By urging me to fury:-O, be gone! PAR. I do defy thy conjurations,* Again, in a Letter from Queen Elizabeth to Lady Drury: "Heape not your harmes where helpe ther is none," &c. See Nichols's Progresses &c. Vol. II. p. 36, F. 2. b. After all, it is not impossible our author designed we should read-Pluck not &c. Thus, in King Richard III: “—sin will pluck on sin." STEEVENS. So, in the poem of Romeus and Juliet: "With sighs and salted tears her shriving doth begin, "For she of heaped sorrows hath to speak, and not of sin." MALONE. I do defy thy conjurations,] Thus the quarto, 1597. Paris conceived Romeo to have burst open the monument for no other purpose than to do some villainous shame on the dead bodies, such as witches are reported to have practised; and therefore tells him he defies him, and the magick arts which he suspects he is preparing to use. So, in Painter's translation of the novel, Tom. II. p. 244: "the watch of the city by chance passed by, and seeing light within the grave, suspected straight that they were necromancers which had opened the tombs to abuse the dead bodies, for aide of their arte.” The folio reads: I do defy thy commiseration. Among the ancient senses of the word to defy, was to disdain, refuse, or deny. So, in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601: "Or, as I said, for ever I'defy your company." Again, in The Miseries of Queen Margaret, by Drayton : My liege, quoth he, all mercy now defy." 66 Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. II. c. viii: "Foole, (said the Pagan) I thy gift defye." See Vol. XI. p. 232, n. 7. Paris may, however, mean-I refuse to do as thou conjurest me to do, i. e. to depart. STEEVENS. I do defy thy conjurations,] So the quarto, 1597. Instead of this, in that of 1599, we find-commiration. In the next ROM. Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy. [They fight. [Exit Page. PAGE. O lord! they fight: I will go call the watch. PAR. O, I am slain! [Falls.]-If thou be mer ciful, Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. [Dies. ROM. In faith, I will:-Let me peruse this face ; Mercutio's kinsman, noble county Paris :- A grave? O, no; a lantern, slaughter'd youth, quarto of 1609 this was altered to commiseration, and the folio being probably printed from thence, the same word is exhibited there. The obvious interpretation of these words, "I refuse to do as thou conjurest me to do, i. e. to depart," is in my apprehension the true one. MALONE. 5 or did I dream it so?] Here the quarto 1597 not inelegantly subjoins : "But I will satisfy thy last request, "For thou hast priz'd thy love above thy life." A following addition, however, obliged our author to omit these lines, though perhaps he has not substituted better in their room. STEEVENS. A grave? O, no; a lantern,] A lantern may not, in this instance, signify an enclosure for a lighted candle, but a louvre, or what in ancient records is styled lanternium, i. e. a spacious round or octagonal turret full of windows, by means of which cathedrals, and sometimes halls, are illuminated. See the beautiful lantern at Ely Minster, 8 For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes The same word, with the same sense, occurs in Churchyard's Siege of Edinbrough Castle: "This lofty seat and lantern of that land, "Like lodestarre stode, and lokte o'er eu'ry streete." Again, in Philemon Holland's translation of the 12th chapter of the 35th Book of Pliny's Natural History: " hence came the louvers and lanternes reared over the roofes of temples," &c. STEEVENS. 7 - -presence-] A presence is a publick room. JOHNSON. A presence means a publick room, which is at times the presence-chamber of the sovereign. So, in The Two Noble Gentlemen, by Beaumont and Fletcher, Jacques says, his master is a duke, “His chamber hung with nobles, like a presence.? Again, in Westward for Smelts, 1620: "the king sent for the wounded man into the presence.” "" MALONE. This thought, extravagant as it is, is borrowed by Middleton in his comedy of Blurt Master Constable, 1602: "The darkest dungeon which spite can devise by a dead man interr'd.] Romeo being now determined to put an end to his life, considers himself as already dead. MALONE. Till I read the preceding note, I supposed Romeo meant, that he placed Paris by the side of Tybalt who was already dead, and buried in the same monument. The idea, however, of a man's receiving burial from a dead undertaker, is but too like some of those miserable conceits with which our author too frequently counteracts his own pathos. STEEVENS. Call this a lightning ?-O, my love! my wife! may I Call this a lightning?] I think we should read: O, now may I Call this a lightning? JOHNSON. How is certainly right and proper. Romeo had, just before, been in high spirits, a symptom, which he observes, was sometimes called a lightning before death: but how, says he, (for no situation can exempt Shakspeare's characters from the vice of punning) can I term this sad and gloomy prospect a lightning? RITSON. The reading of the text is that of the quarto, 1599. The first copy reads: But how, &c. which shows that Dr. Johnson's emendation cannot be right. MALOne. This idea occurs frequently in the old dramatick pieces. So, in the Second part of The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601: "I thought it was a lightning before death, 66 Again, in Chapman's translation of the 15th Iliad: since after this he had not long to live, "This lightning flew before his death." Again, in his translation of the 18th Odyssey: 66 -extend their cheer "To th' utmost lightning that still ushers death." 1 Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath, STEEVENS. Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, B. III: "Death being able to divide the soule, but not the beauty from her body." STEEVENS. So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1594: MALONE. And death's pale flag is not advanced there.2- Is crimson in thy lips, and in thy cheeks, And death's pale flag &c.] So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1594: "And nought respecting death (the last of paines) In the first edition of Romeo and Juliet, Shakspeare is less florid in his account of the lady's beauty; and only says: ah, dear Juliet, "How well thy beauty doth become this grave!" The speech, as it now stands, is first found in the quarto, 1599. STEEVENS. And death's pale flag is not advanced there.] An ingenious friend some time ago pointed out to me a passage of Marini, which bears a very strong resemblance to this: 3 "Morte la 'nsegna sua pallida e bianca Rime lugubri, p. 149, edit. Venet. 1605. 66 Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?] So, in Painter's translation, Tom. II. what greater or more cruel satisfaction canst thou desyre to have, or henceforth hope for, than to see hym which murdered thee, to be empoysoned wyth hys owne handes, and buryed by thy syde?" STEEVENS. Ah, dear Juliet, Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe That unsubstantial death is amorous; &c.] So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1594: 66 Ah, now, methinks, I see death dallying seeks "To entertain itselfe in love's sweete place." MALONE. That unsubstantial death is amorous; &c.] Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, p. 463, speaking of the |