Believe, me, love, it was the nightingale. Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the morn, I'll say, yon grey is not the morning's eye, if undisturbed, she sits and sings upon the same tree for many weeks together. What Eustathius, however, has observed relative to a fig-tree mentioned by Homer, in his 12th Odyssey, may be applied to the passage before us: "These particularities, which seem of no consequence, have a very good effect in poetry, as they give the relation an air of truth and probability. For what can induce a poet to mention such a tree, if the tree, were not there in reality?” Steevens. 7 It is some meteor that the sun exhales, To be to thee this night a torch-bearer, And light thee on thy way-] Compare Sidney's Arcadia, 13tk edit. p. 109: "The moon, then full, (not thinking scorn to be a torch-bearer to such beauty) guided her steps." And Sir J. Davies's Orchestra, 1596, st. vii, of the sun: "When the great torch-bearer of heauen was gone "Downe in a maske unto the Ocean's court." And Drayton's Eng. Heroic. Epist. p. 221, where the moon is described with the stars 8 "Attending on her, as her torch-bearers." Todd. the pale reflex-] The appearance of a cloud opposed to the moon. Johnson. 9 I have more care to stay, than will to go;] Would it not be better thus-I have more will to stay, than care to go? Johnson. Care was frequently used in Shakspeare's time for inclination. Malone How is 't, my soul? let's talk, it is not day. Some say, the lark and loathed toad change eyes; 4 1 -sweet division;] Division seems to have been the technical phrase for the pauses or parts of a musical composition. So, in King Henry IV, P. I: "Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower, To run a division, is also a musical term. Steevens. O, now I would they had chang'd voices too!] I wish the lark and toad had changed voices; for then the noise which I hear would be that of the toad, not of the lark; it would consequently be evening, at which time the toad croaks; not morning, when the lark sings; and we should not be under the necessity of separation. A. C. If the toad and lark had changed voices, the unnatural croak of the latter would have been no indication of the appearance of day, and consequently no signal for her lover's departure. This is apparently the aim and purpose of Juliet's wish. Heath. The toad having very fine eyes, and the lark very ugly ones, was the occasion of a common saying amongst the people, that the toad and lark had changed eyes. To this the speaker alludes. Warburton. This tradition of the toad and lark I have heard expressed in a rustick rhyme: 66 To heav'n I'd fly, "But that the toad beguil'd me of mine eye." Johnson. Read chang'd eyes. M. Mason. 3 Since arm from arm &c.] These two lines are omitted in the modern editions, and do not deserve to be replaced, but as they may show the danger of critical temerity. Dr. Warburton's change of I would to I wot was specious enough, yet it is evidently erroneous. The sense is this: The lark, they say, has lost her eyes to the toad, and now I would the toad had her voice too, since she uses it to the disturbance of lovers. Johnson. 4 Hunting thee hence with hunts-up to the day.] The hunts-up was the name of the tune anciently played to wake the hunters, and collect them together. So, in The Return from Parnassus, 1606: "Yet will I play a hunts-up to my Muse." O, now be gone; more light and light it grows. Nurse. Your lady mother's coming to your chamber: The day is broke; be wary, look about. [Exit Nurse. Jul. Then, window, let day in, and let life out. Rom. Farewel, farewel! one kiss, and I'll descend. my friend!5 [ROM. descends. Jul. Art thou gone SO ? my love! my lord! I must hear from thee every day i' the hour, For in a minute there are many days: O! by this count I shall be much in years, Ere I again behold my Romeo. Rom. Farewel! I will omit no opportunity That may convey my greetings, love, to thee. Jul. O God! I have an ill-divining soul:7 Again, in the play of Orlando Furioso, 1594 and 1599: "To play him huntsup with a point of war, "I'll be his minstrell with my drum and fife." Steevens. Puttenham, in his Art of English Poesy, 1589, speaking of one Gray, says, "what good estimation did he grow into with king Henry [the Eighth] and afterwards with the duke of Somerset protectour, for making certaine merry ballads, whereof one chiefly was The Hunte is up, the Hunte is up." Ritson. A huntsup also signified a morning song to a new-married woman, the day after her marriage, and is certainly used here in that sense. See Cotgrave's Dictionary, in v. Resveil. Malone. 5 Art thou gone so? my love! my lord! my friend!] Thus the quarto, 1597. That of 1599, and the folio, read: Art thou gone so? love, lord, ay husband, friend! Malone. 60! by this count I shall be much in years, "Illa ego, quæ fueram te decedente puella, Ovid, Epist. I. Steevens. 7 O God! I have an ill-divining soul: &c.] This miserable prescience of futurity I have always regarded as a circumstance particularly beautiful. The same kind of warning from the mind, Methinks, I see thee, now thou art below, [Exit ROM. Jul. O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle: If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune; For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long, But send him back. La. Cap. [within] Ho, daughter! are you up? Jul. Who is 't that calls? is it my lady mother? Is she not down so late, or up so early?2 What unaccustom'd cause procures her hither? 3 Romeo seems to have been conscious of, on his going to the entertainment at the house of Capulet: my mind misgives, "Some consequence yet hanging in the stars, 8 O God! I have an ill-divining soul: Methinks, I see thee, now thou art below, As one dead-] So, in our author's Venus and Adonis : "I prophecy thy death." The reading of the text is that of the quarto, 1597. 1599, and the folio, read-now thou art so low. Malone. That of 9 Dry sorrow drinks our blood.] This is an allusion to the proverb "Sorrow 's dry." Chapman, in his version of the seventeenth Iliad, says "Drunk from their faces all their blouds; Steevens. He is accounting for their paleness. It was an ancient notion that sorrow consumed the blood, and shortened life. Hence, in The Third Part of King Henry VI, we have-" blood-sucking sighs." Malone. 1 That is renown'd for faith?] This Romeo, so renown'd for faith, was but the day before dying for love of another woman: yet this is natural. Romeo was the darling object of Juliet's love, and Romeo was, of course, to have every excellence. M. Mason. 2 Is she not down so late, or up so early?] Is she not laid down in her bed at so late an hour as this? or rather is she risen from bed at so early an hour of the morn? Malone. 3 - procures her hither?] Procures for brings. Warburton. Enter Lady CAPULET. La. Cap. Why, how now, Juliet? Jul. Madam, I am not well. La. Cap. Evermore weeping for your cousin's death? What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears? An if thou could'st, thou could'st not make him live; Therefore, have done: Some grief shows much of love; But much of grief shows still some want of wit. Jul. Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss. La. Cap. So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend Which you weep for. Jul. Feeling so the loss, I cannot choose but ever weep the friend. La. Cap. Well, girl, thou weep'st not so much for his death, As that the villain lives which slaughter'd him. Jul. What villain, madam? La. Cap. That same villain, Romeo. Jul. Villain and he are many miles asunder. God pardon him!4 I do, with all my heart; And yet no man, like he, doth grieve my heart. La. Cap. That is, because the traitor murderer lives. Jul. Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands. 'Would, none but I might venge my cousin's death! La. Cap. We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not: Then weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua,— Where that same banish'd runagate doth live,— That shall bestow on him so sure a draught, 6 4 God pardon him!] The word him, which was inadvertently omitted in the old copies, was inserted by the editor of the second folio. Malone. 5 Ay, madam, from &c.] Juliet's equivocations are rather too artful for a mind disturbed by the loss of a new lover. Johnson. 6 That shall bestow on him so sure a draught,] Thus the elder quarto, which I have followed in preference to the quartos 1599`. and 1609, and the folio, 1623, which read, less intelligibly: Shall give him such an unaccustom❜d dram. Steevens. The elder quarto bas-That should &c. The word shall is drawn from that of 1599. Malone. unaccustom❜d dram,] In vulgar language, Shall give him a dram which he is not used to. Though I have, if I mistake not, observed, that in old books unaccustomed signifies wonderful, powerful, efficacious. Johnson. I believe Dr. Johnson's first explanation is the true one. Bar |