Sam. Yes, better, fir. Abr. You lie. Sam. Draw, if you be men.-Gregory, remember thy fwashing blow. [They fight. Ben. Part, fools; put up your fwords; you know not what you do. [beats down their fwords. Enter TYBALT. Tyb. What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds? Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death. Ben. 1 do but keep the peace; put up thy fword, Or manage it to part thefe men with me. Tyb. What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee: Have at thee, coward. [They fight. Enter feveral Partizans of both houses, who join the fray; then enter Citizens, with Clubs. 1. Cit. Clubs, bills, and partizans! ftrike! beat them down! Down with the Capulets! down with the Montagues! pened in this place: Gregory is a fervant 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 ftage. The eyes of the fervant may be directed the way he fees Tybalt coming, and in the mean time, Benvolio enters on the oppofite fide. STEEV. 9 by wathing blow.] Ben Jonfon ufes this expreffion in his Staple of News: "I do confefs a fwashing blow." Again, in As you like it "I'll have a martial and afwashing outfide." To fwafn feems to have meant to be a bully, to be noifily valiant. So, Greene, in his Card of Fancy, 168: "in 1pending and spoiling, in fwearing and fwashing." Barrett, in his Alvearie, 1580, fays, that to fwab is to make a noife with fwordes against tergats." STEEV. See Vol. V. p. 323, n. 6. MALONE. 1 Clubs, bills, &c.] When an affray arofe in the streets, clubs was the ufual exclamation. See Vol. III, p. 219, n. 6, and Vol. VI. P. 22, n. 1. MALONE. Enter Enter CAPULET, in his gown; and Lady CAPULET. Cap. What noife is this?-Give me my long sword2, ho! La. Cap. A crutch, a crutch!-Why call you for a fword? Cap. My fword, I fay!-Old Montague is come, And flourishes his blade in fpight of me. Enter MONTAGUE, and Lady MONTAGUE. Mon. Thou villain, Capulet,-Hold me not, let me go. La. Mon. Thou shalt not ftir one foot to feek a foe. Prin. Rebellious fubjects, enemies to peace, 3 Have thrice difturb'd the quiet of our streets; 2 Give me my long fword,] The long fword was the fword used in war, which was fometimes wielded with both hands. JOHNSON. See Vol. I. p. 228, n. 8. MALONE. This long fword is mentioned in The Coxcomb, a comedy by Beaumont and Fletcher, where the justice says: "Take their confeflions, and my long fword; I cannot tell what danger we may meet with." It appears that it was once the fashion to wear two fwords of different fizes at the fame time. So in Decker's Satiromaftix: "Peter Salamander, tie up your great and your little fword." STEEVENS. The little fword was probably nothing more than a dagger. MALONE. mis-temper'd weapons] are angry weapons. So in K. Jobn: Caft Caft by their grave befeeming ornaments, [Exeunt Prince, and Attendants; CAPULET, Lady La. Mon. O, where is Romeo!-faw you him to-day? Right glad I am, he was not at this fray. Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd fun Peer'd forth the golden window of the eaft 5, A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad; 4 To old Freetown, our common judgment-place.] This name the poet found in The Tragicall Hyftory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562. It is there faid to be the cattle of the Capulets. MALONE. 5 Peer'd forth the golden window of the eaft,] The fame thought occurs in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. 2. C. 10. "Early before the morn with cremofin ray Where, Where,-underneath the grove of fycamour, Towards him I made; but he was 'ware of me, And gladly fhunn'd who gladly fled from me 7. Should in the furtheft eaft begin to draw Ben. My noble uncle, do you know the cause? That most are bufied, &c.] Edition 1597. Instead of which it is in the other editions thus: by my own, Which then moft fought, where moft might not be found, Purfu'd my humour, &c. POPE. ↑ And gladly bunn'd, &c.] The ten lines following, not in the edition 1597, but in the next of 1599. POPE. Ben. Have you impórtun'd, &c.] Thefe two fpeeches alfo omitted n edition 1597, but inferted in 1599. Porz. Ere he can fpread his fweet leaves to the air, Or dedicate his beauty to the fame. Could we but learn from whence his forrows grow, Enter ROMEO, at a distance. Ben. See, where he comes: So please you, ftep afide; I'll know his grievance, or be much deny'd. Mcn. I would, thou wert fo happy by thy stay, To hear true fhrift.-Come, madam, let's away. [Exeunt MONTAGUE, and Lady. Ben. Good morrow, cousin. Or dedicate bis beauty to the same.] I cannot but fufpect that fome lines are loft, which connected this fimile more closely with the foregoing fpeech: thefe lines, if fuch there were, lamented the danger that Romeo will die of his melancholy, before his virtues or abilities were known to the world. JoHNSON. I suspect no loss of connecting lines. The fame expreffion occurs in Timon, A&t 4. Sc. 2. "A dedicated beggar to the air." STEEVENS. Dr. Johnfon's conjecture is, I think unfounded; the fimile relates/ folely to Romeo's concealing the caufe of his melancholy, and is again ufed by Shakspeare in Twelfth Night: "She never told her love, "But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, "Feed on her damask cheek." Mr. Theobald reads-to the fun. In the old fpelling funne and fame were eafily confounded. In the laft act of this play our poet has evidently imitated the Rofamond of Daniel; and in the prefent paffage might have remembered the following lines in one of the Sonnets of the fame writer, who was then extremely popular. The lines, whether remembered by our authour or not, add fuch fupport to Mr. Theobald's emendation, that I should have given it a place in the text, but that the other mode of phrafeology was not uncommon in Shak speare's time: "And whilst thou spread' unto the rising funne, "Now joy thy time, before thy sweet be done." Daniel's Sonnets, 1594. The line quoted by Mr. Steevens does not appear to me to be adverfe to this emendation. The bud could not dedicate its beauty to the fun, without at the fame time dedicating it to the air. A fimilar phrafeology, however, to that of the text may be found in Daniel's 14th, 32d, 44th, and 53d Sonnets. MALONE, Rom. |