H́nh ảnh trang
PDF
ePub

L. Cap. A crutch, a crutch!-Why call you for

a fword?

Cap. My fword, I fay!-old Montague is come, And flourishes his blade in spight of me.

Enter old Montague, and lady Montague.

Mon. Thou villain, Capulet, - Hold me not, let me go.

La Mon. Thou shalt not ftir one foot to feek a foe.

Enter Prince, with attendants.

Prin. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, Profaners of this neighbour-stained steel, Will they not hear?-what ho! you men, you

beafts,

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains issuing from your veins,
On pain of torture, from those bloody hands
Throw your mif-temper'd weapons to the ground,
And hear the fentence of your moved prince.
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice difturb'd the quict of our streets;
And made Verona's ancient citizens
Caft by their grave beseeming ornaments,
To wield old partizans, in hands as old,
Cankred with peace, to part your cankred hate
If ever you disturb our streets again,
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
For this time, all the rest depart away:
You, Capulet, shall go along with me;
And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
To know our further pleasure in this cafe,

9-mis-temper'd weapons, are re angry weapons.] So

[ocr errors]

in K.

Jobn

1 his inundation of mis-temper 'd humour, &c." STEEVENS.

To

To old Free-town, our common judgment-place. Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.

[Exeunt Prince, Capulet, &c. Mon, Who fet this ancient quarrel new abroach? Speak, nephew, were you by, when it began? Ben. Here were the servants of your adverfary, And yours, close fighting ere I did approach; I drew to part them; in the instant came The fiery Tybalt, with his fword prepar'd; Which, as he breath'd' defiance to my ears, He swung about his head, and cut the winds, Who, nothing hurt withal, hiss'd him in scorn: While we were interchanging thrusts and blows, Came more and more, and fought on part and part, 'Till the prince came, who parted either part.

La. Mon. O, where is Romeo! -saw you him to-day? Right glad I am, he was not at this fray.

Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd fun Peer'd forth the golden window of the east, A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad; Where-underneath the grove of fycamour, That westward rooteth from the city' fide So early walking did I see your fon: Towards him I made; but he was 'ware of me, And stole into the covert of the wood : Į, measuring his affections by my own,That most are bufied when they are most alone, Purfu'd

To old Freetown, our common judgment-place.] This name the poet found in The Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet, 1562. It is there faid to be the castle of the Capulets. MALONE.

Peer'd forth the golden window of the east.] The fame thought occurs in Spenser's Faery Queen, B. ii. C. 10. "Early before the morn with cremofin ray

"The windows of bright heaven opened had, "Through which into the world the dawning day "Might looke, &c." STEEVENS.

3 That most are bufied, &c.] Edition 1597. Instead of which it is in the other edition thus;

-by

Pursu'd my humour, not pursuing his,
3 And gladly shunn'd who gladly fled from me.

Mon. Many a morning hath he there been seen,
With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew,
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep fighs:
But all fo foon as the all-chearing fun
Should in the furthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
Away from light steals home my heavy fon,
And private in his chamber pens himself;
Shuts up his windows, locks fair day-light out,
And makes himself an artificial night:
Black and portentous must this humour prove,
Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

Ben. My noble uncle, do you know the cause ? Mon. I neither know it, nor can learn it of him. Ben. Have you importun'd him by any means 2 Mon. Both by myself, and many other friends: But he, his own affections' counsellor, Is to himself-I will not fay, how trueBut to himself fo fecret and fo close, So far from founding 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 fame,

by my own,

Could

Which then most sought, where most might not be found,
Being one too many by my weary self,

Pursu'd my humour, &c. POPE.

4 And gladly sbunn'd, &c.] The ten lines following, not in edition 1597, but in the next of 1599. POPE.

s Ben. Have you importun'd, &c.] These two speeches also omitted in edition 1597, but inferted in 1599. POPE.

6 Or dedicate his beauty to the fame.] When we come to confider, that there is some power else besides balmy air, that brings forth, and makes the tender buds spread themselves, I do not think it improbable that the poet wrote,

Or dedicate his beauty to the Sun. Or, according to the more obsolete spelling, Sunne; which brings it nearer to the traces of the corrupted text. THEOBALD.

I cannot

Could we but learn from whence his forrows grow, We would as willingly give cure, as know.

Enter Romeo, at a distance.

Ben. See, where he comes: So please you, stepafide;

I'll know his grievance, or be much deny'd.

Mon. I would, thou wert so happy by thy stay, To hear true shrift. -Come, madam, let's away.

Ben. Good morrow, coufin.

Rom. Is the day so young1?

Ben. But new struck nine.

Rom. Ay me! fad hours seem long.

[Exeunt.

Was that my father that went hence so fast?

Ben. It was:-What fadness lengthens Romeo's

hours ?

Rom. Not having that, which, having, makes

them short,

Ben. In love?

Rom. Out

Ben. Of love?

Rom. Out of her favour, where I am in love. Ben. Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof! Rom. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, Should, without eyes, fee path-ways to his will!

Where

I cannot but suspect that fome lines are loft, which connected this fimile more closely with the foregoing speech: these lines, if fuch there were, lamented the danger that Romeo will die of his melancholy, before his virtues or abilities were known to the world. JOHNSON.

1 suspect no lofs of connecting lines. The fame expreffion occurs in Timon, act iv. fc. 2:

"A dedicated beggar to the air." STEEVENS. 7 Is the day so young?] i. e. is it so early in the day? The fame expreffion (which might once have been popular) I meet with in Acolastus, a comedy, 1540: " It is yet young nyghte, or there is yet moche of the nyghte to come." STEEVENS.

-to bis will!] Sir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read, Where shall we dine? - me! - What fray was

here?

Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here's much to do with hate, but more with love:
Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!

O any thing, of nothing first created !
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!

Mif-fhapen chaos of well-feeming forms!

:

read, to his ill. The present reading has fome obscurity; the meaning may be, that love finds out means to pursue his defire. That the blind thould find paths to ill is no great wonder. JOHNSON.

I fee no obscurity in the text. It is not unusual for those who are blinded by love to overlook every difficulty that opposes their purfuit. NICHOLS.

The quarto 1597, reads

Should, without latus, give path-ways to our will!

This reading is the most intelligible. STEEVENS.

I

Why then, O brawling love, &c.] Every fonnetteer character.

ifes Love by contrarieties. Watson begins one of his canzonets:

"Love is a fowre delight, a fugred griefe,
"A living death, an ever-dying life, &c."

Turberville makes Reason harangue against it in the fame

manner:

"A fierie frost, a flame that frozen is with ise!

"A heavie burden light to beare! A vertue fraughte with
"vice! &c."

Immediately from the Romaunt of the Rofe:
"Loue it is an hatefull pees,
"A free aquitaunce without reles
"An heavie burthen light to beare,
"A wicked wawe aware to weare:
"And health full of maladie,
"And charitie full of envie-
"A laughter that in weeping aie,

"Rest that trauaileth night and daie, &c."

This kind of antithesis was very much the taste of the Provençal and Italian poets; perhaps it might be hinted by the ode of Sappho preserved by Longinus. Petrarch is full of it: " Pace non trovo, e non hó da far guerra, " E temo, e spero, e ardo, e son un ghiaccio, " E volo sopra'l ciel, e ghiaccio in terra,

" E nulla stringo, e tutto'l mondo abbraccio, &c." Son.105.

Sir Tho. Wyat gives a translation of this fonnet, without any notice of the original, under the title of, Description of the contrarious Passions in a Louer, amongst the Songes and Sonnettes, by the Earle of Surrey, and others, 1574. FARMER.

Feather

« TrướcTiếp tục »