of matured reading and reflection which are displayed in the augmented edition of 1599, as compared with that of 1597. There is also a scrap of internal evidence which, as proof of an earlier authorship than 1596, is well entitled to consideration. The Nurse, describing Juliet's being weaned, says,-" On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen; that shall she; marry, I remember it well. "Tis since the earthquake now eleven years." Tyrwhitt was the first to suggest the probable reference of this passage to an earthquake which occurred in 1580, and of which Holinshed has given a striking and minute account:-" On the sixt of Aprill (1580), being wednesdaie in Easter weeke about six of the clocke toward euening, a sudden earthquake happening in London, and almost generallie throughout all England, caused such an amazednesse among the people as was wonderfull for the time, and caused them to make their earnest praiers to almightie God. The great clocke bell in the palace at Westminster strake of it selfe against the hammer with the shaking of the earth, as diverse other clocks and bels in the steeples of the citie of London and elswhere did the like. The gentlemen of the Temple being then at supper, ran from the tables, and out of their hall with their kniues in their hands. The people assembled at the plaie houses in the fields, * * * * were so amazed that doubting the ruine of the galleries, they made hast to be gone. A peece of the temple church fell down, some stones fell from saint Paules church in London: and at Christs church neere to Newgate market, in the sermon while, a stone fell from the top of the same church." Such an event would form a memorable epoch to the class which constituted the staple of a playhouse auditory in the sixteenth century; and if an allusion to it was calculated to awaken interest and fix attention, the anachronism, or the impropriety of its association with an historical incident of some centuries preceding, would hardly have deterred any playwright of that age from turning it to account. On the theory that the Nurse's observation really applied to the earthquake of 1580, we may ascribe the date of this play's composition to the year 1591; and, unfortunately, in the absence of everything in the shape of a history of our poet's writings, we can trust only to inferences and conjectures of this description to make even an approximate guess as to the period of its production. SCENE, during the greater part of the Play, in VERONA; once, in the fifth Act, at MANtua. Two households, both alike in dignity, (In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,) From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows Doth, with their death, bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, a This prologue appeared in its present form, in the first complete edition of "Romeo and Juliet," the quarto of 1599: it is omitted in the folio. In the incomplete sketch of the play, published in 1597, it stands as under; "Two houshold frends alike in dignitie, (In faire Verona, where we lay our Scene) From forth the fatall loynes of these two foes, is-to stand: therefore, if thou art moved, thou run'st away. SAM. A dog of that house shall move me to stand: I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's. GRE. That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes to the wall. SAM. True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall:therefore I will push Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall. GRE. The quarrel is between our masters, and us their men. SAM. 'Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant: which probably originated, as Gifford suggests, in the fact that the meanest and most forlorn dependents of a great household were those employed in the servile drudgery of carrying coals. when I have fought with the men, I will be cruela with the maids; I will* cut off their heads. GRE. The heads of the maids? SAM. Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maiden-heads; take it in what sense thou wilt. GRE. They must take it int sense, that feel it. SAM. Me they shall feel, while I am able to stand: and, 'tis known, I am a pretty piece of flesh. GRE. 'Tis well, thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor John.b Draw thy tool; here comes of the house of the Montagues.(1) a I will be cruel with the maids;] The quarto of 1599, that of 1609, and the folio, 1623, which was printed from it, concur in reading civill. The correction appears in a quarto edition without date, published by John Smethwicke, "at his shop in Sainte Dunstanes Church, in Fleete Street. under the Dyall." Smethwicke also published the quarto, 1609; and the undated edition, which contains several important corrections of previous typographical errors, was probably issued soon after. b Poor John.] The fish called hake, an inferior sort of cod, when dried and salted, was probably the staple fare of servants and the indigent during Lent; and this sorry dish is perpetually ridiculed by the old writers as "poor John." e I will bite my thumb at them ;] This contemptuous action, though obsolete in this country, is still in use both in France and Italy; but Mr. Knight is mistaken in supposing it identical with what is called giving the fico. Biting the thumb is performed by biting the thumb nail; or, as Cotgrave describes it, "by putting the thumbe naile into the mouth, and with a jerke (from the upper teeth) make it to knacke." The more offensive gesticulation of giving the fico was by thrusting out the thumb between the fore-fingers, or putting it in the mouth so as to swell out the cheek. d Remember thy swashing blow.] To swash perhaps originally meant, as Barret in his Alvearie," 1580, describes it, "to make a noise with swords against tergats;" but swashing blow here, as in Jonson's "Staple of News," Act V. Sc. 2, "I do confess a swashing blow," means evidently a smashing, crushing blow. e Enter several Followers, &c.] A modern direction. The old copies have merely-"Enter three or four citizens with clubs or partysons." f Clubs, bills, and partizans !-] Shakespeare, whose wont it is to assimilate the customs of all countries to those of his own, puts the ancient call to arms of the London 'prentices in the mouth of the Veronese citizen. ACT I.] Enter PRINCE, with Attendants. PRIN. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, That quench the fire of your pernicious rage Speak, nephew, were you by, when it began? a That most are busied when they are most alone,-] This is the reading of the quarto, 1597. Subsequent editions, including the folio, 1623, read thus: "Which then most sought, where most might not be found; Being one too many by my weary self, Pursued my humour," &c. b Many a morning hath he there been seen,-] This, and the Right glad am I, he was not at this fray. sun Peer'd forth the golden window of the east, MON. Many a morning hath he there been seen," BEN. My noble uncle, do you know the cause? MON. I neither know it, nor can learn of him. BEN. Have you impórtun'd him by any means? MON. Both by myself, and many other friends: But he, his own affections' counsellor, Is to himself-I will not say, how trueBut to himself so secret and so close, So far from sounding and discovery, As is the bud bit with an envious worm, Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.o Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow, We would as willingly give cure, as know. |