Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair; SCENE II. Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant. Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both; [Exeunt, Par. Younger than fhe are happy mothers made. & Thou canst not teach me to forget.] "Of all afflictions taught a lover yet, 'Tis fure the hardest science, to forget." Pope's Elifa. The STEEVENS. And Montague is bound-] This fpeech is not in the first quarto. That of 1599 has-But Montague.-In that of 1609 and the folio, But is omitted. The reading of the text is that of the undated quarto. MALONE. 1 Let tavo more fummers wither in their pride,] So, in our poet's 103d Sonnet: -Three winters cold "Have from the forefts fhook three fummers' pride,-," MALONE. 2 And too foon marr'd are thofe fo early made.] The quarto 1597, reads:-And too foon marr'd are thofe fo early married. Puttenham, The earth hath fwallow'd all my hopes but she, Such as I love; and you, among the store, One more, moft welcome, makes my number more. Puttenham, in his Art of Poely, 1589, ufes this expreffion, which feems to be proverbial, as an instance of a figure which he calls the Rebound: "The maid that foon married is, foon marred is." The jingle between marr'd and made is likewife frequent among the old writers. So Sidney: "Oh! he is marr'd, that is for others made !" Spenfer 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 prefent century. MALONE. 3 She is the bopeful lady of my earth;] This line is not in the first edition. POPE. She is the bopeful lady of my earth :] This is a Gallicifm: Fille de terre is the French phrate for an beirefs. King Richard II. calls his land, i. e, his kingdom, bis earth; Again, "Feed not thy fovereign's foe, my gentle earth." "So weeping, fmiling, greet I thee, my earth." Earth, in other old plays is likewife put for lands, i. e. landed estate. So, in A Trick to catch the 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 The Maid's Tragedy, which leads to another, where Amintor fays, "This earth of mine doth tremble, and I feel "A ftark 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 earth, and find thy center out." Again, in our authour's 146th Sonnet: Poor foul, the center of my finful earth,-," MALONE. At my poor house, look to behold this night 4 Earth-treading fars, that make dark heaven light:] Dr. Warburton calls this nonfenfe, and idly substitutes even for beaven. MALONE, But why nonfenfe? Is any thing more commonly faid, than that beauties eclipfe the fun? Has not Pope the thought and the word ? "Sol through white curtains fhot a tim'rous ray, "And op'd thofe eyes that must eclipfe the day." Both the old and the new reading are philofophical nonsense; but they are both, and both equally, poetical fenfe. JOHNSON. 5-do lufty young men feel-] To fay, and to fay in pompous words, that a young man fhall feel as much in an affembly of beauties, as young men feel in the month of April, is furely to walte found upon a very poor fentiment: I read: Such comfort as do lufty yeomen feel. You shall feel from the fight and converfation of these ladies, fuch hopes of happiness and fuch pleasure, as the farmer receives from the fpring, when the plenty of the year begins, and the profpect of the harvest fills him with delight. JoHNSON. The following paffage from Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rofe, will fupport the prefent reading, and fhew the propriety of Shakspeare's comparison: for to tell Paris that he should feel the fame fort of pleafure in an affembly of beauties, which young folk feel in that season when they are most gay and amorous, was furely as much as the old man ought to fay: That it was May, thus dremid me, "In time of love and jolite, "That al thing ginnith waxin gay, &c. "Then yong folke entendin aye, For to ben gaie and amorous, "The time is then fo favorous." Romaunt of the Rofe, v. 51, &c. STEEVENS. Our authour's 98th Sonnet may alío ferve to confirm the reading of the text: "From you have I been abfent in the fpring, "When proud-pied April, drefs'd in all his trim, Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing." Again, in Tancred and Gifmund, a tragedy, 1592: "Tell me not of the date of Nature's days, "Then in the April of her springing age.". MALONE. Inherit at my houfe; hear all, all fee, And like her moft, whose merit most shall be: Such, amongst view of many?, mine, being one, May 6 Inherit at my boufe;] To inherit, in the language of Shakspeare's age, is to poffefs. See Vol. V. p. 7, n. 5. MALONE. 7 Such, among view of many, &c.] Thus the quarto, 1597. In the fubfequent quarto of 1599, that of 1609, and the folio, the line was printed thus: Which one [on] more view of many, &c. MALONE. A very flight alteration will restore the cleareft fenfe to this paffage. Shakspeare might have written the line thus: Starch among view of many: mine, being one, May stand in number, though in reckoning none. i. e. Amongst the many you will view there, fearch for one that will pleafe you. Chufe out of the multitude. This agrees exactly with what he had already said to him: -hear all, all fee, And like her most whose merit most shall be." you My daughter (he proceeds) will, it is true, be one of the number, but her beauty can be of no reckoning (i. e. eftimation) among those whom will fee bere. Reckoning for eftimation, is used before in this very fcene. "Of honourable reckoning are you both." STEEVENS. This interpretation is fully fupported by a paffage in Measure for Measure: ❝our compell'd fins "Stand more for number, than accompt." i. e. eftimation, There is here an allufion to an old proverbial expreffion, that one is no number. So, in Decker's Honeft Whore, Part II : -to fall to one, ❝is to fall to none, "For one no number is.” Again, in Marlowe's Hero and Leander : "One is no number." Again, in Shakspeare's 136th Sonnet: "Among a number one is reckon’d none, "Then in the number let me pafs untold." The following lines in the poem on which the tragedy is founded, may add fome fupport to Mr. Steevens's conjecture: "To his approved friend a folemn oath he plight,— "every where he would resort where ladies wont to meet; "Eke fhould his favage heart like all indifferently, "For he would view and judge them all with unallured eye. "No knight or gentleman of high or low renown C "Young May stand in number, though in reckoning none. Whofe names are written there, [gives a paper.] and to them fay, My house and welcome on their pleasure stay. [Exeunt CAPULET, and PARIS. Serv. Find them out, whofe names are written here? It is written that the fhoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his laft, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am fent to find those perfons, whofe names are here writ, and can never find what names the writing perfon hath here writ. I muft to the learned:-In good time. Enter BENVOLIO, and ROMEO, Ben. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning, One pain is leffen'd by another's anguish ; Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning; One defperate grief cures with another's languifh'; Take thou fome new infection to thy eye, And the rank poifon of the old will die 2. "Young damfels thither flock, of bachelors a rout; Rom Not fo much for the banquet's fake, as beauties to fearch out." MALONE. 8-find thoje perfons out, Whofe names are written there,] Shakspeare has here closely followed the poem already mentioned: "No lady fair or foul was in Verona town, "No knight or gentleman of high or low renown, "But Capilet himself hath bid unto his feaft, "Or by bis name, in paper fent, appointed as a guest." MALONE. 9 Find them 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. STEEVENS. 1 with another's languish:] This fubftantive is again found in Antony and Cleopatra.-It was not of our poet's coinage, occurring alfo (as I think) in one of Morley's fongs, 1595: "Alas, it skills not, For thus I will not, " Now |