Imatges de pàgina
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Rom. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that 3,
Ben. For what, I pray thee?

Rom. For your broken shin.

Ben. Why, Romeo, art thou mad?

Rom. Not mad, but bound more than a mad-man is: Shut up in prifon, kept without my food,

Whipp'd, and tormented, and-Good-e'en, good fellow. Serv. God gi' good e'en.-I pray, fir, can you read ? Rom. Ay, mine own fortune in my mifery.

Serv. Perhaps you have learn'd it without book: But I pray, can you read any thing you fee?

Rom. Ay, if I know the letters, and the language.
Serv. Ye fay honeftly; Reft you merry!

Rom. Stay, fellow; I can read.

"Now contented,

"Now tormented,

"Live in love and languish." MALONE.

2 Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning,

Take thou fome new infection to thy eye,

And the rank poison of the old will die.] So, in the poem:
"Ere long the townish dames together will refort;

[reads.

"Some one of beauty, favour, shape, and of fo lovely port, "With fo faft-fixed eye perhaps thou may'ft behold,

"That thou shalt quite forget thy love and paffions paft of old. "And as out of a plank a nail a nail doth drive,

"So novel love out of the mind the ancient love doth rive." Again, in our authour's Coriolanus:

"One fire drives out one fire; one nail one nail."

So, in Lily's Eupbues, 1580: "a fire divided in twayne burneth flower;-one love expelleth another, and the remembrance of the latter quencheth the concupifcence of the first." MALONE.

3 Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.] Tackius tells us, that a toad, before the engages with a fpider, will fortify herself with fome of this plant; and that, if she comes off wounded, the cures herself afterwards with it. GREY.

The fame thought occurs in Albumazar, in the following lines: "Help, Armellina, help! I'm fall'n i' the cellar:

"Bring a fresh plantain leaf, I've broke my fhin."

Again, in The Cafe is Alter'd, by Ben Jonson 1609, a fellow who has had his head broke, fays: "Tis nothing; a fillip, a device: fellow Juniper, prithee get me a plantain,”

The plantain leaf is a blood-ftancher, and was formerly applied to green wounds. STEEVINS.

Signior

Signior Martino, and his wife, and daughters; County Anfelem, and his beauteous fifters; The lady widow of Vitruvio; Signior Placentio, and his lovely nieces; Mercutio, and his brother Valentine; Mine uncle Capulet, bis wife, and daughters; My fair niece Rofaline; Livia; Signior Valentio, and his coufin Tybalt; Lucio, and the lively Helena.

A fair affembly; [gives back the note.] Whither should they come?

Serv. Up.

Rom. Whither?

Serv. To fupper; to our house 4.

Rom. Whofe houfe?

Serv. My mafter's.

Rom. Indeed, I should have afk'd you that before. Serv. Now I'll tell you without afking: My mafter is the great rich Capulet; and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crufh a cup of wines. Reft

you merry.

Ben. At this fame ancient feaft of Capulet's
Sups the fair Rofaline, whom thou fo lov'st;
With all the admired beauties of Verona :
Go thither; and, with unattainted eye,
Compare her face with fome that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy fwan a crow.

[Exit.

Rom. When the devout religion of mine eye
Maintains fuch falfhood, then turn tears to fires!
And thefe,-who, often drown'd, could never die,→→
Tranfparent hereticks, be burnt for liars!

One fairer than my love! the all-feeing fun
Ne'er faw her match, fince firft the world begun.

4 To fupper; to our boufe.] The words to fupper are in the old copies annexed to the preceding fpeech. They undoubtedly belong to the iervant, to whom they were transferred by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

5-crush a cup of wine.] This cant expreflion feems to have been once common among low people. I have met with it often in the old plays. So, in Hoffman's Tragedy, 1631:

"we'll crush a cup of thine own country wine." Again, in the Pinner of Wakefield, 1599, the Cobler says:

"Come, George, we'll crush a pot before we part."

We ftill fay in cant language-to crack a bottle. STEEVINS.

Ben.

Ben. Tut! you faw her fair, none elfe being by,
Herfelf 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 fhew you, fhining at this feast,
And she shall scant fhew well, that now fhews best.
Rom. I'll go along, no fuch fight to be shewn,
But to rejoice in splendour of mine own.

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[Exeunt

La. Cap. Nurfe, where's my daughter? call her forth

to me.

Nurfe. Now, by my maiden-head,-at twelve year

old,

I bade her come.-What, lamb! what, lady-bird!—
God forbid!-where's this girl ?-what, Juliet!

Enter JULIET.

Jul. How now, who calls?

Nurse. Your mother.

Jul. Madam, I am here; what is your will?

La. Cap. This is the matter:-Nurse, give leave awhile,

We must talk in fecret.-Nurfe, come back again;
I have remember'd me, thou shalt hear our counsel.
Thou know'ft, my daughter's of a pretty age.

Nurfe. 'Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.
La. Cap. She's not fourteen.

Nurfe. I'll lay fourteen of my teeth,

6-in those cryftal scales.-] The old copies have-that crystal, &c. The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. I am not fure that it is neceffary. The poet might have ufed fcales for the entire machine. MALONE.

7-let there be weigh'd

Your lady's love against fome other maid] Your lady's love is the love you bear to your lady, which in our language is commonly used for the lady herself. HEATH.

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And yet, to my teen be it spoken, I have but four,-
She's not fourteen: How long is't now to Lammas-tide?
La. Cap. A fortnight, and odd days.

Nurje. Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas-eve at night, fhall fhe be fourteen.
Sufan and the,-God reft all Chriftian fouls!-
Were of an age.-Well, Sufan is with God;
She was too good for me: But, as I said,
On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;
That shall fhe, marry, I remember it well.
"Tis fince the earthquake now eleven years?;
And she was wean'd,-I never shall forget it,-
Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
Sitting in the fun under the dove-house wall,
My lord and you were then at Mantua :—
Nay, I do bear a brain':- but, as I faid,
When it did tafte the worm-wood on the nipple
Of my dug, and felt it bitter, pretty fool!
To fee it tetchy, and fall out with the dug.
Shake, quoth the dove-house: 'twas no need, I trow,

8 to my teen-] To my forrow. JOHNSON. So, in Spenser's Faery Queen, B. I. C. 9.

"-for dread and doleful teen."

This old word is introduced by Shak fpeare for the fake of the jingle between teen, and four, and fourteen. STEEVENS.

See Vol. VI. p. 559, n. 4. MALONE.

9 'Tis fince the earthquake norv eleven years;] But how comes the nurfe to talk of an earthquake upon this occafion? There is no fuch circumstance, I believe, mentioned in any of the novels from which Shakspeare may be supposed to have drawn his story; and therefore it feems probable, that he had in view the earthquake, which had really been felt in many parts of England in his own time, viz, on the 6th of April, 1580. [See Stowe's Chronicle, and Gabriel Harvey's letter in the preface to Spenfer's works, ed. 1679.] If fo, one may be permitted to conjecture, that Romeo and Juliet, or this part of it at leaft, was written in 1591; after the 6th of April, when the eleven years fince the earthquake were completed; and not later than the middle of July, a fortnight and odd days before Lammas-tide. TYR WHITT.

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Nay, I do bear a brain:] So, in Ram-alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: "Dafh, we must bear fome brain."

Again, in Mariton's Dutch Courtesan, 1634:

nay, an I bear not a brain,-," STEEVENS.

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To bid me trudge.

And fince that time it is eleven years:

For then she could ftand alone; nay, by the rood,
She could have run and waddled all about.

For even the day before, fhe broke her brow:
And then my husband-God be with his foul!
'A was a merry man ;-took up the child:
Yea, quoth he, doft thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward, when thou haft more wit;
Wilt thou not, Jule? and, by my holy-dam,
The pretty wretch left crying, and faid-4y:
To fee now, how a jeft shall come about!
I warrant, an I should live a thousand years,
I never fhould forget it; Wilt thou not, Jule ? quoth he:
And, pretty fool, it ftinted 3, and faid—Ay.

La Cap. Enough of this; I pray thee, hold thy peace.
Nurfe. Yes, madam; Yet I cannot choose but laugh ✦.
To think it should leave crying, and fay-Ay:'
And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow
A bump as big as a young cockrel's ftone;
A par'lous knock; and it cried bitterly.
Yea, quoth my husband, fall'ft upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward, when thou com'ft to age;
Wilt thou not, Jule? it finted, and faid-Ay.

Jul. And ftint thou too, I pray thee, nurfe, fay I. Nurje. Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace!

2 could ftand alone;] The quarto, 1597, reads: " could ftand bigb lone, i. c. quite alone, completely alone. So in another of our authour's plays, bigb-fantaftical means entirely fantastical. STEEVENS. 3-it ftinted, i. e. it ftopped, it forbore from weeping. So Sir Thomas North, in his tranflation of Plutarch, fpeaking of the wound which Antony received, fays: " for the blood flinted a little when he was laid." So, in Titus Andronicus:

"He can at pleasure fint their melody."

Again, in Cynthia's Revenge, by Ben Jonfon:

"Stint thy babbling tongue."

Spenfer ufes this word frequently in his Faerie Queen. STEEVENS. 4 Nurfe. Yes, madam; yet I cannot choose, &c.]

tautology is not in the first edition, POPE.

This speech and

Thou

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