NURSE. Madam, your mother craves a word with you. ROM. What is her mother? NURSE. Marry, bachelor, Her mother is the lady of the house, And a good lady, and a wise, and virtuous : ROM. at mine elbow) on the business of kissing, surely Calista's question might be addressed to our commentator" Is it become an art then? a trick that bookmen can teach us to do over?" I believe, no dissertation, or guide, to this interchange of fondness was ever penned, at least while Shakspeare was alive. All that Juliet means to say is--you kiss methodically; you offer as many reasons for kissing, as could have been found in a treatise professedly written on the subject. When Hamlet observes on the Grave-digger's equivocation-" we must speak by the card," can he be supposed to have had a literal meaning? Without reference to books, however, Juliet betrays little ignorance on the present occasion; but could have said (with Mortimer, in King Henry IV.)— "I understand thy kisses, and thou mine; the chinks.] Thus the old copies; for which Mr, Pope and the subsequent editors have substituted chink. MALONE. We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.] Towards is ready, at hand. So, in Hamlet: "What might be towards, that this sweaty haste 3 Is it e'en so? Why, then I thank you all; NURSE. The son and heir of old Tiberio. JUL. What's he, that now is going out of door? NURSE. Marry, that, I think, be young Petruchio. JUL. What's he, that follows there, that would not dance? NURSE. I know not. JUL. Go, ask his name :-if he be married, My grave is like to be my wedding bed. Again, in The Phoenix, by Middleton, 1607: "-here's a voyage towards, will make us all." STEEVENS. It appears, from the former part of this scene, that Capulet's company had supped. A banquet, it should be remembered, often meant, in old times, nothing more than a collation of fruit, wine, &c. So, in The Life of Lord Cromwell, 1602: "Their dinner is our banquet after dinner.” Again, in Howel's Chronicle of the Civil Wars, 1661, p. 662: "After dinner, he was served with a banquet." MALONE. It appears, from many circumstances, that our ancestors quitted their eating-rooms as soon as they had dined, and in warm weather retired to buildings constructed in their gardens. These were called banqueting-houses, and here their desert was served. STEEVENS. 3 honest gentlemen;] Here the quarto, 1597, adds: "I promise you, but for your company, * Come hither, nurse: What is yon gentleman?] This and the following questions are taken from the novel. STEEVENS. See the poem of Romeus and Juliet. MALONE NURSE. His name is Romeo, and a Montague; The only son of your great enemy. JUL. My only love sprung from my only hate! NURSE. What's this? what's this? Of one I danc'd withal. NURSE. A rhyme I learn'd even now [One calls within, JULIET. Anon, anon: Come, let's away; the strangers all are gone. Enter CHORUS.5 Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie, 6 [Exeunt. And young affection gapes to be his heir; That fair, which love groan'd for, and would die," With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair. CHORUS.] This Chorus added since the first edition. POPE, The use of this Chorus is not easily discovered; it conduces nothing to the progress of the play, but relates what is already known, or what the next scene will show; and relates it without adding the improvement of any moral sentiment. JOHNSON. • That fair,] Fair, it has been already observed, was formerly used as a substantive, and was synonymous to beauty. See Vol. VIII. p. 88, n. 9. MALONE. 7 That fair, which love groan'd for, and would die,] The instances produced in a subsequent note, by Mr. Malone, to justify the old and corrupt reading, are not drawn from the quartos, which he judiciously commends, but from the folio, which with equal judgment he has censured. These irregularities, therefore, standing on no surer ground than that of copies published by ignorant players, and printed by careless compositors, I utterly refuse to admit their accumulated jargon as the grammar of Shakspeare, or of the age he lived in. Now Romeo is belov'd, and loves again, Alike bewitched by the charm of looks; But to his foe suppos'd he must complain, And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks: Being held a foe, he may not have access To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear; And she as much in love, her means much less To meet her new-beloved any where: But passion lends them power, time means to meet, Temp'ring extremities with extreme sweet. [Exit. Fair, in the present instance, was used as a dissyllable. Sometimes, our author, as here, uses the same word as a dissyllable and a monosyllable, in the very same line. Thus, in The Tempest, Act I. sc. ii: "Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve years since." STEEVENS. for which love groan'd for,] Thus the ancient copies, for which all the modern editors, adopting Mr. Rowe's alteration, read-groan'd sore. This is one of the many changes that have been made in the text from not attending to ancient phraseology; for this kind of duplication was common in Shakspeare's time. So, in Coriolanus: "In what enormity is Marcius poor in, that you two have not in abundance?" Vol. XVI. p. 64, n. 9. Again, in As you like it, Act II. sc. vii: the scene wherein we play in." MALONE. 66 - See ACT II. SCENE I. An open Place, adjoining Capulet's Garden. Enter ROMEO. ROM. Can I go forward, when my heart is here? Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out. [He climbs the Wall, and leaps down within it. Enter BENVOLIO, and MERCUTIO. BEN. Romeo! my cousin Romeo! MER. He is wise; And, on my life, hath stolen him home to bed. BEN. He ran this way, and leap'd this orchard wall: Call, good Mercutio. MER. Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied; 8 8 Cry but-Ah me! couple but-love and dove;] The quarto, 1597, reads pronounce; the two succeeding quartos and the first folio, provaunt; the 2d, 3d, and 4th folios, couply; and Mr. Rowe, who printed from the last of these, formed the present reading. Provant, however, in ancient language, signifies provision. So, in "The Court and Kitchen of Elizabeth, called Joan Cromwell, the Wife of the late Usurper, truly described and represented," 1664, p. 14: " carrying some dainty provant for her own and her daughter's repast." To provant is to provide; and to provide is to furnish. "Provant but love and dove," may therefore mean, furnish but such hackneyed rhymes as these are, the trite effusions of lovers. STEEVENS. |