"Serv. To supper

In the old copies these words are made a part of Romeo's previous speech — a manifest error, which Warburton corrected.

and crush a cup of wine": crack a bottle.

whom thou so lov'st

So we now say,

It is worthy of remark that the 4to. of 1597 has, "so loues," and that the 4to. of 1599, printed from a different manuscript, has the same reading, which is also repeated in the folio. The undated 4to. has, "lovest."

then turn tears to fire":- Modern editors hitherto have silently read, "to fires," on account of the rhyme with liars.' But the 4tos. of 1597 and 1599, though printed from different manuscripts, both read, "to fire," [or "fier."] The mere difference of a final s seems not to have been regarded in rhyme in Shakespeare's day; and the reading 'fires' tends to impoverish a line not over-rich.

"Your lady's love" : — - It seems as if we should read, lady-love,' here; and this obvious change has been suggested by Mr. Dyce and Mr. Singer, and declared absolutely necessary by Mr. Sidney Walker. But the imperfect and surreptitious 4to. of 1597 has, "ladyes loue," and that of 1599 and the subsequent old copies, though printed from another manuscript, "ladies loue." Shakespeare, too, often as he had opportunity, never used lady-love,' if I may trust my memory, or even Mrs. Clarke's Concordance. And I more than doubt that the compound lady-love' is as old as the time of Shakespeare, although I believe the general opinion is quite to the contrary.

SCENE III.

The greater part of this Scene is printed as prose in all the old copies. Capell first saw that it was verse.

thou'se hear our counsel": — So all the old copies; the contraction being common in Shakespeare's time for Thou shalt,' which is the reading of nearly every modern edition, although it destroys the rhythm of the line, and is altogether indefensible.

"And yet to my teen":- i. e., to my sorrow.

"'Tis since the earthquake

As to the earthquake here probably referred to, see the Introduction.

66

and felt it bitter ": This is not a blunder on the part of the Nurse. The verbs expressive of the action

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p. 53.

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of the senses were not carefully distinguished in their application when Shakespeare wrote; and 'felt' was used with peculiar license. Shakespeare ridicules this license in several passages, and especially in Bottom's speech (Midsummer-Night's Dream, Act IV. Sc. 1) when he wakes after his enchantment.

and fall out wi' th' dug":- - The 4to. of 1597 has, "and fall out with dugge - a characteristic contraction, favorable to the rhythm, which I do not hesitate to adopt.

"For then she could stand alone So the folio and the 4to. of 1609; but the 4tos. of 1597 and 1599 for 'alone' have respectively "high lone" and "hylone an equivalent to alone' which I have met with several times in books from two to three hundred years old. The idiom is still in use in the phrase high time' for 'full time.'

"It is an honour that I dream not of": Both here and in the next speech all the old copies, except the 4to. of 1597, misprint, "an houre."

Why, he's a man of wax

i. e., as well made as if he were modelled in wax. So in Euphues and his England, "You make either your lover so holy that for faith he must be made all of truth, or so exquisite that for shape he must be framed in wax," 1597, Sig. X 3; and see, in Act III. Sc. 3 of this play, "Thy noble shape is but a form of wax. But the expression is not out of use in this country; and I have been so accustomed to hear my lad of wax' addressed as a phrase of jocular encouragement and approbation to a boy, that, had I not noticed the British editors' explanation of the phrase, I should not have thought that it needed one.

So the folio

"Examine every several lineament": and the 4to. of 1609. The 4to. of 1599, "every married lineament." This speech is not in the 4to. of 1597.

SCENE IV.

For an illustra

“The date is out of such prolixity tion of the custom the date of which was going out when Shakespeare wrote this play, see the entrance of the King and his companions as maskers, accompanied by Moth, to make a speech for them, Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. Sc. 2, p. 416.

like a crow keeper": - A living functionary for

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"

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whom the scare-crow of this country is a luxuriouslyclad substitute. He was armed with a bow and arrow.

[Nor no without-book prologue":- These two lines are found only in the 4to. of 1597. They seem to have been omitted purposely, but only oh account of their disparagement of the prologue speakers on the stage; and therefore they may properly be restored to the text. for our entrance": - Here 'entrance' is a tris

yllable.

and so bound": The folio has the slight misprint, "and to bound.”

doth quote deformities : i. e., observe them.

"I'll be a candle-holder": -'Candle-holder' used to be a common name for a person who merely looked on while another performed some labor. Its origin is obvious; and we have a relic of it in the phrase used to express the inferiority of one person to another can't hold a candle to him'-i. e., he is not worthy even to give him light as he works.

•he

"Tut! dun's the mouse":— Of this proverbial expression, which is of not uncommon occurrence in old books, no explanation worthy of notice has ever been offered. In the next line the reference is to a Christmas play called Dun is in the mire,' in which Dun was supposed to be the name of a horse. As to "the mire of this sirreverence Love," (" surreverence," 4to. of 1597; 4to. of 1597; “save you reverence, 4to. of 1599; and "save your reverence, folio of 1623,) see the Note on "without he say sir-reverence," Comedy of Errors, Act III. Sc. 2, p. 214.

like lamps by day":- -The folio misprints, lights, lights by day."

in our five wits The old copies, "fine [for fiue] wits," which trivial error — a mere turned letter was left to be corrected by Malone.

"She is the fairies' midwife": Warburton very plausibly and quite poetically read, "the fancy's midwife." But all the old copies concur in reading, "the fairies midwife," which is to be taken in the sense of the fairy midwife,' i. e., that fairy whose office it is, in the words of Steevens, "to deliver the fancies of sleeping men of their dreams," or, as Warton thought, "to steal the new-born babe in the night, and leave another in its place." And perhaps we should read, "the fairy midwife;" fairy' having been written fairie, and the s added by the continual carelessness or irregularity in

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that regard which is exemplified on almost every page of Elizabethan books. In the 4tos. of 1599 and 1609 and in the folio this speech is printed as prose.

no bigger than an agate stone," &c. : The 4to. of 1597 makes the comparison to an agate stone on the fore-finger "of a Burgomaster," by mistake, I do not doubt. But it appears to have been the fashion among civic dignitaries and wealthy citizens all over Europe to wear on the fore-finger or the thumb agate rings cut in cameo or intaglio. Oftenest in cameo it would seem, from the not unfrequent comparison of children and dwarfish men to 'agates,' meaning, of course, the figures cut upon the agate. It would be a matter of some interest in the history of art to inquire whether these gems were antiques, cinque-cento work, or the production of contemporary artists.

the lazy finger of a maid" : — So the 4to. of 1597. The other old copies, "of a man."

"O'er courtiers' knees": - - So, with obvious correctness, the 4to. of 1597, which has, "O're courtiers knees: who strait on cur'sies dreame." The other old editions, "On courtiers," &c. In the next line the folio misprints, "dreamt on fees."

o'er a courtier's nose : So the later 4tos. and the folio. The 4to. of 1597, "a lawyer's lap ;" and I am inclined to think that Shakespeare wrote, "a counsellor's nose; " but, although there is an awkward repetition in the old text, there is not sufficient ground for a conjectural change.

"And bakes the elf locks," &c.:Warburton was probably correct in his surmise that the superstition here referred to, which was common of old, had its rise from the horrid disease called the plica polonica, in which the hairs become injected with blood, and inextricably entan gled and matted together.

"Direct my sail" : So the 4to. of 1597. The other old copies, "my sute:

"Strike, drum":- The stage direction here in the later 4tos. and the folio is, "They march about the stage and seruing men come forth with napkins." The latter part of the direction manifestly refers to the next Scene, and shows that the audience were to imagine the scene changed on the instant from the street to the banquet-hall in

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"

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Capulet's house. The stage direction was manifestly intended for the prompter or stage manager only.

SCENE V.

"When good manners shall lie [all] in one or two men's hands : —- · All' is omitted in the folio only.

a piece of marchpane" :— Marchpane was a confection something between cake and candy, and made chiefly of almonds. It was probably much like our

macaroons.

will have a bout with you": So the 4to. of 1597. The 4to. of 1599, which is followed by the other old editions, has, "walk about with you."

:

- The

"Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night": first folio and all the 4tos. have, "It seemes she hangs,' &c. the reading of the text first appeared in the second folio, which is without authority, or has, at most, but a quasi authority. Why, then, deviate from the reading of the authentic folio and the 4tos. in which corruption is not indicated by obscurity? The great gain in poetic beauty by the reading of the second folio does not justify a deviation from the authoritative text, though it may tempt to it. But in this passage all the old copies come evidently from one source; and in this play, as in some others, the authority of the folio is impaired, although its authenticity as a whole cannot be impeached; while in the context there is ground for believing that the editor of the second folio - a contemporary of Shakespeare - restored the true reading. Steevens, who, with a few editors of the last century, followed the second folio, remarked that "the repetition of the word 'beauty' in the next line but confirms that reading. He might have put the case much more strongly; for in that line 'beauty' is a dependent word, and the clause which begins with it an entirely dependent clause. Unless beauty' occur in the first clause of the sentence as the apponent of 'beauty' in the second, the latter cannot be construed, I will not say according to grammatical rule and precedent, but so as to preserve that rational coherence of thought the necessity of which underlies all grammatical rules, and which Shakespeare in his freest style never violates. Therefore, having this contemporary change of a reading which, if undisturbed, would leave a unique and derogatory blemish upon Shakespeare's page, -a change, too, which seems not to add a grace, but to preserve one by the mere restoration of grammatical integrity to the passage, - I believe that the elder copies have in this case, as in

one