LA. CAP. A crutch, a crutch! - Why call you for a sword? CAP. My sword, I say! Old Montague is come, And flourishes his blade in spite of me. 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.2 Enter Prince, with Attendants. PRIN. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel, 3 Will they not hear? what, ho! you men, you beasts, Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments, 10 [Exeunt Prince, and Attendants; CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, TYBALT, Citizens, and Servants. used in war; the little sword was the weapon commonly worn, probably nothing more than a dagger. 1) i. e. his sword. 2) An enemy, an opponent. 3) i. e. who profane and stain, who spot your swords with the blood of your neighbours. 4) To quench means to extinguish fire; to still any passion or commotion, particularly to allay thirst. 5) i. e. angry weapons. 7) To wield, to govern, to handle, to use with full command or power, as a thing not too heavy for the holder, to manage; as, to wield a sword, a partizan or pike. 8) i. e. corrupted, corroded, grown rusty. 9) What our will dictates. 10) This name the poet found in MON. Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach?1 BEN. Here were the servants of your adversary, saw you him to-day? Right glad I am, he was not at this fray. BEN. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd sun MON. Many a morning hath he there been seen, "The Tragicall History of Romeus | like that of a serpent; figuratively, and Juliet, 1562." It is said to be the castle of the Capulets. 1) Figuratively used by Shakspeare for setting loose, or in a state of being propagated; properly a cask is abroach, i. e. letting out or yielding liquor. 2) i. e. expressing, manifesting a challenge to fight. Defiance is an invitation or call to an adversary to encounter, if he dare. 3) To hiss, properly to utter a noise to condemn by hissing, to explode. 4) I am very glad. 5) To peer, a poetic word, to come in sight, to appear, to peep. 6) The old preterit. and part. pass. of drive. We now use drove. 7) i. e. spreads, extends itself; properly, fixes its roots, grows, is planted. 8) I approached him secretly. 9) A thicket or shady place fit to conceal one's self. 10) To shun, to avoid. The shady curtains from Aurora's bed, Black and portentous must this humour prove, BEN. My noble uncle, do you know the cause? Is to himself - I will not say, how true Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, 5 Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow, Enter ROMEO, at a distance. 6 BEN. See, where he comes: So please you, step aside; I'll know his grievance, or be much denied.7 MON. I would, thou wert so happy by thy stay, To hear true shrift.8 Come, madam, let's away. BEN. But new struck [Exeunt MONTAGUE and Lady. Is the day so young?? nine. 10 Ah me! sad hours seem long. Was that my father that went hence so fast? 1) Sad, sorrowful, dejected and depressed in mind. 2) To pen, to shut in a pen; thence, to confine in a small inclosure. 3) i. e. it will be found mournful and calamitous. 4) i. e. urged with frequent application. 5) He and his, instead of it and its, as often in Shakspeare. 6) i. e. condescend, be pleased, be so kind as to, etc., phrase of ceremony of frequent use in our poet. 7) i. e. or he will prove unfaithful and violating confidence, in contradiction to his character as a friend of mine. 8) Properly, confession made to a priest, now obsolete. 9) i. e. is it so early in the day? 10) So, in Hamlet, Act I, sc. 1: 'Tis new (nom) struck twelve; new having the meaning of just. BEN. It was: What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours? ROM. Not having that, which having, makes them short. BEN. In love? ROM. Out of her favour, where I am in love. Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof! ROM. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still,1 Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!2 Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was here? Here's much to do with hate, but more with love: - O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! This love feel I, that feel no love in this. Dost thou not laugh? No, coz, I rather weep. ROM. Good heart, at what? At thy good heart's oppression. 6 ROM. Why, such is love's transgression. With more of thine: this love, that thou hast shown, 1) i. e. is always blindfolded, co- | antithesis was very much the taste vered. of his and the preceding time, especially among the Provençal and Italian poets. 2) This passage has often been misapprehended. Benvolio has lamented that the God of love, who appears so gentle, should be a tyrant. It is no less to be lamented, adds Romeo, that the blind god (love) 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. Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs; BEN. Soft, I will go along; And if you leave me so, you do me wrong. ROM. Tut, I have lost myself; I am not here! BEN. Tell me in sadness3 who she is you love. BEN. 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. 4 - ROM. A right good marks-man! And she's fair I love. BEN. A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit. ROM. Well, in that hit, you miss: she'll not be hit With Cupid's arrow, she hath Dian's wit; And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd, 5 From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd. She will not stay the siege of loving terms, That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store." 1) Being purged of smoke. Others propose to read urged, i. e. excited and enforced; to urge the fire being the technical term. 2) An exclamation, used for checking or rebuking. 3) That is, tell me gravely, tell me in seriousness. Johnson. 4) One that is skilful to hit a mark; he that shoots well. 5) As this play was written in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, I cannot help regarding these speeches of Romeo as an oblique compliment 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 67th 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.· In chastity of proof, as we say, in armour of proof. Johnson. 6) To endure, to suffer. 7) She is rich in beauty; and poor in this circumstance alone, that with her, beauty will expire; her store of wealth (which the poet already said was the fairness of her person,) will not be transmitted to posterity, inasmuch as she will "lead |