"Who is already sick and pale with grief, "That thou her maid art far more fair than she." This is a very busy metamorphosis of Juliet, first to the sun, who is invoked to kill or subdue the moon, and then, in a minute, to an humble votary of the moon herself-but lovers have strange fancies. "It is my lady; O, it is my love: O, that she knew she were!" This line and half, which Dr. Johnson has restored from the quarto of 1609, is not in the first copy. I do not object to its restoration, but, to admit it, we should, as I suppose the author intended, omit the first part of the line preceding; there is to be noted in it a breach of grammar, "O that she knew she were!"-the speaker had said, absolutely, "it is my love," and then exclaims, "O that she knew this !" what? the fact to be sure, that she is his love: it should therefore be, "O that she knew she is!" Her eye in heaven "Would through the airy region stream so bright, "That birds would sing, and think it were not night." It should be was not night:-in both these cases it is not the subjunctive but the indicative mood that is required. 84..." Thou art thyself, though not a Montague." to Mr. Malone's regulation of this line is plausible, but perhaps unnecessary; and, if I mistake not, deficient of the force intended-Juliet, in her imagined colloquy with Romeo, had enjoined him "refuse his name," i. e. to be no longer a Montague; in doing so, she says, you only renounce an exterior distinction of no value, without the least injury to your own real excellence: "Thou art (still) thyself (unimpaired), though not a Montague." 87. "How cam'st thou hither, tell me? and wherefore?" Wherefore and therefore are, in other places, accentuated, as here, on the latter syllable. If a man talk of love, with caution trust him; "But if he swear, he'll certainly deceive you. Orphan. Jupiter ex alto, perjuria ridet amantum “Et jubet Æolios irrita ferre Notos.” Ov. de Arte Aman, Lib. I. 633. Nec jurare time: Veneris perjuria Venti "Irrita per terras et freta summa ferunt "Gratia magna Jovi: vetuit pater ipse valere "Jurasset cupidè quicquid ineptus amor." 90. Tibull. Lib. I. El. 4, 21. More cunning to be strange." "Strange" is bashful, timid, unpractised; as in other places: "He (my man) is strange and peevish. Do not swear at all; Cymbeline. "Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self." Thus N. Lee: "By thy bright self, the greatest oath, I swear. 91. "Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be, "Ere one can say-It lightens.” The plain meaning of this passage, ere these words, "it lightens," can be uttered, is perverted by an affectation of ingenuity in most of our actresses, who deliver it with a strong emphasis on 'sáy," passing over the pointed part of the sentence, as if it were immaterial. 66 93. "I do beseech thee" Nurse. "Madam." Jul. This abruption was noted before, as natural and spirited. SCENE III. 98. "The day to cheer," &c. This is a petty change for the sake of a worthless antithesis, from the first quarto, which reads, "The world to cheer," &c. The advance of the sun, or the sun's eye, is the approach of the day, and that which cheers the world, and dries up the dews of the night. 99. "Nor aught so good, but, strain'd from that fair use." As no specific virtue is expressed or implied, we ought, perhaps, to read "from its fair use;" the correction, too, of "nought," in the quarto, to "aught," is wrong-the declaration being negative, the negative conjunction is proper-there is nought so vile but gives some good, nor nought so good, but becomes sometimes hurtful. "Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse." I cannot discover how this line should be deemed worthy to supersede that in the first quarto: "Revolts to vice, and stumbles on abuse.” "For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part; Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart." The terminations of this couplet have been reversed from the first quarto, which reads, perhaps better, 66 66 With that part cheers each heart; Being tasted, slays all senses with the part.' "Part," both in the first and second lines, means, as I conceive, the particular sense. Theobald's correction appears to be judicious. 101. “With Rosaline, my ghostly father? no; "I have forgot that name," &c. I cannot perceive what was the design of the poet, in introducing Romeo as deeply enamoured of a lady who never appears, and then all at once making him renounce her in favour of another. This fickleness has certainly no tendency to exalt the character of Romeo, or to augment our pity at his misfortunes. Mr. Garrick, in his alteration of the play, was, I think, judicious in avoiding this part of it. 102. " sit Upon thy cheek the stain doth Of an old tear that is not wash'd off yet." Hamlet makes a similar remark: "Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears SCENE IV. 107. "Without his roe, like a dried herring." There is a double conceit here he comes but the half of himself; he is only a sigh-O me!i. e. me, O! the half of his name. A-kin to this thought is Swift's etymology of Cicero: the orator, says he, had been a sizer or servitor in the university at Athens, and being often pointed at with reproach-O, sizer sizer, O! in time he acquired the nick-name Sizer O! or Cicero ! Not to the purpose." The purpose of competition with this lover's mistress. 111. "Come between us, good Benvolio; my wits fail." |