"I must hear from thee every day i' the hour, "For in a minute there are many days: "O! by this count.". The first quarto reads, more consecutively, "For in an hower there are manie minutes; "Minutes are dayes; so will I number them: "O! by this count," &c. 176. " Renown'd for faith?”— Mr. M. Mason's censure is unfounded. There is no breach of amorous fidelity in renouncing a passion for a woman who was inexorable to her lover's addresses; or if there were, Juliet did not know of it, and would naturally judge of Romeo's faith by her own. 177. heart." No man, like he, doth grieve my "He," for "him." The line is not in the first quarto. 179. In happy time."——— Upon these words, Dr. Johnson says, "This phrase was interjected, when the hearer was not quite so well pleased as the speaker;" an observation that I cannot understand, either in its application to Juliet and her mother, or to any other speaker and hearer. 180. "Now, by St. Peter's church, and Peter too." Juliet swears in tune with Petruchio: "Now, by my father's son, and that's myself." "He shall not make me there a joyful bride." After this line, we find, in the first quarto, "Are these the news you had to tell me of? Marry, here are news indeed not marrie yet; madam, I will "And when I do, it shall be rather Romeo, whom I hate, "Than countie Paris that I cannot loue." I would regulate, with only the addition of "I swear," which stands hypermetrically in the present text, as in the second quarto: "Are these the news you had to tell me of? "Marry, here are news indeed: madam, I swear "I will not marry yet; and when I do, "It shall be rather Romeo, whom I hate, "Than countie Paris that I cannot love." 181. “Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body (is)." This "is" unnecessary, and, besides the awkward redundance, spoils the construction. Capulet says his daughter resembles a bark, a sea, and a wind: thy eyes, says he, I may call the sea; the bark, thy body; and the wind, thy sighs. 183. We scarce thought us bless'd, "That God had sent us but this only child; "But now I see this one is one too much, "And that we have a curse in having her." Leonato, on the same subject, more pathetically repines, Griev'd I, I had but one? "Chid I for that, at frugal nature's frame? "I had one too much in thee. Why had I one? Why did I not, with charitable hand, "Take up some beggar's offspring at my door." Much Ado About Nothing. 183. Peace, you mumbling fool." A syllable is wanting for the measure; I suppose, Peace, you old mumbling fool." 184. "God's bread! it makes me mad: Day, night, late, early." I prefer what the first quarto exhibits to this singular exclamation : "God's blessed mother!". 187. "O, he's a lovely gentleman!" The first quarto gives a word, in this line of the nurse's speech, that would supply the deficient quantity: "O, he's a gallant lovely gentleman." ACT IV. SCENE I. 189. "And I am nothing slow, to slack his haste." This line, in the first copy, runs thus: "And I am nothing slack, to slow his haste." The expression is bad either way; but not worse in the first than in the latter instance, nor less reducible to meaning:-"The time," says the friar, "is short."-"My father," answers Paris, "will have it so, and I am not slack or remiss, so as to incline him to retard his speed." 190. And in his wisdom hastes our marriage." 194. 'Marriage," a trisyllable. 66 Or walk in thievish ways." Here again the first quarto appears to have been unskilfully altered-that proceeds thus: "Or chaine me to some steepie mountaine's top, "Where roaring beares and sauage lions are,* "Or shut me nightly in a charnell house, "With reekie shankes and yellow chapless skulls, "Or lay me in a tombe with one new dead; "Things that, to heare them namde, haue made me tremble; "And I will doe it without feare or doubt, "To keep myselfe a faithfull, unstain'd wife, Το my deare lord, my dearest Roméó.” 196. 66 Thy eyes' windows fall, "Like death, when he shuts up the day of life." "Shuts out" would seem a more natural expression; but "shuts up" is used elsewhere, for closes," "concludes," and seems to be a metaphor taken from a tradesman's shutting up his shop or pack. This is not in the first quarto. SCENE III. 204. "Nurse! what should she do here? My dismal scene I needs must act alone. Come, phial." 66 These two hemistics might easily have been incorporated. * "And yawninge denns where glaringe monsters house." MS. of Comus, L. 415, Duke of "Nurse! what should she do here? My dismal scene. "Alas! I needs must act alone. Come, phial." But these words are not in the first copy. ACT IV. SCENE I. 295. "My dreams presage some joyful news at hand." We are not to suppose that Romeo had a multitude of dreams; in the first quarto it is, My dreame presagde some good euent to come" It should, perhaps, be "My dream presageth joyful news to come." 226. " My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne." By bosom's lord," I am persuaded that nothing more is meant than heart. The early quarto reads, preferably, I think, in the first part of the line, 'My bosome lord sits chearfull in his throne." 229. "Is it even so? then I defy you, stars." I prefer the reading of the first quarto-then I defy my stars. i. e. I am prepared to meet my destiny. 232. And fear'st to die, "The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law; "The world affords no law to make thee rich; "Then be not poor, but break it.” |