2 Mus. I say-silver sound, because musicians sound for silver. PET. Pretty too!-What say you, James Soundpost? 3 Mus. 'Faith, I know not what to say. PET. O, I cry you mercy! you are the singer: I will say for you. It is-musick with her silver sound, because such fellows as you have seldom gold for sounding : Then musick with her silver sound, With speedy help doth lend redress. [Exit, singing. 1 Mus. What a pestilent knave is this same? 2 Mus. Hang him, Jack! Come, we'll in here; tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner. [Exeunt. 3 It is mentioned by Milton, as an instrument of mirth : 1606: MALONE. silver sound,] So, in The Return from Parnassus, "Faith, fellow fidlers, here's no silver sound in this place." Again, in Wily Beguiled, 1606: what harmony is this "With silver sound that glutteth Sophos' ears?" Spenser perhaps is the first author of note who used this phrase: "A silver sound that heavenly musick seem'd to make." Edwards's song preceded Spenser's poem. STEEVENS. MALONE. Thus the quarto, because such fellows as you -] 1597. The others read--because musicians. I should suspect that a fidler made the alteration. STEEVENS. ACT V.5 SCENE I. Mantua. A Street. Enter ROMEO. ROM. If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep," My dreams presage some joyful news at hand: Act V.] The Acts are here properly enough divided, nor did any better distribution than the editors have already made, occur to me in the perusal of this play; yet it may not be improper to remark, that in the first folio, and I suppose the foregoing editions are in the same state, there is no division of the Acts, and therefore some future editor may try, whether any improvement can be made, by reducing them to a length more equal, or interrupting the action at more proper intervals. JOHNSON. 6 If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep,] Thus the earliest copy, meaning, perhaps, If I may trust to what I saw in my sleep. The folio reads: If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep; which is explained, as follows, by Dr. Johnson. STEEVENS. The sense is, If I may trust the honesty of sleep, which I know however not to be so nice as not often to practise flattery. JOHNSON. The sense seems rather to be-" If I may repose any confidence in the flattering visions of the night." Whether the former word ought to supersede the more modern one, let the reader determine: it appears to me, however, the most easily intelligible of the two. STEEVENS. If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep,] i. e. If I may confide in those delightful visions which I have seen while asleep. The precise meaning of the word flattering here, is ascertained by a former passage in Act II: 66 all this is but a dream, "Too flattering-sweet to be substantial." By the eye of sleep Shakspeare, I think, rather meant the visual power, which a man asleep is enabled, by the aid of imagination, to exercise, than the eye of the god of sleep. My bosom's lord' sits lightly in his throne This is the reading of the original copy in 1597, which in my opinion is preferable in this and various other places, to the subsequent copies. That of 1599, and the folio, read: If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep, which by a very forced interpretation may mean, If I may confide in the pleasing visions of sleep, and believe them to be true. Otway, to obtain a clearer sense than that furnished by the words which Dr. Johnson has interpreted, reads, less poetically than the original copy, which he had probably never seen, but with nearly the same meaning: If I may trust the flattery of sleep, My dreams presage some joyful news at hand: and Mr. Pope has followed him. In this note I have said, that I thought Shakspeare by the eye of sleep meant the visual power which a man asleep is enabled by the aid of imagination to exercise, rather than the eye of the God of sleep: but a line in King Richard III. which at the same time strongly supports the reading of the old copy which has been adopted in the text, now inclines me to believe that the eye of the god of sleep was meant: 7 "My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks; "Come thou on my side, and entreat for me.' MALONE. My bosom's lord-] So, in King Arthur, a Poem, by R. Chester, 1601: "That neither Uter nor his councell knew "How his deepe bosome's lord the dutchess thwarted." The author, in a marginal note, declares, that by bosom's lord, he means- -Cupid. STEEVENS. So also, in the Preface to Caltha Poetarum, or the Bumblebee, 1599; “—whilst he [Cupid,] continues honoured in the world, we must once a yeare bring him upon the stage, either dancing, kissing, laughing, or angry, or dallying with his darlings, seating himself in their breasts," &c. Thus too Shakspeare, in Twelfth Night: "It gives a very echo to the seat "Where love is thron'd." Again, in Othello: "Yield up, O Love, thy crown and hearted throne." Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts. Though the passage quoted above from Othello proves decisively that Shakspeare considered the heart as the throne of love, it has been maintained, since this note was written, strange as it may seem, that by my bosom's lord, we ought to understand, not the god of love, but the heart. The words-love sits lightly on his throne, says Mr. Mason, can only import "that Romeo loved less intensely than usual." Nothing less. Love, the lord of my bosom, (says the speaker,) who has been much disquieted by the unfortunate events that have happened since my marriage, is now, in consequence of my last night's dream, gay and cheerful. The reading of the original copy-sits cheerful in his throne, ascertains the author's meaning beyond a doubt. When the poet described the god of love as sitting lightly on the heart, he was thinking, without doubt, of the common phrase, a light heart, which signified in his time, as it does at present, a heart undisturbed by care. Whenever Shakspeare wishes to represent a being that he has personified, eminently happy, he almost always crowns him, or places him on a throne. So, in King Henry IV. P. I: "And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep." Again, in the play before us: 66 "Upon his brow shame is asham'd to sit: "For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd, Again, more appositely, in King Henry V: "As if allegiance in their bosoms sat, "Crowned with faith and constant loyalty." MALONE. My bosom's lord-] These three lines are very gay and pleasing. But why does Shakspeare give Romeo this involuntary cheerfulness just before the extremity of unhappiness? Perhaps to show the vanity of trusting to those uncertain and casual exaltations or depressions, which many consider as certain foretokens of good and evil. JOHNSON. The poet has explained this passage himself a little further on: "How oft, when men are at the point of death, "Have they been merry? which their keepers call Again, in G. Whetstone's Castle of Delight, 1576: 66 a lightning delight against his souden destruction." STEEVENS. ; I dreamt, my lady came and found me dead; And breath'd such life with kisses in my lips, 8 Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess'd, Enter BALTHASAR. News from Verona!-How now, Balthasar? BAL. Then she is well, and nothing can be ill Her body sleeps in Capels' monument,2 I dreamt, my lady came and found me dead; That I reviv'd,] Shakspeare seems here to have remembered Marlowe's Hero and Leander, a poem that he has quoted in As you like it: "By this sad Hero "Viewing Leander's face, fell down and fainted; "He kiss'd her, and breath'd life into her lips," &c. • I dreamt, my lady MALONE. That I reviv'd, and was an emperor.] So, in Shakspeare's S7th Sonnet: "Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter, "In sleep a king." STEEVENS. How fares my Juliet?] So the first quarto. That of 1599, and the folio, read: How doth my lady Juliet? MALONE. '-in Capels' monument,] Thus the old copies; and thus Gascoigne, in his Flowers, p. 51: Thys token whych the Mountacutes did beare alwaies, so that |