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ROM. What lady's that, which doth enrich the

hand

Of yonder knight?"

SERV. I know not, sir.

ROM. O, she doth teach the torches to burn

bright!

Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear:9
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!

Will you tell me that? it cannot be so:
His son was but a ward three years ago;

Good youths, i'faith!-Oh, youth's a jolly thing!

8

There are many trifling variations in almost every speech of this play; but when they are of little consequence I have foreborne to encumber the page by the insertion of them. The last, however, of these three lines, is natural, and worth preserving. STEEVENS.

What lady's that, which doth enrich the hand

Of yonder knight?] Here is another proof that our author had the poem, and not Painter's Novel, in his mind. In the latter we are told-" A certain lord of that troupe took Juliet by the hand to dance."

In the poem of Romeus and Juliet, as in the play, her partner is a knight:

"With torch in hand a comely knight did fetch her forth to dance." MALONE.

• Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night-] Shakspeare has the same thought in his 27th Sonnet:

66

Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,

"Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new." The quartos 1597, 1599, 1609, and the folio 1623, coldly read: It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night.

It is to the folio 1632, that we are indebted for the present reading, which is certainly the more elegant, if not the true one. The repetition, however, of the word beauty, in the next line but one, in my opinion, confirms the emendation of our second folio. STEEVENS.

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear:] So, in Lyly's Euphues:

"A fair pearl in à Morian's ear." HOLT WHITE.

So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows.

The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make happy my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.

1

TYB. This, by his voice, should be a Montague:Fetch me my rapier, boy:-What! dares the slave Come hither, cover'd with an antick face, To fleer and scorn at our solemnity? Now, by the stock and honour of my kin, To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.

1 CAP. Why, how now, kinsman? wherefore storm you so?

TYB. Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe; A villain, that is hither come in spite,

To scorn at our solemnity this night.

1 CAP. Young Romeo is't?

TYB.

'Tis he, that villain Romeo.

1 CAP. Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone, He bears him like a portly gentleman; And, to say truth, Verona brags of him, To be a virtuous and well-govern'd youth: I would not for the wealth of all this town, Here in my house, do him disparagement: Therefore be patient, take no note of him, It is my will; the which if thou respect, Show a fair presence, and put off these frowns, An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast.

TYB. It fits, when such a villain is a guest; I'll not endure him.

For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.] Thus King Henry VIII:

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O beauty,

"Till now I never knew thee!" STEEVENS.

1 CAP.

He shall be endur'd;

What, goodman boy!—I say, he shall ;—Go to ;—
Am I the master here, or you? go to.

You'll not endure him!-God shall mend my soul-
You'll make a mutiny among my guests!
You will set cock-a-hoop! you'll be the man!
TYB. Why, uncle, 'tis a shame.

1 CAP. Go to, go to, You are a saucy boy :-Is't so, indeed?—

This trickmay chance to scath you; 2-I know what. You must contráry me!3 marry, 'tis time

Well said, my hearts:-You are a princox; go:4

2

to scath you;] i. e. to do you an injury. So, in The

Pinner of Wakefield, 1599:

"They shall amend the scath, or kiss the pound." Again, in the interlude of Jacob and Esau, 1568:

66

"Alas! what wretched villain hath done me such scath " STEEVENS.

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3 You must contráry me!] The use of this verb is common to our old writers. So, in Tully's Love, by Greene, 1616: rather wishing to die than to contrary her resolution." Many instances more might be selected from Sidney's Arcadia. Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. X. c. 59: 66 -his countermand should have contraried so." The same verb is used in Arthur Hall's version of the eighth Iliad, 4to. 1581; and in Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch. STEEVENS.

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You are a princox; go:] A princox is a coxcomb, a conceited person.

The word is used by Ben Jonson, in The Case is alter'd, 1609: by Chapman, in his comedy of May-Day, 1610; in The Return from Parnassus, 1606: "Your proud university Princox."Again, in Fuimus Troes, 1633: « That Princox proud." And indeed by most of the old dramatick writers. Cotgrave renders un jeune estourdeau superbe-a young princox boy. STEEVENS.

The etymology of the word princox may be found in Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598, in v. Pinchino. It is rather a cockered or spoiled child, than a coxcomb. MALONE,

Be quiet, or More light, more light, for shame!I'll make you quiet; What!-Cheerly, my hearts. TYB. Patience perforce with wilful. choler

meeting,

5

Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting.
I will withdraw: but this intrusion shall,

Now seeming sweet, convert to bitter gall. [Exit.
ROM. If I profane with my unworthy hand
[TO JULIET.
This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this,—
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
JUL. Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too

much,

Which mannerly devotion shows in this; For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.

ROM. Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too? JUL. Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in

prayer.

ROM. O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands

do;

They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to de

spair.

7

* Patience perforce-] This expression is part proverbial: the old adage is

6

"Patience perforce is a medicine for a mad dog.”

If I profane with my unworthy hand

This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this,

STEEVENS.

My lips, two blushing pilgrims, &c.] The old copies read sin. MALONE.

All profanations are supposed to be expiated either by some meritorious action, or by some penance undergone, and punishment submitted to. So Romeo would here say, If I have been profane in the rude touch of my hand, my lips stand ready, as

JUL. Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.

ROM. Then move not, while my prayer's effect

I take.

Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purg'd. [Kissing her.

JUL. Then have my lips the sin that they have

took.

ROM. Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly

urg'd!

Give me my sin again.

JUL.

You kiss by the book."

two blushing pilgrims, to take off that offence, to atone for it by a sweet penance. Our poet therefore must have wrote: the gentle fine is this. WARBURton.

"O then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;

They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.] Juliet had said before that "palm to palm was holy palmer's kiss." She afterwards says that" palmers have lips that they must use in prayer." Romeo replies, "that the prayer of his lips was, that they might do what hands do; that is, that they might kiss. M. MASON.

[Kissing her.] Our poet here, without doubt, copied from the mode of his own time; and kissing a lady in a publick assembly, we may conclude, was not thought indecorous. In King Henry VIII. he in like manner makes Lord Sands kiss Anne Boleyn, next to whom he sits at the supper given by Cardinal Wolsey. MALONE.

You kiss by the book.] In As you like it, we find it was usual to quarrel by the book, and we are told in the note, that there were books extant for good manners. Juliet here appears to refer to a third kind, containing the art of courtship, an example from which it is probable that Rosalind hath adduced.'

HENLEY.

Of all men who have loosed themselves on Shakspeare, none is there who so inveigleth me to amorous meditations, as the critick aforesaid. In Antony and Cleopatra he sore vexed and disquieted mine imagination touching the hair and voice of women; in King Lear he hinted at somewhat touching noninos; and lo! now disserteth he on lip-gallantry! But (saith a wag

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