"The flattering nurse did praise the friar for his skill, "And said that she had done right well, by wit to order will; "She setteth forth at large the father's furious rage, "And eke she praiseth much to her the second "And County Paris now she praises ten times more "Paris shall dwell there still: Romeus shall not return; "What shall it boot her all her life to languish still and mourn ?" MALONE. Sir John Vanburgh, in The Relapse, has copied in this respect the character of his Nurse from Shakspere. BLACKSTONE. 798. -so green,-] So the first editions. Hanmer reads so keen. JOHNSON. Perhaps Chaucer has given to Emetrius, in the Knight's Tale, eyes of the same colour : "His nose was high, his eyin bright citryn :” i. e. of the hue of an unripe lemon or citron. Again, in the Two Noble Kinsmen, by Beaumont and Fletcher, act v. sc. 1. "-oh vouchsafe, "With that thy rare green eye," &c. STEEVENS. 803. As living here-] Sir T. Hanmer reads, as living hence; that is, at a distance, in banishment; but here may signify, in this world. JOHNSON. 814. Ancient damnation !-] This term of reproach occurs in the Malcontent, 1604: "-out, you ancient damnation !" STEEVENS. Line 3. ACT IV. AND I am, &c.] His haste shall not be abated by my slowness. It might be read, And I am nothing slow to back his haste: that is, I am diligent to abet and enforce his haste. JOHNSON. Slack was certainly the author's word, for, in the first edition, the line ran. "For I am nothing slack to slow his haste." Back could not have stood there. 16. MALONE. be flow'd.] So, in Sir A. Gorges' translation of the second book of Lucan: will you overflow "The fields, thereby my march to slow ?'* STEEVENS. 18. my lady, and my wife!] As these four first lines seem intended to rhyme, perhaps the author wrote thus: tresses. -my lady and my life! JOHNSON. 64. Shall play the umpire,-] That is, this knife shall decide the struggle between me and my disJOHNSON. 65. —commission of thy years and art] Commission is for authority or power. JOHNSON. 79. of yonder tower;] Thus the quarto, 1597. All other ancient copies-of any tower. STEEVENS. 94. Take thou this phial, &c.] Thus Painter's Palace of Pleasure, Tom. II. p. 237. "Beholde heere I give thee a viole, &c. drink so much as is contained therein. And then you shall feele a certaine kinde of pleasant sleepe, which incroching by litle and litle all the parts of your body, wil constrain them in such wise, as unmoveable they shal remaine: and by not doing their accustomed duties, shall loose their natural feelings, and you abide in such extasie the space of x1 houres at the least, without any beating of poulse or other perceptible motion, which shall so astonne them that come to see you, as they will judge you to be dead, and according to the custome of our citie, you shall be caried to the churchyard hard by our church, when you shall be entombed in the common monument of the Capellets your ancestors," &c. STEEVENS. 96.through all thy veins shall run A cold and drowsy humour,- -] The first edition in 1597 has in general been here followed, except only, that instead of a cold and drowsy humour, we there find a dull and heavy slumber. MALONE. 102. To paly ashes; -] The first folio, by an evident error of the press, reads-To many ashes. The second mealy; which might have been the author's word, on a revision of his play. Paly is the reading of the quarto, and occurs again in K. Henry V. -and through their paly flames, "Each battle sees the other's umber'd face." We have had, too, already in a former scene-" Pale, pale as ashes." MALONE. 112. In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier,] Between this line and the next, the quartos 1599, 1609, and the first folio, introduce the following verse, which the poet very probably had struck out on his revisal, because it is quite unnecessary, as the sense of it is repeated, and as it will not connect with either : Be borne to burial in thy kindred's grave. Had Virgil lived to have revised his Eneid, he would hardly have permitted both of the following lines te remain in his text: "At Venus obscuro gradientes aëre sepsit; "Et multo nebulæ circum dea fudit amictu.” The awkward repetition of the nominative case in the second of them, seems to decide very strongly against it. STEEVENS. Then (as the manner of our country is) In thy best robes, uncover'd on the bier] The Italian custom here alluded to, of carrying the dead body to the grave with the face uncovered (which is not mentioned by Painter), our author found particularly described in The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet: "Another "Another use there is, that whosoever dies, "In wonted weed attir'd, not wrapt in winding- Will watch thy waking,-] These words are not in the folio. JOHNSON. 121. If no unconstant toy,-] If no fickle freak, no light caprice, no change of fancy, hinder the performJOHNSON. ance. If no unconstant toy nor womanish fear Abate thy valour in the acting it.] These expressions are borrowed from the poem : "Cast off from thee at once the weed of woman ish dread, "With manly courage arm thyself from heel unto the head. "God grant he so confirm in thee thy present will, "That no inconstant toy thee let thy promise to fulfil !" MALONE. 143. from shrift,] i. e. from confession. So, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1626: "Ay, like a wench comes roundly to her shrift.” In the old morality of Every Man, bl. let. no date, confession is personified: "Now I pray you, shrifte, mother of salvacyon." |