And, all this day, an unaccustom'd spirit Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts. (Strange dream! that gives a dead man leave to think,) Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess'd, News from Verona!-How now, Balthasar? Bal. Then she is well, and nothing can be ill; altations or depressions, which many consider as certain fore-tokens of good and evil. Johnson. The poet has explained this passage himself a little further on: "How oft, when men are at the point of death, "Have they been merry? which their keepers call Again, in G. Whetstone's Castle of Delight, 1576: — a lightning delight against his souden destruction." Steevens. 7 How fares my Juliet?] So the first quarto. That of 1599, and the folio, read: 8 How doth my lady Juliet? Malone. in Capel's monument,] Thus the old copies; and thus Gascoigne, in his Flowers, p. 51: "Thys token whych the Mountacutes did beare alwaies, so that "They covet to be knowne from Capels, where they passe, "For ancient grutch whych long ago 'tweene these two houses was." Steevens. Shakspeare found Capel and Capulet used indiscriminately in the poem which was the ground work of this tragedy. For Capels' monument the modern editors have substituted Capulet's monument. Malone. Not all of them. The edition preceding Mr. Malone's does not, on this occasion, differ from his. Reed. Rom. Is it even so? then I defy you, stars!9. Rom. thus:1 Tush, thou art deceiv'd; Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do: [Exit BAL. Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to night. And hereabouts he dwells,-whom late I noted 9 I defy you, stars!] The first quarto-I defy my stars. The folio reads-deny you, stars. The present and more animated reading is picked out of both copies. Steevens. The quarto of 1599, and the folio, read-I deny you, stars. Malone. 1 Pardon me, sir, I will not leave you thus:] This line is taken from the quarto, 1597. The quarto, 1609, and the folio, read: I do beseech you, sir, have patience. Steevens. So also the quarto, 1599. Malone. 2 An alligator stuff'd,] It appears from Nashe's Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596, that a stuff'd alligator, in Shakspeare's time, made part of the furniture of an apothecary's shop: "He made (says Nashe) an anatomie of a rat, and after hanged her over his head, instead of an apothecary's crockodile, or dried alligator." Malone. I was many years ago assured, that formerly, when an apothecary first engaged with his druggist, he was gratuitously furnished by him with these articles of show, which were then imported for that use only. I have met with the alligator, tortoise, &c. hanging up in the shop of an ancient apothecary at Limehouse, as well as in places more remote from our metropolis. See Hogarth's Marriage Alamode, Plate III.-It may be remarked, however, that the apothecaries dismissed their alligators, &c. sometime Of ill-shap'd fishes; and about his shelves Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds, Whose sale is present death in Mantua, Ap. Enter Apothecary. Who calls so loud? Rom. Come hither, man.-I see, that thou art poor; Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have A dram of poison; such soon-speeding geer That the life-weary taker may fall dead; Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb. Ap. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law Is death, to any he that utters them. Rom. Art thou so bare, and full of wretchedness, before the physicians were willing to part with their amber-headed canes and solemn periwigs. Steevens. 3 A beggarly account of empty boxes,] Dr. Warburton would read, a braggartly account; but beggarly is probably right; if the boxes were empty, the account was more beggarly, as it was more pompous. Johnson. 4 An if a man &c.] This phraseology which means simply-If, was not unfrequent in Shakspeare's time and before. Thus, in Lodge's Illustrations, Vol. I, p. 85: “ - meanys was maid unto me to see an yf I would appoynt" &c. Reed. 5 Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes,] The first quarto. reads: And starved famine dwelleth in thy cheeks. The quartos, 1599, 1609, and the folio; 6 Upon thy back hangs ragged misery, Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes. Our modern editors, without authority, Steevens. Need and oppression stare within thy eyes. Need and oppression stareth in thy eyes. For they cannot, properly, be said to starve in his eyes; though starved famine may be allowed to dwell in his cheeks. Thy, not thine, is the reading of the folio, and those who are conversant in our author, and especially in the old copies, will scarcely notice the grammatical impropriety of the proposed emendation. Ritson. The modern reading was introduced by Mr. Pope, and was founded on that of Otway, in whose Caius Marius the line is thus exhibited: "Need and oppression stareth in thy eyes." The word starved in the first copy shows that starveth in the text is right. In the quarto of 1597, this speech stands thus : "And dost thou fear to violate the law? "The law is not thy friend, nor the lawes friend, ،، And therefore make no conscience of the law. "And starved famine dwelleth in thy cheeks." The last line is in my opinion preferable to that which has been substituted in its place, but it could not be admitted into the text without omitting the words—famine is in thy cheeks, and leaving an hemistich. Malone. 6 Upon thy back hangs ragged misery,] This is the reading of the oldest copy. I have restored it in preference to the following line, which is found in all the subsequent impressions: Contempt and beggary hang upon thy back. In The First Part of Jeronimo, 1605, is a passage somewhat resembling this of Shakspeare: "Whose famish'd jaws look like the chaps of death, Perhaps from Kyd's Cornelia, a tragedy, 1594: "Upon thy back where misery doth sit. ، O Rome, &c. eronima was performed before 1590. Malone. Than these poor compounds that thou may'st not sell : Come, cordial, and not poison; go with me To Juliet's grave, for there must I use thee. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Friar Laurence's Cell. Enter Friar JOHN. John. Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho! Lau. This same should be the voice of friar John.- John. Going to find a bare-foot brother out, One of our order, to associate me,7 7 One of our order, to associate me,] Each Friar has always a companion assigned to him by the superior when he asks leave to go out; and thus, says Baretti, they are a check upon each other. Steevens. In The Visitatio Notabilis de Seleburne, a curious record printed in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, Wykeham enjoins the canons not to go abroad without leave from the prior, who is ordered on such occasions to assign the brother a companion, ne suspicio sinistra vel scandalum oriatur. Append. p. 448. H. White. By the Statutes of Trinity College, Cambridge, ch. 22, it is declared-That no batchelor or scholar shall go into the town without a companion as a witness of his honesty, on pain for the first offence to be deprived of a week's commons, with further punishment for the offence if repeated. Reed. Going to find a bare-foot brother out, One of our order, to associate me, Here in this city visiting the sick, And finding him, the searchers of the town, Suspecting, &c.] So, in The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Ju liet, 1562: "Apace our friar John to Mantua him hies; "And, for because in Italy it is a wonted guise "That friars in the town should seldom walk alone, "But of their convent aye should be accompanied with one "Of his profession, straight a house he findeth out, "In mind to take some friar with him, to walk the town about." Our author, having occasion for Friar John, has here departed from the poem, and supposed the pestilence to rage at Verona, instead of Mantua. |