BEN. Tell me in sadness', whom she is you love. ROM. What, shall I groan, and tell thee? BEN. But sadly tell me, who. Groan? why, no; ROM. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will:Ah, word ill urg'd to one that is so ill !— In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman. BEN. I aim'd so neart, when I suppos'd you lov'd. ROM. A right good marks-man!-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; O, she is rich in beauty; only poor, That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store §'. * Folio, that is. ‡ Folio, uncharmed. + Quarto A, right. § Quarto A, exit. ? Tell me in SADNESS,] That is, tell me gravely, tell me in seriousness. JOHNSON. 8 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 possessed any when she was young. Her declaration that she would continue unmarried, increases the probability of the present supposition. STEEVENS. "-in strong proof-" In chastity of proof, as we say in armour of proof. JOHNSON. 9 She will not stay the SIEGE of LOVING terms,] So, in our author's Venus and Adonis : 1 "Remove your siege from my unyielding heart; "To love's alarm it will not ope the gate." MALONE. with beauty dies her store.] Mr. Theobald reads-“With her dies beauty's store; and is followed by the two succeeding (1) BEN. Then she hath sworn, that she will still live chaste ? ROM. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste 2; For beauty, starv'd with her severity, Cuts beauty off from all posterity 3. editors. I have replaced the old reading, because I think it at least as plausible as the correction. She is rich, says he, in beauty, and only poor in being subject to the lot of humanity, that her store, or riches can be destroyed by death, who shall, by the same blow, put an end to beauty. JOHNSON. Mr. Theobald's alteration may be countenanced by the following passage in Swetnam Arraign'd, a comedy, 1620: 66 Nature now shall boast no more "Of the riches of her store; "Since, in this her chiefest prize, Again, in the 14th Sonnet of Shakspeare: 66 'Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date." Again, in Massinger's Virgin-Martyr: 66 with her dies "The abstract of all sweetness that's in woman." STEEVENS. Yet perhaps the present reading may be right, and Romeo means to say, in his quaint jargon, That she is poor, because she leaves no part of her store behind her, as with her all beauty will die. M. MASON. Words are sometimes shuffled out of their places at the press; but that they should be at once transposed and corrupted, is highly improbable. I have no doubt that the old copies are right. She is rich in beauty; and poor in this circumstance alone, that with her, beauty will expire; her store of wealth [which the poet has already said was the fairness of her person,] will not be transmitted to posterity, inasmuch as she will "lead her graces to the grave, and leave the world no copy." MALONE. 2 She hath, and in that SPARING makes huge WASTE ;] So, in our author's first Sonnet: "And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding." 3 For beauty, starv'd with her severity, MALONE. Cuts beauty off from all posterity.] So, in our author's third Sonnet: "Or who is he so fond will be the tomb "Of his self-love, to stop posterity?" Again, in his Venus and Adonis: She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair', BEN. Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her. ROM. O, teach me how I should forget to think. BEN. By giving liberty unto thine eyes; Examine other beauties. ROM. 'Tis the way To call hers, exquisite, in question more": These happy masks, that kiss fair ladies' brows, "What is thy body but a swallowing grave, "Which by the rights of time thou need'st must have!" MALONE. - 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. MALONE. None of the following speeches of this scene are in the first edition of 1597. POPE. 5 Do I LIVE DEAD,] So, Richard the Third : 66 -now they kill me with a living death." To call hers, exquisite, in question more:] That is, to call hers, which is exquisite, the more into my remembrance and contemplation. It is in this sense, and not in that of doubt, or dispute, that the word question is here used. HEATH. More into talk; to make her unparalleled beauty more the subject of thought and conversation. Question means conversation. So, in the Rape of Lucrece : "And after supper long he questioned "With modest Lucrece." And in many passages in our author's plays. MALOne. 7 THESE happy masks, &c.] i. e. the masks worn by female spectators of the play. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Beggar's Bush, Sc. ult. : "We stand here for an Epilogue. 66 Ladies, your bounties first! the rest will follow; "For women's favours are a leading alms : If you be pleas'd, look cheerly, throw your eyes Former editors print those instead of these, but without authority. STEEVENs. These happy masks, I believe, means no more than the happy Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair; SCENE II. A Street. Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant. CAP. And Montague is bound' as well as I, In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think, For men so old as we to keep the peace. () PAR. Of honourable reckoning are you* both; And pity 'tis, 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 2, * Quarto A, they. masks. Such is Mr. Tyrwhitt's opinion. See Measure for Measure, Act II. Sc. IV. MALone. 8 What doth her beauty SERVE,] i. e. what end does it answer? In modern language we say-" serve for." STEEvens. 9 thou canst not teach me to forget.] "Of all afflictions taught a lover yet, ""Tis sure the hardest science, to forget." Pope's Eloisa. STEEVENS. ' AND Montague is bound-] This speech is not in the first quarto. That of 1599 has-But Montague.-In that of 1609, and the folio, But is omitted. The reading of the text is that of the undated quarto. MALONE. 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 3. (The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she, She is the hopeful lady of my earth *: () Let two more summers wither in their pride,] So, in our poet's 103d Sonnet : "Have from the forests shook three summers' pride-." MALONE. 3 And too soon MARR'D are those so early MADE.] The quarto, 1597, reads:-And too soon marr'd are those so early married. Puttenham, in his Art of Poesy, 1589, uses this expression, which seems to be proverbial, as an instance of a figure which he calls the Rebound: "The maid that soon married is, soon marred is.” The jingle between marr'd and made is likewise frequent among the old writers. So, Sidney: "Oh! he is marr'd, that is for others made!" Spenser introduces it very often in his different poems. STEEVENS. 4 She is the hopeful lady of my earth :] This line is not in the first edition. POPE. "She is the hopeful lady of my earth." This is a Gallicism: Fille de terre is the French phrase for an heiress. King Kichard II. calls his land, i. e. his kingdom, his earth : "Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth.” Again: "So weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth." Earth in other old plays is likewise put for lands, i. e. landed estate. So, in A Trick to Catch the Old One, 1619: "A rich widow, and four hundred a year in good earth.” Again, in the Epistle Dedicatorie to Dr. Bright's Characterie, an Arte of Shorte, Swifte, and Secrete Writing by Character, 12mo. 1588: "And this my inuention being altogether of English yeeld, where your Majestie is the Ladie of the Soyle, it appertayneth of right to you onely." STEEVENS. The explanation of Mr. Steevens may be right; but there is a passage in The Maid's Tragedy, which leads to another, where Amintor says: "This earth of mine doth tremble, and I feel "A stark affrighted motion in my blood." Here earth means corporal part. M. MASON. |