Page 91. This prologue, after the first copy was published in 1597, received several alterations, both in respect of correctness and versification. In the folio it is omitted. The play was ori-: ginally performed by the Right Honourable the w Lord of Hunsdon his servants. In the first of K. James I. was made an act of that parliament for some restraint or limitation of noblemen in the protection of players, or of players under their sanction. STEEVENS. aspir Under the word PROLOGUE, in the copy of 1599 is printed Chorus, which I suppose meant only that the prologue was to be spoken by the saine person who personated the chorus at the end of the first act. The original prologue, in the quarto of 1597, stands thus: 2 Two household frends, alike in dignitie, From civil broyles broke into enmitie, uncleane: From forth the fatall loynes of these two foes Whose misadventures, piteous overthrowes, And death-marke of their parents Is now the two howres traffique of our stage. The which if you with patient cares attend, P. 93, 1. 7. we'll not carry coals.] Dr. Warburton very justly observes, that this was a phrase formerly in use to signify the bearing injuries: but, as he has given no instances in support of bis declaration I thought it necessary to subjoin the following. So, Skelton: You, I say, Julian, Wyll you beare no coles?" 1. Again, Nash, in his Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1795, says: We will bear no coles, I warrant you." STEEVENS, This phrase continued to be in use down to the middle of the last century. In a little satirical piece of Sir John Birkenhead, intitled, Two centuries [of Books] of St. Paul's Churchyard," &c. published after the death of K. Charles I. No.. 22. page 50, is inserted 86 Fire Fire a small manual, dedicated to Sir Arthur Haselridge; in which it is plainly proved by a whole chauldron of scripture, that John Liliburn will not carry coals." By Dr. Gouge. PERCY. Notwithstanding this accumulation of passages in which the phrase itself occurs, the original of it is still left uuexplored. "If thine enemy be hungry, give bread to eat; and if he be to drink for thou shalt head." &c. Prov. Epistle to the Ro heap coati thirsty, give XXV. 22. v22. mans, xx. 20. upon his or as cited in The English version of the its nobler use) has proved e Bible (exclusive of antiquaries; but infinite on I fear, it will do us service to present occagood. Collier a very ancient term of abuse. Hang him, foul Collier!" says Sir Toby Belch, speaking of the Devil, in the fourth act of Twelfth Night. Any person therefore who would bear to be called collier, was said to carry coals. It after wards became descriptive of any one who would endure a gibe or flout. STEEVENS. The phrase should seem to mean originally, we'll not submit to servile offices; and thence secondarily, we'll not endure injuries. It has been suggested, that it may mean "we'll not bear resentment burning like a coal of fire in our bosoms, without breaking out into some outrage; with allusion, to the proverbial sentence, that smothered anger is a coal of fire in the bosom; But the word carry seems adverse to such an interpretation. MALONE. poor John, is hake, dried, P. 94, 1. 14. and salted. MALONE. P. 94, 1, 15. here comes two of the house of the Montagues.] It should be observed, that the partizans of the Montague family wore a token in their hats, in order to distinguish them from their enemies, the Capulets. Hence throughout this play, they are known at a distance. MALONE. P. 94, 1. 26-28. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a disgrace to them, if they bear it. This mode of quarreling appears to have been common in our author's time. “What swearing is there, (says Decker, describing the various groupes that daily frequented the walks of St. Paul's Church,) what shouldering, what justling, what jeering, what byting of thumbs, to beget quarrels!" THE DEAD TERM, 1608. MALONE. P. 95, 1. 7. Enter BENVOLIO, ] Much of this scene is added since the first edition; but pro bably by Shakspeare, since we find it in that of the year 1509. POPE. P. 95, 1, 8, 9. here comes one of my master's kinsmen.] Some mistake has happened in this place: Gregory is a servant of the Capulets, and Benvolio was of the Montague faction, FARMER. Perhaps there is no mistake. Gregory may mean Tybalt, who enters immediately after Benvolio, but on a different part of the stage. The eyes of the servant may be directed the way he sees Tybalt coming, and in the mean time, Benvolio enters on the opposite side. STEEVENS. $3 P. 95, 1. 12. 13. remember thy swashing blow. To swash seems to have meant to be a bully, to be noisily valiant. STEEVENS. P. 95, 1. 29. Clubs, bills, and partizans!] When an affray arose in the streets, clubs was the usual exclamation. MALONE. P. 96, 1. 3. 4. Give me my long sword,} The long sword was the sword used in war, which was sometimes wielded with both hands. JOHNSON. It appears that it was once the fashion to wear two swords of different sizes at the same time, So, in Decker's Satiromastix, 1602. Peter Salamander, tie up your great and your little sword.” visemne „kaoitthe 533 The littles sword was the weapon commonly worn, the dress sword. STEEVENS. A The little sword was probably nothing more than a daggers MALONE. P. 96, 1. 23. mis-temper'd weapons—] are angry weapons, STEEVENS. P. 98, 1. 25. Or dedicate his beauty to the sun] Old copy to the same. When we come to consider, that there is some power else besides balmy air, that brings forth, and makes the tender buds spread themselves, I do not think it improbable that the poet wrote: Or dedicate his beauty to the sun. Or, according to the more obsolete spelling, sunne; which brings it nearer to the traces of the corrupted text. THEOBALD. I cannot but suspect that some lines are lost, which connected this simile more closely with the foregoing speech: these lines, if such there were, Jamented the danger that Romeo will die of his melancholy, before his virtues or abilities were known to the world. JOHNSON. bade I suspect no loss of connecting lines. An expression somewhat similar occurs in Timon, Act Sa IV. sc. ii: “A dedicated beggar to the air," I have, however, adopted Theobald's emendation. Mr. M. Mason observes "that there is not a single passage in our author where so great an improvement of language is obtained, by so slight a deviation from the text." STEEVENS Dr. Johnson's conjecture is, I think unfounded; the simile relates solely to Romeo's concealing the cause of his melancholy, and is again used by Shakspeare in Twelfth Night, MALONE. P. 99, I. 2. Is the day so young?] ie. is it so early in the day? STEEVENS. P. 99 1. 16. 5. 17. 2. Alas, that love, whose view muffled still, Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!] Sir T. Hauand after him Dr. Warburton, read to his ill. The present reading has some obscurity; mer |