Ben. Good morrow, cousin. Ben. But new struck nine. Rom. Is the day so young? Ah me! sad hours seem long. Was that my father that went hence so fast? Ben. It was: What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours? Rom. Not having that, which, having, makes them short. Rom. Out of her favour, where I am in love. Ben. Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof! Rom. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, Here's much to do with hate, but more with love: 0 any thing, of nothing first create ! O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this. Dost thou not laugh? 6 Ben. No, coz, I rather weep. Rom. Good heart, at what? Ben. At thy good heart's oppression. Rom. Why, such is love's transgression." to his will!] i. e. that the blind god should yet be able to direct his arrows at those whom he wishes to hit, that he should wound whomever he wills, or desires to wound. 7 Why, such is love's transgression.] Such is the consequence of unskilful and mistaken kindness. Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast; Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest With more of thine: this love, that thou hast shown, Ben. An if [Going. Soft, I will go along; But sadly tell me, who. Groan? why, no ; Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will: Ah, word ill urg'd to one that is so ill! In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman. Ben. I aim'd so near, when I suppos'd you lov❜d. Rom. A right good marks-man-And she's fair I love. Ben. A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit. Rom. Well, in that hit, you miss: she'll not be hit With Cupid's arrow, she hath Dian's wit; And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,' Tell me in sadness,] That is, gravely, or seriously. 9 And, in strong proof, &c.] As this play was written in the reign of queen Elizabeth, I cannot help regarding these speeches of Romeo as an oblique compliment to her majesty, who was not liable to be displeased at hearing her chastity praised after she was suspected to have lost it, or her beauty commended in the 67th year of her age, though she never possessed any when she was young. Her declaration that she would continue unmarried, increases the probability of the present supposition. STEEVENS. She will not stay the siege of loving terms, That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store. Ben. Then she hath sworn, that she will still live chaste? Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste; For beauty, starv'd with her severity, Cuts beauty off from all posterity. She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair,1 To merit bliss by making me despair: She hath forsworn to love; and, in that vow, Do I live dead, that live to tell it now. Ben. Be rul'd by me, forget to think of her. 'Tis the way Rom. [Exeunt. wisely too fair, &c.] There is in her too much sanctimonious wisdom united with beauty, which induces her to continue chaste with the hopes of attaining heavenly bliss. 2 To call hers, exquisite, in question more:] More into talk; to make her unparalleled beauty more the subject of thought and con versation. 3 These happy masks, &c.] i. e. the masks worn by female spectators of the play. • What doth her beauty serve,] i. e. what end does it answer? SCENE II. A Street. Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant. Cap. And Montague is bound as well as I, Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both; Par. Younger than she are happy mothers made. Such as I love; and you, among the store, 5 She is the hopeful lady of my earth:] This is a Gallicism: Fille de terre is the French phrase for an heiress. 6 My will to her consent is but a part;] To, in this instance, signifies in comparison with, in proportion to. When well apparell'd April on the heel And like her most, whose merit most shall be: My house and welcome on their pleasure stay. [Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS. Serv. Find them out, whose names are written here? It is written that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the taylor with his last, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am sent to find those persons, whose names are here writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned: - In good time. Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO. Ben. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning, One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish ; Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning; One desperate grief cures with another's languish : Take thou some new infection to thy eye, And the rank poison of the old will die. Rom. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that." Rom. For your broken shin. Ben. Why, Romeo, art thou mad? 7 Inherit at my house ;] To inherit, in the language of Shakspeare's age, is to possess. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.] The plantain leaf is a blood-stauncher, and was formerly applied to green wounds. |