What early tongue fo fweet faluteth me?— Thou art up-rous'd by fome diftemp'rature; Rom. That last is true, the fweeter reft was mine. then? Rom. I'll tell thee, ere thou afk it me again. Fri. Be plain, good fon, and homely in thy drift; Rom. Then plainly know, my heart's dear love is fet On the fair daughter of rich Capulet: As mine on hers, fo hers is fet on mine; And all combin'd, fave what thou must combine 5 with uuftuff'd brain, &c.] The copy, 1597, reads: Doth couch his limmes, there golden fleep remaines. 6 both our remedies STEEVENS. Within thy help and boly phyfick lies:] See Vol. VIII, p. 357, n. 4; and Vol. X. p. 66, n. 9. MALONE. Fri. Holy faint Francis! what a change is here! " Hath wash'd thy fallow cheeks for Rofaline! And art thou chang'd? pronounce this fentence then- Fri. Not in a grave, To lay one in, another out to have. Rom. I pray thee, chide not: fhe, whom I love now, Doth grace for grace, and love for love allow ; The other did not fo. Fri. O, fhe knew well, Thy love did read by rote, and could not spell 7. For this alliance may fo happy prove, "To turn your houfholds' rancour to pure love. Rom. O, let us hence; I ftand on sudden hafte. Fri. Wifely, and flow; They ftumble, that run faft. [Exeunt 7-and could not spell.] Thus the quarto, 1597. The subsequent ancient copies all have Thy love did read by rote that could not spell. I mention these minute variations only to fhew, what I have so often arged, the very high value of firft editions. MALONE. The two following lines were added fince the firft copy of this play. STEEVENS. F 4 SCENE SCENE IV. A Street. Enter BENVOLIO, and MERCUTIO, Mer. Where the devil fhould this Romee be?-Came he not home to-night? Ben. Not to his father's; I fpoke with his man. Mer. Ah, that fame pale hard-hearted wench, that Rofaline, Torments him fo, that he will fure run mad. Ben. Tybalt; the kinfman of old Capulet, Ben. Romeo will anfwer it. Mer. Any man, that can write, may anfwer a letter. Ben. Nay, he will answer the letter's mafter, how he dares, being dared.. Mer. Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead! ftabb'd with a white wench's black eye; fhot thorough the ear with a love-fong; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's but-fhaft; And is he a man to enCounter Tybalt ? Ben. Why, what is Tybalt? Mer. More than prince of cats, I can tell you 2 O, 9-the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's but-shaft ;] The allufion is to archery. The clout, or white mark at which the arrows are directed, was faftened by a black pin placed in the center of it. To hit this was the highest ambition of every markfman. So, in No Wit like a Woman's, a comedy, by Middleton, 1657: "They have shot two arrows without heads, "They cannot stick i' the but yet: hold out, knight, And I'll cleave the black pin i' the midst of the white." Again, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 1590: "For kings are clouts that every man fhoots at ; "Our crown the pin that thousands seek to cleave," MALONE. 1 More than prince of cats,—} Tybert, the name given to the cat, in the ftory-book of Reynard the Fox. WARBURTON. So, in Have with you to Saffron Walden, &c. 1596: “—not Tibelt prince of cats," &c. STEEVENS. 2-I can tell you.] So the first quarto. These words are emitted in all the fubfequent ancient copies. MALONE. he he is the courageous captain of compliments 3. He fights as you fing prick-fong, keeps time, distance, and proportion; refts me his minim reft, one, two, and the third in your bofom: the very butcher of a filk button, a duellift, a duellift; a gentleman of the very first houfe, of the first and fecond caufe?: Ah, the immor. tal paffado! the punto reverfo! the hay ! Ben. The what? Mer. The pox of fuch antick, lifping, affecting fantafticoes; these new tuners of accents!-By Jefu, a very good blade!— a very tall man!-a very good whore! 3-courageous captain of compliments.] A complete mafter of all the laws of ceremony, the principal man in the doctrine of punctilio. "A man of compliments, whom right and wrong "Have chofe as umpire;" fays our authour of Don Armado, the Spaniard, in Love's Labour's Loft, JOHNSON. 4-keeps time, diftance, and proportion;] So Jonfon's Bobadil: Note your diftance, keep your due proportion of time." STEEVENS. 5-bis minim refts-] A minim is a note of flow time in mufick, equal to two crotchets. MALONE. 6 the very butcher of a filk button,] So, in the Return from Parnaffus: "Strikes his poinado at a button's breadth." STEEVENS. 7 A gentleman of the very firft boufe, of the first and second cause:] "A gentleman of the first boufe;-of the first and fecond caufe," is a gentleman of the firft rank, of the first eminence among these duellifts; and one who understands the whole fcience of quarrelling, and will tell you of the first cause, and the fecond caufe, for which a man is to fight.-The Cozun, in As you like it, talks of the feventb caufe in the fame fenfe. STEEVENS. -the bay!] All the terms of the modern fencing-fchool were originally Italian; the rapier, or fmall thrufting fword, being first used in Italy. The bay is the word bai, you have it, used when a thrust reaches the antagonist, from which our fencers, on the fame occafion, without knowing, I fuppofe, any reason for it, cry out, ba! JOHNSON. 9-affecting fantafticoes;] Thus the old copies, and rightly. The modern editors read, phantafies. Nah, in his Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596, fays Follow fome of thefe new-fangled Galiardo's and Signor Fantaftico's," &c. Again, in Decker's comedy of Old Fortunatus, 1600:-" I have danc'd with queens, dallied with ladies, worn ftrange attires, feen fantafticoes, convers'd with humor. ifts." &c. STEEVENS. Fantafticoes is the reading of the first quarto, 1597; all the subsequent ancient copies read arbitrarily and corruptly-phantacies MALONE. -Why, -Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandfire', that we should be thus afflicted with thefe ftrange flies, these fashion-mongers, thefe pardon-mes, who ftand fo much on the new form, that they cannot fit at eafe on the old bench? O, their bons, their bons 3 ! Enter ROMEO. Ben. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo, Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring :-O flesh, flesh, how art thou fifhified!-Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flow'd in: Laura, to his lady, was but a kitchen-wench;-marry, fhe had a better love to be-rhyme her: Dido, a dowdy; Cleopatra, a gipsy; Helen and Hero, hildings and harlots; Thisbé, a grey Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandfire,] Humorously apoAtrophifing his ancestors, whose sober times were unacquainted with the fopperies here complained of. WARBURTON. 2-befe pardon-mes,] Pardonnez-moi became the language of doubt or hesitation among men of the fword, when the point of honour was grown fo delicate, that no other mode of contradiction would be endured. JOHNSON. The old copies have these pardon-mees, not, thefe pardon nez-mois. Theobald firft substituted the French word, without any neceffity. MALONE. 30, their bons, their bons!] Mercutio is here ridiculing those frenchified fantaftical coxcombs whom he calls pardonnezmoi's: and therefore, I fufpe&t here he meant to write French too. O, their bon's! their bon's! i.e. how ridiculous they make themfelves in crying out good, and being in ecftafies with every trifle; as he had juft described them before; ❝a very good blade !" &c. THEOBALD. The old copies read-O, their bones, their bones! Mr. Theobald's emendation is confirmed by a paffage in Green's Tu Quoque, from which we learn that bon jour was the common falutation of those who affected to appear fine gentlemen in our authour's time: "No, I want the bon jour and the tu quoque, which yonder gentleman has." MALONE. They fand fo much on the new form, that they cannot fit at cafe on the old bench.] This conceit is loft, if the double meaning of the word form be not attended to. FARMER. A quibble on the two meanings of the word form occurs in Love's Labour's Loft, A&t I. fc ii: "-fitting with her on the form, and taken following her into the park; which, put together, is, in manner and form following." STEIVING. eye |