Could to no issue of true honour bring. A thing like death to chide away this shame, Jul. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears; 2 commission of thy years and art—] Commission is for authority or power. Johnson. 30, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, From off the battlements of yonder tower;] So, in King Leir, written before 1594: "Yea, for to do thee good, I would ascend "The highest turret in all Britanny, "And from the top leap headlong to the ground." Malone. of yonder tower;] Thus the quarto, 1597. All other ancient copies of any tower. Steevens. chain me &c.] "Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk "Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears, It is thus the editions vary. Pope. My edition has the words which Mr. Pope has omitted; but the old copy seems in this place preferable; only perhaps we might better read— "Where savage bears and roaring lions roam." Johnson. I have inserted the lines which Mr. Pope omitted; for which I must offer this short apology: in the lines rejected by him we meet with three distinct ideas, such as may be supposed to excite terror in a woman, for one that is to be found in the others. The lines now omitted are these: "Or chain me to some steepy mountain's top, "Where roaring bears and savage lions roam; The lines last quoted, which Mr. Pope and Dr. Johnson pre. ferred, are found in the copy of 1597; in the text the quarto of 1599 is followed, except that it has-Or hide me nightly, &c. Malone. Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house, O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones, And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;5 To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love. Fri. Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow; To-morrow night look that thou lie alone, Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber: Take thou this phial, being then in bed, And this distilled liquor drink thou off: When, presently, through all thy veins shall run A cold and drowsy humour, which shall seize Each vital spirit; for no pulse shall keep His natural progress, but surcease to beat: No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou liv'st; The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade To paly ashes;7 thy eyes' windows fall,8 5 And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;] In the quarto, 1599, and 1609, this line stands thus: And hide me with a dead man in his, The editor of the folio supplied the defect by reading-in his grave, without adverting to the disgusting repetition of that word. The original copy leads me to believe that Shakspeare wrote-in his tomb; for there the line stands thus: Or lay me in a tombe with one new dead. I have, however, with the other modern editors, followed the undated quarto, in which the printer filled up the line with the word shroud. Malone. It may be natural for the reader to ask by what evidence this positive assertion, relative to the printer, is supported. To creep under a shroud, and so be placed in close contact with a corpse, is surely a more terrifick idea than that of being merely laid in a tomb with a dead companion. Steevens. 6 through all thy veins shall run A cold and drowsy humour, &c.] The first edition in 1597 has in general been here followed, except only, that instead of a cold and drowsy humour, we there find-"a dull and heavy slumber," and a little lower, "no sign of breath," &c. The speech, however, was greatly enlarged; for in the first copy it consists of only thirteen lines; in the subsequent edition, of thirty-three. Malone. 7 The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade To paly ashes;] It may be remarked, that this image does Like death, when he shuts up the day of life; In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier,9 not occur either in Painter's prose translation, or Brooke's me- "To sallow ashes turnde the hue "The blood forsooke the wonted course, "And left the limmes as cold and swarfe "As coles that wastes with fire." Steevens. To paly ashes;] These words are not in the original copy. The quarto, 1599, and the folio, read-To many ashes, for which the editor of the second folio substituted-mealy ashes. The true reading is found in the undated quarto. This uncommon adjective occurs again in King Henry V and through their paly flames, "Each battle sees the other's umber'd face." We have had too already, in a former scene-" ashes." Malone. 8 "Pale, pale as thy eyes' windows fall,] See Antony and Cleopatra, Act V, sc. ii, Vol. XIII. Malone. 9 Then (as the manner of our country is) In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier,] The Italian custom here alluded to, of carrying the dead body to the grave with the face uncovered, (which is not mentioned by Painter) our author found particularly described in The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet: "Another use there is, that whosoever dies, "Borne to their church with open face upon the bier he lies, "In wonted weed attir'd, not wrapt in winding-sheet Malone: Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault, Jul. Give me, O give me! tell me not of fear.3 Thus also Ophelia's Song in Hamlet: "They bore him bare-fac'd on the bier," Steevens. In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier,] Between this line and the next, the quartos 1599, 1609, and the first folio, introduce the following verse, which the poet, very probably, had struck out, on his revisal, because it is quite unnecessary, as the sense of it is repeated, and as it will not connect with either: "Be borne to burial in thy kindred's grave." Had Virgil lived to have revised his Æneid, he would hardly have permitted both of the following lines to remain in his text: "At Venus obscuro gradientes aere sepsit; "Et multo nebulæ circum dea fudit amictu." The aukward repetition of the nominative case in the second of them, seems to decide very strongly against it. Fletcher, in his Knight of Malta, has imitated the foregoing passage: and thus thought dead, "In her best habit, as the custom is "You know, in Malta, with all ceremonies "She's buried in her family's monument," &c. Steevens. and he and I Will watch thy waking,] These words are not in the folio. Johnson. 2 If no unconstant toy, &c.] If no fickle freak, no light caprice, no change of fancy, hinder the performance. Johnson. If no unconstant toy, nor womanish fear, Abate thy valour in the acting it.] These expressions are borrowed from the poem: "Cast off from thee at once the weed of womanish dread, Malone. 3 Give me, O give me! tell me not of fear.] The old copies unmetrically read: Give me, give me! O tell me not &c. Steevens. Fri, Hold; get you gone, be strong and prosperous In this resolve: I'll send a friar with speed To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord. Jul. Love, give me strength! and strength shall help afford. Farewel, dear father! SCENE II. A Room in Capulet's House. [Exeunt. Enter CAPULET, Lady CAPULET, Nurse, and Servant. Cap. So many guests invite as here are writ.— Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.4 [Exit Serv. 2 Serv. You shall have none ill, sir; for I'll try if they can lick their fingers. Cap. How canst thou try them so? 2 Serv. Marry, sir, 'tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers: 5 therefore he, that cannot lick his fingers, goes not with me. Cap. Go, begone. [Exit Serv. We shall be much unfurnish'd for this time. What, is my daughter gone to friar Laurence? Cap. Well, he may chance to do some good on her: A peevish self-will'd harlotry it is. Enter JULIET. Nurse. See, where she comes from shrift with merry look. 4 go hire me twenty cunning cooks.] Twenty cooks for half a dozen guests! Either Capulet has altered his mind strangely, or our author forgot what he had just made him tell us. See p. 325. Ritson. 5 ·lick his own fingers:] I find this adage in Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, 1589, p. 157: "As the olde cocke crowes so doeth the chick: "A bad cooke that cannot his owne fingers lick." Steevens. 6 - from shrift -] i. e. from confession. So, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608: "Ay, like a wench comes roundly to her shrift." In the old Morality of Every Man, bl. 1. no date, confession is personified: "Now I pray you, shrifte, mother of salvacyon." Steevens. |