Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair; [Exeunt, SCENE II. A Street. Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both; Cap. But saying o'er what I have said before: Par. Younger than the are happy mothers made. The * Thou canst not teach me to forget.) « Of all afflictions taught a lover yet, STEEVENS. 9 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, Bue is omitted. The reading of the text is that of the undated quarto. MALONE. Let two more summers wit ber in obeir pride,] So, in our poet's 103d Sonnet: Three winters cold MALONE. 2 And roofoon marr'd are those so early made.) The quarto 1597, seads :- And too soon marrd are those lo early married. Puttenham, The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she, Puttenham, in his Art of Poely, 1589, uses this expression, which seems to be proverbial, as an instance of a figure which he calls the Rebound: “ The maid that foon married is, soon marred is." The jingle between marrid and made is likewise frequent among the old writers. So Sidney: 66 Oh! he is marr'd, that is for others made !" Spenser introduces it very often in his different poems. STEEVENS. Making and Marring is enumerated among other unlawful games in the Stat. 2 and 3 Phi, and Ma.c.9. Great improvements have been made on this ancient game in the present century. MALONE. 3 Sbe is the bopeful lady of my earıb;] This line is not in the first edition. Pope. Sbe is obe bopeful lady of my eartb:] This is a Gallicism: Fille de terre is the French phrale for an beiress. King Richard II. calls his land, i. é, his kingdom, bis carib: “ Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle eartb." Again, “ So weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my eartb." Eartb, in other old plays is likewise put for lands, i. e. landed estate. So, in A Trick to catch ibe old one, 619: “ A rich widow, and four hundred a year in good earth." STEEVENS. The explanation of Mr. Steevens may be right; but there is a passage in Tbe Maid's Tragedy, which leads to another, where Amintor says, “ This eartb of mine doth tremble, and I feel “ A Stark affrighted motion in my blood.” Here earth means corporal part. Mason. Again, in this play: “ Can I go forward, when my heart is here? “ Turn back, dull eareb, and find thy center out." Again, in our authour's 146th Sonnet : " Poor foul, the center of my finful carib," MALONE, At my poor house, look to behold this night 4 Earth-treading fars, tbat make dark heaven ligbt:] Dr. War. burton calls this nonsense, and idly subftitutes even for beaver. MALONE, But why nonsense? Is any thing more com ommonly said, than that beauties eclipse the sun? Has not Pope the thought and the word ? “ Sol through white curtains shot a tim'rous ray, “ And op'd those eyes that must eclipse ibe day." Both the old and the new reading are philofophical nonsense; but they are both, and both equally, poetical sense. JOHNSON. s---do lufty young men feel) To say, and to say in pom pous words, that a young man fball feel as much in an affembly of beauties, as young men feel in i be montb of April, is furely to walte Sound upon a very poor sentiment: I read: Such comfort as do lufty yeomen feel. You shall feel from the fight and conversation of these ladies, such hopes of happiness and such pleasure, as the farmer receives from the spring, when the plenty of the year begins, and the prospect of the barveft fills him with delight. JOHNSON. The following pallage from Chaucer's Romaunt of obe Rose, will support the prelent reading, and few the propriety of Shakspeare's comparison: for to tell Paris that he should feel the same fort of pleasure in an afiembly of beauties, which young folk feel in that season when they are most gay and amorous, was surely as much as the old man ought to say: “ That it was May, thus dremid me, Romaunt of ibe Rose, v. 51, &c. STEEVENS. Our authour's 98th Sonnet may also ferve to confirm the reading of the text : “ From you have I been absent in the spring, “ Hath put a spirit of youtb in every thing." Again, in Tancred and Gismund, a tragedy, 1592 : “ Tell me not of the date of Nature's days, Inherit Inherit at my house ; hear all, all see, May / 6 Inherit at my boufe ;] To inberit, in the language of Shakspeare's age, is to poffefs. See Vol. V. p. 7, n. 5. MALONE. 7 Such, amongst view of many, &c.] Thus the quarto, 1597. In the subsequent quarto of 1599, that of 1609, and the folio, the line was printed thus: Wbich one [on] more view of many, &c. MALONE. A very slight alteration will restore the clearest sense to this palage. Shakspeare might have written the line thus : Searcb among view of many: mine, being one, May stand in number, though in reckoning none. j. e. Among tbe many you will view tbere, searcb for one sbat will please you. Cbx fe out of be multitude. This agrees exactly with what he had already said to him : -hear all, all see, And like her most whose merit most shall be." My daugbrer (he proceeds) will, it is true, be one of tbe number, but ber beauty can be of no reckoning (i. e. estimation) among ibose wbom you will fee bere. Reckoning for effimation, is used before in this very scene. « Of honourable reckoning are you both.” STIEVENS. This interpretation is fully supported by a passage in Measure for Measure: our compellid fins “ Stand more for number, than accompe." i. e, estimation. There is here an allufion to an old proverbial expression, that one is do number. So, in Decker's Honeft Wbore, Part 11: " to fall to one, « For one no number is." « One is no number.” Again, in Shakspeare's 136th Sonnet: “ Among a number one is reckon'd none, " Then in the number let me pass untold.” The following lines in the poem on which the tragedy is founded, nay add some support to Mr. Steevens's conje&ture : “ To his approved friend a solemn oath he plight,- “ Young May stand in number, though in reckoning none. them say, [Exeunt CAPULET, and PARIS. Şerv. Find them out, whose names are written here? 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 BENVOL10,and Romeo, Ben. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning, One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish; One desperate grief cures with another's languish!; Rom, “ Young damsels thither flock, of bachelors a rout; out." MALONE. $ find boje persons out, Wbose names are written there,] Shakspeare has here closely followed the poem already mentioned : “ No lady fair or foul was in Verona town, " Or by bis name, in paper fent, appointed as a guest." MALOXE. 9 Find tbem out, whose names are written bere? ] The quarto, 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. STIEVENS. im with anorber's languir :) This substantive is again found in Antony and Cleopatra.-1° was not of our poet's coinage, occurring allo (as I think) in one of Morley's songs, 1595: Alas, it skills not, * Now |