Jul. Blifter'd be thy tongue, For fuch a wish! he was not born to shame : For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd O, what a beaft was I to chide at him! Nurfe. Will you fpeak well of him that kill'd your coufin? Jal. Shall I fpeak ill of him that is my husband? Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name, When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it1?— But, wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin? That villain coufin would have kill'd my husband: Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring; 9 Upon bis brow shame is afham'd to fit;] So, in Painter's Palace of Pleafure, tom. ii. p. 223: "Is it poffible that under fuch beautie and rare comelineffe, disloyaltie and treason may have their fiedge and lodg ing?" STEEVENS. Ab, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name, When I, thy three-bours wife, bave mangled it?] So, in the poem already quoted: Ah cruel murd'ring tongue, murderer of others' fame, "Whofe deadly foes do yield him due and earned praise, Since he is guiltless quite of all, and Tybalt bears the fault. 2 Back, foolish tears, &c.] So, in the Tempeft: 66- -I am a fool "To weep at what I am glad of." I think, in this fpeech of Juliet, the words woe and joy should change places; otherwife, her reafoning is inconclufive. STEEVENS. There is furely no need of change. Juliet's reafoning, as the text now ftands, is perfectly correct. "Back," fays the, "to your native fource, you foolish tears! Properly you ought to flow only on melancholy occafions; but now you erroneously shed your tributary drops for an event [the death of Tybalt and the fubfequent efcape of my beloved Romeo] which is in fact to me a fubject of joy.-Tybalt, if he could, would bave flain my bufband; but my husband is alive, and has flain Tybalt. This is a fource of joy, not of forrow; wherefore then do I weep? MALONE. Your Your tributary drops belong to woe, Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy. My husband lives, that Tybalt would have flain; Some word there was, worfer than Tybalt's death, Like damned guilty deeds to finners' minds: Hath flain ten thoufand Tybalts 3. Tybalt's death In that word's death; no words can that woe found.- Nurfe. Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's corfe: Will you go to them? I will bring you thither. 3 Hath flain ten thousand Tybalts.] That is, is worse than the lofs of ten thousand Tybalts. Dr. Johnfon's explanation [hath put Tybalt out of my mind, as if out of being,] cannot be right; for the paffage itfelf fhews that Tybalt was not out of her mind. MASON. 4-four woe delights in fellowship,] So, in the Rape of Lucrece: And fellowship in woe doth woe affuage, "As palmers' chat makes short their pilgrimage." Again, in King Lear: the mind much fufferance doth o'er-fkip, "When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship." MALONE. 5 Which modern lamentation, &c.] This line is left out of the later editions, I fuppofe because the editors did not remember that Shakfpeare ufes modern for common, or flight: I believe it was in his time confounded in colloquial language with moderate. JOHNSON. Ste Vol. III. p. 396, n. 6. MALONE. Jul. Jul. Wash they his wounds with tears? mine fhall be spent, When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment. Take up thofe cords:-Poor ropes, you are beguil'd, He made you for a highway to my bed; Come, cords; come, nurfe; I'll to my wedding bed; To comfort you:-I wot well where he is. Jul. O find him! give this ring to my true knight, SCENE III. Friar Laurence's Cell. Enter Friar LAURENCE, and ROMEO. [Exeunt. Fri. Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man; Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts, Rom. Father, what news? what is the prince's doom? What forrow craves acquaintance at my hand, That. I yet know not? Fri. Too familiar Is my dear fon with fuch four company: I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom. Rom. What lefs than dooms-day is the prince's doom? Fri. A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips, Not body's death, but body's banishment. Rom. Ha! banishment? be merciful, fay-death: For exile hath more terror in his look, Much more than death: do not say-- banishment. 4 Hence Hence-banished is banish'd from the world, And world's exile is death :-then banishment Rom. 'Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven is here, Flies 6 then banishment-] The quarto 1599, and the folio, readthen banished. The emendation was made by Sir Thomas Hanmer. The words are not in the quarto 1597. MALONE. 7 This is dear mercy,-] So the quarto 1599, and the folio." The earliest copy reads-This is mere mercy. MALONE. 8 -More validity, More boncurable ftate, more courtship lives In carrion flies, than Romeo :] Validity feems here to mean everth or dignity and courtship the state of a courtier permitted to approach the higheft prefence. JOHNSON. By court/bip, the authour feems rather to have meant, the ftate of a lover; that dalliance, in which he who courts or wooes a lady is fometimes indulged. This appears clearly from the fubfequent lines: "they may feize "On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand, 9 But Romeo may not be is banished:] This line in the original copy immediately follows-And steal immortal blessing from her lips. The two lines, Who, even, &c. were added in the copy of 1599, and are merely Flies may do this, when I from this must fly; And fay'ft thou yet, that exile is not death' ? O friar, the damned use that word in hell; A fin-abfolver, and my friend profeft, To mangle me with that word-banishment? Fri. Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word 2. To comfort thee, though thou art banished 3. merely parenthetical: the line therefore, But Romeo may not, &c. undoubtedly ought to follow thofe two lines. By mistake, in the copy of 1599, it was inferted lower down, after-is not death. MALONE. 1They are free men, but I am banished. And fay ft thou yet, that exile is not death ] These two lines are not in the original copy. MALONE. 2 Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word.] So the quarte 1597. The quartos 1599 and 1609 read: Then fond mad man, bear me a little speak. The folio: Then fond mad man, hear me speak. MALONE. 3 Adverfity's feet milk, philofopby, To comfort thee, though thou art banished.] So, in Romeus and Juliet, the friar fays, "Virtue is always thrall to troubles and annoy, "But wifdom in adverfity finds cause of quiet joy. See alfo Lily's Euphues, 1580: " Thou fayeft banishment is better to the freeborne. There be many meates which are fowre in the mouth and harp in the maw; out if thou mingle them with fweet fawces, they seeld both a pleasant taste and wholesome nourishment.-I fpeake this to this end; that though thy exile feeme grievous to thee, yet guiding thyfelfe with the rules of philofopby, it shall be more tolerable." MALONE. |