Rom. Why, such is love's transgression.-1 Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast; Which thou wilt propagate, to have it pressed With more of thine: this love, that thou hast shown, Doth add more grief to too much of mine own. Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; Being urged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears. What is it else? a madness most discreet, A choking gall, and a preserving sweet. Farewell, my coz. Ben. Soft, I will go along; An if you leave me so, you do me wrong. [Going. Rom. Tut, I have lost myself; I am not here; This is not Romeo; he's some other where. 3 Ben. Tell me in sadness, whom she is you love. Ben. But sadly tell me who. Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will. Ah, word ill urged to one that is so ill! In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman. Ben. I aimed so near, when I supposed you loved. 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 lit With Cupid's arrow; she hath Dian's wit; And in strong proof of chastity well armed, From love's weak, childish bow she lives unharmed. Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes, That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.* 1 Such is the consequence of unskilful and mistaken kindness. 2 The old copy reads, "Being purged a fire," &c.-The emendation admitted into the text was suggested by Dr. Johnson. To urge the fire is to kindle or excite it. 3 i. e. in seriousness. 4 The meaning appears to be, as Mason gives it, "She is poor only, because she leaves no part of her store behind her, as with her, all beauty will die." Ben. Then she hath sworn, that she will still live chaste? Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste; For beauty, starved with her severity, She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair, Ben. Be ruled by me, forget to think of her. Rom. 'Tis the way To call hers, exquisite, in question more.1 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 honorable reckoning are you both; 1 i. e. to call her exquisite beauty more into my mind, and make it more the subject of conversation. 2 This means no more than the happy masks, according to a form of expression not unusual with the old writers. And pity 'tis, you lived at odds so long. Par. Younger than she are happy mothers made. And like her most, whose merit most shall be; 1 The quarto of 1597 reads: "And too soon marred are those so early married." 2 Fille de terre is the old French phrase for an heiress; but Mason suggests that earth may here mean corporal part, as again in this play— "Can I go forward, when my heart is here? Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out." 3 i. e. in comparison to. 4 For "lusty young men " Johnson would read "lusty yeomen." Ritson has clearly shown that young men was used for yeomen in our elder language. 5 To inherit, in the language of Shakspeare, is to possess. 6 By a perverse adherence to the first quarto copy of 1597, which reads, "Such amongst view of inany," &c., this passage has been made unin Come, go with me.-Go, sirrah, trudge about My house and welcome on their pleasure stay. [Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS. Serv. Find them out, whose names are written here ?1 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 here writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned.-In good time. Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO. Ben. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning, Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning; And the rank poison of the old will die. Rom. Your plantain-leaf is excellent for that." Rom. For your broken skin. Ben. Why, Romeo, art thou mad? telligible. The subsequent quartos and the folio read, "Which one [on] more," &c., evidently meaning, "Hear all, see all, and like her most who has the most merit; her, which, after regarding attentively the many, my daughter being one, may stand unique in merit, though she may be reckoned nothing, or held in no estimation. The allusion, as Malone has shown, is to the old proverbial expression, "One is no number." It will be unnecessary to inform the reader that which is here used for who, a substitution frequent in Shakspeare, as in all the writers of his time. One of the later quartos has corrected the error of the others, and reads as in the present text: "Which on more view," &c. 1 The quarto of 1597 adds, " And yet I know not who are written here; I must to the learned to learn of them: that's as much as to say, the tailor," &c. 2 The plantain-leaf is a blood-stancher, and was formerly applied to green wounds. So in Albumazar:— "Help, Armellina, help! I'm fallen i'the cellar: Bring a fresh plantain-leaf; I've broke my shin." Rom. Not mad, but bound more than a madman is, Shut up in prison, kept without my food, Whipped 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 learned it without book. But, I pray, can you read any thing you see? Rom. Ay, if I know the letters, and the language. Serv. Ye say honestly; rest you merry! Rom. Stay, fellow; I can read. [Reads. Seignior Martino, and his wife and daughters; County Anselme, and his beauteous sisters; The lady widow of Vitruvio; Seignior Placentio, and his lovely nieces; Mercutio, and his brother Valentine; Mine uncle Capulet, his wife, and daughters; My fair niece Rosaline; Livia; Seignior Valentio, and his cousin Tybalt; Lucio, and the lively Helena. A fair assembly. [Gives back the note.] Whither should they come ? Serv. Up. Rom. Whither? Serv. To supper; to our house. Rom. Whose house? Serv. My master's. Rom. Indeed, I should have asked you that before. Serv. Now I'll tell you without asking. My master is the great rich Capulet; and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry. Ben. At this same ancient feast of Capulet's Compare her face with some that I shall show, [Exit. 1 This cant expression seems to have been once common; it often occurs in old plays. |