Murder'd her kinsman.-O tell me, friar, tell me,
In what vile part of this anatomy

Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sack
The hateful mansion.

Fri.

[Drawing his Sword. Hold thy desperate hand:

Art thou a man? thy form cries out, thou art;
Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote
The unreasonable fury of a beast:

Unseemly woman, in a seeming man!
Or ill-beseeming beast, in seeming both!
Thou hast amaz'd me: by my holy order,
I thought thy disposition better temper❜d.
Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself?
And slay thy lady too that lives in thee,1
By doing damned hate upon thyself?

Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth?3
Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet
In thee at once; which thou at once would'st lose.

9 Unseemly woman, &c.] Thou art a beast of ill qualities, under the appearance both of a woman and a man. Johnson. A person who seemed both man and woman, would be a monster, and of course an ill-beseeming beast. This is all the Friar meant to express. M. Mason.

1 And slay thy lady too that lives in thee,] The quarto, 1599, and the folio, have

And slay thy lady, that in thy life lives.

My copy of the first folio reads:

Thus the first copy.

Malone.

And slay thy lady that in thy life lies. Steevens.

2 Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth?] Romeo has not here railed on his birth, &c. though in his interview with the Friar as described in the poem, he is made to do so:

"First Nature did he blame, the author of his life,

"In which his joys had been so scant, and sorrows aye so

rife;

"The time and place of birth he fiercely did reprove;

"He cryed out with open mouth against the stars above. "On fortune eke he rail'd."

Shakspeare copied the remonstrance of the Friar, without reviewing the former part of his scene. He has in other places fallen into a similar inaccuracy, by sometimes following and sometimes deserting his original.

The lines, Why rail'st thou, &c. to-thy own defence, are not in the first copy. They are formed on a passage in the poem:

"Why cry'st thou out on love? why dost thou blame thy fate? "Why dost thou so cry after death? thy life why dost thou hate?" &c. Malone.

Fy, fy! thou sham'st thy shape, thy love, thy wit;
Which, like an usurer, abound'st in all,

And usest none in that true use indeed

Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit.
Thy noble shape is but a form of wax,
Digressing from the valour of a man:3
Thy dear love, sworn, but hollow perjury,
Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish:
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
Mis-shapen in the conduct of them both,
Like powder in a skill-less soldier's flask,
Is set on fire by thine own ignorance,

And thou dismember'd with thine own defence.5
What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive,
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead;
There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slew'st Tybalt; there art thou happy too :6
The law, that threaten'd death, becomes thy friend,
And turns it to exile; there art thou happy:
A pack of blessings lights upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But, like a mis-behav'd and sullen wench,

3 Digressing from the valour of a man:] So, in the 24th Book of Homer's Odyssey, as translated by Chapman:

66

my deservings shail in nought digress

"From best fame of our race's foremost merit." Steevens. ▲ Like powder in a skill-less soldier's flask, &c.] To understand the force of this allusion, it should be remembered that the ancient English soldiers, using match-locks, instead of locks with flints as at present, were obliged to carry a lighted match hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden flask in which they kept their powder. The same allusion occurs in Humour's Ordinary, an old collection of English epigrams:

"When she his flask and touch-box set on fire,

"And till this hour the burning is not out." Steevens.

5 And thou dismember'd with thine own defence.] And thou torn to pieces with thine own weapons. Johnson.

6 there art thou happy too:] Thus the first quarto. In the subsequent quartos and the folio too is omitted. Malone.

It should not be concealed, that the reading of the second folio corresponds with that of the first quarto:

there art thou happy too.

Steevens.

The word is omitted in all the intermediate editions; a sufficient proof that the emendations of that folio are not always the result of ignorance or caprice. Ritson.

Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love:?
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed,
Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her;
But, look, thou stay not till the watch be set,
For then thou canst not pass to Mantua;
Where thou shalt live, till we can find a time
To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
Beg pardon of the prince, and call thee back
With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.-
Go before, nurse: commend me to thy lady;
And bid her hasten all the house to bed,
Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto:
Romeo is coming.

Nurse. O Lord, I could have staid here all the night, To hear good counsel: O, what learning is!— My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.

Rom. Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide. Nurse. Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir: Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late. [Exit Nurse. Rom. How well my comfort is reviv'd by this!

9

Fri. Go hence: Good night; and here stands all your

state; 1

7 Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love:] The quarto, 1599, and 1609, read:

Thou puts up thy fortune and thy love.

The editor of the folio endeavoured to correct this by reading: Thou puttest up thy fortune and thy love.

The undated quarto has powts, which, with the aid of the original copy in 1597, pointed out the true reading. There the line stands:

Thou frown'st upon thy fate, that smiles on thee. Malone. The reading in the text is confirmed by the following passage in Coriolanus, Act V, sc. i:

8 Romeo is coming] Much of this speech has likewise been added since the first edition. Steevens.

9 Go hence: Good night; &c.] These three lines are omitted in all the modern editions. Johnson.

They were first omitted, with many others, by Mr. Pope.

Malone.

1- here stands all your state;] The whole of your fortune depends on this. Johnson.

Either be gone before the watch be set,
Or by the break of day disguis'd from hence:
Sojourn in Mantua; I'll find out your man,
And he shall signify from time to time
Every good hap to you, that chances here:
Give me thy hand; 'tis late: farewel; good night.
Rom. But that a joy past joy calls out on me,
It were a grief, so brief to part with thee:
Farewel.

SCENE IV.

A Room in Capulet's House.

[Exeunt.

Enter CAPULET, Lady CAPULET, and PARIS.
Cap. Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily,
That we have had no time to move our daughter :
Look you, she lov'd her kinsman Tybalt dearly,
And so did I;-Well, we were born to die.—
'Tis very late, she 'll not come down to-night:
I promise you, but for your company,

I would have been a-bed an hour ago.

Par. These times of woe afford no time to woo: Madam, good night: commend me to your daughter. La. Cap. I will, and know her mind early to-morrow; To-night she 's mew'd up3 to her heaviness.

Cap. Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender Of my child's love: I think, she will be rul'd

2 SCENE IV] Some few unnecessary verses are omitted in this scene according to the oldest editions. Pope.

Mr. Pope means, as appears from his edition, that he has followed the oldest copy, and omitted some unnecessary verses which are not found there, but inserted in the enlarged copy of this play. But he has expressed himself so loosely, as to have been misunderstood by Mr. Steevens. In the text these unnecessary verses, as Mr. Pope calls them, are preserved, conformably to the enlarged copy of 1599. Malone.

3

mew'd up-] This is a phrase from falconry. A mew was a place of confinement for hawks. So, in Albumazar, 1614: fully mew'd

66

"From brown soar feathers -"

Again, in our author's King Richard III:

"And, for his meed, poor lord he is mew'd up." Steevens.

4 Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender

my child's love:] Desperate means only bold, adventurous, as

In all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not.
Wife, go you to her ere you go to-bed;
Acquaint her here of my son Paris' love;

And bid her, mark you me, on Wednesday next-
But, soft; What day is this?

Par.

Monday, my lord.
Cap. Monday? ha! ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon,
O' Thursday let it be ;-o' Thursday, tell her,
She shall be married to this noble earl:-
Will you be ready? do you like this haste?
We'll keep no great ado;-a friend, or two:-
For hark you, Tybalt being slain so late,
It may be thought we held him carelessly,
Being our kinsman, if we revel much:

Therefore we 'll have some half a dozen friends,
And there an end. But what say you to Thursday?
Par. My lord, I would that Thursday were to-morrow.
Cap. Well, get you gone :-O' Thursday be it then :-
Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed,

Prepare her, wife, against this wedding-day.-
Farewel, my lord.-Light to my chamber, ho!
A fore me, it is so very late, that we
May call it early by and by:-Good night.

SCENE V.

Juliet's Chamber.5

Enter ROMEO and JULIET.

[Exeunt..

Jul. Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree:"

if he had said in the vulgar phrase, I will speak a bold word, and venture to promise you my daughter. Johnson.

So, in The Weakest goes to the Wall, 1600:

"Witness this desperate tender of mine honour." Steevens. 5 SCENE V. Juliet's Chamber.] The stage-direction in the first edition is "Enter Romeo and Juliet, at a window." In the second quarto," Enter Romeo and Juliet aloft." They appeared probably in the balcony which was erected on the old English stage. Malone.

• Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree:] This is not merely a poetical supposition. It is observed of the nightingale, that, VOL. XII. Ff