FRI. Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief; (1) It strains me past the compass of my wits: () I hear thou must, and nothing must prorogue it, On Thursday next be married to this county. JUL. Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this, Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it: () If, in thy wisdom, thou canst give no help, Do thou but call my resolution wise, And with this knife I'll help it presently. God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands; 5 Or my true heart with treacherous revolt 6 As that is desperate (||) which (||) we would prevent. * Quarto A, Speak not, be briefe, for I desire to die. 4 Shall be the label to another deed,] The seals of deeds in our author's time were not impressed on the parchment itself on which the deed was written, but were appended on distinct slips or labels affixed to the deed. Hence in King Richard II. the Duke of York discovers a covenant which his son the Duke of Aumerle had entered into by the depending seal : "What seal is that, which hangs without thy bosom?" See the fac-simile of Shakspeare's hand writing in vol. ii. MALONE. s Shall play the umpire ;] That is, this knife shall decide the struggle between me and my distresses. JOHNSON. 6 -COMMISSION of thy years and art-] Commission is for authority or power. JOHNSON. If, rather than to marry county Paris, Thou hast the strength of will* to slay thyself: A thing like death to chide away this shame, ; JUL. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, From off the battlements of yonder tower? Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears; Or, shut me nightly in a charnel-house, 7 8 * Quarto A, Strength or will. + Quarto A, To fly from blame. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, From off the battlements of yonder tower;] So, in King Leir, written before 1594: 66 'Yea, for to do thee good, I would ascend "The highest turret in all Britanny, "And from the top leap headlong to the ground." MALONE. of yonder tower;" Thus the quarto 1597. All other anSTEEVENS. cient copies of any tower. -chain me, &c.] "Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk "Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears, It is thus the editions vary. POPE. My edition has the words which Mr. Pope has omitted; but the old copy seems in this place preferable; only perhaps we might better read— Where savage bears and roaring lions roam. JOHNSON. I have inserted the lines which Mr. Pope omitted; for which I must offer this short apology: in the lines rejected by him we meet with three distinct ideas, such as may be supposed to excite terror in a woman, for one that is to be found in the others. The lines now omitted are these: "Or chain me to some steepy mountain's top, "Where roaring bears and savage lions roam; "Or shut me- -." The lines last quoted, which Mr. Pope and Dr. Johnson preferred, are found in the copy of 1597; in the text the quarto of 1599 is followed, except that it has-Or hide me nightly, &c. MALONE. O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones, And hide me with a dead man in his shroud 9; Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble; And I will do it without fear or doubt, To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love 1. consent To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow; * Quarto A, Hold, Juliet, hie thee home; get thee to bed. † Quarto A, And when thou art alone, take thou this violl. 9 And hide me with a dead man in his shroud ;] In the quarto 1599, and 1609, this line stands thus: "And hide me with a dead man in his," The editor of the folio supplied the defect by reading-in his grave, without adverting to the disgusting repetition of that word. The original copy leads me to believe that Shakspeare wrote in his tomb; for there the line stands thus: "Or lay me in a tombe with one new dead." I have, however, with the other modern editors, followed the undated quarto, in which the printer filled up the line with the word shroud. MALONE. It may be natural for the reader to ask by what evidence this positive assertion, relative to the printer, is supported. To creep under a shroud, and so be placed in close contact with a corpse, is surely a more terrifick idea than that of being merely laid in a tomb with a dead companion. STEEVENS. To my sweet love.] Thus the quarto 1599, and the folio: the quarto 1597 reads, I think with more spirit: "To keep myself a faithful unstain'd wife, "To my dear lord, my dearest Romeo." Boswell. 2 Take thou this phial, &c.] So, in The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet: "Receive this phial small, and keep it in thine eye, "And on the marriage day, before the sun doth clear the sky, "Fill it with water full up to the very brim, "Then drink it off, and thou shalt feel throughout each vein and limb And this distilled liquor drink thou off: His natural progress, but surcease to beat : * Quarto A, No signe of breath. "A pleasant slumber slide, and quite dispread at length "On all thy parts; from every part reve all thy kindly strength : "Withouten moving then thy idle parts shall rest, "No pulse shall go, no heart once heave within thy hollow breast; "But thou shalt lie as she that dieth in a trance; 66 66 Thy kinsmen and thy trusty friends shall wail the sudden chance: Thy corps then will they bring to grave in this church-yard, "Where thy forefathers long ago a costly tomb prepar'd: 66 where thou shalt rest, my daughter, "Till I to Mantua send for Romeus, thy knight, "Out of the tomb both he and I will take thee forth that night." MALOne. Thus, in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, tom. ii. p. 237: "Beholde heere I give thee a viole, &c. drink so much as is contained therein. And then you shall feele a certaine kinde of pleasant sleepe, which incroching by litle and litle all the parts of your body, will constrain them in such wise, as unmoveable they shal remaine: and by not doing their accustomed duties, shall loose their natural feelings, and you abide in such extasie the space of xl hours at the least, without any beating of poulse or other perceptible motion, which shall so astonne them that come to see you, as they will judge you to be dead, and according to the custome of our citie, you shall be caried to the churchyard hard by our church, when you shall be entombed in the common monument of the Capellets your ancestors," &c. The number of hours during which the sleep of Juliet was to continue, is not mentioned in the poem. STEEVENS. 3 through all thy veins shall run A cold and drowsy humour, &c.] The first edition of 1.597 has in general been here followed, except only, that instead of 66 a cold and drowsy humour, we there find-" a dull and heavy slumber," and a little lower, no sign of breath," &c. The speech, however, was greatly enlarged; for in the first copy it consists of only thirteen lines; in the subsequent edition, of thirty-three. MALONE. To paly ashes; thy eyes' windows fall, Like death, when he shuts up the day of life; Shall stiff, and stark, and cold, appear like death: (1) And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death 4 The ROSES in thy lips and cheeks shall fade TO PALY ASHES; It may be remarked, that this image does not occur either in Painter's prose translation, or Brooke's metrical version of the fable on which conjunctively the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is founded. It may be met with, however, in A Dolefull Discourse of a Lord and a Ladie, by Churchyard, 4to. 1593: "Her colour changde, her cheerfull lookes "Of beauties blossomes sweete: "The blood forsooke the wonted course, 66 'And left the limmes as cold and swarfe "As coles that wastes with fire." STEEVENS. "To paly ashes." These words are not in the original copy. The quarto 1599, and the folio, read-To many ashes, for which the editor of the second folio substituted-mealy ashes. The true reading is found in the undated quarto. This uncommon adjective occurs again in King Henry V.: 66 and through their paly flames, MALONE. "Each battle sees the other's umber'd face." 5thy eyes' WINDOWS fall,] So, in Venus and Adonis : "Her two blue windows faintly she upreareth." So, in Kyd's Cornelia: "A dullness that disposeth us to rest "Gan close the windowes of my watchful eyes." MALONE. Two and forty hours,] Instead of the remainder of this scene, the quarto 1597 has only these four lines: "And when thou art laid in thy kindred's vault, "I'll send in haste to Mantua, to thy lord; "And he shall come, and take thee from thy grave. "Jul. Friar, I go; be sure thou send for my dear Romeo." BOSWELL. |