LA. CAP. A crutch, a crutch! Why call you for a sword? And flourishes his blade1 in spite of me. Enter MONTAGUE, and Lady MONTAGUE. MON. Thou villain, Capulet, Hold me not, let me go. LA. MON. Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.2 Enter Prince, with Attendants. PRIN. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel,3 Will they not hear? what, ho! you men, you beasts, 6 Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets; Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments, [Exeunt Prince, and Attendants; CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, used in war; the little sword was the weapon commonly worn, probably nothing more than a dagger. 1) i. e. his sword. 2) An enemy, an opponent. 3) i. e. who profane and stain, who spot your swords with the blood of your neighbours. 4) To quench means to extinguish fire; to still any passion or commotion, particularly to allay thirst. 5) i. e. angry weapons. 7) To wield, to govern, to handle, to use with full command or power, as a thing not too heavy for the holder, to manage; as, to wield a sword, a partizan or pike. 8) i. e. corrupted, corroded, grown rusty. 9) What our will dictates. 10) This name the poet found in MON. Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?1 Speak, nephew, were you by, when it began? 2 BEN. Here were the servants of your adversary, LA. MON. O, where is Romeo! saw you him to-day? Right glad I am, he was not at this fray. BEN. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun 8 Towards him I made; but he was 'ware of me, I, measuring his affections by my own,- And gladly shunn'd 10 who gladly fled from me. MON. Many a morning hath he there been seen, "The Tragicall History of Romeus | like that of a serpent; figuratively, and Juliet, 1562." It is said to be the castle of the Capulets. 1) Figuratively used by Shakspeare for setting loose, or in a state of being propagated; properly a cask is abroach, i. e. letting out or yielding liquor. 2) i. e. expressing, manifesting a challenge to fight. Defiance is an invitation or call to an adversary to encounter, if he dare. 3) To hiss, properly to utter a noise to condemn by hissing, to explode. 4) I am very glad. 5) To peer, a poetic word, to come in sight, to appear, to peep. 6) The old preterit. and part. pass. of drive. We now use drove. 7) i. e. spreads, extends itself; properly, fixes its roots, grows, is planted. 8) I approached him secretly. 9) A thicket or shady place fit to conceal one's self. 10) To shun, to avoid. The shady curtains from Aurora's bed, Black and portentous must this humour prove,3 BEN. My noble uncle, do you know the cause? Is to himself. - I will not say, how true But to himself so secret and so close, So far from sounding and discovery, As is the bud bit with an envious worm, Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow, 6 BEN. See, where he comes: So please you, step aside; I'll know his grievance, or be much denied.7 MON. I would, thou wert so happy by thy stay, To hear true shrift. Come, madam, let's away. BEN. Good morrow, BEN. But new struck cousin. [Exeunt MONTAGUE and Lady. Is the day so young?9 nine. 10 Ah me! sad hours seem long. Was that my father that went hence so fast? 1) Sad, sorrowful, dejected and depressed in mind. 2) To pen, to shut in a pen; thence, to confine in a small inclosure. 3) i. e. it will be found mournful and calamitous. 4) i. e. urged with frequent application. 5) He and his, instead of it and its, as often in Shakspeare. 6) i. e. condescend, be pleased, be so kind as to, etc., a phrase of ceremony of frequent use in our poet. 7) i. e. or he will prove unfaithful and violating confidence, in contradiction to his character as a friend of mine. 8) Properly, confession made to a priest, now obsolete. 9) i. e. is it so early in the day? 10) So, in Hamlet, Act I, sc. 1: 'Tis new (nom) struck twelve; new having the meaning of just. BEN. It was: What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours? ROM. Out of her favour, where I am in love. BEN. Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof! ROM. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, 1 Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will! 2 Where shall we dine? me! What fray was here? Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. Here's much to do with hate, but more with love: O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! This love feel I, that feel no love in this. Dost thou not laugh? BEN. No, coz, I rather weep. ROM. Good heart, at what? At thy good heart's oppression. 6 ROM. Why, such is love's transgression. With more of thine: this love, that thou hast shown, 1) i. e. is always blindfolded, co- | antithesis was very much the taste vered. of his and the preceding time, especially among the Provençal and Italian poets. 2) This passage has often been misapprehended. Benvolio has lamented that the God of love, who appears so gentle, should be a tyrant. It is no less to be lamented, adds Romeo, that the blind god (love) should yet be able to direct his arI rows at those whom he wishes to hit, that he should wound whomever he wills, or desires to wound. Malone. 3) Quarrelsome, quarrelling. See p. 5, 6). The poet characterises love by contrarieties. This kind of 4) O universe! 5) A cant or familiar word, contracted from cousin. 6) Such is the consequence of unskilful and mistaken kindness. Johnson. 7) Mine and thine, instead of my, thy, before a vowel and an h, are of frequent though ungrammatical use up to our days; both, in grave and ludicrous language. 8) Prest, i. e. pressed, enforced.. 1 Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs; BEN. Soft, I will go along; ROM. Tut, I have lost myself; I am not here! BEN. But sadly tell me, who. 3 [Going. 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 near, when I suppos'd you lov'd. 4 ROM. A right good marks-man! And she's fair I love. ROM. Well, in that hit, you miss: she'll not be hit With Cupid's arrow, she hath Dian's wit; And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd, 5 From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd. She will not stay the siege of loving terms, That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.7 have lost it, or her beauty commend- 6) To endure, to suffer. 7) She is rich in beauty; and poor in this circumstance alone, that with her, beauty will expire; her store of wealth (which the poet already said was the fairness of her person,) will not be transmitted to posterity, inasmuch as she will “lead |