For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes How oft when men are at the point of death, The same word, with the same sense, occurs in Churchyard's Siege of Edinbrough Castle: "This lofty seat and lantern of that land, "Like lodestarre stode, and lokte o'er eu'ry streete." Again, in Philemon Holland's translation of the 12th chapter of the 35th Book of Pliny's Natural History: 66 hence came the louvers and lanternes reared over the roofes of temples," &c. STEEVENS. 7 -presence-] A presence is a publick room. JOHNSON. A presence means a publick room, which is at times the presence-chamber of the sovereign. So, in The Two Noble Gentlemen, by Beaumont and Fletcher, Jacques says, his master is a duke, "His chamber hung with nobles, like a presence." M. MASON. Again, in Westward for Smelts, 1620: "the king sent for the wounded man into the presence." MALONE. This thought, extravagant as it is, is borrowed by Middleton in his comedy of Blurt Master Constable, 1602: "The darkest dungeon which spite can devise by a dead man interr'd.] Romeo being now determined to put an end to his life, considers himself as already dead. MALone. Till I read the preceding note, I supposed Romeo meant, that he placed Paris by the side of Tybalt who was already dead, and buried in the same monument. The idea, however, of a man's receiving burial from a dead undertaker, is but too like some of those miserable conceits with which our author too frequently counteracts his own pathos. STEEVENS. Call this a lightning ?-O, my love! my wife! may I Call this a lightning?] I think we should read: O, now may I Call this a lightning? JOHNSON. How is certainly right and proper. Romeo had, just before, been in high spirits, a symptom, which he observes, was sometimes called a lightning before death: but how, says he, (for no situation can exempt Shakspeare's characters from the vice of punning) can I term this sad and gloomy prospect a lightning? RITSON. The reading of the text is that of the quarto, 1599. The first copy reads: But how, &c. which shows that Dr. Johnson's emendation cannot be right. MALOne. This idea occurs frequently in the old dramatick pieces. So, in the Second part of The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601: "I thought it was a lightning before death, Again, in Chapman's translation of the 15th Iliad: Again, in his translation of the 18th Odyssey: 1 "To th' utmost lightning that still ushers death.” Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath, STEEVENS. Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, B. III: "Death being able to divide the soule, but not the beauty from her body." STEEVENS. So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1594: 66 Decayed roses of discolour'd cheeks "Do yet retain some notes of former grace, MALONE. And death's pale flag is not advanced there.2- 2 beauty's ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips, and in thy cheeks, And death's pale flag &c.] So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1594: "And nought respecting death (the last of paines) In the first edition of Romeo and Juliet, Shakspeare is less florid "How well thy beauty doth become this grave!" The speech, as it now stands, is first found in the quarto, 1599. STEEVENS. An ingenious And death's pale flag is not advanced there.] friend some time ago pointed out to me a passage of Marini, which bears a very strong resemblance to this: "Morte la 'nsegna sua pallida e bianca Rime lugubri, p. 149, edit. Venet. 1605. 3 Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?] So, in Painter's translation, Tom. II. 66 242: p. what greater or more cruel satisfaction canst thou desyre to have, or henceforth hope for, than to see hym which murdered thee, to be empoysoned wyth hys owne handes, and buryed by thy syde?" STEEVENS. 4 Ah, dear Juliet, Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe That unsubstantial death is amorous; &c.] So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1594: "Ah, now, methinks, I see death dallying seeks MALONE. That unsubstantial death is amorous; &c.] Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, p. 463, speaking of the And that the lean abhorred monster keeps power of beauty, tells us :-" But of all the tales in this kinde, that is most memorable of Death himselfe, when he should have stroken a sweet young virgin with his dart, hee fell in love with the object."-Burton refers to Angerianus: but I have met with the same story in some other ancient book of which I have forgot the title. STEEVENS. Ah, dear Juliet, &c.] In the quarto, 1597, the passage runs thus: Ah dear Juliet, "How well thy beauty doth become this grave! "With worms that are thy chamber-maids. 66 Thy drugs are swift: thus with a kiss I die." [Falls. In the quarto 1599, and the folio, (except that the latter has arms instead of arm,) the lines appear thus: P. II: 66 Ah dear Juliet, "Why art thou yet so fair? I will believe "Shall I believe that unsubstantial death is amorous, "And that the lean abhorred monster keeps "Thee here in dark to be his paramour; "For fear of that I still will stay with thee, "And never from this palace [pallat* 4°] of dim nigh "Thy drugs are quick: thus with a kiss I die.] "Depart again; here, here, will I remain "With worms that are thy chamber-maids: O, here "Will I set up my everlasting rest, pallat-] Meaning, perhaps, the bed of night. So, in King Henry IV. "Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee." In The Second Maiden's Tragedy, however, (an old MS. in the library of the Marquis of Lansdowne,) monuments are styled the "palaces of death." STEEVENS. For fear of that, I will still stay with thee; With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here "And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars, &c. "Thy drugs are quick: thus with a kiss I die." As the old blundering transcribers or compositors may be fairly supposed, in the present instance, to have given what Shakspeare had rejected, as well as what he designed to appear in his text, the lines within the crotchets are here omitted. Following the example of Mr. Malone, I have also omitted the long notes which, in some former editions, had accompanied this passage. STEEVENS. There cannot, I think, be the smallest doubt that the words included within crotchets, which are not found in the undated quarto, were repeated by the carelessness or ignorance of the transcriber or compositor. In like manner, in a former scene we have two lines evidently of the same import, one of which only. the poet could have intended to retain. See p. 197, n. 1. In a preceding part of this passage Shakspeare was probably in doubt whether he should write: Or, I will believe That unsubstantial death is amorous; Shall I believe That unsubstantial death is amorous; and having probably erased the words I will believe imperfectly, the wise compositor printed the rejected words as well as those intended to be retained. With respect to the line: Here's to thy health, where'er thou tumblest in, it is unnecessary to inquire what was intended by it, the passage in which this line is found, being afterwards exhibited in another form; and being much more accurately expressed in its second than in its first exhibition, we have a right to presume that the poet intended it to appear in its second form, that is, as it now appears in the text. MALONE. ·my everlasting rest;] See a note on scene 5th of the |