Of limping winter treads, even such delight And like her most, whose merit most shall be: Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one, May stand in number, though in reckoning none9. "That it was May, thus dremid me, "That al thing ginnith waxin gay, &c.- Romaunt of the Rose, v. 51, &c. Again, in The Romaunce of the Sowdon of Babyloyne, &c. MS. Penes Dr. Farmer. "Hit bifelle by twyxte marche and maye, "As nightingalis on grene tre, “That thay myghte with there love be," &c, p. 2. STEEVENS. Our author's 99th Sonnet may also serve to confirm the reading of the text: "From you I have been absent in the spring, Again, in Tancred and Gismund, a tragedy, 1592: "Then in the April of her springing age-." MALone. 8 INHERIT at my house ;] To inherit, in the language of Shakspeare's age, is to possess. MAlone. 9 SUCH, amongst view of many, mine, being one, May stand in number, though in reckoning none.] The first of these lines I do not understand. The old folio gives no help; the passage is there, Which one more view. I can offer nothing better than this: 66 Within your view of many, mine, being one, In the subsequent quarto of 1599, that Thus the quarto, 1597. of 1609, and the folio, Which one [on] more view of many," &c. MALONE. Come, go with me ;-Go, sirrah, trudge about A very slight alteration will restore the clearest sense to this passage. Shakspeare might have written the lines thus: Search among view of many, mine, being one, May stand in number, though in reckoning none. i. e. Amongst the many you will view there, search for one that will please you: choose out of the multitude. This agrees exactly with what he had already said to him: Hear all, all see, "And like her most, whose merit most shall be." My daughter (he proceeds) will, it is true, be one of the number, but her beauty can be of no reckoning (i. e. estimation) among those whom you will see here. Reckoning for estimation, is used before in this very scene: "Of honourable reckoning are you both." STEEVEns. This interpretation is fully supported by a passage in Measure for Measure: 66 Our compell'd sins "Stand more for number, than accompt." i. e. estimation. There is here an allusion to an old proverbial expression, that one is no number. So, in Decker's Honest Whore, Part II.: 66 66 to fall to one, is to fall to none, "For one no number is.” Again, in Marlowe's Hero and Leander : "One is no number.” Again, in Shakspeare's 136th Sonnet: Among a number one is reckon'd none, "Then in the number let me pass untold." The following lines in the poem on which the tragedy is founded, may add some support to Mr. Steevens's conjecture: "To his approved friend a solemn oath he plight, every where he would resort where ladies wont to meet; "Eke should his savage heart like all indifferently, "For he would view and judge them all with unallured eye.— * * * * "No knight or gentleman of high or low renown "But Capulet himself had bid unto his feast, &c. Young damsels thither flock, of bachelors a rout; "Not so much for the banquet's sake, as beauties to search out." MALONE. This passage is neither intelligible as it stands, nor do I think Whose names are written there', [Gives a Paper, and to them say, My house and welcome on their pleasure stay. [Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS. SERV. Find them out, whose names are written here? It is written-that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am sent to find those persons, whose names are here writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned :-) In good time. () Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO. BEN. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning, One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish; Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning; it will be rendered so by Steevens's amendment.-"To search amongst view of many," is neither sense nor English. The old folio, as Johnson tells us, reads "Which one more view of many—.” And this leads us to the right reading, which I should suppose to have been this : "Whilst on more view of many, mine being one," &c. With this alteration the sense is clear, and the deviation from the folio very trifling. M. MASON. I find those persons out, Whose names are written there,] Shakspeare has here closely followed the poem already mentioned: "No lady fair or foul was in Verona town, "No knight or gentleman of high or low renown, "Or by his name, in paper sent, appointed as a guest." MALONE. 2 Find them out, whose names are written here?] The quarto, 1597, adds: " And yet I know not who are written here: I must to the learned to learn of them: that's as much as to say, the tailor," &c. STEEVENS. One desperate grief cures with another's languish3: Take thou some new infection to thy eye, And the rank poison of the old will die*. ROM. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that 5. 3 with another's LANGUISH:] This substantive is again found in Antony and Cleopatra.-It was not of our poet's coinage, occurring also (as I think) in one of Morley's songs, 1595: Alas, it skills not, "For thus I will not, "Live in love and languish." MALONE. 4 Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning,- And the rank poison of the old will die.] So, in the poem: "And as out of a plank a nail a nail doth drive, So novel love out of the mind the ancient love doth rive." Again, in our author's Coriolanus: "One fire drives out one fire; one nail one nail." - a fire divided in twayne So, in Lyly's Euphues, 1580: burneth flower;-one love expelleth another, and the remembrance of the latter quencheth the concupiscence of the first.” MALONE. Veterem amorem novo, quasi clavum clavo repellere, is a morsel of very ancient advice; and Ovid also has assured us, that"Alterius vires subtrahit alter amor." Or, "Successore novo truditur omnis amor." Priorem flammam novus ignis extrudit, is also a proverbial phrase. STEEVens. 5 Your PLANTAIN leaf is excellent for that,] Tackius tells us, that a toad, before she engages with a spider, will fortify herself with some of this plant; and that, if she comes off wounded, she cures herself afterwards with it. DR. GREY. The same thought occurs in Albumazar, in the following lines: "Help, Armellina, help! I'm fall'n i' the cellar: "Bring a fresh plantain leaf, I've broke my shin." Again, in The Case is Alter'd, by Ben Jonson, 1609, a fellow who has had his head broke, says: "Tis nothing, a fillip, a device; fellow Juniper, prithee get me a plantain." BEN. For what, I pray thee? ROM. For your broken shin. BEN. Why, Romeo, art thou mad? ROM. Not mad, but bound more than a madman is : Shut up in prison, kept without my food, Whipp'd, and tormented, and-Good-e'en, good fellow. SERV. God gi' good e'en.-I pray, sir, can you read ? ROM. Ay, mine own fortune in my misery. SERV. Perhaps you have learn'd it without book: But I pray, can you read any thing you see? ROM. Ay, if I know the letters, and the language. SERV. Ye say honestly; Rest you merry! ROM. Stay, fellow; I can read. [Reads. Signior Martino, and his wife, and daughters; County Anselme, and his beauteous sisters; The lady widow of Vitruvio; Signior Placentio, and his lovely nieces; Mercutio, and his brother Valentine; Mine uncle Capulet, his wife, and daughters; My fair niece Rosaline; Livia; Signior Valentio, and his cousin Tybalt; Lucio, and the lively Helena. A fair assembly; [Gives back the Note;] Whither should they come ? SERV. Up. ROM. Whither? SERV. To supper; to our house". ROM. Whose house? SERV. My master's. The plantain leaf is a blood-stauncher, and was formerly applied to green wounds. STEEVENS. 6 To supper; to our house.] The words to supper are in the old copies annexed to the preceding speech. They undoubtedly belong to the Servant, to whom they were transferred by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. |