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When well-apparel'd April on the heel
Of limping winter treads, even such delight
Among fresh female buds shall you this night
Inherit at my house; hear all, all fee,
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.
Come,

The author of THE REMARKS observes, that young men " are perpetually used for yeomen in old writings. See particularly the Legends of Robin Hood and Adam Bell. So in a subsequent scene of this very play, yew trees are in the old editions called yong trees." EDITOR.

The following passage from Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rofe, will support the present reading, and shew the propriery of Shakspeare's comparifon: for to tell Paris that he should feel the fame fort of pleasure in an affembly of beauties, which young folk feel in that season when they are most gay and amorous, was furely as much as the old man ought to fay:

"That it was May, thus dremid me,
"In time of love and jolite,

"That al thing ginnith waxin gay, &c.-
"Then yonge folke entendin aye,
" For to ben gaie and amorous,

"The time is then so savorous."

Romaunt of the Rofe, v. 51, &c."
STEEVENS.

Our author's 98th Sonnet may also serve to confirm the reading of the text:

" From you have I been absent in the spring,
"When proud-pied April dress'd in all his trim,
"Hath put a fpirit of youth in ev'ry thing."

Again, in Tancred and Gifmund, a tragedy, 1592:
"Tell me not of the date of Nature's days,
" Then in the April of her springing age

MALONE.

Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one, May stand in number, though in reckoning none.] The first of these lines I do not understand. The old folio gives no help; the passage is there, Which one more view. I can offer nothing better than this:

Within your viery of many, mine, being one,
May stand in number, &c. JOHNSON.

A very flight alteration will restore the clearest sense to this

paffage. Shakspeare might have written the lines thus:

Search

Come, go with me:-Go, firrah, trudge about Through fair Verona; find those persons out, Whose names are written there; 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 tailor with his last, the fisher

Search among view of many: mine, being one,
May stand in number, though in reckoning none.

i. e. Amongst the many you will view there, fearch for one that will please you. Chufe out of the multitude. This agrees exactly with what he had already faid to him :

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--Hear all, all fee,

"And like her most, whose merit most shall be." My daughter (he proceeds) will, it is true, be one of the number, but ber beauty can be of no reckoning (i. e. estimation) among those whom you will fee bere. Reckoning for estimation, is used before in this very scene :

"Of honourable reckoning you are both." STEEVENS. The reading of the text, on which Mr. Steevens has founded a very probable conjecture, is that of the first quarto. And his interpretation is fully fupported by a passage in Meafure for Meafure:

66

-our compell'd fins

"Stand more for number than accompt" i. e. estimation. There is also, I believe, an allusion to an old proverbial expreffion, that " one is no number." So, in Decker's Honest Whore, Part II:

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to fall to one,

is to fall to none,

" For one no number is." MALONE.

• Find them out, whose names are written bere?] The quarto, 1597, adds: "And yet I know not who are written here: I must to the learned to learn of them; that's as much as to say, the tailor, &c." STEEVENS.

-find those perfons out,

Whose names are written there.] Shakspeare has here closely

followed the poem already mentioned:

"No lady fair or foul was in Verona town,

"No knight or gentleman of high or low renown,

"But Capilet himself hath bid unto his feast,

"Or by his name, in paper fent, appointed as a guest."

C4

MALONE.

with

1

with his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but
I am fent 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 plantain leaf is excellent for that.

Ben. For what, I pray thee?

Rom. For your broken shin.

2 Tut man! one fire burns out another's burning
Take thou some new infection to thy eye,

And the rank poison of the old will die.) Thus, in the fame

poem:

" Ere long the townish dames together will resort;
"Some one of beauty, favour, shape, and of so lovely

port,

"With fo fast fixed eye perhaps thou may'st behold,
" That thou shalt quite forget thy love and paffions past
of old.

"As out of a plank a nail a nail doth drive,
"So novel love out of the mind the ancient love doth

rive." MALONE.

* Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.) Tackius tells us, that a toad, before the engages with a spider, will fortity herself with some of this plant; and that, if the comes off wounded, the cures herself afterwards with it. Dr. GREY.

The fame thought occurs in Albumazar, in the following lines: "Help, Armellina, help! I'm fall'n i' the cellar : " Bring a fresh plantain leaf, I've broke my shin." Again, in The Cafe is Alter'd, by Ben Jonson, 1609, a fellow who has had his head broke, says: "'Tis nothing, a fillip, a device : fellow Juniper, prithee get me a plantain."

The plantain leaf is a blood-stauncher, and was formerly ap

plied to green wounds. STEEVENS.

Ben.

1

Ben. Why, Romeo, art thou mad?

Rom. Not mad, but bound more than a mad-manis;
Shut up in prifon, kept without my food,
Whipt, and tormented, and-Good-e'en, good fellow.
Serv. God gi' good e'en. -I pray, fir, can you read?
Rom. Ay, mine own for une in my mifery.
Serv. Perhaps you have learn'd it without book:

But I pray, can you read any thing you fee?
Rom. Ay, if I know the letters, and the language.
Serv. You say honestly; Rest you merry!
Rom. Stay, fellow; I can read.

[He reads the lift.)

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

A fair assembly; Whither should they come?
Serv. Up.

Rom. Whither? to supper +?

Serv. To our house.
Rom. Whose house?.

Serv. My mafter's.

Rom. Indeed, I should have ask'd 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. Rest you merry.

Ben.

4-to Supper?] Surely these words, to fupper, must belong to the servant's answer in the next speech :

To fupper, to our house. STEEVENS.

s-crush a cup of wire.] This cant expression seems to have" been once common among low people. I have met with it often in the old plays. So in the Tawo Angry Women of Abington, 1599: Fill the pot, hostess. &c. and we'll crush it."

Ben. At this fame ancient feast of Capulet's Sups the fair Rofaline, 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 eyeMaintains such falfhood, 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-feeing fun Ne'er saw her match, fince first the world begun.

Ben. Tut! tut! you saw her fair, none elfe being by,

Herself pois'd with herself in either eye:
But in those crystal scales, let there be weigh'd
Your lady's love against some other maid

That I will shew you, shining at this feast,

And she shall scant shew well, that now shews best,

[Exeunt.

Rom. I'll go along, no fuch fight to be shewn,

But to rejoice in splendor of mine own.

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A room in Capulet's house.

Enter lady Capulet, and Nurse.

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

Again, in Hoffman's Tragedy, 1631:

"-we'll crush a cup of thine own country wine." Again, in the Pinder of Wakefield, 1599, the Cobler says: "Come, George, we'll crush a pot before we part." We still fay, in cant language-to crack a bottle. STEEVENS. 6-let there be weigh'd

Your lady's love against fome other maid] But the comparifon was not betwixt the love that Romeo's mistress paid him, and the person of any other young woman; but betwixt Romeo's mistress herself, and fome other that should be matched against her. The poet therefore must certainly have wrote:

Your lady-love against some other maid. WARBURTON. Your lady's love is the love you bear to your lady, which in out language is commonly used for the lady herself. REVISAL.

Nurfe

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