Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy.
Nurse. What's this? what's this?
Jul.

Of one I danc'd withal.

Nurse.

A rhyme I learn'd even now [One calls within, "Juliet !"

Anon, anon :-—

Come, let's away; the strangers all are gone.

Enter CHORUS *.

Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie,
And young affection gapes to be his heir:
That fair, for which love groan'd for, and would die,
With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair.
Now Romeo is belov'd, and loves again,

Alike bewitched by the charm of looks;

But to his foe suppos'd he must complain,

And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks:

Being held a foe, he may not have access

To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear;

And she as much in love, her means much less

To meet her new-beloved any where:

But passion lends them power, time means to meet,
Tempering extremities with extreme sweet.

[Exeunt.

[Exit.

ACT II. SCENE I.

An open Place, adjoining CAPULET's Garden.

Enter ROMEO.

Rom. Can I go forward, when my heart is here? Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out.

[He climbs the wall, and leaps down within it.

Enter BENVOLIO, and MERCUTIO.

Ben. Romeo! my cousin Romeo! Romeo!
Mer.

He is wise;

Enter Chorus.] The Chorus is found in all the editions after the first in 1597, but in that it is wanting.

And, on my life, hath stolen him home to bed.

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

Mer.

Nay, I'll conjure too'.-
Romeo, humours, madman, passion, lover!
Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh:
Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied;

Cry but-Ah me! pronounce but-love and dove°;
Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,
One nick-name for her purblind son and heir,
Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim',
When king Cophetua lov'd the beggar-maid.-
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not;
The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.—
I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,
By her high forehead, and her scarlet lip,

By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
That in thy likeness 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

Nay, I'll conjure too.] In all the old copies, 4to. and folio, these words are given to Benvolio-no doubt wrongly.

6

pronounce but-love and dove ;] We are here indebted to the 4to, 1597: the 4tos, 1599 and 1609, and the folio, 1623, read "Provant but love and day :" the folio, 1632, introduced "couply but love and day," ("couple but love and dove" in the corr. fo. 1632,) which was followed in the folios, 1664 and 1685.

7 Young ADAM Cupid, he that shot so TRIM,] The old copies have, "Abraham Cupid," which Upton altered to Adam, understanding the reference to be to Adam Bell, the famous archer. The Rev. Mr. Dyce ("Few Notes," p. 109) would preserve" Abraham," which he construes auburn, in reference to what he supposes the colour of Cupid's hair. This is, indeed, to use Mr. Dyce's own strong words ("Remarks," p. 167), to "chronicle a wretched conjecture;" for where, in English, is Cupid called “auburn Cupid?” Trim is from the 4to, 1597, other editions reading true. The passage applies to the ballad of " King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid," alluded to in Love's Labour's Lost," Vol. ii. pp. 105. 125, and in 66 Henry IV., Part II.," Vol. iii. p. 523. We quote the portion particularly in Shakespeare's mind:

"The blinded boy, that shootes so trim

From heaven downe did hie,
He drew a dart, and shot at him

In place where he did lye."

Percy's Reliques, i. 202, edit. 1812.

In "Love's Labour's Lost" "The King and the Beggar" is spoken of as then an old ballad-" three ages since."

8 He heareth not,] "He hears me not," 4to, 1597. The rest of this line and the whole of the next are wanting in that edition.

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

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

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

Blind is his love, and best befits the dark.

Mer. If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.

Now will he sit under a medlar tree,

And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit,
As maids call medlars when they laugh alone.-
O Romeo! that she were, oh! that she were
An open et cætera, thou a poprin pear!
Romeo, good night :-I'll to my truckle-bed;
This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep.
Come, shall we go?

Ben.

Go, then; for 'tis in vain To seek him here, that means not to be found".

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

CAPULET'S Garden.

Enter ROMEO.

Rom. He jests at scars, that never felt a wound.—

[JULIET appears above at a window.

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks ?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief,

That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she:

Be not her maid, since she is envious;

Her vestal livery is but white and green,

And none but fools do wear it'; cast it off.—

9 that means not to be found.] This speech, given to Benvolio in the 4to, 1599, and in the later copies, with a slight variation, is made the conclusion of that of Mercutio in the 4to, 1597. Above, it has "trundle-bed" for "truckle-bed."

Her vestal livery is but WHITE and green,

And none but fools do wear it ;] The words in the 4to, 1597, are "pale and

It is my lady; oh! it is my love:

Oh, that she knew she were!—

She speaks, yet she says nothing: what of that?
Her eye discourses, I will answer it.-

I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks:
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat 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 daylight doth a lamp: her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright,
That birds would sing, and think it were not night.
See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek2 !

Jul.
Rom.

Ah me!

She speaks:

Oh, speak again, bright angel! for thou art
As glorious to this night, being o'er my head,
As is a winged messenger of heaven
Unto the white-upturned wond'ring eyes
Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him,
When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds3,

And sails upon the bosom of the air.

Jul. O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father, and refuse thy name:

green," and in later copies they are altered to “sick and green," sick having, perhaps, been caught from a preceding line. The corr. fo. 1632 has it "white and green," as in our text, the allusion being, as the words "And none but fools do wear it " establish, to the dress of fools and jesters, which was then usually motley, but had formerly been "white and green." Such it is known had been the dress of William Summer the court jester to Henry VIII.; and the Rev. Mr. Dyce has shown (Skelton's Works, I. xii. and 128) that John Skelton boasted of the dress of "white and green" which had been given to him by the same king. Mr. Singer, while reprinting "pale and green from the 4to, 1597, assigns our reasons ("Notes and Emendations," p. 386) for substituting "white and green," which must surely have been the real language of the poet in this place.

2 That I might TOUCH that cheek!] The 4to, 1597, only, has kiss for "touch."

3 the lazy-PACING clouds,] So the 4to, 1597, being a much superior reading to that of the other 4tos. and folios, which have lazy-puffing. The origin of the corruption possibly was, that in the manuscript, from which the 4to, 1599, was printed, "lazy-pacing" was written lazy-passing, and the compositor misread the two long letters & for a double f. In the corr. fo. 1632 it is amended to "lazypassing," but we follow the 4to, 1597.

Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

Rom. Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
Jul. 'Tis but thy name that is my enemy:
Thou art thyself though, not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. Oh, be some other name '!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose,
By any other name would smell as sweet:
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 thy name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself!

Rom.

I take thee at thy word'. [Starting forward. Call me but love, and I'll be new baptiz'd;

Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

Jul. What man art thou, that, thus bescreen'd in night, So stumblest on my counsel?

Rom.

By a name

I know not how to tell thee who I am:
My name, dear saint, 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 utterance, yet I know the sound. Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?

4 Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. Oh, be some other name!] It is a mistake to say, with some modern editors, that the folio, 1623, omits "Oh, be some other name!" the folio, 1623, omits "nor any other part," and the passage (copied from the 4tos, 1599 and 1609) there stands thus unintelligibly :

"Nor arm nor face, O be some other name
Belonging to a man."

Malone recovered the necessary words, "nor any other part," from the 4to, 1597, but "Oh, be some other name!" is there omitted. The folio, 1623, instead of printing, with all preceding editions, "What's in a name?" &c. absurdly gives "What? in a name's that which we call a rose."

s I take thee at thy word.] The stage-direction here, Starting forward, is in the margin of the corr. fo. 1632, and probably denotes the natural and eager manner of the actor in the part of Romeo.

• Of THAT tongue's UTTERANCE,] So the 4to, 1597: the later 4tos. and folio, "Of thy tongue's uttering." In the next line but one, the later 4tos. and folio read, maid for "saint," and dislike for "displease." In these instances the older text would seem to be the better.

VOL. V.

K