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courts or wooes a lady is sometimes indulged. appears clearly from the subsequent lines :

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"On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand, "And steal immortal blessings from her lips-Flies may do this."

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MALONE.

390. Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,] This and the next line were not in the first copy.

MALONE. 395. But Romeo may not; he is banished.] This line is very awkwardly introduced here, and might better be inserted after-their own kisses sin. STEEVENS.

-It ought, without doubt, to be placed there. In the first edition it is inserted immediately beforeFlies may do this. MALONE.

429. What wilfulness-] The folio reads-What simpleness. STEEVENS.

439. O woeful sympathy!

Piteous predicament!] One may wonder the editors did not see that this language must necessarily belong to the Friar. FARMER.

Dr. Farmer's emendation may justly claim that place in the text to which I have now advanced it.

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466. Art thou a man? thy form cries out, thou art;

Thy tears are womanish ;·

here closely followed his original :

-] Shakspere has

" Art

"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."

Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562.

MALONE. 476. 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 Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet, 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—”

Shakspere copied the remonstrance of thef riar, without reviewing the former part of his scere.

MALONE.

489. Like powder in the 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 Humour's Ordinary, an old collection of English epigrams:

"When she his flask and touch-box set on fire,
"And till this hour the burning is not out."
STEEVENS.

491.

And thou dismember'd with thine own defence,] And thou torn to pieces with thine own weapons.

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JOHNSON.

515. Romeo is coming.] Much of this speech has likewise been added since the first edition.

STEEVENS. 523. Go hence. Good night, &c.] These three lines are omitted in all the modern editions. JOHNSON. -here stands all your state,] The whole of your for tune depends on this. JOHNSON. . 533. SCENE IV.] Some few unnecessary verses are omitted in this scene, according to the oldest editions.

POPE.

These verses are such as will by no means connect with the last and most improved copy of the play. STEEVENS.

543.

mew'd up-] This is a phrase from falconry. A mew was a place of confinement for

hawks.

Gij

STEEVENS.

544.

544. Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender

Of my child's love:-] Desperate means only, bold, advent'rous, as if he had said in the vulgar phrase, I will speak a bold word, and venture to promise you my daughter. JOHNSON. So, in The Weakest goes to the Wall, 1618: "Witness this desperate tender of mine honour." STEEVENS. 569. SCENE V. Juliet's chamber.] The stage. direction, in the first edition, is-« Enter Romeo and Juliet at the window." In the second quarto-“ Enter Romeo and Juliet aloft." They appeared probably in the balcony which seems to have been erected on the old English stage. See The Account of the Ancient

Theatres.

MALONE.

572. Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree:] This is not merely a poetical supposition. It is observed of the nightingale, that, if undisturbed, she sits and sings upon the same tree for many weeks together.

STEEVENS.

588. the pale reflex-] The appearance of a cloud opposed to the moon.

591. I have more care to stay, than

Would it not be better thus: I have more

than care to go?

597.

JOHNSON. will to go;]

will to stay,

JOHNSON.

--sweet division;] Division seems to have been the technical term for the pauses or parts of a musical composition. So, in King Henry IV. P. I.

66

Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower, "With ravishing division to her lute."

STEEVENS,

600. O, now I would they had chang'd voices too!] 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. But sure she need not have wished that they had changed voices too. The lark appeared to her untunable enough in all conscience; as appears by what she said just before,

It is the lark that sings so out of tune,

Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps. This directs us to the right reading. For how natural was it for her after this to add,

Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes ;
O, now I wot they have chang'd voices too.

i. e. the lark sings so harshly, that I now perceive the toad and she have changed voices as well as eyes.

WARBURTON.

This tradition of the toad and lark I have heard expressed in a rustick rhyme.

"To heav'n I'd fly,

"But that the toad beguil'd me of mine eye.”

JOHNSON. 601. 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 shew 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 los her eyes to the toad, and now I would the Giij

toad

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