Re-enter BENVOLIO. Ben. O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead; Rom. This day's black fate on more days doth depend 7; This but begins the woe, others must end. Re-enter TY BALT. Ben. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again. And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now '!– -bath afpir'd the clouds,] So, in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1608 : "Her haughty mind is too lofty for me to afpire." We never use this verb at prefent without fome particle, as, to and after. STEEVENS, So alfo Marlowe, in his Tamburlaine, 1590; "Untill our bodies turn to elements, "And both our fouls afpire celeftial thrones. MALONE. 7 This day's black fate on more days does depend ;] This day's unhappy deftiny bangs over the days yet to come. There will yet be more mif chief. JOHNSON. s Alive! in triumph! &c.-] Thus the quarto, 1597: for which the quarto 1599 has: He gan in triumph This in the fubfequent ancient copies was made-He gone, &c. MALONE. 9-refpective lenity-] Cool, confiderate gentleness. Respect formerly fignified confideration; prudential caution. So, in the Rape of Lucrece, Vol. X. p. 102: "Refpect and reason well befeem the fage." MALONE. And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now!] Conduct for conductor. So, in a former fcene of this play, quarto, 1597: "Which to the high top-gallant of my joy "Must be my condu& in the secret night." Thus the first quarto. In that of 1599 end being corruptly printed inftead of ey'd, the editor of the folio, according to the ufual process of corruption, exhibited the line thus: And fire and fury be my conduct now, MALONE. Staying Staying for thine to keep him company; Either thou, or I, or both, muft go with him. Tyb. Thou, wretched boy, that didft confort him here, Shalt with him hence. Rom. This fhall determine that. [They fight; Tybalt falls. Ben. Romeo, away, be gone! The citizens are up, and Tybalt flain : Stand not amaz'd:- the prince will doom thee death, Ram. O! I am fortune's fool ! Ben. Why doft thou stay? Enter Citizens, &c. [Exit ROMEO. 1. Cit. Which way ran he, that kill'd Mercutio? Tybalt, that murderer, which 1. Cit. Up, fir, go with me; way ran he? I charge thee in the prince's name, obey. Enter Prince, attended; MONTAGUE, CAPULET, their Prin. Where are the vile beginners of this fray ? The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl: There lies the man, flain by young Romeo, That flew thy kiniman, brave Mercutio. La. Cap. Tybalt, my coufin !-O my brother's child! Unhappy fight! ah, the blood is fpill'd 3 Of my dear kinfman!-Prince, as thou art true 4, For blood of ours, fhed blood of Montague. 20! I am fortune's fool!] I am always running in the way of evil fortune, like the fool in the play. Thou art death's fool, in Meajure for Measure. See Dr. Warburton's note. JOHNSON. In the first copy, O! I am fortune's flave. STEEVENS. 3 Unhappy fight! ab, the blood is fpill'd-] Thus the quarto, 1597. The quarto 1599, and the fubiequent ancient copies, read: O prince! O coufin! hutband! O, the blood is fpill'd, &c. The modern editors have followed neither copy. The word me was probably inadvertently omitted in the first quarto. Unhappy fight! ah me, the blood is pill'd, &c. 4 —as thou art true,] As thou art juft and upright. MALONE. O coufin O coufin, coufin! Prin. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray? Ben. Tybalt, here flain, whom Romeo's hand did flay; With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd,- Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud, Hold, friends! friends, part! and, fwifter than his tongue, And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whofe arm La. Cap. He is a kinfman to the Montague, Some 3 How nice the quarrel-] How flight, how unimportant, how petty So, in the last Act: "The letter was not nice, but full of charge, "Of dear import." JOHNSON. See alfo Vol. VII. p. 539, n. 2. MALONE. 6 —and urg’d witbal-] The rest of this speech was new written by the poet, as well as a part of what follows in the fame scene. STEEVENS 7 Affection makes bim falfe,] The charge of falfhood on Benvolio, though produced at hazard, is very juft. The authour, who seems to intend the character of Benvolio as good, meant perhaps to thew, how Vol. IX, H the 1 Some twenty of them fought in this black ftrife, Prin. Romeo flew him, he flew Mercutio; Prin. And, for that offence, Immediately we do exile him hence: I have an intereft in your hates' proceeding, Nor tears, nor prayers, fhall purchase out abuses [Exeunt the best minds in a state of faction and difcord, are detorted to cri minal partiality. JOHNSON. 8-in your hates' proceeding;] This, as Mr. Steevens has obferv ed, is the reading of the original quarto, 1597. From that copy, in almost every speech of this play, readings have been drawn by the modern editors, much preferable to those of the fucceeding ancient copies. The quarto of 1599 reads-bearts proceeding; and the corrup tion was adopted in the folio. MALONE. 9 Nor tears, nor prayers, fhall purchase out abuses,] This was pro bably defigned as a ftroke at the church of Rome, by which the dif ferent prices of murder, inceft, and all other crimes, were minutely. fettled, and as fhamelessly received. STEZVENS. ▲ Mercy but murders, pardoning thofe that kill.] So, in Hale's Me morials: "When I find myself fwayed to mercy, let me remember likewife that there is a mercy due to the country.' Thus the quarto 1599, and the folio. The fentiment here enforced is different from that found in the first edition, 1597. There the prince concludes his fpeech with these words: Pity shall dwell, and govern with us still; Mercy to all but murderers,-pardoning none that kill. MALONE. SCENE SCENE II. A Room in Capulet's house. Jul. Gallop apace, you firy-footed steeds, Gallop apace, you firy-footed feeds, Leap Towards Phoebus' manfion; &c.] Our authour probably remem bered Marlowe's King Edward II, which was performed before 1593: "Gallop apace, bright Phœbus, through the skie, "And dufky night in rufty iron car; "Between you both, fhorten the time, I pray, "That I may fee that most desired day." MALONE. The fecond quarto and folio read, Phæbus' lodging. STEEVENS. 3-immediately.] Here ends this speech in the eldest quarto, The reft of the scene has likewife received confiderable alterations and additions. STEEVENS. 4 Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night!. That run-away's eyes may wink;] Dr. Warburton reads-That the runaway's eyes may wink, i. e. the fun's. Mr. Heath justly obferves on this emendation, that the fun is neceffarily absent as foon as night begins, and that it is very unlikely that Juliet, who has just com. plained of his tediousness, should call him a runaway. In the Mer chant of Venice, as Dr. Warburton has obferved, that term is applied to night: "For the clofe night doth play the runaway." MALONE. The conftruction of this paffage, however elliptical or perverse, I believe to be as follows: May that run-away's eyes wink! Or, That run-away's eyes, may (they) wink! Thefe ellipfes are frequent in Spenfer; and that for ob! that, is not uncommon, as Dr. Farmer obferves in a note on the firft fcene of the Winter's Tale. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, A& III. fc. vi. That ever I fhould call thee caft-away! Juliet first wishes for the abfence of the fun, and then invokes the night to spread its curtain close around the world: Spread thy clofe curtain, love-performing night! next, recollecting that the night would feem fhort to her, the fpeaks of it as of a run-away, whofe flight fhe would wish to retard, and whofe eyes the would blind left they should make difcoveries. The eyes На of |