45

SCENE V.

court-cupboard. The court-epboard perhaps served the purpose of what w call at present the side board. The use wh now is made of those cupboards is to dispar at public festivals the flaggons, cans, cups, beakers, and other antique silver vessels of th company, some of which (with the names of the donors inscribed on them), are remarkaley large

Id. 1. 46. save me a piece of marchpate. Marchpanes were composed of filberts, almonds, pistachoes, pine-kernels, and sugar roses, with a small proportion of flour Id. l. 69. A hall! a hall! An exclamation signfying make room.

Id. l. 71.

turn the tables up,] Before th phrase is generally intelligible, it should e observed that ancient tables were flat leaves. joined by hinges, and placed on tressels. WS. they were to be removed, they were therefor turned up.

P. 554, c. 1, 7. 14. "It seems she hangs up." &c.- -MALONE.

Id. l. 57. njury. Id. l 59.

to scathe you ; i. e. to do you

You are a princox; go: A praz is a coxcomb, or a spoiled child. unworthiest"-MALONE,

Id. 1. 66. Id. c. 2,1 7. [Kissing her.] Our poet here, witho t doubt, copied from the mode of his own te and kissing a lady in a public assembly, we may conclude, was not thought indecorous. Id. 1. 27. towards Towards is ready at hard Id. 1. 57. That fair.] Fair, it has been already

observed, was formerly used as a substarte, and was synonymous to beauty. Mr. Malee reads "for which love groan'd for."

ACT II.

SCENE I.

P. 555. c 1.7 11. “pronounce but-" MALONE Id. . 15. When king Cophetua, &c.] Alluding to an old ballad preserved in the first volume ( Dr. Percy's Reliques of ancient Engah 1. 16. he stirreth not,"-MALONE. Poetry.

Id.

Id. 1. 17. The ape is dead,] This phrase appears to have been frequently applied to young m in our author's time, without any reference t the mimicry of that animal. It was an expression of tenderness, like poor fool.

Id. 1. 19. By her high forehead,] A high forehea was in Shakspeare's time thought eminely beautiful.

Id. 1. 32. the humorous night :] means humid the moist dewy night.

Id. 1. 37. Mr. Malone has thought proper to add two indecent lines here, which all other editors have omitted.

P. 556, c. 1, 7. 1. - cunning to be strange.] be strange, is to put on affected coldnes to appear shy.

Id 1 75. To lure this tassel-gentle back agn! The tassel or tiercel (for so it should be elt) is the male of the gosshawk; so calle. because it is a tierce or third less the the female. This is equally true of all bis of prey

Id. c. 2, l. 6. “Madam!" MALONE.

Id. c. 2. l. 2.

SCENE.

the vef pin of his heart cleft with the blind boyboy's butt-shaft:] The allusion is to archry. The clout or white mark at which the arrows are directed, was fastened by a blac pin placed in the center of it. To hit the was the highest ambition

of every marksmn. Id. 1. 5. More than prince of cats,] Tybert, the name given to be cat, in the story-book of Reynard the 'or.

Id. l. 11 a gntleman of the very first house, -of the firt and second cause:] i. e. a gentleman of he first rank, of the first eminence among thes duellists; and one who understands the whole science of quarrelling, and will tell you of the first cause, and the second cause, for which a inau is to fight. Id 1 13. he hay! All the terms of the modern fencing-school were originally Italian; the rapier, or small thrusting-sword, being first used in Italy. The hay is the word hai, you have it, used when a thrust reaches the antagonist, from which our fencers, on the same occasion, without knowing, I suppose, any reason for it, cry out ha!

Id. 1. 34. your French slop.] Slops are large loose breeches or trowsers, worn at present only by sailors.

Id. L. 38. The slip, sir, the slip;] In our author's time there was a counterfeit piece of money distinguished by the name of a slip. Id. I 50.then is my pump well flowered.]

It was the custom to wear ribbons in the shoes formed into the shape of roses, or of any other flowers.

Id. 1. 55. O single-soled jest,] i. e. slight, unsolid, feeble.

Id L. 60.

if thy wits run the wild-goose chase,] One kind of horse-race, which resembled the flight of wild-geese, was formerly known by this name. Two horses were started together; and whichever rider could get the lead, the other was obliged to follow him over whatever ground the foremost jockey chose to go. That horse which could distance the other, won the race.

Id. l. 68. bitter sweeting;] Is an apple of that

of Peter carrying the nurse's fan, seems ridiculous according to modern manners; but such was formerly the practice.

Id. 1. 22. God ye good den,] i. e. God give you a good even.

Id. l. 57. lady, lady, lady,] The burthen of an old song.

Id. l. 60. -what saucy merchant was this, &c.] The term merchant, which was, and even now is, frequently applied to the lowest sort of dealers, seems anciently to have been used on these familiar occasions in contradistinction to gentleman; signifying that the person showed by his behaviour he was a low fellow. The term chap, i. e. chapman, a word of the same import with merchant in its less respectable sense, is still in common use among the vulgar, as a general denomination for any person of whom they mean to speak with freedom or disrespect.

Id. l. 61. —of his ropery?] Ropery was anciently Id. 1. 69. -none of his skains-mates.] A skein or skain was either a knife or a short dagger. By skains-mates the nurse means none of his loose companions who frequent the fencingschool with him, where we may suppose the exercise of this weapon was taught. Id. c. 2, l. 27. - like a tackled stair:] Like stairs of rope in the tackle of a ship. Id. l. 28. top-gallant of my joy-] The topgallant is the highest extremity of the mast of a ship.

used in the same sense as roguery is now.

Id 1 42. The day is hot,—] It is observed, that, in Italy, almost all assassinations are committed during the heat of summer.

P. 560, c. 1, 1. 43. A la stoccata-] Stoccata is the Italian term for a thrust or stab with a rapier.

Id. 1. 50. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears?] We should read pilche, which signifies a cloke or coat of skins, meauing the scabbard.

Id. c. 2, 1. 19. This day's black fate on more days doth depend;] This day's unhappy destiny hangs over the days yet to come. There will yet be more mischief.

Id. l. 24. -respective lenity,] Cool, considerate gentleness.

Id. 1. 25. be my conduct now!] Conduct for conductor.

Id. 1. 58. as thou art true,] As thou art just and upright.

Id. 1. 65. How nice- -] How slight, how unimportant, how petty.

P

561, c. 1, l. 14. Affection makes him false,] The charge of falsehood on Benvolio, though produced at hazard, is very just. The author, who seems to intend the character of Benvolio as good, meant perhaps to show, how the best minds, in a state of faction and discord, are detorted to criminal partiality. JOHNSON.

SCENE IL

P. 561, c, 1, 7. 41 Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night!

That run-away's eyes may wink; &c.] Juliet first wishes for the absence of the sun, and then invokes the night to spread its curtain close around the world:

Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night!

Next, recollecting that the night would seem short to her, she speaks of it as of a run-away, whose flight she would wish to retard, and whose eyes she would blind, lest they should make discoveries.

Id. l. 49. Come, civil night,] Civil is grave, decently solemn.

Id. 1. 53. Hood my unmann'd blood bating in my cheeks, These are terms of falconry. An unmanned hawk is one that is not brought to endure company. Bating (not baiting, as it has hitherto been printed), is fluttering with the wings as striving to fly away.

Id. 1. 59. "upon"-MALONE.

Id. l. 65. the garish sun.] Garish is gaudy,

showy.

11

Id. c. 2, l. 13. say thou but I,] In Shakspeare's time the affirmative particle ay was usually written I, and here it is necessary to retain the old spelling.

Id. 1. 21. God save the mark!] This proverbial exclamation occurs again, with equal obscurity, in Othello, Act I. sc. 1. Id. l. 71.

what tongue shall smooth thy name.] To smooth, in ancient language, is to stroke, to caress, to fondle.

P. 562, c. 1, 1. S. Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts.] That is, is worse than the loss of ten thousand Tybalts.

Id. 1. 14. Which modern lamentation, &c.] i. e. trite, common.

SCENE III.

Id. 1. 63. "then banished,"-MALONE.

Id. 1. 71. This is dear mercy, The old copies read mere mercy, which, in ancient language, signifies absolute mercy. Id. l. 76. More validity,

More honourable state, more courtship lives In carrion flies, than Romeo:] Validity seems here to mean worth or dignity. By courtship, the author seems to mean, the state of a lover; that dalliance, in which he who courts or wooes a lady is sometimes indulged. Id. c. 2, l. 29. Let me dispute with thee of thy estate. i. e. talk over thy affairs.

P. 563, c. 1. 1. 37. Like powder in a skill-less soldier's flask, &c.] To understand the force of this allusion, it should be remembered that the ancient English soldiers, using matchlocks instead of locks with flints as at present, were obliged to carry a lighted match hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden flask in which they kept their powder.

Id. 1 39. And thou dismember'd with thine own defence. And thou torn to pieces with thine own weapons.

Id 1 73. - here stands all your state; The whole of your fortune depends on this.

SCENE IV.

Id. c. 2. l. 16 mew'd up-] This is a phrase from falconry. A mew was a place of confinement for hawks.

Id. l. 17. Sir Paris. I will make a desperate tender- Desperate means only bold, adren turous, as if he had said in the vulgar phrase,

will speak a bold word, and venture fo omise you my daughter.

tis

SCENE V.

Id.. Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate :] This is not merely a poetical supposi It is observed of the nightingale, that, if disturbed, she sits and sings upon the sar tree for many weeks together. Id. 1. G the pale reflect-] The appearance of a oud opposed to the moon.

Id. 1. 68. have more care to stay-] Care for inclinion.

Id. l. 74. sweet division;] Division seems to have be the technical phrase for the pauses or parts a musical composition. P. 564, c. 1, 1. Hunting thee hence with huntsup to the y. The hunts up was the name of the tune ciently played to wake the hun ters, and colt them together. But a hunts-up also signified morning song to a new-married woman, the da after her marriage, and is used here in that sen

Id. 1. 34. That is riwn'd for faith? This Romeo, so renown'afor faith, was but the cas before dying for le of another woman: yel this is natural. Robo was the darling object of Juliet's love, and omeo was, of course, to have every excellence

Id. l. 40.

brings.

-procures herhither?] Procures for

Id. l. 66. Ay, madam, from&c.] Juliet's equivo cations are rather too art for a mind disturbed by the loss of a new lover. JoHNSON. Id. c. 2, l. 17. in happytime,] A la bonne heure. This phrase was erjected, when the hearer was not quite so wil pleased as the speaker.

Id. 1. 21. The county Paris.] aris, though in one place called earl, is most commonly styled the countie in this play. Shakspeare seems to have preferred, for some rease or other, the Italian comte to our count: prhaps he tous it from the old English novel, from which he is said to have taken his plot : and in which Pats is first styled a young earle, and afterward counte, countee, county; according to the unsettled orthography of the time. P. 565, c. 1, 1. 64. I think it best gor married with the county.] The character of the Lure exhibits a just picture of those whose actions have no principles for their foundation, has been unfaithful to the trust reposed in bet by Capulet, and is ready to embrace any expedient that offers, to avert the cousequences of her first infidelity. STEEVENS.

ACT IV.

SCENE 1.

P. 566, c. 1, . 65. "Give me, give me! O tell me not of fear."-MALONE.

SCENE II.

Id. 1. 77. go hire me twenty cunning cooks.] Twenty cooks for half a dozen guests! Either Capulet has altered his mind strangely, or our author forgot what he had just made him tell us. See p. 563.

Id. c. 2, l. 12.- -from shrift—] i. e. from confession.

Id. 1. 15. gadding?] The primitive sense of this word was to straggle from house to house, and collect money, under pretence of singing carols to the blessed Virgin.

Id. l. 25. — becomed love-] Becomed for becoming: one participle for the other; a frequent practice with our author.

SCENE III.

Id. 1. 55. For I have need, &c.] Juliet plays most of her pranks under the appearance of religion: perhaps Shakspeare meant to punish her hypocrisy. JOHNSON.

P. 567, c. 1, l. 24. green in earth,] i. e. fresh in earth, newly buried.

Id. 1. 25. Lies fest'ring-] To fester is to corrupt. Id. 1. 27. is it not like, that I This speech is confused, and inconsequential, according to the disorder of Juliet's mind. Id. 1. 31. be distraught,] Distraught is dis

tracted.

SCENE IV.

The

Id. l. 46. They call for dates and quinces in the pastry, i. e. in the room where paste was made. So laundry, spicery, &c. Id. 1.50. The curfew bell-] The curfew bell is universally rung at eight or nine o'clock at night; generally according to the season. term is here used with peculiar impropriety, as it is not believed that any bell was ever rung so early as three in the morning. The derivation of curfew is well known, but it is a mere vulgar error that the institution was a badge of slavery imposed by the Norman Conqueror. To put out the fire became necessary only because it was time to go to bed: and if the curfew commanded all fires to be extinguished, the morning bell ordered them to be lighted again. In short, the ringing of those two bells was a manifest and essential service to people who had scarcely any other means of measuring their time. RITSON.

Id. l. 58. a mouse-hunt in your time;] In Norfolk, and many other parts of England,

the cant term for a weasel is-a mouse-hunt. The intrigues of this animal, like those of the cat kind, are usually carried on during the night. This circumstance will account for the appellation which Lady Capulet allows her husband to have formerly deserved.

SCENE V.

P. 568, c. 1, 7. 10. Mr. Malone omits this second dead!

Id. l. 57. —0 play me some merry dump,] A dump anciently signified some kind of dance,

as well as sorrow. But on this occasion it means a mournful song. Dumps were heavy mournful tunes; possibly indeed any sort of movements were once so called, as we sometimes meet with a merry dump. Hence doleful dumps, deep sorrow, or grievous affliction, as m the verses above, and in the less ancient ballad of Chevy Chase. It is still said of a

Id l. 18. Act V.] The Acts are here properly enough divided, nor did any better distribution than the editors have already made occur to me in the perusal of this play; yet it may not be improper to remark, that in the first folio, and I suppose the foregoing editions are in the same state, there is no division of the Acts, and therefore some future editor may try, whether any improvement can be made, by reducing them to a length more equal, or interrupting the action at more proper intervals. JOHNSON.

Id.

Id. 1. 21. If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep,] By the eye of sleep Shakspeare perhaps means the visual power, which a man asleep is enabled, by the aid of imagination, to exercise; or perhaps the eye of the god of sleep. 1. 23. My bosom's lord-] These three lines are very gay and pleasing. But why does Shakspeare give Romeo this involuntary cheerfulness just before the extremity of unhappiness? Perhaps to show the vanity of trusting to those uncertain and casual exaltations or depressions, which many consider as certain foretokens of good and evil. JOHNSON.

Id.

Id

1. 68. An alligator stuff'd,] I was many years ago assured, that formerly, when an apothecary first engaged with his druggist, he was gratuitously furnished by him with these articles of show, which were then imported for that use only. I have met with the alligator, tortoise, &c. hanging up in the shop of an ancient apothecary at Limehouse, as well as in places more remote from our metropolis. See Hogarth's Marriage Alamode, Plate III-It may be remarked, however, that the apothecaries dismissed their alligators, &c. some time before the physicians were willing to part with their amber headed canes and solemn priwigs. STEVENS.

1. 75. And if a man, &c.] This phraseology, which means simply-If, was not unfrequent in Shakspeare's time and before.