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Now cre the fun advance his burning eye,
The day to chear, and night's dank dew to dry,
I must up-fill this ofier cage of ours 3

With baleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers.
The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb;
What is her burying grave, that is her womb :
And from her womb children of divers kind.
We fucking on her natural bofom find;
Many for many virtues excellent,

None but for fome, and yet all different.
O, mickle is the powerful grace, that lies
In plants, herbs, ftones, and their true qualities:
For nought fo vile that on the earth doth live ';
But to the earth fome fpecial good doth give;

variegated. In this fenfe it is ufed by Churchyard, in his Le gend of Tho. Mowbray Duke of Norfolk. Mowbray, fpeaking of the Germans, fays:

"All jagg'd and frounc'd, with divers colours deck'd, "They fwear, they curfe, and drink till they be fleck'd." Lord Surrey ufes the fame word in his tranflation of the 4th Eneid:

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"Her quivering cheekes flecked with deadly ftaine." The fame image occurs in Much ado about Nothing, act v. fc. iii: "Dapples the drowsy eat with fpots of grey.' STEEVENS 3 I muft up fill this ozier cage of ours, &c.] So, in the 13th fong of Drayton's Polyolbion :

"His happy time he spends the works of God to fee,
"In thofe fo fundry herbs which there in plenty grow,
"Whofe fundry ftrange effects he only feeks to know.

And in a little maund, being made of oziers small,
"Which ferveth him to do full many a thing withal,
"He very choicely forts his fimples got abroad."
Drayton is fpeaking of a hermit. STEEVENS.
4 The earth, that's Nature's mother, is her tomb ;]
"Omniparens, eadem rcrum commune fepulchrum."

Lucretius.

"The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave." Milton. STEEVENS.

$ -powerful grace,] Efficacious virtue. JOHNSON. 6 For nought fo vile that on the earth doth live.] The quarto, 1597, reads:

For nought fo vile that vile on earth doth live. STERVENS.

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part;

Nor ought fo good, but, ftrain'd from that fair ufe,
Revolts from true birth, ftumbling on abufe:
Virtue itself turns vice, being mifapplied;
And vice fometimes by action dignity'd.
Within the infant rind of this fmall flower
Poifon hath refidence, and med'cine power:
For this, being finelt, with that part chears each
Being tafted, flays all fenfes with the heart.
7 Two fuch oppofed foes encamp them ftill
In man as well as herbs, grace, and rude will;
And where the worfer is predominant,
Full foon the canker death eats up that plant.
Enter Romeo.

Rom. Good morrow, father!
Fri. Benedicite!

What early tongue fo fweet faluteth me?-
Young fon, it argues a diftemper'd head,
So foon to bid good morrow to thy bed:
Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
And where care lodges, flecp will never lie;
* But where unbruifed youth with unftuft brain
Doth couch his limbs, there golden fleep doth reign:
Therefore thy earlinefs doth me affure,
Thou art up-rouz'd by fome diftemp'rature;
Or if not fo, then here I hit it right-
Our Romeo hath not been in bed to-night.

Rom. That laft is true, the fweeter reft was mine.
Fri. God pardon fin! waft thou with Rosaline?

7 Two fuch oppofed FOES] Foes is the reading of the oldeft copy; kings of that in 1609. Shakspeare might have remembered the following paffage in the old play of Misfortunes of King Arthur, 1587:

"Peace hath three foes encamped in our breafts,
"Ambition, wrath, and envie.-

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STEEVENS.

with unfluft brain, &c.] The copy, 1597, reads:

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- with unftuff'd brain

Doth couch his limmes, there golden fleep remaines."

STEEVENS.

Rom

Rom. With Rofaline, my ghoftly father? no;
I have forgot that name, and that name's woe.
Fri. That's my good fon: But where haft thou
been then?

Rom. I'll tell thee, ere thou afk it me again.
I have been feafting with mine enemy;
Where, on a fudden, one hath wounded me,
That's by me wounded; both our remedies.
Within thy help and holy phyfick lies:
I bear no hatred, bleffed man; for, lo,
My interceffion likewife fteads my foe.

Fri. Be plain, good fon, and homely in thy drift;
Riddling confeffion finds but riddling fhrift.
Rom. Then plainly know, my heart's dear love is
fet

On the fair daughter of rich Capulet:

As mine on hers, fo hers is fet on mine;
And all combin'd, fave what thou must combine
By holy marriage: When, and where, and how,
We met, we woo'd, and made exchange of vow,
I'll tell thee as we pafs; but this I pray,
That thou confent to marry us this day.

Fri. Holy faint Francis! what a change is here!
Is Rofaline, whom thou didst love fo dear,
So foon forfaken? young men's love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
Holy faint Francis! what a deal of brine
Hath wath'd thy fallow cheeks for Rosaline!
How much falt water thrown away in wafte,
To feafon love, that of it doth not tafte!
The fun not yet thy fighs from heaven clears,
Thy old groans ring yet in my ancient ears;
Lo, here upon thy cheek the ftain doth fit
Of an old tear, that is not wafh'd off yet:
If e'er thou waft thy felf, and thefe woes thine,
Thou and thefe woes were all for Rofaline;

& Holy Saint Francis!] Old copy, Jefu Maria! STEEVENS,

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And art thou chang'd? pronounce this fentence thenWomen may fall, when there's no ftrength in men. Rom. Thou chidd'it me oft for loving Rofaline. Fri. For doating, not for loving, pupil mine, Rom. And bad'ft me bury love.

Fri. Not in a grave,

To lay one in, another out to have.

Rom. I pray thee, chide not: fhe, whom I love

now,

Doth grace for grace, and love for love allow;
The other did not fo.

Fri. O, fhe knew well,

Thy love did read by rote, and could not spell.
But come, young waverer, come go with me,
In one refpect I'll thy affiftant be;

For this alliance may fo happy prove,

To turn your houfholds' rancour to pure love". Rom. O, let us hence; I ftand on fudden hafte, Fri, Wifely, and flow; They ftumble, that run fast, [Exeunt.

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Enter Benvolio, and Mercutio.

Mer. Where the devil fhould this Romeo be ?Came he not home to-night?

Ben, Not to his father's; I fpoke with his man.
Mer. Why, that fame pale hard-hearted wench,
that Rofaline,

Torments him fo, that he will fure run mad.
Ben. Tybalt, the kinfman of old Capulet,
Hath fent a letter to his father's houfe,
Mer, A challenge, on my life.

The two following lines were added fince the first play, STEEVENS.

Copy

of this

Ben.

Ben. Romeo will anfwer it.

Mer. Any man, that can write, may answer a letter.

Ben. Nay, he will anfwer the letter's mafter, how he dares, being dar'd.

Mer. Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead! stabb'd with a white wench's black eye, fhot thorough the ear with a love-fong; 'the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's but-fhaft; And is he a man to encounter Tybalt?

Ben. Why, what is Tybalt?

2

3

Mer. More than prince of cats, I can tell you. O, he is the courageous captain of compliments : he fights as you fing prick-fong, keeps time, diftance+,

The very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's but haft;] The allufion is to archery. The clout or white mark at which the arrows was directed, was faftened by a black pin placed in the center of it. To hit this was the highest ambition of every markfinan. So, in No Wit like a Woman's, a comedy, by Middleton, 1657:

"They have fhot two arrows without heads,

"They cannot flick i' the but yet: hold out knight,
"And I'll cleave the black pin i' the midst of the white."

Again, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 1591:

"For kings are clouts that every man fhoots at,

"Our crown the pin that thousands feek to cleave."

MALONE

WARBURTON.

2 More than prince of cats,-] Tybert, the name given to the Cat, in the story-book of Reynard the Fox. So, in Decker's Satiromaffix:

"-tho' you were Tybert, the long-tail'd prince of Rats.” Again, in Have with you to Saffron Walden, &c. 1598:

"—not Tibault prince of Cats, &c." STEEVENS. 3-courageous captain of compliments:] A complete mafter of all the laws of ceremony, the principal man in the doctrine of punctilio.

"A man of compliments, whom right and wrong

"Have chofe as umpire;"

fays our author of Don Armado, the Spaniard, in Love's Labour's Lof. JOHNSON.

4 keeps time, difiance, and proportion.] So Fonfon's Bobadil: "Note your distance, keep your due proportion of time."

STEEVENS.

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