Being purged, 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.

BEN.

Soft! I will go along:
An 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, who is that you love?
ROM. What, shall I groan and tell thee?
BEN.

But sadly tell me who.

Groan! why, no;

ROм. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will:
Ah, word ill urged to one that is so ill!
In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.

BEN. I aim'd so near when I supposed you loved.
ROM. A right good mark-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,

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,

189 purged] purged or purified of smoke.

197 in sadness] in all seriousness.

209 unharm'd] Thus the First Quarto, for which other early editions substitute vncharmd. The latter word some editors take to be a misprint for encharmed, i. e., protected by a charm. But this reading gives a far-fetched meaning.

190

200

210

Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold:
O, she is rich in beauty, only poor

That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.
BEN. Then she hath sworn that she will still live
chaste?

ROM. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge

waste;

For beauty, starved with her severity,
Cuts beauty off from all posterity.
She is too fair, too wise, wisely too fair,
To merit bliss by making me despair:

220

She hath fors worn to love; and in that vow
Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.

BEN. Be ruled 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.

"Tis the way

To call hers, exquisite, in question more:

213-214 only poor her store] The meaning is that Romeo's mistress is only poor in that at her death with the dissolution of her beauty, there perishes all her estate; there will be none to inherit her beauty after death. Theobald read for the last words with her dies Beauty's Store, which simplifies the sense. Cf. Venus and Adonis, 1019: "For he being dead, with him is beauty slain."

216-218 She hath

posterity] These lines convey the sentiment which Shakespeare elaborately develops in Sonnets, i-xvii. Cf. Sonnet iii, 7, 8: "Or who is he so fond will be the tomb of his self-love, to stop posterity?" See also Venus and Adonis, 757–760.

219 wisely too fair] with a beauty in excess of her wisdom.

227 To call hers, exquisite, in question more] To declare her beauty, which

These happy masks that kiss fair ladies' brows,
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 but as a note
Where I may read who pass'd that passing fair?
Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget.
BEN. I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt.

[Exeunt.

230

SCENE II-A STREET

Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant

CAP. But Montague is bound as well as I,
In penalty alike; and 't is not hard, I think,
For men so old as we to keep the peace.

PAR. Of honourable reckoning are you both;
And pity 't is you lived 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:

is exquisite, all the greater by talking about how it compares with that of others. The line is obscurely phrased. "Question" is constantly used in the sense of verbal inquiry, talk, or conversation. 228 These happy masks] The masks or veils which were habitually worn by ladies of fashion.

236 I'll pay that doctrine] I'll teach you that lesson.

9 fourteen years] Shakespeare is curiously emphatic that Juliet's age is less than fourteen (see I, iii, 13-22), where she is said to be “a fortnight and odd days" under fourteen. Earlier narrators of the story make

Let two more summers wither in their pride
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. The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she, She is the hopeful lady of my earth: But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart; My will to 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

the heroine older. According to Arthur Brooke's poem, she was sixteen. Painter, following verbatim the French translation of Bandello, makes her eighteen. Bandello and his Italian predecessor Luigi da Porto both represent Juliet's mother as saying at the crisis of her fate, that she will complete her eighteenth year on the coming festival of Santa Euphemia (September 16).

15 the hopeful lady of my earth] probably "the hopeful or well-promising mistress of my being, my world, my life." There is a French phrase "fille de terre" meaning "heiress," which Shakespeare may have had in mind. For a similar use of "earth" cf. Sonnet cxlvi, 1: "Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth," and II, i, 2, infra.

17 My will... but a part] My will is only ancillary to her consent, is merely supplemental to it, is not tantamount to it.

25 Earth-treading stars. . . light] Brilliant women, the radiance of whose beauty makes night light as day.

When well-apparell'd April on the heel
Of limping winter treads, even such delight
Among fresh female buds shall you this night
Inherit at my house; hear all, all see,

And like her most whose merit most shall be:
Which on more view, of many mine being one
May stand in number, though in reckoning none.
Come, go with me. Go, sirrah, trudge about
Through fair Verona; find those persons out
Whose names are written there, and to them say,
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.

27 well-apparell❜d April] Cf. Sonnet xcviii, 2, 3: "When proud-pied April, dress'd in all his trim Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing." 32-33 Which on more view .. none] These obscure lines play with garrulous irrelevance on an old proverbial expression that "one is no number." Cf. Sonnet cxxxvi, 8: "Among a number one is reckon'd none." Which on more view is specially difficult to construe. But the antecedent of "Which" is possibly "the whole field of choice," suggested by "hear all, all see," of line 30, and the phrase is a nominative absolute. The general meaning would then be "All the ladies being more closely observed, and my daughters being one of the concourse, she may take priority even though, as the proverb has it, one does n't count.'

44 In good time] a reference to the opportune entrance of Benvolio

and Romeo.

30

44