ROM. As if that name, Shot from the deadly level of a gun, Did murder her; as that name's cursed hand Murder'd her kinsman.-O tell me, friar, tell me *, In what vile part of this anatomy Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sack The hateful mansion. FRI. [Drawing his sword3. Hold thy desperate hand : Art thou a man? thy form cries out, thou art; Unseemly woman', in a seeming man! * Quarto A, Tell me, holy friar. 3 Drawing his sword.] In quarto 1597: "He offers to stab himself, and Nurse snatches the dagger away. "Nur. Ah!" BOSWELL. BosWELL. ❝ Art thou a man? thy form cries out, thou art; Thy tears are womanish ;] Thus in quarto 1597: "Hold! stay thy hand: art thou a man? thy form "Cries out, thou art; but thy wild acts denote "The unreasonable furies of a beast." Shakspeare has here closely followed his original : "Art thou, quoth he, a man? thy shape saith, so thou art; Thy crying and thy weeping eyes denote a woman's heart, "For manly reason is quite from off thy mind outchased, "And in her stead affections lewd, and fancies highly placed; "So that I stood in doubt, this hour at the least, "If thou a man or woman wert, or else a brutish beast." 66 Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562. MALONE. 7 Unseemly woman, &c.] Thou art a beast of ill qualities, under the appearance both of a woman and a man. JOHNSON. A person who seemed both man and woman, would be a monster, and of course an ill-beseeming beast. This is all the Friar meant to express. M. MASON. (1) By doing damned hate upon thyself? () Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth? ? Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet In thee at once; which thou at once would'st lose. And usest none in that true use indeed And slay thy lady Too that LIVES in thee,] Thus the first copy. The quarto 1599, and the folio, have "And slay thy lady, that in thy life lies." MALONE. 9 Why RAIL'ST thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth?] Romeo has not here railed on his birth, &c. though in his interview with the Friar as described in the poem, he is made to do so: "First Nature did he blame, the author of his life, "In which his joys had been so scant and sorrows aye so rife; "The time and place of birth he fiercely did reprove "He cryed out with open mouth against the stars above.— "On fortune eke he rail'd." Shakspeare copied the remonstrance of the Friar, without reviewing the former part of his scene. He has in other places fallen into a similar inaccuracy, by sometimes following and sometimes deserting his original. 66 The lines, Why rail'st thou, &c. to-thy own defence, are not in the first copy. They are formed on a passage in the poem: Why cry'st thou out on love? why dost thou blame thy fate? "Why dost thou so cry after death? thy life why dost thou hate?" &c. MALONE. I DIGRESSING from the valour of a man:] So, in the 24th Book of Homer's Odyssey, as translated by Chapman : 66 my deservings shall in nought digress "From best fame of our race's foremost merit." STEEVENS. So, in Richard II. Act V. Sc. III. : "And thy abundant goodness shall excuse "This deadly blot in thy digressing son. So, also in Barnabe Riche's Farewell: Knowing that you should otherwise have used me than you have, you should have digressed and swarved from your kinde." BOSWELL. Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish: And thou dismember'd with thine own defence 3. And turns it to exíle; there art thou happy too: () But, like a mis-behav'd * and sullen wench, * So quarto A; quarto B. mishaved; folio, mishaped. 2 Like powder in a skill-less soldier's flask, &c.] To understand the force of this allusion, it should be remembered that the ancient English soldiers, using match-locks, instead of locks with flints as at present, were obliged to carry a lighted match hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden flask in which they kept their powder. The same allusion occurs in Humours Ordinary, an old collection of English epigrams: STEEVENS. "When she his flask and touch-box set on fire, "And till this hour the burning is not out." 3 And thou dismember'd with thine own defence.] And thou torn to pieces with thine own weapons. JOHNSON. 4 - there art thou happy Too :] Thus the first quarto. In the subsequent quartos and the folio too is omitted. MALONE. It should not be concealed, that the reading of the second folio corresponds with that of the first quarto: 66 there art thou happy too." STEevens. The word is omitted in all the intermediate editions; a sufficient proof that the emendations of that folio are not always the result of ignorance or caprice. RITSON. 5 Thou pout'st UPON thy fortune and thy love:] The quarto 1599, and 1609, read: "Thou puts up thy fortune and thy love." The editor of the folio endeavoured to correct this by reading: Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable. NURSE. O Lord, I could have staid here all the night, To hear good counsel: O, what learning is !- ROM. Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide. "Thou puttest up thy fortune and thy love." The undated quarto has powts, which, with the aid of the original copy in 1597, pointed out the true reading. There the line stands : "Thou frown'st upon thy fate, that smiles on thee." MALONE. The reading in the text is confirmed by the following passage in Coriolanus: "We pout upon the morning." STEEVENS. 6 Romeo is coming.] Much of this speech has likewise been added since the first edition STEEVENS. The first edition has it thus after the lines which I have marked as wholly omitted: "Nurse, provide all things in readiness, "Comfort thy mistress, haste the house to bed, "Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto." BoSWELL. FRI. () Go hence: Good night'; and here stands all your state ; 8 Either be gone before the watch be set, Or by the break of day disguis'd from hence (I) Sojourn in Mantua; I'll find out your man, And he shall signify from time to time Every good hap to you, that chances here *: (1) Give me thy hand; 'tis late: () farewell; () good night; (||) ROM. But that a joy past joy calls out on me, It were a grief, so brief to part with thee: (I) Farewell. ( [Exeunt. SCENE IV o. A Room in CAPULET'S House. Enter CAPULET, Lady CAPULET, and PARIS. CAP. Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily, That we have had no time to move our daughter: * Quarto A, That doth befall thee here. 7 Go hence: Good night; &c.] These three lines are omitted in all the modern editions. JOHNSON. They were first omitted, with many others, by Mr. Pope. MALONE. This is a mistake: they are not in the first quarto. BOSWELL. 8 here stands all your state;] The whole of your fortune depends on this. JOHNSON. 9 SCENE IV.] Some few unnecessary verses are omitted in this scene according to the oldest editions. POPE. Mr. Pope means, as appears from his edition, that he has followed the oldest copy, and omitted some unnecessary verses which are not found there, but inserted in the enlarged copy of this play. But he has expressed himself so loosely, as to have been misunderstood by Mr. Steevens. In the text these unnecessary verses, as Mr. Pope calls them, are preserved, conformably to the enlarged copy of 1599. MALONE. In the quarto 1597, after the words, "born to die," the speech concludes thus : |