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were often mistaken for other words by the old compositors: see Mr. Collier's notes, vol. v. 347, vi. 555. We also find in early books not a few passages in which "same" is a misprint: so in Troilus and Cressida, act ii. sc. 2, vol. vi. 47, where the right reading is undoubtedly "sieve," the folio has "same." Malone retained "same" in the present passage, with the following note;

In the last Act of this play our poet has evidently imitated the Rosamond of Daniel; and in the present passage might have remembered the following lines in one of the Sonnets of the same writer, who was then extremely popular. The lines, whether remembered by our author or not, add such support to Mr. Theobald's emendation, that I should have given it a place in my text, but that the other mode of expression was not uncommon in Shakspeare's time: And whilst thou spread'st unto the rising sunne,

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The fairest flower that ever saw the light,

Now joy thy time, before thy sweet be done.'

Daniel's Sonnets, 1594.

A similar phraseology to that of my text may be found in Daniel's 14th, 32d, 44th, and 53d Sonnets."

But the reading in the text receives no confirmation from what Malone calls the "similar phraseology" of Daniel; for in every one of the passages which he refers to (and which I now subjoin), it is evident that the words, "the same," were forced upon the poet by the necessity of the rhyme;

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Deepe is the wound my sighes can well report:

Yet do I loue, adore, and pray se

the same,

That holds, that burnes, that wounds me in this sort."

Danger hath honor, great designes their fame,

Glory doth follow, courage goes before:
And though th' euent oft answers not the same,
Suffice that high attempts haue neuer shame."

"There do these smoakes that from affliction rise,
Serue as an incense to a cruell dame;

A sacrifice thrice-gratefull to her eyes.

Because their power serue to exact the same."

Son. xiv.

Son. xxxii.

Son. xliv.

So, Delia, hath mine error made me knowne,

And my deceiu'd attempt deseru'd more fame,
Then if I had the victory mine owne,

And thy hard heart had yeelded vp the same."

Son. liii.

Besides, Malone ought to have recollected that, though Daniel was often dreadfully flat, Shakespeare never was.

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SCENE 2.-C. p. 387; K. p. 296.

Tut! you saw her fair, none else being by,
Herself pois'd with herself in either eye;
But in those crystal scales, let there be weigh'd
Your lady's love against some other maid,

That I will show you shining at this feast,

And she shall scant show well, that now shows best."

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'The old copies have, that crystal scales.' The emendation by Rowe." COLLIER.

What Mr. Collier terms "the emendation" is, in fact, a very improper change: "scales," as Mr. Knight observes, is used here as a singular noun; and so it was frequently employed by the poet's contemporaries.

"Your lady's love,'" says Heath, "is the love you bear to your lady, which in our language is commonly used for the lady herself." To me at least this explanation is unsatisfactory: qy. did Shakespeare write "Your lady-love"?

SCENE 3.-C. p. 389.

For then she could stand alone."

"The quarto, 1597, has it, 'For then could Juliet stand high lone,' which the quarto, 1599, prints hylone." COLLIER.

It may perhaps be worth while to notice, that we find in Middleton's Blurt, Master Constable, "An old comb-pecked rascal, that was beaten out a' th' cock-pit, when I could not stand a' high lone without I held by a thing, to come crowing among us!" Act ii. sc. 2,-Works, i. 262, ed. Dyce; and

in W. Rowley's A Shoomaker a Gentleman, 1638, "The warres has lam'd many of my old customers, they cannot go a hie lone." Sig. B 4.

ACT 11.

SCENE 2.-C. p. 406.

"But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!"

When Shakespeare wrote this passage, he seems to have recollected the following lines of Marlowe ;

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But stay; what star shines yonder in the east?

The loadstar of my life, if Abigail."

The Jew of Malta (near the commencement of act ii.).

SCENE 4.-C. p. 420.

"Rom. I stretch it out for that word-broad: which added to the goose, proves thee far and wide abroad-goose."

"So the folio, 1623: all older editions have, proves thee far and wide, a broad goose."" COLLIER.

"All older editions" are right; for the reading which Mr. Collier has preferred, instead of " adding broad to the goose,' entirely separates the words.

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SCENE 4.-C. p. 423.

I am none of his flirt-gills; I am none of his skains-mates.”

Possibly, as Malone suggests,skains-mates' means knife-companions, or cut-throat companions, from skain or skene, a knife or short dagger. Skene is used by many writers of the time," &c. &c. COLLIER.

This interpretation cannot be right, because the Nurse is evidently speaking of Mercutio's female companions. The meaning of skains-mates (if not a misprint, which I suspect it is) remains yet to be discovered.

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SCENE 4.-C. p. 425.

Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name. R is for thee? no: I know it begins with some other letter," &c.

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The meaning of this passage seems to have been hitherto mistaken, owing to thee' in the old copies (as was often the case) having been misprinted the: it there runs thus, R is for the no.' The Nurse means to ask, how can R, which is the dog's name, be for thee?' And she answers herself, 'no: I know Romeo begins with some other letter.' The modern text, at the suggestion of Tyrwhitt, has usually been, R is for the dog. No; I know,' &c., but no change is necessary beyond the mere alteration of the to 'thee.' It is singular that this trifling change should not have been suggested before." COLLIER.

Mr. Collier is not aware that the "trifling change" which he has made here, was not only proposed by Warburton, but, at his suggestion, inserted in the text by Theobald. I think it quite wrong; "R is for thee?" being by no means a simple or natural mode of putting the question. The strong probability is, that the word "dog" (as Tyrwhitt conjectured) has dropt out from the text.

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ACT III.

SCENE 2.-C. p. 438; K. p. 352.

"Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night!
That, unawares, eyes may wink, and Romeo

Leap to these arms, untalk'd of, and unseen!"

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Every old copy has, · That run-aways eyes may wink.' Zachary Jackson, in his Shakspeare's Genius Justified,' 8vo. 1819, p. 421, has shown that run-aways was, in all probability, a misprint for 'unawares.' The meaning will therefore be, as he suggests, that eyes may be closed in sleep unawares.' COLLIER.

"This passage has been a perpetual source of contention to the commentators. Their difficulties are well represented by Warburton's question—' What runaways are these, whose eyes Juliet is wishing to have stopped?' Warburton says Phœbus is the runaway. Steevens proves that Night is the runaway. Douce thinks that Juliet is the runaway. It has been suggested to us that in several early poems Cupid is styled Runaway. Monk Mason is confident that the

passage ought to be 'That Renomy's eyes may wink,' Renomy being a new personage, created out of the French Renommée, and answering, we suppose, to the Rumour' of Spenser. An unlearned compositor, Zachary Jackson, suggests that runaways is a misprint for unawares. The word unawares, in the old orthography, is unawayres (it is so spelt in 'The Third Part of Henry VI.'), and the r, having been misplaced, produced this word of puzzle, runawayes. We have not the least hesitation in adopting Jackson's reading; and we have the authority of a very clever article in 'Blackwood's Magazine' (July, 1819) for a general testimony to the value of Jackson's book; and the equally valuable authority of a most accomplished friend, who called our attention to this particular reading, as settled by the common sense of the printer." KNIght.

I cannot allow that the reading in this passage has been "settled" by Jackson (about the value of whose book I think very differently from Mr. Knight and the writer in Blackwood's Mag.): I do not believe that Shakespeare would have used such an expression as 66 that unawares eyes may wink."” That "ways" (the last syllable of "run-aways") ought to be "Day's," I feel next to certain; but what word originally preceded it I do not pretend to determine:

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Spread thy close curtain, love-performing Night!

rude

That ?Day's eyes may wink, and Romeo

soon

Leap to these arms, untalk'd of, and unseen!"

Compare Macbeth;

"Come, seeling night,

Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day," &c.

Act iii. sc. 2.

The passages in our early poets about Night spreading her curtains, and Day closing her eyes, are numerous: so in Dray

ton;

"The sullen Night hath her black Curtaines spred,
Lowring the Day hath tarried vp so long,
Whose faire eyes closing softly steales to bed," &c.

Barons Warres, b. iii. st. 17, ed. 8vo.

(This stanza is very different in the folio ed.)

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