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Thou waft the prettieft babe that e'er I nurs'd:
An I might live to fee thee married once,
I have my wish.

La Cap. Marry, that marry is the very theme
I came to talk of:- Tell me, daughter Juliet,
How ftands your difpofition to be married?

Jul. It is an honour' that I dream not of.

Nurfe. An honour! were not I thine only nurse, I'd fay, thou hadft fuck'd wisdom from thy teat. La Cap. Well, think of marriage now; younger than

you,

Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,

Are made already mothers: by my count,

I was your mother much upon thefe years

That you are now a maid. Thus then, in brief;-
The valiant Paris feeks you for his love.

Nurfe. A man, young lady! lady, such a man,
As all the world-Why, he's a man of wax'.

La Cap. Verona's fummer hath not fuch a flower.

5 It is an honour-] The first quarto reads bonour; the folio beur. I have chofen the reading of the quarto.

The word bour feems to have nothing in it that could draw from the Nurfe that applaufe which the immediately bestows. The word bonour was likely to strike the old ignorant woman, as a very elegant and difcreet word for the occafion. STEEVENS.

MALONE.

Honour was changed to bour in the quarto, 1599.
Well, &c.] Instead of this fpeech, the quarto, 1597, has only one

line:

Well, girl, the noble County Paris feeks thee for his wife.

STEEVENS.

7 -a man of wax.] So, in Wily Beguiled, 1606:
"Why, he's a man as one fhould picture him in wax."

STEEVENS.

When you,

—a man of wax-] Well made, as if he had been modelled in wax, as Mr. Steevens by a happy quotation has explained it. Lydia, praife the waxen arms of Telephus," fays Horace, [waxen, well thaped, finely turned,]

"With pation fwells my fervid breaft,
"With paffion hard to be fuppreft."

Dr. Bentley changed cerea into lactea, little understanding, that the praife was given to the fhape, not to the colour. S. W.

Nurse.

Nurfe. Nay, he's a flower: in faith, a very flower. La. Cap. What fay you? can you love the gentle

man?

This night you shall behold him at our feast:
Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face',
And find delight writ there with beauty's pen;
Examine every married lineament",

And fee how one another lends content;
And what obfcur'd in this fair volume lies,
Find written in the margin of his eyes3

This

8 Nurfe.] After this fpeech of the Nurfe, Lady Capulet in the old quarto fays only:

"Well, Juliet, how like you of Paris' love ?"

She answers, "I'll look to like, &c." and fo concludes the scene, without the intervention of that stuff to be found in the later quartos and the folio. STEEVENS.

9 La. Cap. What say you ? &c.] This ridiculous fpeech is entirely aded fince the first edition. POPE.

• Read o'er the volume, &c.] The fame thought occurs in Pericles Prince of Tyre:

Her face the book of praises, where is read

"Nothing but curious pleasures." STEEVENS.

2 Examine every married lineament;] This fpeech, as has been obferved, is not in the quarto, 1597. The reading of the text is that of the quarto 1599. The folio, after a later quarto, that of 1609, reads feveral lineament. I have no doubt that married was the poet's word, and that it was altered only becaufe the printer of the quarto of 1609 did not understand it. MALONE.

Shakspeare meant by this phrafe, Examine how nicely one feature depends upon another, or accords with another, in order to produce that harmony of the whole face which feems to be implied in content. -In Troilus and Creffida, he speaks of "the married calm of states;" and in his 8th Sonnet has the fame allufion :

"If the true concord of well-tuned founds,

""

"By unions married, do offend thine ear.' STEZVENS.

3 And what obfcur'd in this fair volume lies,

Find written in the margin of his eyes.] So, in our authour's Rape

of Lucreces

"But the, that never cop'd with ftranger eyes,

"Could pick no meaning from their parling looks,

"Nor read the fubtle fhining fecrecies,

"Writ in the glafly margent of fuch books." MALONE.

The comments on ancient books were always printed in the margin.

Se

This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him, only lacks a cover:

The fish lives in the fea; and 'tis much pride,
For fair without the fair within to hide :
That book in many's eyes doth fhare the glory,
That in gold clafps locks in the golden ftory";
So fhall you fhare all that he doth poffefs,
By having him, making yourself no lefs.

Nurfe. No lefs? nay, bigger; women grow by men.
La. Cap. Speak briefly, can you like of Paris' love?
Jul. I'll look to like, if looking liking move:
But no more deep will I endart mine eye",
Than your confent gives ftrength to make it fly.
Enter a Servant.

Serv. Madam, the guests are come, fupper ferved up, you call'd, my young lady afk'd for, the nurfe curfed in the pantry, and every thing in extremity. I muft hence to wait; I beseech you, follow ftraight.

La. Cap. We follow thee.-Juliet, the county ftays. Nurfe. Go, girl, feek happy nights to happy days.

[Exeunt.

So Horatio in Hamlet fays: "I knew, you must be edify'd by the margent," &c.

STEEVENS.

4 This precious book of love, this unbound lover,] The unbound lover, is a quibble between the binding of a book, and the binding of marriage. MASON.

5 That in gold clafps locks in the golden ftory;] The golden flory is perhaps the golden legend, a book in the darker ages of popery much read, and doubtlefs often exquifitely embellished, but of which Canus, one of the popifh doctors, proclaims the authour to have been bome ferrei oris, plumbei cordis. JOHNSON.

The poet may mean nothing more than to fay, that those books are moft efteemed by the world, where valuable contents are embellished by as valuable binding. STEEVENS.

oendart mine eye,] The quarto, 1597, reads:-engage mine eye. STEEVENS.

7 Madam, &c.] To this fpeech there have been likewife additions fince the elder quarto, but they are not of fufficient confequence to be quoted. STEVENS,

SCENE

SCENE IV.

A Street.

Enter ROMEO, MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, with five or fix Mafkers, Torch-bearers, and Others.

Rom. What, fhall this fpeech be fpoke for our excuse? Or fhall we on without apology?

Ben. The date is out of fuch prolixity":

We'll have no Cupid hood-wink'd with a fearf,

8- Mercutio,] Shakspeare appears to have formed this character on the following flight hint in the original story: "-another gentleman called Mercutio, which was a courtlike gentleman, very wel beloved of all men, and by reafon of his pleafant and courteous behaviour was in al companies wel intertained." Painter's Palace of Pleasure, tom. ii. P. 221. STEEVENS.

Mercutio is thus defcribed in the poem which Shakspeare followed: "At thone fide of her chair her lover Romeo,

"And on the other fide there fat one call'd Mercutio;
"A courtier that each where was highly had in price,
"For he was courteous of his fpeech, and pleasant of device.
"Even as a lion would among the lambs be bold,

"Such was among the bathful maids Mercutio to behold.
"With friendly gripe he feiz'd fair Juliet's fnowith hand;
"A gift he had, that nature gave him in his fwathing band
"That frozen mountain ice was never half fo cold,

"As were his hands, though ne'er fo near the fire he did

them hold."

Perhaps it was this last circumftance which induced our poet to reprafent Mercutio, as little fenfible to the paffion of love, and "a jefter at wounds which be never felt." See Othello, A& III. fc. iv. "This band is moist, my lady -

"This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart;
"Hot, bot, and moist.”

See alfo Vol. VII. p. 432, n. 2. MALONE.

The date is out of fuch prolixity:] A tedious fpeech by way of introduction to mafkers, before their entry at a mafquerade, is no longer in fashion. To Mr. Steevens we are indebted for the true interpretation of this paffage. MALONE.

In Henry VIII. where the king introduces himself to the entertain ment given by Wolfey, he appears, like Romeo and his companions, in a mask, and fends a mefienger.before, to make an apology for his intrufion. This was a custom obferved by those who came uninvited, with a defire to conceal themfelves for the fake of intrigue, or to enjoy the greater freedom of converfation. Their entry on thefe ocVOL. IX.

D

cafions

Bearing a Tartar's painted bow of lath,
Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper';
Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke
After the prompter, for our entrance 3:
But, let them measure us by what they will,
We'll measure them a measure 4, and be gone.

Rom. Give me a torch 5,-I am not for this ambling;

Being but heavy, I will bear the light.

cafions was always prefaced by some speech in praise of the beauty of the ladies, or the generofity of the entertainer; and to the prolixity of fuch introductions, I believe, Romeo is made to allude.

So, in Hiftriomaftix, 1610, a man exprefles his wonder that the maskers enter without any compliment:

"What, come they in fo blunt, without device &"

In the accounts of many entertainments given in reigns antecedent to that of Elizabeth, I find this cuftom preferved. Of the fame kind of masquerading, fee a fpecimen in Timon, where Cupid precedes a troop of ladies with a fpeech. STEEVENS.

1-like a crow-keeper;] The word crow-keeper is explained in K. Lear, A& IV. fc. vi. JOHNSON.

2 Nor no without-book prologue, &c.] The two following lines are inferted from the first edition. POPE.

3 for our entrance:] Entrance is here ufed as a trifyllable; enterance. MALONE.

4 We'll measure them a measure,] i. e. a dance. See Vol. II. p. 405, n. 4. MALONE.

s Give me a torch,] The character which Romeo declares his refolution to aflume, will be beft explained by a paffage in Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "He is just like a torch-bearer to mafkers; he wears good cloaths, and is ranked in good company, but he doth nothing." A torch-bearer feems to have been a conftant attendant on every troop of masks. So, in the fecond part of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601:

"as on a mafque: but for our torch bearers,

"Hell cannot rake so mad a crew as I."

Again, in the fame play :

a gallant crew,

"Of courtly mafkers landed at the stairs;

"Before whom, unintreated, I am come,

"And here prevented, I believe, their page,

"Who, with his torch is enter'd. STEEVENS.

K. Henry VIII. when he went mafked to Wolfey's palace, (now

Whitehall,) had fixteen torch-bearers. See Vol. VII. p. 36.

MALONE.

Mer.

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