Enter MONTAGUE, and Lady MONTAGUE. Mon. Thou villain Capulet,-Hold me not, let me go. La. Mon. Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe. Enter Prince, with Attendants. Prin. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments, [Exeunt Prince, and Attendants; CAPULET, Mon. Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach? The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepar'd; 1 · mistemper'd weapons-] i. e. Angry weapons.-STEEVENS. j Free-town,] This name the poet found in the Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, 1562. It is there said to be the castle of the Capulets.-MALONE. Which, as he breath'd defiance to my ears, La. Mon. O, where is Romeo!-Saw you him to-day? Right glad I am, he was not at this fray. Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun I, measuring his affections by my own,- Mon. Many a morning hath he there been seen, Should in the further east begin to draw Black and portentous must this humour prove, Ben. My noble uncle, do you know the cause? As is the bud bit with an envious worm, Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow, Enter ROMEO, at a distance. Ben. See, where he comes: So please you, step aside; I'll know his grievance, or be much denied. Mon. I would, thou wert so happy by thy stay, To hear true shrift.-Come, madam, let's away. [Exeunt MONTAGUE and Lady. Ben. Good morrow, cousin. Ben. But new struck nine. Rom. Was that my Is the day so young? Ah me! sad hours seem long. father that went hence so fast? Ben. It was:-What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours? Rom. Not having that, which, having, makes them short. Ben. In love? Rom, Out. Ben. Of love? Rom. Out of her favour, where I am in love. Ben. Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof! Rom. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, Here's much to do with hate, but more with love:- O any thing, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! to his will!] i. e. That the blind god should yet be able to direct his arrows at those whom he wishes to hit, that he should wound whomever he wills, or desires to wound.-MALONE. This love feel I, that feel no love in this. Dost thou not laugh? Ben. No, coz, I rather weep. Rom. Good heart, at what? Ben. At thy good heart's oppression. Rom. Why, such is love's transgression.- With more of thine: this love, that thou hast shown, Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs; Being purg'd," a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; Ben. Soft, I will go along; But sadly tell me, who. [Going. Groan? why, no; Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will: Ah, word ill urg'd to one that is so ill!— In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman. Ben. I aim'd so near, when I suppos'd you lov'd. Rom. A right good marks-man!—And she's fair, I love. With Cupid's arrow, she hath Dian's wit; And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd," From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd. Why, such is love's transgression.] Such is the consequence of unskilful and mistaken kindness.-JOHNSON. purg'd,] This may mean purged of smoke; but I would rather read, urged, i. e. excited, and enforced.-JOHNSON. in sadness,] That is, in seriousness. in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,] i. e. In chastity of proof; as we say in armour of proof. As this play was written in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, I cannot help regarding these speeches of Romeo as an oblique com She will not stay the siege of loving terms, That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.P Ben. Then she hath sworn, that she will still live chaste? Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste; For beauty, starv'd with her severity, Cuts beauty off from all posterity. She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair, Ben. Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her. Rom. "Tis the way To call hers, exquisite, in question more: Ben. I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt. [Exeunt. pliment to her majesty, who was not liable to be displeased at hearing her chastity praised after she was suspected to have lost it, or her beauty commended in the sixty-seventh year of her age, though she never possessed any when she was young. Her declaration that she would continue unmarried, increases the probability of the present supposition.-STEEVENS. P with beauty dies her store.] She is rich in beauty; and poor in this circumstance alone, that with her, beauty will expire; she will leave the world no copy.-MALONE. ༡ wisely too fair, &c.] There is in her too much sanctimonious wisdom united with beauty, which induces her to continue chaste with the hopes of attaining heavenly bliss.-MALONE. To call hers, exquisite, in question more:] More into talk; to make her unparalleled beauty more the subject of thought and conversation.-MALONE. These happy masks,]-means no more than the happy masks, according to a form o. expression not unusual with the old writers.-MALONE and TYRWHITT. What doth her beauty serve,] i.e. What end does it answer?-STEEVENS. |