But not possess'd it; and, though I am sold, To an impatient child, that hath new robes, Enter Nurse, with Cords. And she brings news; and every tongue, that speaks But Romeo's name, speaks heavenly eloquence.Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there, the cords, That Romeo bade thee fetch? NURSE. Ay, ay, the cords. [Throws them down. JUL. Ah me! what news? why dost thou wring thy hands? NURSE. Ah well-a-day! he's dead, he's dead, he's dead! We are undone, lady, we are undone ! Alack the day!-he's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead! JUL. Can heaven be so envious? NURSE. Romeo can, Though heaven cannot :-O Romeo! Romeo!Who ever would have thought it?-Romeo! JUL. What devil art thou, that dost torment me thus? This torture should be roar'd in dismal hell. 66 the strong base and building of my love "Is as the very center to the earth, "Drawing all things to it." MALONE. •say thou but I,] In Shakspeare's time (as Theobald has observed) the affirmative particle ay was usually written I, and here it is necessary to retain the old spelling. MALOne. And that bare vowel I shall poison more Or those eyes shut, that make thee answer, I. Brief sounds determine of my weal, or woe. NURSE. I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes, God save the mark !2-here on his manly breast: death-darting eye of cockatrice:] See Vol. XIII. p. 281, p. 1, and p. 298, n. 2. MALOne. The strange lines that follow here in the common books, are not in the old edition. POPE. The strange lines are these: "I am not I, if there be such an I, "Or these eyes shot, that make thee answer I. "Brief sounds determine of my weal or woe." These lines hardly deserve emendation; yet it may be proper to observe, that their meanness has not placed them below the malice of fortune, the first two of them being evidently transposed; we should read: 66 that bare vowel I shall poison more, I think the transposition recommended may be spared. The second line is corrupted. Read shut instead of shot, and then the meaning will be sufficiently intelligible. Shot, however, may be the same as shut. So, in Chaucer's Miller's Tale, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. ver. 3358: "And dressed him up by a shot window." STEEVENS. God save the mark!] This proverbial exclamation occurs again, with equal obscurity, in Othello, Act I. sc. i. See note on that passage. STEEVENS. JUL. O break, my heart!-poor bankrupt, break at once! To prison, eyes! ne'er look on liberty! Vile earth, to earth resign; end motion here; JUL. What storm is this, that blows so contrary? · NURSE. Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished; Romeo, that kill'd him, he is banished. JUL. O God!—did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood? NURSE. It did, it did; alas the day! it did, JUL. O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!* My dear-lov'd cousin, and my dearer lord?] The quarto, 1599, and the folio, read My dearest cousin, and my dearer lord? Mr. Pope introduced the present reading from the original copy of 1597. MALONE. O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!] The same images occur in Macbeth: 66 - look like the innocent flower, "But be the serpent under it." HENLEY. O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?] So, in King John: "Rash, inconsiderate, fiery voluntaries, "With ladies' faces and fierce dragons' spleens." Again, in King Henry VIII: "You have angels' faces, but heaven knows your hearts." The line, Did ever dragon, &c. and the following eight lines, are not in the quarto, 1597. MALONE. Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Dove-feather'd raven !5 wolvish-ravening lamb! Just opposite to what thou justly seem❜st, NURSE. 5 Dove-feather'd raven! &c.] In old editions Ravenous dove, feather'd raven, &c. The four following lines not in the first edition, as well as some others which I have omitted. POPE. Ravenous dove, feather'd raven, Wolvish-ravening lamb!] This passage Mr. Pope has thrown out of the text, because these two noble hemistichs are inharmonious but is there no such thing as a crutch for a labouring, halting verse? I'll venture to restore to the poet a line that is in his own mode of thinking, and truly worthy of him. Ravenous was blunderingly coined out of raven and ravening; and if we only throw it out, we gain at once an harmonious verse, and a proper contrast of epithets and images: Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-rav'ning lamb! The quarto, 1599, and folio, read THEOBALD. Ravenous dove-feather'd raven, wolvish-ravening lamb. The word ravenous, which was written probably in the manuscript by mistake in the latter part of the line, for ravening, and then struck out, crept from thence to the place where it appears. It was properly rejected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. "A damned saint,] The quarto, 1599, for damned, has dimme; the first folio-dimne. The reading of the text is found in the undated quarto. MALOne. Ah, where's my man? give me some aqua vitæ:These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old. Shame come to Romeo! JUL. Blister'd be thy tongue, For such a wish! he was not born to shame : O, what a beast was I to chide at him! NURSE. Will you speak well of him that kill'd your cousin? JUL. Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband? Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name," 1 When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?' 7 These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old.] So, in our author's Lover's Complaint: 8 "Not age, but sorrow, over me hath power." Upon his brow shame is asham'd to sit;] MALONE. So, in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, Tom. II. p. 223: "Is it possible that under such beautie and rare comelinesse, disloyaltie and treason may have their siedge and lodging?" The image of shame sitting on the brow, is not in the poem. STEEVENS. 9 what tongue shall smooth thy name,] To smooth, in ancient language, is to stroke, to caress, to fondle. So, in Pericles, Act I. sc. ii: "Seem'd not to strike, but smooth.' STEEVENS. 1 Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name, When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?] So, in the poem already quoted: "Ah cruel murd'ring tongue, murderer of others' fame, his name? "Whose deadly foes do yield him due and earned praise, "For though his freedom be bereft, his honour not decays. |