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,'
Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will! 2
Where shall we dine? - O me! — What fray was here?
Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here's much to do with hate, but more with love:
Why then, O brawling 3 love! O loving hate!
O any thing, 4 of nothing first create !
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis - shapen chaos of well - seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still - waking sleep, that is not what it is! -
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh ?
BEN.

No, coz,5 I rather weep.
Rom. Good heart, at what?
BEN.

At thy good heart's oppression.
Rom. Why, such is love's transgression. 6
Griefs of mine? own lie heavy in my breast;
Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest 8
With more of thine: this love, that thou hast shown,
Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.

1) i. e. is always blindfolded, co- | antithesis was very much the taste vered.

of his and the preceding time, espe2) This passage has often been cially among the Provençal and Itamisapprehended. Benvolio has la- lian poets. mented that the God of love, who ap 4) O universe! pears so gentle, should be a tyrant. 5) A cant or familiar word, conIt is no less to be lamented, adds tracted from cousin. Romeo, that the blind god (love) 6) Such is the consequence of unshould yet be able to direct his ar- skilful and mistaken kindness. John1 rows at those whom he wishes to son. hit, that he should wound whomever 7) Mine and thine, instead of my, he wills, or desires to wound. Ma- thy, before a vowel and an h, are of lone.

frequent though ungrammatical use 3) Quarrelsome, quarrelling. See up to our days; both, in grave and

The poet characterises | ludicrous language. love by contrarieties. This kind of 8) Prest, i. e. pressed, enforced.

p. 5, 6).

Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs;
Being purg'd,' a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
What is it else ? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.
Farewell, my coz.

[Going. 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!
This is not Romeo, he's some other where.

Ben. Tell me in sadness 3 who she is you love.
Rom. What, shall I groan, and tell thee?
BEN.

Groan? why, no; But sadly tell me, who.

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.
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,
Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes:
0, she is rich in beauty; only poor,
That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.?

1) Being purged of smoke. Others I have lost it, or her beauty commendpropose to read

urged, i. e. excited in the 67th year of her age, ed and enforced; to urge the fire though she never possessed any being the technical term.

when she was young. Her declara2) An exclamation, used for check- tion that she would continue unmaring or rebuking.

ried, increases the probability of 3) That is, tell me gravely, tell me the present supposition. Steevens. in seriousness. Johnson.

In chastity of proof, as we say, in 4) One that is skilful to hit a armour of proof. Johnson. mark; he that shoots well.

6) To endure, to suffer. 5) As this play was written in the 7) She is rich in beauty; and poor reign of Queen Elizabeth, I cannot in this circumstance alone, that help regarding these speeches of Ro- with her, beauty will expire; her meo as an oblique compliment to her store of wealth (which the poet al. majesty, who was not liable to be ready said was the fairness of her displeased at hearing her chastity person,) will not be transmitted to praised after she was suspected to posterity, inasmuch as she will “lead

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, 2
To merit bliss by making me despair:
She hath forsworn to love; and in that vow,
Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.

BEN. Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her.
Rom. O, teach me how I should forget to think.

BEN. By giving liberty unto thine eyes;
Examine other beauties.

Rom.
To call hers, exquisite, in question more:
These happy masks, that kiss fair ladies brows, 4
Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair;
He, that is strucken blind, cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost;
Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
What doth her beauty serve, 6 but as a note
Where I may read, who pass'd that passing fair?
Farewell; thou canst not teach me to forget.

'Tis the way

3

And pity 'tis, you liv'd at odds? so long.
But now, my lord, what say you, to my suit?

CAP. But saying o'er what I have said before:
My child is yet a stranger in the world,
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;
Let two more summers wither in their pritte,
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

PAR. Younger than she are happy mothers made.?

CAP. And too soon marr'd are those so early made.3 The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she, 4 She is the hopeful lady of my earth:5 But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart, My will to 6 her consent is but a part;. An she agree, within her scope of choice Lies my consent and fair according voice. This night I hold an old accustom'd feast, Whereto I have invited many a guest, Such as I love; and you, among the store, One more, most welcome, makes my number more. At my poor house, look to behold this night Earth - treading stars, that make dark heaven light:? Such comfort, as do lusty young men feel 8 When well-apparell’d April' on the heel Of limping10 winter treads, even such delight Among fresh female buds shall you this night Inherit 11 at my house; hear all, all see, And like her most, whose merit most shall be: Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one,

1) Quarrel, dispute.

shine the stars of heaven, and make 2) Are made, have become. them appear dark by their own su

3) To mar, to injure,'to spoil, to perior brightness; a poetical expresdamage. This is perhaps intended sion, as we likewise speak of beauties to be an allusion to Making and mar- that eclipse the sun. ring, an unlawful game of that time. 8) The old man tells Paris that he 4) Except her.

should feel the same sort of plea5) She is my only remaining child. sure in an assembly of beauties, Here earth is singularly used for which young folk feel in that season land, landed estate. Lady of my when they are most gay and amearth, for heiress or mistress of my orous. land. Steevens judges this phrase to 9) i. e. the fairly dressed,

the be a Gallicism, fille de terre meaning bloomy spring. an heiress.

10) To limp, to walk lamely. 6) To, in this instance, signifies 11) To inherit, in the language of in comparison with, in proportion to. Shakspeare's age, is to possess. Ma

7) That is, earthly stars that out- I lone.

them say,

May stand in number, though in reckoning none."
Come, go with me: Go, sirrah,2 trudge about 3
Through fair Verona; find those persons out,
Whose names are written there, [Gives a Paper.] and to
My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.

[Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS. SERV, Find them out, whose names are written here? It is written — that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am sent to find those persons,

whose names are here writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned: - In good time.

Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO. BEN. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning,

One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish;
Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning:

One desperate grief cure with another's languish:
Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
And the ranks poison of the old will die.

Rom. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.
BEN. For what, I pray thee?
Rom.

For your broken shin.'
BEN. Why, Romeo, art thou mad?

Rom. Not mad, but bound more than a madman is: Shut up in prison, kept without my food, Whipp'd, and tormented, and - Good e'en, good fellow,

Serv. God gi' good é'en. 8 – I pray, sir, can you read ? Rom. Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.

SERV. Perhaps you have learn'd it without book: But I pray, can you read any thing you see?

1) My daughter will, it is true, be

3) To trudge, to march with laone of the number, but her beauty bour. can be of no reckoning (i. e. estima 4) The old preterit and part. påse. tion) among those you will see here. of help. Reckoning for estimation, is used before in the fourth line of this very

5) Strong in quality.

6) A well known plant, whose 2) A compellation of reproach or leaves were supposed to have great contempt, used in addressing vile virtue in curing wounds. characters or low persons. Some de 7) The forepart of the leg; com. rive it from sir and the interjection pare the German Schienbein. ah, which others disallow.

8) i. e. God give good evening.

scene.