As is a winged messenger of heaven JUL. O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Deny thy father, and refuse thy name: ROM. Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this? [Aside. JUL. 'Tis but thy name, that is my enemy;Thou art thyself though, not a Montague. 5 the lazy-pacing clouds,] Thus corrected from the first edition, in the other lazy-puffing. POPE. Thou art thyself though, not a Montague.] For the present punctuation I am accountable. It appears to me to afford a clear sense, which the line as printed in the old copies, where we have a comma after thyself, and no point after though, does not in my apprehension afford. Thou art, however, says Juliet, a being sui generis, amiable and perfect, not tainted by the enmity which your family bears to mine. According to the common punctuation, the adversative particle is used without any propriety, or rather makes the passage nonsense. Though is again used by Shakspeare in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Act III. sc. last, in the same sense: "My legs are longer though, to run away." Again, in The Taming of a Shrew: "'Would Catharine had never seen him though." Again, in King Henry VIII: "I would not be so sick though, for his place." Other writers frequently use though for however. So, in The Fatal Dowry, a tragedy, by Massinger and Field, 1632: "Would you have him your husband that "And can it not be?-He is your servant, though, "And may perform the office of a husband." you love, What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name?" that which we call a rose, Again, in Cupid's Revenge, by Beaumont and Fletcher: 66 "Whom I must reverence though." Again, in the last speech of The Maid's Tragedy, by Beaumont and Fletcher, 1619: "Look to him though, and bear those bodies in.". Again, in Otway's Venice Preserved: "I thank thee for thy labour though, and him too." Juliet is simply endeavouring to account for Romeo's being amiable and excellent, though he is a Montague. And, to prove this, she asserts that he merely bears that name, but has none of the qualities of that house. MALONE. If this punctuation be right, and the words of the text accurate, we must understand though in the sense of then, a reading proposed by Dr. Johnson: a sense it is perpetually used in by our ancient poets, and sometimes by our author himself. So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream : "What though he love your Hermia? Lord! what though?" Again, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "I keep but three men and a boy yet, but what though?" Again, in As you like it: 66 we have no assembly here but beasts; but what though?" Again, in King Henry V: 7 "It is a simple one, but what though?" RITSON. nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name? &c.] The middle line is not found in the original copy of 1597, being added, it should seem, on a revision. The passage in the first copy stands thus: Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part: What's in a name? That which we call a rose, &c. In the copy of 1599, and all the subsequent ancient copies, the words nor any other part were omitted by the oversight of the transcriber or printer, and the lines thus absurdly exhibited: By any other name would smell as sweet; ROM. I take thee at thy word: Call me but love, and I'll be new baptiz'd; Henceforth I never will be Romeo. JUL. What man art thou, that, thus bescreen'd in night, So stumblest on my counsel? By a name ROM. Had I it written, I would tear the word. Nor arm nor face, O be some other name! What's in a name, &c. Belonging, &c. evidently was intended to begin a line, as it now does; but the printer having omitted the words nor any other part, took the remainder of the subsequent line, and carried it to that which preceded. The transposition now made needs no note to support it: the context in this and many other places supersedes all arguments. MALONE. For the sake of metre, I am willing to suppose our author wrote p. 'Longing to man. &c. The same elision occurs in The Taming of a Shrew, Vol. IX. 139: "Mistress Bianca, bless with such grace you "As 'longeth to a lover's blessed case." STEEVENS. • By any other name-] Thus the quarto, 1597. All the subsequent ancient copies read-By any other word. MALONE. • Take all myself.] The elder quarto reads, Take all I have. STEEVENS. JUL. My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words Of that tongue's utterance,1 yet I know the sound; Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague? ROM. Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike. JUL. How cam'st thou hither, tell me? and wherefore? The orchard walls are high, and hard to climb; And the place death, considering who thou art, If any of my kinsmen find thee here. ROM. With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls; 3 For stony limits cannot hold love out: And what love can do, that dares love attempt; 1 My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words Of that tongue's utterance,] Thus the quarto, 1597. The subsequent ancient copies read-of thy tongue's uttering. We meet with almost the same words as those here attributed to Romeo, in King Edward III. a tragedy, 1596: "I might perceive his eye in her eye lost, "His ear to drink her sweet tongue's utterance." MALONE. 66 If 2 Neither, fair saint, if either thee dislike.] Thus the original copy. The subsequent ancient copies read-fair maid. either thee dislike" was the phraseology of Shakspeare's age. So, it likes me well; for it pleases me well. MALONE. Dislike here means displease. M. MASON. With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls;] Here also we find Shakspeare following the steps of the author of The Hystory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562: 66 Approaching near the place from whence his heart had life, "So light he wox, he leap'd the wall, and there he spy'd his wife, "Who in the window watch'd the coming of her lord,—.” MALONE. Therefore thy JUL. If the nsmen are no let to me. y do see thee, they will murder thee. ROM. Alack! there lies more peril in thine eye, Than twenty of their swords;5 look thou but sweet, And I am proof against their enmity. JUL. I would not for the world, they saw thee here. ROM. I have night's cloak to hide me from their And, but thou love me, let them find me here :" —no let to me.] i. e. no stop or hinderance. So, in Hamlet: 66 By heaven I'll make a ghost of him that lets me.' Thus the original edition. The subsequent copies read-no stop to me. MALONE, 5 there lies more peril in thine eye, Than twenty of their swords;] Beaumont and Fletcher have copied this thought in The Maid in the Mill: 6 The lady may command, sir; "She bears an eye more dreadful than your weapon." STEEVENS, -from their sight;] So the first quarto. All the other ancient copies have-from their eyes. MALONE. 7 And, but thou love me, let them find me here:] And so thou do but love me, I care not what may befall me: Let me be found here. Such appears to me to be the meaning. Mr. M. Mason thinks that "but thou love me," means, unless thou love me; grounding himself, I suppose, on the two subsequent lines. But those contain, in my apprehension, a distinct proposition. He first says, that he is content to be discovered, if he be but secure of her affection; and then adds, that death from the hands of her kinsmen would be preferable to life without her love. But, however, it must be acknowledged, has often in old English the meaning which Mr. M. Mason would affix to it. MALONE. Mr. M. Mason is certainly in the right. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "But being charg'd, we will be still by land." See Vol. XVII. p. 226, n. 5. STEEVENS. |