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This reminds me of a passage in Congreve: Millamant. " Mincing, stand between me and

his wit."

Way of the World.

LORD CHEDWORTH.

It may not be out of the way to remark, upon the above note, that the interposition required by Millamant, and by Romeo, was for purposes quite opposite to each other;-the blaze of wit there was too strong, here it was too feeble; a screen in one case was wanted-a bellows in the other.

120.

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My man's as true as steel.”

i. e. I suppose, as trusty as the temper'd weapon on which the defence of our life depends; or, perhaps, it is merely a proverbial saying. The line is not in the first quarto.

122. "R. is for the dog."

"Sonat hic de Nare canina

"Litera."

Pers. Sat. 1st, 109. LORD CHEDWORTH.

SCENE V.

124. "And his to me."

I suppose some words like these have been lost from this hemistic:

"And his to me would send her back again."

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126. I'faith, I am sorry that thou art not

well."

The sweet simplicity of this line is repeated in Othello :

"I am very sorry that you are not well.”

SCENE VI.

129. "Then love-devouring death do what he dare."

I think it should be-do what thou dare.”

"Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.” This is, in other words, the trite proverb

"The more haste, the worse speed."

So light a foot

"Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint."

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"Everlasting," perhaps, for "sacred,' consecrated," or everlasting," because, if only subject to such steps, no impression would ever be made on it: but it cannot reasonably be supposed that the poet would, for the sake of such a thought as this, displace the beautiful line in the first quarto.

So light a foot ne'er hurts the trodden flower." I know not whether Virgil was in Shakspeare's mind here-Æneid. Lib. 7. V. 808, &c.

"Illa vel intacta segetis per summa volaret Gramina, nec teneras cursu læsisset aristas."

But Milton has a similar image in Comus:

"Thus I set my printless feet

"O'er the cowslip's velvet head,
"That bends not as I tread."

130. "As much to him, else are his thanks too

much."

This is strangely expressed: I suppose Juliet means to say that Romeo himself is equally entitled to her thanks, and that, if she do not give them to him in an equal measure, he will have thanked her too much.

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131. They are but beggars that can count their worth."

Pauca cupit, qui numerare potest.

Mart. Lib. 6. Ep. 34.

ACT III. SCENE I.

133. "Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts," &c.

The first quarto, with truer humour, ascribes this quarrelsome temper more directly ;

"Didst thou not quarrel," &c.

136. "In Verona streets :-hold, Tybalt ;good Mercutio.”

The poet never gave such an order of words as this for a verse:-I suppose it was,

"Here in Verona :-Tybalt ;-good Mercutio." 137. "Nor so wide as a church door."

The first copy-" a barn door."

Aspir'd the clouds," &c.

138.

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"Which too untimely here did scorn the earth."

The first quarto I think much better, as free from pleonasm; "here" and "earth" being the same, reads,

"Which too untimely scorn'd the lowly earth." 141. "For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague."

This injunction would have come with more decorum from Capulet than from the lady.

"O cousin, cousin!"

This useless hemistic is not in the first copy. 142. " Affection makes him false."

Benvolio (whom the author certainly intended for a good character) does not appear to me to be chargeable with any material deviation from the truth: if he mis-states the transaction at all, it is not in favour of Romeo, but by suppressing some circumstances in the conduct of Mercutio, the kinsman and favourite of the prince, to whom the narrative is addressed, and whom, we may suppose, (I think, without any great imputation on his integrity) he wished to conciliate. It is true

that Romeo "spoke Tybalt fair," that he urged the prince's displeasure, that he interposed between Mercutio and Tybalt, and that he did not attack Tybalt, till Tybalt had killed Mercutio; Benvolio even suppresses a circumstance which makes considerably in favour of Romeo, viz. that Tybalt called Romeo a villain, before Romeo had spoken a single word, and that Romeo submitted peaceably to that insult, and did not retort the word villain, till Tybalt had slain his friend Mercutio. For these reasons, Dr. Johnson's censure of Benvolio appears to me unfounded, and to have been made for the sake of introducing the reflection that follows it; which, without the assertion of Benvolio's falsehood, must have been lost. LORD CHED WORTH.

SCENE II.

144. "That run-away's eyes may wink; and Romeo

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These run-aways appear to have gone beyond the reach of all the critical pursuers;-let me try if I can come up with them :-Romeo I take to be the run-away, i. e. the person that is to come and run away with Juliet, and she would have him post to her on the wings of love, with such celerity as to be blind to every obstacle, and invisible to every eye; that Romeo is he whose eyes are to wink, and is, of consequence, the runaway, seems partly implied in what follows:

"Lovers can see to do their amorous rites

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'By their own beauties; or, if love be blind, "It best agrees with night."

"That run-away's eyes may wink.”— Is it not possible that fame or rumour, with all its vigilant eyes, may be intended ?

147. "

CAPEL LOFFT.

Till strange love, grown bold." "Strange," here, is unpractised, new, initiate. Thus in Cymbeline; Iachimo, speaking of his servant, whom he would describe as inexpert and unacquainted with the world, says, "he is strange and peevish:" and Macbeth also

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My strange and self-abuse

"Is the initiate fear that wants hard USE."

"Whiter than new snow on a raven's back.”

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