Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love:" 8 Nurse. O Lord, I could have staid here all the night, To hear good counsel: O, what learning is ! My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come. Rom. Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide. Nurse. Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir: Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late. [Exit Nurse. Rom. How well my comfort is reviv'd by this! Fri. Go hence: Good night;9 and here stands all your state; 1 7 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: 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, Act V, sc. i: 66 then "We pout upon the morning, Steevens. Romeo is coming ] Much of this speech has likewise been added since the first edition. Steevens. 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. here stands all your state;] The whole of your fortune depends on this. Johnson. Either be gone before the watch be set, SCENE IV.2 A Room in Capulet's House. [Exeunt. Enter CAPULET, Lady CAPULET, and PARIS. I would have been a-bed an hour ago. Par. These times of woe afford no time to woo: Madam, good night: commend me to your daughter. La. Cap. I will, and know her mind early to-morrow; To-night she 's mew'd up3 to her heaviness. Cap. Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender Of my child's love: I think, she will be rul'd 2 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. 3 mew'd up-] This is a phrase from falconry. A mew was a place of confinement for hawks. So, in Albumazar, 1614: fully mew'd "From brown soar feathers -." Again, in our author's King Richard III: And, for his meed, poor lord he is mew'd up." Steevens. 4 Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender O my child's love:] Desperate means only bold, adventurous, as In all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not. And bid her, mark you me, on Wednesday next- Par. Monday, my lord. Therefore we 'll have some half a dozen friends, Par. My lord, I would that Thursday were to-morrow. Cap. Well, get you gone :-O' Thursday be it then :Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed, Prepare her, wife, against this wedding-day. SCENE V. Juliet's Chamber.5 Enter ROMEO and JULIET. [Exeunt. Jul. Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day: 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, 1600: "Witness this desperate tender of mine honour." Steevens. 5 SCENE V. Juliet's Chamber.] The stage-direction in the first edition is-"Enter Romeo and Juliet, at a window." In the second quarto," Enter Romeo and Juliet aloft." They appeared pro bably in the balcony which was erected on the old English stage. Malone. 6 Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree:] This is not merely a poetical supposition. It is observed of the nightingale, that, VOL. XII. Ff Believe, me, love, it was the nightingale. Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the morn, Jul. Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I: I'll say, yon grey is not the morning's eye, if undisturbed, she sits and sings upon the same tree for many weeks together. What Eustathius, however, has observed relative to a fig-tree mentioned by Homer, in his 12th Odyssey, may be applied to the passage before us: "These particularities, which seem of no consequence, have a very good effect in poetry, as they give the relation an air of truth and probability. For what can induce a poet to mention such a tree, if the tree, were not there in reality?" Steevens. 7 It is some meteor that the sun exhales, To be to thee this night a torch-bearer, And light thee on thy way-] Compare Sidney's Arcadia, 13th edit. p. 109: "The moon, then full, (not thinking scorn to be a torch-bearer to such beauty) guided her steps." And Sir J. Davies's Orchestra, 1596, st. vii, of the sun: "When the great torch-bearer of heauen was gone And Drayton's Eng Heroic Epist. p. 221, where the moon is described with the stars 8 66 Attending on her, as her torch-bearers." Todd. the pale reflex-] The appearance of a cloud opposed to the moon. Johnson. 9 I have more care to stay, than will to go;] Would it not be better thus—I have more will to stay, than care to go? Johnson.. Care was frequently used in Shakspeare's time for inclination. Malone. How is 't, my soul? let 's talk, it is not day. Jul. It is, it is, hie hence, be gone, away; Some say, the lark and loathed toad change eyes; 1 sweet division;] Division seems to have been the technical phrase 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." To run a division, is also a musical term. Steevens. 2 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: 66 To heav'n I'd fly, “But that the toad beguil'd me of mine eye." Johnson. Read chang'd eyes. M. Mason 3 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. 4 Hunting thee hence with hunts-up to the day.] The hunts-up 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." |