ACT II. SCENE I.

C

AN I go forward, when my heart is here?
Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out.

Enter Benvolio, with Mercutio.

Ben. Romeo! my cousin Romeo!

Mer. He is wife;

And, on my life, hath ftol'n him home to bed.

[Exit

Ben. He ran this way, and leap'd this orchard-wall. Call, good Mercutio.

Mer. Nay, I'll conjure too.

Why, Romeo! humours! madman! paffion! lover!
Appear thou in the likeness of a figh,

Speak but one rhyme, and I am fatisfied.
Cry but Ah me! couple but love and dove;
Speak to my goffip Venus one fair word,
One nick-name to her purblind fon and heir:
+(Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim,

$ When king Cophetua lov'd the beggar-maid-)

4

He

Young Adam Cupid,] Alluding to the famous archer Adam Bell. Dr. GRAY.

When king Cophetua, &c.] Alluding to an old ballad. POPE. (Venus) purblind fon and heir,

Young Adam Cupid, he that fhot fo true,

When king Cophetua lov'd the beggar-maid.

Cupid is here called Adam, in allufion to the famous archer Adam Bell, the hero of many an ancient ballad. The ballad of king Cophetua, &c. in the firft of the three volumes 12m0. p. 141. is an old fong of a king's falling in love with a beggarmaid, which I take to be the very ballad in question, although

the

He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not;
The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.-
I conjure thee by Rofaline's bright eyes,
By her high forehead, and her fcarlet lip,
By her fine foot, ftraight leg, and quivering thigh,
And the demefns that there adjacent lie,
That in thy likenefs thou appear to us.

Ben. An' if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. Mer. This cannot anger him: 'twould anger him, To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle,

Of some strange nature, letting it there stand
'Till she had laid it, and conjur'd it down;
That were fome fpight. My invocation

Is fair and honeft, and, in his mistress' name,
I conjure only but to raise
up him.

Ben. Come, he hath hid himself among thofe trees, To be conforted with the humorous night :

Blind is his love, and beft befits the dark.

Mer. If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark. Now will he fit under a medlar-tree,

And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit,

the name of the king is no longer found in it, which will be no objection to any one who has compared old copies of ballads with thofe now extant. The third ftanza begins thus:

"The blinded boy that shoots so trim,

"Did to his closet window fleal, "And drew a dart and fhot at him,

"And made him foon his power feel." &c.

If this is the fong alluded to by Shakespeare, these should seem to be the very lines he had in his eye; and therefore I should fuppofe these lines in Romeo and Juliet were originally,

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her pur-blind fon and heir,

Young Adam Cupid, he that fhot so trim, "When, &c.

This word trim, the firft editors confulting the general fenfe of the paffage, and not perceiving the allufion, would naturally alter to true; yet the former feems the more humourous expreffion, and, on account of its quaintnefs, more likely to have been used by Mercutio. PERCY.

So trim is the reading of the conjecture is confirmed by it.

oldeft copy, and this ingenious STEEVENS.

• Which

"Which maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.-Romeo, good night; I'll to my truckle-bed;

This field-bed is too cold for me to fleep:

Come, fhall we go?

Ben. Go, then; for 'tis in vain

To feek him here that means not to be found.

I

SCENE

Capulet's Garden.

Enter Romeo.

II.

[Exeunt.

Rom. He jefts at fcars, that never felt a woundBut, foft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the fun!

[Juliet appears above, at a window.

Arife, fair fun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already fick and pale with grief,

That thou, her maid, art far more fair than fhe.

Be not her maid, fince fhe is envious;

Her vestal livery is but fick and green,

And none but fools do wear it; caft it off.. 3 It is my lady; O! it is my love;

O, that the knew fhe were!

She speaks, yet fhe fays nothing; what of that?
Her eye discourses; I will anfwer it.

I am too bold, 'tis not to me it speaks:
Two of the faireft ftars in all the heaven,

• After this line in the old copy I find two more, containing fuch ribaldry, that I cannot venture to push them forward into obfervation, though I mention them as a proof that either the poet or his printers knew fometimes how to blot. STEEVENS.

He jefts at fcars,] That is, Mercutio jefts, whom he overheard. JOHNSON.

2 Be not her maid,] Be not a votary to the moon, Diana. JOHNSON.

to

It is my lady ;] This line and half I have replaced. JOHNSON.

Having fome bufinefs, do intreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres 'till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As day-light doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region ftream so bright,
That birds would fing, and think it were not night.
See how the leans her cheek upon her hand!
4 O that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!

ful. Ay me!

Rom. She fpeaks :

5 Oh, fpeak again, bright angel! for thou art
As glorious to this fight, being o'er my head,
As is a winged meffenger of heaven,
Unto the white-upturned wond'ring eyes
Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him,
When he beftrides the lazy-pacing clouds,
And fails upon the bofom of the air.

6

Jul. O Romeo, Romeo!-wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father, and refuse thy name :

Or, if thou wilt not, be but fworn my love,

And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

Rom. Shall I hear more, or fhall I fpeak at this?

Jul. 'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;

[Afide.

4 O that I were a glove upon that hand,] This paffage appears to have been ridiculed by Shirley in The School of Compliments, a comedy, 1637,

"Oh that I were a flea upon that lip," &c. STEEVENS. 5 O, Speak again, bright angel! for thou art

As glorious to this night,] Though all the printed copies concur in this reading, yet the latter part of the fimile feems to require,

As glorious to this fight ;

and therefore I have ventured to alter the text fo. THEOBALD. 6 -the lazy-pacing clouds,] Thus corrected from the first edition, in the other lazy-puffing. POPE.

7 Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face-nor any other part.
What's in a name? that which we call a rofe,
By any other name would fmell as fweet.
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes,
Without that title; Romeo, doff thy name;
And for that name, which is no part of thee,
8 Take all myself.

Rom. I take thee at thy word:

Call me but love, and I'll be new baptiz'd;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

Jul. What man art thou, that thus, befcreen'd in night,

So ftumbleft on my counsel?

Rom. By a name

I know not how to tell thee who I am:
My name, dear faint, is hateful to myself,
Because it is an enemy to thee.

Had I it written, I would tear the word.

Jul. My ears have yet not drunk a hundred words Of that tongue's uttering, yet I know the found: Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?

Rom. Neither, fair faint, if either thee dislike.

7 Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.] i. e. you would be just what you are, although you were not of the Houfe of Montague. WARBURTON.

I think the true reading is,

Thou art thyfelf, then not a Montague.

Thou art a being of peculiar excellence, and haft none of the malignity of the family, from which thou haft thy name.Hanmer reads,

Thour't not thyself fo, though a Montague. JOHNSON. This line is wanting in the elder quarto; all the other editions concur in one reading. I think the paffage will fupport Dr. Johnson's explanation withont his propofed alteration. STEEVENS.

The elder quarto reads, Take all I have. STEEVENS.

Jul.