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;

One desperate grief cures with another's languish : 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".
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-den, good fellow.
Serv. God gi' good den.-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.

[Going.

[Takes the paper and 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; whither should they come ?

8 - one fire burns out another's burning,] So in "Coriolanus," Vol. iv. p. 699, "one fire drives out one fire:" the expression was proverbial.

9 Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.] The plantain was celebrated for medicinal virtues; and in "Love's Labour's Lost," Vol. ii. p. 118, Costard calls out for "a plantain," to cure his broken shin. In "Albumazar," A. iv. sc. 11, one of the characters exclaims, "a fresh plantain leaf! I've broke my shin."

Rom. Indeed, I should have asked you that before.

Serv. Now, I'll tell you without asking. My master is the great rich Capulet; and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine". Rest you merry.

Ben. At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
Sups the fair Rosaline, whom thou so lovest,
With all the admired beauties of Verona :
Go thither; and, with unattainted eye,
Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.

Rom. When the devout religion of mine eye
Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires;
And these, who, often drown'd, could never die,
Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars.
One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun
Ne'er saw her match, since first the world begun.

[Exit.

Ben. Tut! tut! you saw her fair, none else being by ',

Herself pois'd with herself in either eye;

But in those crystal scales', let there be weigh'd

Your lady's love against some other maid,

That I will show you shining at this feast,

And she shall scant show well, that now shows best.
Rom. I'll go along, no such sight to be shown,

But to rejoice in splendour of mine own.

10

[Exeunt.

CRUSH a cup of wine.] This use of the word "crush" was common: it

is met with in many old plays and tracts of the time.

1 Tut, TUT! you saw her fair, none else being by,] The second interjection, necessary to the metre, is from the corr. fo. 1632.

2 in THOSE crystal scales,] The old copies have," that crystal scales." The emendation was by Rowe; but we are not quite satisfied that it is necessary, since Shakespeare may have used " scales," as we now use a pair of scales, as a noun singular.

3

that now SHOWs best.] "That now seems best" in all editions prior to the 4to, 1609. The folio, 1623, misprints the first part of the line thus, "And she shew scant shell well," &c. The folio, 1632, only partially sets the confusion right, and the old corrector makes no change.

SCENE III.

A Room in CAPULET'S House.

Enter Lady CAPULET and Nurse.

La. Cap. Nurse, where's my daughter? call her forth to

me.

Nurse. Now, by my maiden-head at twelve year old, I bade her come.-What, lamb! what, lady-bird !— God forbid! where's this girl ?-what, Juliet!

La. Cap. This is the matter.-Nurse, give leave awhile,
We must talk in secret.-Nurse, come back again :

I have remember'd me; thou shalt hear our counsel.
Thou know'st my daughter's of a pretty age.
Nurse. 'Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour.
La. Cap. She's not fourteen.

Nurse.

And yet to my teen
She is not fourteen.
To Lammas-tide?

La. Cap.

4

I'll lay fourteen of my teeth,

be it spoken I have but four,
How long is it now

A fortnight, and odd days.

Nurse. Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she,-God rest all Christian souls!-
Were of an age.-Well, Susan is with God;
She was too good for me. But, as I said,
On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;
That shall she, marry: I remember it well.
"Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
And she was wean'd,-I never shall forget it,-
Of all the days of the year, upon that day;

4 to my TEEN] i. e. To my sorrow. Vol. iv. p. 308, where the etymology of "teen

See "Richard III.," A. iv. sc. 1, is given.

For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall:
My lord and you were then at Mantua.—
Nay, I do bear a brain :-but, as I said,
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
Of my dug, and felt it bitter, pretty fool,

To see it tetchy, and fall out with the dug!
Shake, quoth the dove-house: 'twas no need, I trow,
To bid me trudge.

And since that time it is eleven years;

For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood,
She could have run and waddled all about,
For even the day before she broke her brow:
And then my husband-God be with his soul!
'A was a merry man,-took up the child :
“Yea,” quoth he, "dost thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward, when thou hast more wit;
Wilt thou not, Jule?" and, by my holy-dam,
The pretty wretch left crying, and said—" Ay."
To see, now, how a jest shall come about!

I warrant, an I should live a thousand years,

I never should forget it: "Wilt thou not, Jule ?" quoth

he;

And, pretty fool, it stinted, and said-" Ay."

La. Cap. Enough of this: I pray thee, hold thy peace. Nurse. Yes, madam. Yet I cannot choose but laugh, To think it should leave crying, and say-"Ay:" And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow A bump as big as a young cockrel's stone, A perilous knock; and it cried bitterly. "Yea," quoth my husband, "fall'st upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward, when thou com'st to age; Wilt thou not, Jule ?" it stinted, and said-"Ay".: Jul. And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I. Nurse. Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace! Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nurs'd:

699

it stinted,] i. e. It stopped crying. To stint is frequently used for to stop by Spenser, Hughes, Ben Jonson, Marston, and other writers of the time. We will only give one proof from Sir T. North's translation of Plutarch, 1579, where he is speaking of Antony's wound, "for the blood stinted a little when he was laid."

"Wilt thou not, Jule?" it stinted, and said-" Ay."] This and the preceding eight lines were first inserted in the 4to, 1599.

7 Peace, I have done.] "Well, go thy ways," in the 4to, 1597.

VOL. V.

Ι

An I might live to see thee married once,

I have my wish.

La. Cap. Marry, that marry is the very theme
I came to talk of :-tell me, daughter Juliet,
How stands your disposition to be married?
Jul. It is an honour that I dream not of.

Nurse. An honour! were not I thine only nurse,
I would say, thou hadst.suck'd wisdom from thy teat.
La. Cap. Well, think of marriage now; younger than you,
Here in Verona, ladies of esteem,

Are made already mothers: by my count,

I was your mother, much upon these years

That you are now a maid. Thus, then, in brief;—
The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.

Nurse. A man, young lady! lady, such a man,

As all the world-Why, he's a man of wax.

La. Cap. Verona's summer hath not such a flower.
Nurse. Nay, he's a flower; in faith, a very flower.
La. Cap. What say you? can you love the gentleman ?
This night you shall behold him at our feast:
Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,
And find delight writ there with beauty's pen.
Examine every married lineament",
And see how one an other lends content;
And what obscur'd in this fair volume lies,
Find written in the margin of his eyes.

This precious book of love, this unbound lover,
To beautify him, only lacks a cover:

The fish lives in the sea'; and 'tis much pride,

For fair without the fair within to hide.

8 How stands your disposition to be married?] This speech and Juliet's reply are thus given in the 4to, 1597:

"Wife. And that same marriage, nurse, is the theme I mean to talk of.-Tell me, Juliet, how stand you affected to be married?

"Jul. It is an honour that I dream not of."

All the old copies, 4to. and folio, excepting the 4to, 1597, have hour for “honour," both here and in the next line; but in both places hour is amended to "honour" in the corr. fo. 1632.

* Examine every MARRIED lineament,] i. e. Every harmoniously united lineament. This is the reading of the 4to, 1599, the oldest authority for this part of the play the 4to, 1609, and the folio, 1623, have poorly, "Examine every several lineament."

1 The fish lives in the sea; &c.] i. e. The fish is not yet caught of which the 66 cover" is to be made: fish-skin bindings to books anciently were not uncommon. Such is Farmer's explanation of this passage.