Now ere the fun advance his burning eye,
The day to chear, and night's dank dew to dry,
I must up-fill this ofier-cage of ours

With baleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers.
5 The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb;
What is her burying grave, that is her womb:
And from her womb children of divers kind
We fucking on her natural bofom find:
Many, for many virtues excellent,

6

None, but for fome, and yet all different.
O, mickle is the powerful grace, that lies
In plants, herbs, ftones, and their true qualities.
For nought fo vile, that on the earth doth live,
But to the earth fome fpecial good doth give;
Nor aught fo good, but, ftrain'd from that fair use,
Revolts from true birth, ftumbling on abuse.
Virtue itself turns vice, being mifapplied;
And vice fometime's by action dignify'd.
Within the infant rind of this fmall flower
Poifon hath refidence, and med’cine power;
For this, being smelt, with that part chears each
Being tafted, flays all fenfes with the heart.
7 Two fuch oppofed foes encamp them ftill

part,

In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will:

And

in his Legend of Tho. Mowbray Duke of Norfolk. Mowbray, fpeaking of the Germans, fays,

All jagg'd and frounc'd, with divers colours deck'd,
They wear, they curfe, and drink till they be fleck'd."

STEEVENS.

5 The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb ;] Omniparens, eadem rerum commune fepulchrum."

7

Lucretius.

"The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave."

Milton. STEEVENS.

-powerful grace,] Efficacious virtue. JOHNSON. Two fuch oppofed Fors-] This is a modern fophification. The old books have it opposed KINGS. So that it appears, Shakespeare wrote, Two juch oppojed KIN. Why he calls them kin was, because they were qualities refiding in one and

And where the worfer is predominant,

Full foon the canker death eats up that plant.

Enter Romeo.

Rom. Good morrow, father!

Fri. Benedicite!

What early tongue fo fweet faluteth me?-
Young fon, it argues a datemper'd head
So foon to bid good morrow to thy bed:
Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
And, where care lodgeth, fleep will never lie;
8 But where unbruifed youth with unftuft brain
Doth couch his limbs, there golden fleep doth reign :
Therefore thy earliness doth me affure,

Thou art up-rouz'd by fome diftemp'rature;
Or if not fo, then here I hit it right,

Our Romco hath not been in bed to-night.

Rom. That laft is true, the fweeter reft was mine. Fri. God pardon fin! waft thou with Rofaline? Rem. With Rofaline, my ghoftly father? no; I have forgot that name, and that name's woe. Fri. That's my good fon: but where haft thou been then?

Rem. I'll tell thee, cre thou afk it me again.

I have been feafting with mine enemy;

Where, on a fudden, one hath wounded me,

the fame fubftance. And as the enmity of oppofed kin generally rifes higher than that between frangers, this circumitance adds a beauty to the expreffion. WARBURTON.

Foes may be the right reading, or kings, but I think kin can hardly be admitted. Two kings are two oppofite porcers, two contending potentates, in both the natural and moral world. The word encamp is proper to commanders. JOHNSON.

Fees is the reading of the oldeft copy; kings of that in 1609. STEEVENS.

$ The old copy.

with unftuff'd brains

"Doth couch his iimmes, there golden fleep remaines."

STEEVENS.

That's

That's by me wounded; both our remedies
Within thy help and holy phyfick lies:
I bear no hatred, bleffed man; for, lo,
My interceffion likewife fteads my foe.

Fri. Be plain, good fon, reft homely in thy drift; Riddling confeffion finds but riddling fhrift.

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
By holy marriage: When, and where, and how,
We met, we woo'd, and made exchange of vow,
I'll tell thee as we pafs; but this I pray,
That thou confent to marry us this day.

Fri. Holy faint Francis! what a change is here!
Is Rofaline, whom thou didst love fo dear,
So foon forfaken? young mens' love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
9 Holy faint Francis ! what a deal of brine
Hath wafht thy fallow cheeks for Rofaline!
How much falt water thrown away in wafte,
To feafon love, that of it doth not tafte!
The fun not yet thy fighs from heaven clears,
Thy old groans ring yet in my antient ears;
Lo, here upon thy cheek the ftain doth fit
Of an old tear, that is not wafh'd off yet..
If e'er thou waft thyfelf, and thefe woes thine,
Thou and these woes were all for Rofaline.

And art thou chang'd? pronounce this fentence then,
Women may fall, when there's no frength in men.
Rom. Thou chidd'st me oft for loving Rofaline.
Fri. For doating, not for loving, pupil mine.
Rom. And bad'it me bury love.

Fri. Not in a grave,

To lay one in, another out to have.

9

Holy Saint Francis !] Old copy, Jefu Maria! STEEVENS.

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. Oh, fhe knew well,

Thy love did read by rote, and could not spell.
But come, young waverer, come and go with me,
In one refpect I'il thy affiftant be:

For this alliance may fo happy prove,

To turn your houfhold-rancour to pure love '.
Rom. O let us hence; I ftand on fudden haste.
Fri. Wifely and flow; they ftumble, that run fast.

[Exeunt.

Mer. Where the devil fhould this Romeo be? Came he not home to-night?

Ben. Not to his father's; I fpoke with his man. Mer. Why, that fame pale, hard-hearted, wench, that Rofaline,

Torments him fo, that he will, fure, run mad,
Ben. Tybalt, the kinfman of old Capulet,
Hath fent a letter to his father's houfe.

Mer. A challenge, on my life.

Ben. Romeo will answer it.

Mer. Any man, that can write, may answer a

letter.

Ben. Nay, he will answer the letter's mafter, how he dares, being dar'd.

Mer. Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead! stabb'd with a white wench's black eye, fhot through the ear with a love-fong; the very pin of his heart cleft with

The two following lines were added fince the first copy of this play. STEEVENS,

the

the blind bow-boy's but-shaft; and is he a man to encounter Tybalt!

Ben. Why, what is Tybalt?

Mer. 2 More than prince of cats, I can tell you. -Oh, he is the 3 courageous captain of compliments: he fights as you fing prick-fong, keeps time, diftance 4, and proportion; he refts his minim, one, two, and the third in your bofom : the very butcher of a filk button, a duellift, a duellift; 5 a gentleman of the very first houfe of the firft and fecond caufe: Ah, the immortal paffado! the punto reverfo! the hay!

Ben. The what?

Mcr. The pox of fuch antick, lifping, affected fantastico's 7, these new tuners of accents!“ By

3

a

7 More than prince of cats,-] Tybert, the name given to the Cat, in the ftory-book of Reynard the Fox. WARBURTON. -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 author of Don Armado, the Spaniard, in Love's Labour Loft. JOHNSON.

4

-keeps time, distance, and proportion.] So Jonfon's Bobedil. "Note your distance, keep your due proportion of time."

STEEVENS.

A gentleman of the very firft house, of the first and fecond caufe: i. e. one who pretends to be at the head of his family, and quarrels by the book. See note on As you like it, A& V. . Scene 6. WARBURTON.

Tibalt cannot pretend to be at the head of his family, as both Capulet and Romeo barr'd his claim to that elevation. A gentleman of the first houfe of the firft and fecond caufe-means one who belongs to the oldeft fencing-fchool where thefe terms belonging to the duello were taught. STEEVENS.

the bay!] All the terms of the modern fencing-school were originally Italian; the rapier, or fmall thrufting fword, being first used in Italy. The bay is the word bai, you have it, ufed when a thrust reaches the antagonist, from which our fencers, on the fame occafion, without knowing, I fuppofe, any reafon for it,, cry out, ha! JOHNSON.

affected fantaftico's.] Thus the cld copies, and rightly. The modern editors read, phantafies. Nah, in his Have with

you