Enter Nurfe. Nurfe. O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar, Where is my lady's lord, where's Romeo? Fri. There, on the ground, with his own tears made drunk. Nurfe. O, he is even in my mistress' cafe, Juft in her cafe! Fri. O woeful sympathy?! Piteous predicament! Narfe. Even fo lies fhe, Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering :-- Nurfe. Ah fir! ah fir!-death is the end of all. Nurfe. O, fhe fays nothing, fir, but weeps and weeps; And now falls on her bed; and then ftarts up, 90 woeful fympathy! Piteous predicament!] One may wonder the editors did not fee that this language muft neceffarily belong to the Friar. FARMER. Dr. Farmer's emendation may justly claim that place in the text to which I have now advanced it. STEEVENS. • Why Jhould you fall into fo deep an ob?] Hanmer reads: Why Should you full into fo deep an Rom. Ob nurfe! JOHNSON. -cancell'd love ] The folio reads conceal'd love. JOHNSON. The quarto, cancell`d`love. STEEVENS. Rom. Rom. As if that name, Shot from the deadly level of a gun, Did murder her; as that name's curfed hand Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I my fack 3 Art thou a man? thy form cries out, thou art? + Unfeeming woman, in a feeming man ! 3 Art thou a man? thy form cries out, thou art; Thy tears are womanish;] Shakspeare has here closely followed his original: "Art thou, quoth he, a man? thy fhape faith, fo thou art ; "So that I ftood in doubt this hour at the least "If thou a man or woman wert, or else a brutish beaft.” Tragicall Hyftory of Romeus aud Juliet, 1562. MALONE. 4 Unfeemly woman, &c.] This ftrange nonfenfe Mr. Pope threw out of his edition for defperate. But it is easily restored as Shakfpeare wrote it into good pertinent fenfe. Unfeemly woman in a feeming man! An ill-befeeming beaft in feeming groth. i. e. you have the ill-befceming paffions of a brute beast in the wellfeeming fhape of a rational creature. For having in the first line faid he was a woman in the fhape of a man, he aggravates the thought in the fecond, and fays, he was even a brute in the fhape of a rational creature. Seeming is ufed in both places for Jeemly. WARBURTON. The old reading is probable. Thou art a beast of ill qualities, under the appearance both of a woman and a man. JOHNSON. By doing damned hate upon thyfelf? Why rail'ft thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth? Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do meet In thee at once; which thou at once would'ft lofe. Fie, fic! thou fham'ft thy fhape, thy love, thy wit; Which like an ufurer, abound'st in all, And useft none in that true ufe indeed Thy dear love, fworn, but hollow perjury, And thou difmember'd with thine own defence. 5 Why railst thou on thy birth, the heaven and earth] Romeo has not here railed on his birth, &c though in his interview with the friar as deferibed in The Tragicall Hyflory of Romeus and Juliet, he is made to do fo: “First Nature did he blame the author of his life, ~ In which his joys had been fo fcant, and forrows aye "The time and place of birth he fiercely did reprove, Shakspeare copied the remonstrance of the friar, without review. ing the former part of his fcene. MALONE. Like powder in the fkill-lefs foldier's flaf, &c.] To understand the force of this allufion, it would be remembered that the ancient English foldiers, ufing match-locks, inftead of locks with flints as at prefent, were obliged to carry a lighted match hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden fajk in which they kept their powder. The fame allufion occurs in Humour's Ordinary, an old colicction of English epigrams: "When the his flak and touch-box fet on fire, "And ill this hour the burning is not out." STEEVENS. "And thou difmember'd with thine own defence.] And thou torn to pieces with thine own weapons. JOHNSON, For whofe dear fake thou waft but lately dead; Nurje. O Lord, I could have ftaid here all the night, To hear good counfel: O, what learning is !-- Rom. Do fo, and bid my fweet prepare to chide. Romeo is coming.] Much of this fpeech has likewife been added fince the first edition. STEEVENS. 9 Go bence. Good night, &c.] These three lines are omitted in all the modern editions. JOHNSON. -bere flands all your fate ;] The whole of your pends on this. JOHNSON. fortune de Either Either be gone before the watch be fet, It were a grief, fo brief to part with thee: Farewel. [Exeunt. Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, and Paris. Cap. Things have fallen out, fir, fo unluckily, That we have had no time to move our daughter: Look you, the lov'd her kinfman Tybalt dearly, And fo did I;-Well, we were born to die."Tis very late, fhe'll not come down to-night : I promife you, but for your company, I would have been a-bed an hour ago. Par. These times of woe afford no time to woo :—Madam, good night: commend me to your daughter. La. Cap. I will, and know her mind carly to morrow; To-night fhe's mew'd up 3 to her heaviness. Cap. Sir Paris, I will make a defperate tender 2 SCENE IV. Some few unneceffary verfes are omitted in this fcene according to the oldest editions. POPE. Thefe verfes are fuch as will by no means connect with the laft and most improved copy of the play. STEEVENS. 3 mew'd up.] This is a phrafe from falconry. A mero was a place of confinement for hawks. STEEVENS. 4 Sir Paris, I will make a defperate tender Of my child's love.] Defperate means only bold, advent'rous, as if he had faid in the vulgar phrafe, I will speak a bold words and venture to promife you my daughter. JOHNSON. So, in The Weakest goes to the Wall, 1618: "Witness this defperate tender of mine honour. STEEVENS. Of |