BEN. An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. MER. This cannot anger him: 'twould anger him To raise a spirit in his miftrefs' circle

Of some strange nature, letting it there ftand
Till fhe had laid it, and conjur'd it down;
That were some spite: my invocation

Is fair and honeft, and, in his mistress' name,
I conjure only but to raise up him.

BEN. Come, he hath hid himself among those trees,

To be conforted with the humorous night:
Blind is his love, and best befits the dark.

MER. If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.

venture, hath our waggifh poet caught hold of fomewhat from Barnabe Googe his verfion of Palingenius. See Cancer, edit. 1561:

"What fhuld I here commend her thies, or places ther that lie?" AMNER.

6 the humorous night:] I fuppofe Shakspeare means humid, the moift dewy night, Chapman ufes the word in that fenfe in his tranflation of Homer, B. II. edit. 1598:

"The other gods and knights at arms flept all the humorous night."

Again, in the 21ft Book:

"Whence all floods, all the fea, all founts, wells, all deeps humorous,

"Fetch their beginnings ;-.'

Again, in Drayton's Polyolbion, Song 3:

"Such matter as fhe takes from the grofs humorous earth."

Again, Song 13th:

which late the humorous night

"Befpangled had with pearl

Again, in his Barons' Wars, canto i:

"The humorous fogs deprive us of his light."

STEEVENS.

In Measure for Meafure we have "the vaporous night approaches;" which fhows that Mr. Steevens has rightly interpreted the word in the text. MALONE.

Now will he fit under a medlar tree,

And with his mistress were that kind of fruit,
As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone."-

As maids &c.] After this line, in the old copies, I find two other verses, containing fuch ribaldry, that I cannot venture to insert them in the text, though I exhibit them here as a proof that the editors of our poet have fometimes known how to blot :

"O Romeo that fhe were, ah that she were

"An open et cætera, thou a poprin pear!"

This pear is mentioned in The wife Woman of Hogsdon, 1638: What needed I to have grafted in the stock of fuch a choke-pear, and fuch a goodly poprin as this to escape me?" Again, in A new Wonder, a Woman never vexed, 1632: I requested him to pull me

“

"A Katherine Pear, and, had I not look'd to him,

"He'd have miftook, and given me a popperin." In The Atheist's Tragedy, by Cyril Turner, 1611, there is much conceit about this pear. I am unable to explain it with certainty, nor does it appear indeed to deserve explanation.

Thus much may fafely be faid; viz. that our pear might have been of French extraction, as Poperin was the name of a parish in the Marches of Calais. So, in Chaucer's Rime of Sire Thopas, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. 1775, ver. 13,650:

"In Flandres, al beyonde the fee,

"At Popering in the place."

In the edition of Meffieurs Boydell I have alfo omitted thefe offenfive lines. Dr. Johnson has fomewhere observed, that there are higher laws than those of criticism. STEEVENS.

These two lines, which are found in the quartos of 1597, 1599, and in the folio, were rejected by Mr. Pope, who in like manner has rejected whole fcenes of our author; but what is more ftrange, his example has, in this inftance, been followed by the fucceeding editors.

However improper any lines may be for recitation on the stage, an editor, in my apprehenfion, has no right to omit any paffage that is found in all the authentick copies of his author's works. They appear not only in the editions already mentioned, but also in that copy which has no date, and in the edition of 1637.

I have adhered to the original copy. The two subsequent quartos and the folio read, with a flight variation

An open-or thou a poperin pear.

Romeo, good night;-I'll to my truckle-bed;
This field-bed is too cold for me to fleep:
Come, fhall we go?

BEN.
Go, then; for 'tis in vain.
To feek him here, that means not to be found.

[Exeunt.

Shakspeare followed the fashion of his own time, which was, when something indecent was meant to be fuppreffed, to print et cætera, instead of the word. See Minfheu's Dictionary, p. 112, col. 2. Our poet did not confider, that however fuch a practice might be admitted in a printed book, it is abfurd where words are intended to be recited. When thefe lines were spoken, as undoubtedly they were to our ancestors, who do not appear to have been extremely delicate, the actor must have evaded the difficulty by an abrupt fentence.

The unfeemly name of the apple here alluded to, is well known.

Poperingue is a town in French Flanders, two leagues diftant from Ypres. From hence the Poperin pear was brought into England. What were the peculiar qualities of a Poperin pear, I am unable to afcertain. The word was chofen, I believe, merely for the fake of a quibble, which it is not neceffary to explain. Probably for the fame reafon the Popering tree was preferred to any other by the author of the mock poem of Hero and Leander, fmall 8vo. 1653:

"She thought it strange to see a man

"In privy walk, and then anan
"She stepp'd behind a Popering tree,
"And liften'd for fome novelty.'

Of the parish of Poperin, or Poperling, (as we called it) John Leland the Antiquary was parfon, in the time of King Henry the Eighth. By him the Poperin pear may have been introduced into England. MALONE.

SCENE II.

Capulet's Garden.

Enter ROMEO.

ROM. He jefts at fears, that never felt a wound.
[JULIET appears above, at a Window.

But, foft! what light through yonder window breaks!
It is the east, and Juliet is the fun!-

Arife, fair fun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already fick and pale with grief,

That thou her maid art far more fair than fhe:

Be not her maid, fince the is envious;

Her veftal livery is but fick and

green,

And none but fools do wear it; caft it off-
It is my lady; O, it is

my love:

O, that she knew fhe were!

She speaks, yet the fays nothing; What of that?

He jefts at fears,] That is, Mercutio jefts, whom he overheard. JOHNSON.

So, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book

"None can speake of a wound with skill, if he have not a wound felt." STEEVENS.

He (that perfon) jefts, is merely an allufion to his having conceived himfelf fo armed with the love of Rofalind, that no other beauty could make any impreffion on him. This is clear from the converfation he has with Mercutio, juft before they go to Capulet's. RITSON.

9 Be not her maid,] Be not a votary to the moon, to Diana.

By all Diana's waiting-women yonder,-."

JOHNSON.

So, in Troilus and Crefida:

STEEVENS.

1 It is my lady ;] This line and half I have replaced.

JOHNSON.

Her eye difcourfes, I will anfwer it.-
I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks:
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having fome bufinefs, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would fhame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright,
That birds would fing, and think it were not night.
See, how the leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,2
That I might touch that cheek!3

JUL.

ROM.

Ah me!

She speaks: O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art As glorious to this night,4 being o'er my head,

2 O, that I were a glove upon that hand,] This paffage appears to have been ridiculed by Shirley in The School of Compliments, a comedy, 1637:

"O that I were a flea upon that lip," &c. STEEVENS. -------- touch that cheek!] The quarto, 1597, reads: "kifs that cheek." STEEVENS.

3

4 O, Speak again, bright angel! for thou art

As glorious to this night,] Though all the printed copies concur in this reading, yet the latter part of the fimile seems to require

As glorious to this fight ;

and therefore I have ventured to alter the text fo. THEOBALD.

I have restored the old reading, for furely the change was unneceffary. The plain fenfe is, that Juliet appeared as fplendid an object in the vault of heaven obfcured by darkness, as an angel could feem to the eyes of mortals, who were falling back to gaze upon him.

As glorious to this night, means as glorious appearance in this dark night, &c. It should be obferved, however, that the fimile agrees precifely with Theobald's alteration, and not fo well with the old reading, STEEVENS.