LA. CAP. A crutch, a crutch!-Why call you for a fword?

CAP. My fword, I fay!-Old Montague is couǝ, And flourishes his blade in fpite 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.

Enter Prince, with Attendants.

PRIN. Rebellious fubjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbour-ftained steel,-
Will they not hear?-what ho! you men, you
beafts,-

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains iffuing from your veins,
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
Throw your mis-temper'd weapons 3 to the ground,
And hear the fentence of your moved prince.-
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,

Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets;
And made Verona's ancient citizens
Caft by their grave befeeming ornaments,
To wield old partizans, in hands as old,

The little fword was the weapon commonly worn, the dress fword. STEEVENS.

The little fword was probably nothing more than a dagger. MALONE. 3mis-temper'd weapons-] are angry weapons. So, in King John:

"This inundation of mis-temper'd humour," &c.

STEEVENS.

Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate:
If ever you disturb our ftreets again,
Your lives fhall pay the forfeit of the peace.
For this time, all the reft depart away:
You, Capulet, fhall go along with me;
And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
To know our further pleasure in this case,
To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.+
Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.

[Exeunt Prince, and Attendants; ČAPULET, Lady CAPULET, TYBALT, Citizens, and Servants.

MON. Who fet this ancient quarrel new abroach? Speak, nephew, were you by, when it began?

BEN. Here were the fervants of your adverfary, . And yours, close fighting ere I did approach : I drew to part them; in the instant came The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepar'd ; Which, as he breath'd defiance to my ears, He fwung about his head, and cut the winds, Who, nothing hurt withal, hifs'd him in scorn : While we were interchanging thrufts and blows, Came more and more, and fought on part and part, Till the prince came, who parted either part.

LA. MON. O, where is Romeo!-faw you him today?

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 east,5

• To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.] This name the poet found in the Tragicall Hiftory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562. It is there faid to be the castle of the Capulets.

MALONE.

5 Peer'd forth the golden window of the eaft,] The fame thought occurs in Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. II. c. x;

A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
Where,-underneath the grove of fycamore,
That weftward rooteth from the city's fide,
So early walking did I fee your fon:

Towards him I made; but he was 'ware of me,
And ftole into the covert of the wood:
I, measuring his affections by my own,
That most are bufied when they are most alone,6-
Purfu'd my humour, not pursuing his,

And gladly fhunn'd who gladly fled from me."

MON. Many a morning hath he there been seen, With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew, Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep fighs: But all fo foon as the all-cheering fun

Should in the furtheft eaft begin to draw
The fhady curtains from Aurora's bed,
Away from light steals home my heavy fon,
And private in his chamber pens himself;
Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out,
And makes himself an artificial night:

Early before the morn with cremofin ray

"The windows of bright heaven opened had,
"Through which into the world the dawning day
Might looke," &c. STEEVENS.

Again, in Summa Totalis; or All in All, or the fame for ever, 4to. 1607:

"Now heaven's bright eye (awake by Vefpers fheene) Peepes through the purple windowes of the Eaft." HOLT WHITE.

• That most are bufied &c.] Edition 1597. Instead of which it is in the other editions thus:

"Which then most fought, where most might not be found,

Being one too many by my weary self,

"Pursu'd my humour," &c. POPE.

And gladly fhunn'd &c.] The ten lines following, not in edition 1597, but in the next of 1599. POPE.

Black and portentous muft this humour prove,
Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

BEN. My noble uncle, do you know the cause? MON. I neither know it, nor can learn of him. BEN. Have you impórtun'd him by any means? MON. Both by myself, and many other friends: But he, his own affections' counsellor, Is to himself-I will not fay, how trueBut to himself fo fecret and fo close, So far from founding and discovery, As is the bud bit with an envious worm, Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, Or dedicate his beauty to the fun.9

8 Ben. Have you importun'd &c.] Thefe two speeches alfo omitted in edition 1597, but inserted in 1599. POPE.

Or dedicate his beauty to the fun.] [Old copy-fame.] When we come to confider, that there is fome power elfe befides balmy air, that brings forth, and makes the tender buds spread themselves, I do not think it improbable that the poet wrote:

Or dedicate his beauty to the fun.

Or, according to the more obfolete fpelling, funne; which brings it nearer to the traces of the corrupted text. THEOBALD.

I cannot but fufpect that fome lines are loft, which connected this fimile more closely with the foregoing fpeech: these 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 fufpect no lofs of connecting lines. An expreffion somewhat fimilar occurs in Timon, Act IV. fc. ii:

"A dedicated beggar to the air."

I have, however, adopted Theobald's emendation. Mr. M. Mason oberves" that there is not a fingle paffage in our author where fo great an improvement of language is obtained, by fo flight a deviation from the text," STEEVENS.

Dr. Johnson's conjecture is, I think unfounded; the fimile relates folely to Romeo's concealing the caufe of his melancholy, and is again used by Shakspeare in Twelfth Night:

Could we but learn from whence his forrows grow, We would as willingly give cure, as know.

Enter ROMEO, at a distance.

BEN. See, where he comes: So please you, ftep afide;

I'll know his grievance, or be much denied.

MON. I would, thou wert fo happy by thy ftay, To hear true fhrift.-Come, madam, let's away. [Exeunt MONTAGUE and Lady.

BEN. Good morrow, cousin.

ROM.

Is the day fo young?!

She never told her love,

"But let concealment, like a worm i'th' bud,

"Feed on her damask cheek."

In the last 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 author or not, add fuch fupport to Mr. Theobald's emendation, that I fhould have given it a place in my text, but that the other mode of phrafeology was not uncommon in Shakspeare's time:

And whilft thou Spread' ft unto the rifing funne, "The faireft flower that ever faw the light, "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 adverse 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 my text may be found in Daniel's 14th, 32d, 44th, and 53d Sonnets.

MALONE.

Is the day fo young?] i. e. is it fo early in the day? The fame expreffion (which might once have been popular) I meet with in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1540: "It is yet young nyghte, or there is yet moche of the nyghte to come." STEEVENS.