This doth not so, for she divideth us: Some say, the lark and loathed toad change eyes ; O, now I would they had chang'd voices too! Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray, Hunting thee hence with hunts-up to the day'. 6 * Quarto A, this. 5 Some say, the lark and loathed toad change eyes; O, now I would they had chang'd voices too!] I wish the lark and toad had changed voices; for then the noise which I hear would be that of the toad, not of the lark: it would consequently be evening, at which time the toad croaks; not morning, when the lark sings; and we should not be under the necessity of separation. A. C. If the toad and lark had changed voices, the unnatural croak of the latter would have been no indication of the appearance of day, and consequently no signal for her lover's departure. This is apparently the aim and purpose of Juliet's wish. HEATH. The toad having very fine eyes, and the lark very ugly ones, was the occasion of a common saying amongst the people, that the toad and lark had changed eyes. To this the speaker alludes. WARBURTON. This tradition of the toad and lark I have heard expressed in a rustick rhyme : To heav'n I'd flv, "But that the toad beguil'd me of mine eye." JOHNSON. Read chang'd eyes. M. MASON. 6 Since arm from arm, &c.] These two lines are omitted in the modern editions, and do not deserve to be replaced, but as they may show the danger of critical temerity. Dr. Warburton's change of I would to I wot was specious enough, yet it is evidently erroneous. The sense is this-The lark, they say, has lost her eyes to the toad, and now I would the toad had her voice too, since she uses it to the disturbance of lovers. JOHNSON. 7 Hunting thee hence with hunts-up to the day.] The huntsup was the name of the tune anciently played to wake the hunters, and collect them together. So, in The Return from Parnassus, 1606 : "Yet will I play a hunts-up to my Muse." Again, in the play of Orlando Furioso, 1594 and 1599: "To play him huntsup with a point of war, "I'll be his minstrell with my drum and fife." Again, in Westward Hoe, 1607 : O, now be gone; more light and light it grows. ROM. More light and light?-more dark and dark our woes. NURSE. Madam! Enter Nurse. JUL. Nurse ? NURSE. Your lady mother's coming to your chamber: The day is broke; be wary, look about. JUL. Then, window, let day in, [Exit Nurse. and let life out. ROM. Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and I'll de[ROMEO descends. JUL. Art thou gone so ? my lord! my love! my friend 9! scend. I must hear from thee every day i' the hour, Make a noise, its no matter; any huntsup to waken vice." Again, in Drayton's Polyolbion, Song 13th: "But hunts-up to the morn the feather'd sylvans sing." STEEVENS. Puttenham, in his Art of English Poesy, 1589, speaking of one Gray, says, "what good estimation did he grow into with king Henry [the Eighth] and afterwards with the duke of Somerset protectour, for making certaine merry ballads, whereof one chiefly was The Hunte is up, the Hunte is up." RITSON. A huntsup also signified a morning song to a new-married woman, the day after her marriage, and is certainly used here in that sense. See Cotgrave's Dictionary, in v. Resveil. MALONE. 9 Art thou gone so? my lord! my love! my friend!] Thus the quarto 1597. That of 1599, and the folio, read: "Art thou gone so? love, lord, ay husband, friend!" MALONE. For in a minute there are many days:] The quarto 1597 has two lines instead of the one here given: "For in an hour there are many minutes; "Minutes are days; so shall I number them." Boswell. So, in Abraham's Sacrifice, a Tragedy, by Beza, translated by Arthur Golding, 1577: O! by this count I shall be much in years, ROM. Farewell! I will omit no opportunity That may convey my greetings, love, to thee. JUL. O, think'st thou, we shall ever meet again? ROM. I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve For sweet discourses in our time to come. JUL. O God! I have an ill-divining soul3: Methinks, I see thee, now thou art below, As one dead in the bottom of a tomb: Either my eyesight fails, or thou look'st pale. ROM. And trust me, love, in my eye so do you: Dry sorrow drinks our blood 5. Adieu! adieu! [Exit ROMEO. * Quarto A, Ere I see thee again. ↑ Quarto A, No doubt, no doubt. Alas, my God, which seest me from above, Both outwardly and inwardly alway, "Vowtsafe to shorten these three yeeres [days] I pray; 66 'For were they much more shorter than they be, "They be not dayes, but moneths and yeeres, to me." MALONE. 2 O! by this count I shall be much in years, Ere I again behold my Romeo.] "Illa ego, quæ fueram te decedente puella, Ovid, Epist. I. STEEVENS. 3 O God! I have an ill-divining soul: &c.] This miserable prescience of futurity I have always regarded as a circumstance particularly beautiful. The same kind of warning from the mind, Romeo seems to have been conscious of, on his going to the entertainment at the house of Capulet: 66 my mind misgives, "Some consequence yet hanging in the stars, "From this night's revels." STEEVENS. 4 O God! I have an ILL-DIVINING Soul: Methinks, I SEE THEE, now thou art BELOW, As one DEAD-] So, in our author's Venus and Adonis : 66 I prophecy thy death." The reading of the text is that of the quarto 1597. That of 1599, and the folio, read-now thou art so low. MALONE. (JUL. O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle : If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune; For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long, But send him back. LA. CAP. [Within.] Ho, daughter! are you up? JUL. Who is't that calls? is it my lady mother? Is she not down so late, or up so early'? What unaccustom'd cause procures her hither ? (D Enter Lady CAPULET9. LA. CAP. Why, how now, Juliet ? 8 5 Dry sorrow drinks our blood.] This is an allusion to the proverb- Sorrow's dry." 66 Chapman, in his version of the seventeenth Iliad, says "Drunk from their faces all their blouds." STEEVENS. He is accounting for their paleness. It was an ancient notion that sorrow consumed the blood, and shortened life. Hence, in The Third Part of King Henry VI. we have-" blood-sucking sighs." MALOne. 6 That is renown'd for faith?] This Romeo, so renown'd for faith, was but the day before dying for love of another woman: yet this is natural. Romeo was the darling object of Juliet's love, and Romeo was, of course, to have every excellence. M. MASON. It does not appear that Juliet was aware of Romeo's former attachment. BOSWELL. 7 Is she not down so late, or up so early?] Is she not laid down in her bed at so late an hour as this? or rather is she risen from bed at so early an hour of the morn? MALOone. 8 PROCURES her hither?] Procures for brings. 9 The quarto 1597 thus commences this scene: WARBURTON. "Enter Juliet's Mother, Nurse. "Moth. Where are you, daughter? "Nur. What lady, lamb, what Juliet!. "Jul. How now, who calls? Nur. It is your mother. "Moth. Why, how now, &c." BOSWELL. JUL. Madam, I am not well. LA. CAP. Evermore weeping for your cousin's death 1? What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears? An if thou could'st, thou could'st not make him live; Therefore, have done: Some grief shows much of love; But much of grief shows still some want of wit. Which you weep for. JUL. Feeling so the loss, I cannot choose but ever weep the friend. LA. CAP. Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for his death, As that the villain lives which slaughter'd him. LA. CAP. That same villain, Romeo. JUL. Villain and he are many miles asunder. God pardon him2! I do, with all my heart; 1 Evermore weeping for your cousin's death? &c.] So, in The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562: 66 time it is that now you should our Tybalt's death forget; "Of whom since God hath claim'd the life that was but lent, "He is in bliss, ne is there cause why you should thus la ment: "You cannot call him back with tears and shriekings shrill; "It is a fault thus still to grudge at God's appointed will." MALONE. So, full as appositely, in Painter's Novel: "Thinke no more upon the death of your cousin Thibault ; whom do you thinke to revoke with teares?" STEEvens. 2 God pardon HIM!] The word him, which was inadvertently omitted in the old copies, was inserted by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. |