And that the lean abhorred monster keeps power of beauty, tells us :-" But of all the tales in this kinde, that is most memorable of Death himselfe, when he should have stroken a sweet young virgin with his dart, hee fell in love with the object.”—Burton refers to Angerianus: but I have met with the same story in some other ancient book of which I have forgot the title. STEEVENS. Ah, dear Juliet, &c.] In the quarto, 1597, the passage runs thus: 66 Ah dear Juliet, "How well thy beauty doth become this grave! "O, I believe that unsubstantial death "Is amorous, and doth court my love. "With worms that are thy chamber-maids. "Here's to my love. O, true apothecary, 66 Thy drugs are swift: thus with a kiss I die." [Falls. In the quarto 1599, and the folio, (except that the latter has arms instead of arm,) the lines appear thus: 66 Ah dear Juliet, "Why art thou yet so fair? I will believe "Shall I believe that unsubstantial death is amorous, "And that the lean abhorred monster keeps "Thee here in dark to be his paramour; "For fear of that I still will stay with thee, "And never from this palace [pallat* 4°] of dim nigh "Thy drugs are quick: thus with a kiss I die.] 66 Depart again; here, here, will I remain "With worms that are thy chamber-maids: O, here "Will I set up my everlasting rest, * pallat-] Meaning, perhaps, the bed of night. So, in King Henry IV. P. II: "Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee." In The Second Maiden's Tragedy, however, (an old MS. in the library of the Marquis of Lansdowne,) monuments are styled the " palaces of death.” STEEVENS. For fear of that, I will still stay with thee; With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here Will I set up my everlasting rest; 5 "And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars, &c. 66 Thy drugs are quick: thus with a kiss I die." As the old blundering transcribers or compositors may be fairly supposed, in the present instance, to have given what Shakspeare had rejected, as well as what he designed to appear in his text, the lines within the crotchets are here omitted. Following the example of Mr. Malone, I have also omitted the long notes which, in some former editions, had accompanied this passage. STEEVENS. There cannot, I think, be the smallest doubt that the words included within crotchets, which are not found in the undated quarto, were repeated by the carelessness or ignorance of the transcriber or compositor. In like manner, in a former scene we have two lines evidently of the same import, one of which only the poet could have intended to retain. See p. 197, n. 1. In a preceding part of this passage Shakspeare was probably in doubt whether he should write : Or, I will believe That unsubstantial death is amorous; Shall I believe That unsubstantial death is amorous; and having probably erased the words I will believe imperfectly, the wise compositor printed the rejected words as well as those intended to be retained. With respect to the line: Here's to thy health, where'er thou tumblest in, it is unnecessary to inquire what was intended by it, the passage in which this line is found, being afterwards exhibited in another form; and being much more accurately expressed in its second than in its first exhibition, we have a right to presume that the poet intended it to appear in its second form, that is, as it now appears in the text. MALONE. •my everlasting rest;] See a note on scene 5th of the And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars preceding Act, p. 212, n. 5. So, in The Spanish Gipsie, by Middleton and Rowley, 1653: 66 could I set up my rest "That he were lost, or taken prisoner, "I could hold truce with sorrow." To set up one's rest, is to be determined to any certain purpose, to rest in perfect confidence and resolution, to make up one's mind. Again, in the same play: "Set up thy rest; her marriest thou, or none." Eyes, look your last! Arms, take last embrace! and lips, O you your The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss STEEVENS. A dateless bargain to engrossing death!] So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1594: "Pitiful mouth, said he, that living gavest "The sweetest comfort that my soul could wish, "The sorrowing farewell of a dying kiss! "Entomb'd in your sweet circles, sleep for ever!" I think there can be little doubt, from the foregoing lines and the other passages already quoted from this poem, that our author had read it recently before he wrote the last Act of the present tragedy. A dateless bargain to engrossing death!] Engrossing seems to be used here in its clerical sense. MALONE. 7 Come, bitter conduct,] Marston also in his Satires, 1599, uses conduct for conductor: "Be thou my conduct and my genius." So, in a former scene in this play: "And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now.” See Vol. IV. p. 166, n. 3. MALONE. Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on [Dies. Enter, at the other End of the Churchyard, Friar LAURENCE, with a Lantern, Crow, and Spade. FRI. Saint Francis be my speed! how oft tonight Have my old feet stumbled at graves?-Who's there? Who is it that consorts, so late, the dead? BAL. Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well. FRI. Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend, What torch is yond', that vainly lends his light To grubs and eyeless sculls? as I discern, It burneth in the Capels' monument. BAL. It doth so, holy sir; and there's my master, One that you love. 8 FRI. how oft to-night Who is it? Have my old feet stumbled at graves?] This accident was reckoned ominous. So, in King Henry VI. P. III: "For many men that stumble at the threshold, "Are well foretold, that danger lurks within." Again, in King Richard III. Hastings, going to execution, says: "Three times to-day my foot-cloth horse did stumble.' STEEVENS. 9 Who is it &c.] This very appropriate question I have restored from the quarto 1597. To consort, is to keep company with. So, in Chapman's version of the 23d Iliad: 66 'Tis the last of all care I shall take, I dare not, sir: My master knows not, but I am gone hence; If I did stay to look on his intents. FRI. Stay then, I'll go alone:-Fear comes upon me; O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing. BAL. As I did sleep under this yew-tree here, I dreamt my master and another fought,' And that my master slew him. Romeo? [Advances. FRI. Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains The stony entrance of this sepulchre ?— What mean these masterless and gory swords To lie discolour'd by this place of peace? [Enters the Monument. Romeo! O, pale!-Who else? what, Paris too? And steep'd in blood?-Ah, what an unkind hour 1 I dreamt my master and another fought,] This is one of the touches of nature that would have escaped the hand of any painter less attentive to it than Shakspeare. What happens to a person while he is under the manifest influence of fear, will seem to him, when he is recovered from it, like a dream. Homer, Book 8th, represents Rhesus dying fast asleep, and as it were beholding his enemy in a dream plunging a sword into his bosom. Eustathius and Dacier both applaud this image as very natural; for a man in such a condition, says Mr. Pope, awakes no further than to see confusedly what environs him, and to think it not a reality, but a vision. Let me add, that this passage appears to have been imitated by Quintus Calaber, XIII. 125: 66 σε Πότμον όμως ὁρόωντες ὀνειρασιν.” STEEVENS. |