Upon thy back hangs ragged misery, The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law: Rom. There is thy gold; worse poison to men's souls, Doing more murders in this loathsome world, Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes. Our modern editors, without authority, Need and oppression stare within thy eyes. Steevens. The passage might, perhaps, be better regulated thus: Need and oppression stareth in thy eyes. For they cannot, properly, be said to starve in his eyes; though starved famine may be allowed to dwell in his cheeks. Thy, not thine, is the reading of the folio, and those who are conversant in our author, and especially in the old copies, will scarcely notice the grammatical impropriety of the proposed emendation. Ritson. The modern reading was introduced by Mr Pope, and was founded on that of Otway, in whose Caius Marius the line is thus exhibited: "Need and oppression stareth in thy eyes." The word starved in the first copy shows that starveth in the text is right. In the quarto of 1597, this speech stands thus: "And dost thou fear to violate the law? "The law is not thy friend, nor the lawes friend, "And starved famine dwelleth in thy cheeks." The last line is in my opinion preferable to that which has been substituted in its place, but it could not be admitted into the text without omitting the words-famine is in thy cheeks, and leaving an hemistich. Malone. 6 Upon thy back hangs ragged misery,] This is the reading of the oldest copy. I have restored it in preference to the following line, which is found in all the subsequent impressions: Contempt and beggary hang upon thy back. In The First Part of Jeronimo, 1605, is a passage somewhat resembling this of Shakspeare: "Whose famish'd jaws look like the chaps of death, Perhaps from Kyd's Cornelia, a tragedy, 1594: "Upon thy back where misery doth sit. "O Rome," &c. Feronimo was performed before 1590. Malone. Than these poor compounds that thou may'st not sell: Come, cordial, and not poison; go with me To Juliet's grave, for there must I use thee. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Friar Laurence's Cell. Enter Friar JOHN. John. Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho! Lau. This same should be the voice of friar John.- John. Going to find a bare-foot brother out, One of our order, to associate me,7 7 One of our order, to associate me,] Each Friar has always a companion assigned to him by the superior when he asks leave to go out; and thus, says Baretti, they are a check upon each other. Steevens. In The Visitatio Notabilis de Seleburne, a curious record printed in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, Wykeham enjoins the canons not to go abroad without leave from the prior, who is ordered on such occasions to assign the brother a companion, ne suspicio sinistra vel scandalum oriatur. Append. p. 448. H. White. By the Statutes of Trinity College, Cambridge, ch. 22, it is declared-That no batchelor or scholar shail go into the town without a companion as a witness of his honesty, on pain for the first offence to be deprived of a week's commons, with further punishment for the offence if repeated. Reed. Going to find a bare-foot brother out, And finding him, the searchers of the town, Suspecting, &c.] So, in The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Ju liet, 1562: "Apace our friar John to Mantua him hies; And, for because in Italy it is a wonted guise "That friars in the town should seldom walk alone, "In mind to take some friar with him, to walk the town about." Our author, having occasion for Friar John, has here departed from the poem, and supposed the pestilence to rage at Verona, instead of Mantua. Here in this city visiting the sick, And finding him, the searchers of the town, Lau. Unhappy forture! by my brotherhood, John. Brother, I'll go and bring 't thee. [Exit. Friar John sought for a brother merely for the sake of form, to accompany him in his walk, and had no intention of visiting the sick; the words, therefore, to associate me, must be considered as parenthetical, and. Here in this city, &c. must refer to the barefoot brother. Malone. 8was not nice,] i. e. was not written on a trivial or idle subject. Nice signifies foolish in many parts of Gower and Chaucer. So, in the second Book De Confessione Amantis, fol. 37: 'My sonne, eschewe thilke vice. "My father elles were I nice." Again, in Chaucer's Scogan unto the Lordes, &c. 66 the most complaint of all, "Is to thinkin that I have be so nice, "That I ne would in vertues to me call," &c. Again, in The longer thou livest the more Fool thou art, 1570: "You must appeare to be straunge and nyce." The learned editor of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 1775, observes, that H. Stephens informs us, that nice was the old French word for niais, one of the synonymes of sot. Apol. Herod. L. I, c. iv. Steevens. See Vol. XI, p. 118, n. 8. Malone. 9 Within these three hours will fair Juliet wake;] Instead of this fine, and the concluding part of the speech, the quarto, 1597, reads only: "Lest that the lady should before I come "Be wak'd from sleep, I will hye "To free her from that tombe of miserie." Steevents. She will beshrew me much, that Romeo But I will write again to Mantua, And keep her at my cell till Romeo come; Poor living corse, clos'd in a dead man's tomb! [Exit. SCENE III. A Church-Yard; in it, a Monument belonging to the Capulets. Enter PARIS, and his Page, bearing Flowers and a Torch. Par. Give me thy torch, boy: Hence, and stand aloof;— Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. Under yon yew-trees lay thee all along, Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground; So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread, (Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,) But thou shalt hear it: whistle then to me, As signal that thou hear'st something approach. Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go. Page. I am almost afraid to stand alone Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure. [Retires. Par. Sweet flower, with flowers I strew thy bridal bed: Sweet tomb, that in thy circuit dost contain The perfect model of eternity; Fair Juliet, that with angels dost remain,1 That living honour'd thee, and, being dead, 1 Fair Fuliet, that with angels &c.] These four lines from the old edition. Pope. The folio has these lines: "Sweet flow'r, with flow'rs thy bridal bed I strew; "Which with sweet water nightly I will dew, "Or, wanting that, with tears distill'd by moans. 66 Nightly shall be, to strew thy grave, and 'weep." Johnson. Mr. Pope has followed no copy with exactness; but took the first and fourth lines from the elder quarto, omitting the two intermediate verses, which I have restored. Steevens. The folio follows the quarto of 1599. In the text the seven lines are printed as they appear in the quarto, 1597. Malone. With funeral praises do adorn thy tomb! [The Boy whistles. The boy gives warning, something doth approach. What cursed foot wanders this way to-night, To cross my obsequies, and true love's rites? What, with a torch!-muffle me, night, a while." [Retires. Enter ROMEO and BALTHASAR with a Torch, Mattock, &c. Rom. Give me that mattock, and the wrenching iron. But, chiefly, to take thence from her dead finger In dear employment: 3 therefore hence, be gone :- In what I further shall intend to do, By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint, And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs: More fierce, and more inexorable far, Than empty tigers, or the roaring sea. 2 Bal. I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you. muffle me, night, a while.] Thus, in Drayton's Polyolbion : "But suddenly the clouds which on the winds do fly, "Do muffle him againe Muffle was not become a low word even in the time of Milton, as the Elder Brother in Comus uses it: "Unmuffle ye faint stars" &c. A muffler, as I have already observed, was a part of female dress. See Vol. III, p. 125, n. 1. Steevens. 3 dear employment:] That is, action of importance. Gems were supposed to have great powers and virtues. Johnson. See Vol. IV, p. 366, n. 6. Ben Jonson uses the word dear in the same sense: "Put your known talents on so dear a business." Catiline, Act I. Steevens. savage-wild;] Here the speech concludes in the old copy. Steevens. |