She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes,
Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold:
O, she is rich in beauty; only poor,

That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store."

Ben. Then she hath sworn, that she will still live chaste? Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste; For beauty, starv'd with her severity,

Cuts beauty off from all posterity.

She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair,
To merit bliss by making me despair:
She hath forsworn to love; and, in that vow,
Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.

Ben. Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her.
Rom. O, teach me how I should forget to think.
Ben. By giving liberty unto thine eyes;
Examine other beauties.

Rom.

"Tis the way

To call hers, exquisite, in question more:

These happy masks,' that kiss fair ladies' brows,
Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair;
He, that is strucken blind, cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost:
Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
What doth her beauty serve,' but as a note
Where I may read, who pass'd that passing fair?
Farewell; thou canst not teach me to forget.

Ben. I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt. [Exeunt.

pliment to her majesty, who was not liable to be displeased at hearing her chastity praised after she was suspected to have lost it, or her beauty commended in the sixty-seventh year of her age, though she never possessed any when she was young. Her declaration that she would continue unmarried, increases the probability of the present supposition.-Steevens.

P with beauty dies her store.] She is rich in beauty; and poor in this circumstance alone, that with her, beauty will expire; she will leave the world no copy.-MALONE.

1 wisely too fair, &c.] There is in her too much sanctimonious wisdom united with beauty, which induces her to continue chaste with the hopes of attaining heavenly bliss.-MALONE.

To call hers, exquisite, in question more:] More into talk; to make her unparalleled beauty more the subject of thought and conversation.-MALONE. • These happy masks,]-means no more than the happy masks, according to a form o. expression not unusual with the old writers.-MALONE and TYRWHITT.

What doth her beauty serve,] i.e. What end does it answer?-STEEVENS.

SCENE II.

A Street.

Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant.

Cap. And Montague is bound as well as I,
In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think,
For men so old as we to keep the peace.

Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both;
And pity 'tis, you liv'd at odds so long.
But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?

Cap. But saying o'er what I have said before:
My child is yet a stranger in the world,

She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;
Let two more summers wither in their pride,
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

Par. Younger than she are happy mothers made.
Cap. And too soon marr'd are those so early made.
The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she,
She is the hopeful lady of my earth :"
But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;
An she agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice.
This night I hold an old accustom'd feast,
Whereto I have invited many a guest,
Such as I love; and you, among the store,
One more, most welcome, makes my number more.
At my poor house, look to behold this night
Earth-treading stars, that make dark heaven light:
Such comfort, as do lusty young men' feel
When well apparell'd April on the heel
Of limping winter treads, even such delight
Among fresh female buds shall you this night

■ She is the hopeful lady of my earth:] This is a Gallicism: Fille de terre is the French phrase for an heiress.-STEEVENS.

* My will to her consent is but a part;] To, in this instance, signifies in comparison with, in proportion to.-STEEVENS.

Y young men]-are certainly yeomen. It is not a little singular that in a subsequent act of this play the old copies should, in two places, read “young trees" and "young tree" instead of yew trees and yew tree.-RITSON.

Inherit at my house; hear all, all see,

And like her most, whose merit most shall be:
Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one,
May stand in number, though in reckoning none.1
Come, go with me;-Go, sirrah, trudge about
Through fair Verona; find those persons out,

Whose names are written there, [gives a Paper.] and to

them say,

My house and welcome on their pleasure stay.

[Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS.

Serv. Find them out, whose names are written here? It is written-that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the taylor with his last, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am sent to find those persons, whose names are here writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned:-In good time.

Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO.

Ben. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning, One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish;

Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;

One desperate grief cures with another's languish :

Take thou some new infection to thy eye,

And the rank poison of the old will die.

Rom. Your plaintain leaf is excellent for that."
Ben. For what, I pray thee?

Rom.

For your broken shin. Ben. Why, Romeo, art thou mad?

Rom. Not mad, but bound more than a madman is : Shut up in prison, kept without my food,

Whipp'd and tormented, and-Good-e'en, good fellow.

Serv. God gi' good e'en.-I pray, sir, can you read?

z Inherit―] i. e. Possess, the common use of the word in the language of Shakspeare's age.

a Such, amongst view of many, &c.] This passage is not intelligible as it stands. The old folio reads, "Which one more view of many,"--and this leads us to the right reading, which I should suppose to have been this:

"Whilst on more view of many," &c.

With this alteration the sense is clear, and the deviation from the folio very trifling.-M. MASON.

b Your plaintain leaf is excellent for that.] The plantain leaf is a bloodstauncher, and was formerly applied to green wounds.-STEEVENS.

Rom. Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.
Serv. Perhaps you have learn'd it without book:
But I pray, can you read any thing you see?
Rom. Ay, if I know the letters, and the language.
Serv. Ye say honestly; Rest you merry!
Rom. Stay, fellow: I can read.

[Reads.

Signior Martino, and his wife, and daughters; County Anselme, and his beauteous sisters; The lady widow of Vitruvio; Signior Placentio, and his lovely nieces; Mercutio, and his brother Valentine; Mine uncle Capulet, his wife, and daughters; My fair niece Rosaline; Livia; Signior Valentio, and his cousin Tybalt; Lucio, and the lively Helena.

A fair assembly; [gives back the Note.] Whither should they come?

Serv. Up.

Rom. Whither?

Serv. To supper; to our house.

Rom. Whose house?

Serv. My master's.

Rom. Indeed, I should have asked you that before. Serv. Now I'll tell you without asking: My master is the great rich Capulet; and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine.c

Rest you merry.

[Exit.

Ben. At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
Sups the fair Rosaline, whom thou so lov'st;
With all the admired beauties of Verona :
Go thither; and, with unattainted eye,
Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.
Rom. When the devout religion of mine eye
Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires!
And these, who, often drown'd, could never die,-
Transparent hereticks, be burnt for liars!

One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun

Ne'er saw her match, since first the world begun.

-crush a cup of wine.] This cant expression seems to have been once common among low people. We still say, in cant language to crack a bottle. -STEEVENS.

Ben. Tut! you saw her fair, none else being by,
Herself pois'd with herself in either eye:

But in those crystal scales, let there be weigh'd
Your lady's loved against some other maid

That I will show you, shining at this feast,

And she shall scant show well, that now shows best.
Rom. I'll go along, no such sight to be shown,
But to rejoice in splendour of mine own.

SCENE III.

A Room in Capulet's House.

Enter Lady CAPULET and Nurse.

[Exeunt.

La. Cap. Nurse, where's my daughter? call her forth

to me.

Nurse. Now, by my maiden-head,-at twelve year old,I bade her come.-What, lamb! what, lady-bird!God forbid!-where's this girl?-what, Juliet!

Jul. How now, who calls?

Nurse.

Jul.

What is your will?

Enter JULIET.

Your mother.

Madam, I am here.

La. Cap. This is the matter:-Nurse, give leave awhile, We must talk in secret.-Nurse, come back again; I have remember'd me, thou shalt hear our counsel. Thou know'st, my daughter's of a pretty age. Nurse. 'Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour. La. Cap. She's not fourteen.

Nurse.

I'H lay fourteen of my teeth,

And yet, to my teen be it spoken, I have but four,—
She is not fourteen.-How long is it now

To Lammas-tide?

La. Cap.

A fortnight, and odd days

Nurse. Even or odd, of all days in the year,

Come Lammas-eve at night, shall she be fourteen.

Your lady's love-] Your lady's love is the love you bear to your lady, which in our language is commonly used for the lady herself,-HEATH.

teen-] i. e. Sorrow.