L. Cap. A crutch, a crutch!-Why call you for a fword?

Cap. My fword, I fay!-old Montague is come, And flourishes his blade in fpight of me.

Enter old Montague, and lady Montague.

Mon. Thou villain, Capulet,- Hold me not, let me go.

La Mon. Thou shalt not ftir one foot to feek a foe.

Enter Prince, with attendants.

Prin. Rebellious fubjects, enemies to peace,
Profaners of this neighbour-ftained steel,-
Will they not hear ?-what ho! you men, you
beafts,-

That quench the fire of your pernicious rage
With purple fountains ifluing from your veins,-
On pain of torture, from thofe bloody hands.
Throw your mif-temper'd weapons 9 to the ground,
And hear the fentence of your moved prince..
Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word,
By thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice difturb'd the quict of our ftreets;
And made Verona's ancient citizens
Caft by their grave befeeming ornaments,
To wield old partizans, in hands as old,
Cankred with peace, to part your cankred hate?
If ever you difturb our ftreets again,
Your lives fhall pay the forfeit of the peace.
For this time, all the reft depart away:
You, Capulet, fhall go along with me;
And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
To know our further pleasure in this cafe,

9-mis-temper'd weapons, are angry weapons.] So in K. John: "This inundation of mis-temper'd humour, &c." STEEVENS.

To

To old Free-town,' our common judgment-place, Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.

[Exeunt Prince, Capulet, &c. Mon, Who fet this ancient quarrel new abroach? 7 Speak, nephew, were you by, when it began? Ben. Here were the fervants of your adverfary, And yours, clofe fighting ere I did approach; I drew to part them; in the inftant came The fiery Tybalt, with his fword prepar'd; Which, as he breath'd defiance to my ears, He swung about his head, and cut the winds, Who, nothing hurt withal, hifs'd him in fcorn: While we were interchanging thrufts and blows, Came more and more, and fought on part and part, 'Till the prince came, who parted either part.

La. Mon. O, where is Romeo!-faw you him to-day? Right glad I am, he was not at this fray.

Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd fun Peer'd forth the golden window of the eaft, A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad; Where-underneath the grove of fycamour, That weftward rooteth from the city' fideSo early walking did I fee your fon: Towards him I made; but he was 'ware of me, And ftole into the coyert of the wood:

Į, measuring his affections by my own,

3 That most are bufied when they are most alone,

Purfu'd

To old Freetown, our common judgment-place.] This name the poet found in The Tragicall Hiftory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562, It is there faid to be the caftle of the Capulets. MALONE.

2

Peer'd forth the golden window of the eaft.] The fame thought occurs in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. ii. Č. 10.

"Early before the morn with cremofin ray

"The windows of bright heaven opened had, "Through which into the world the dawning day "Might looke, &c." STEEVENS.

3 That most are bufied, &c.] Edition 1597. Instead of which it is in the other edition thus ;

-by

Purfu'd my humour, not purfuing his,

And gladly fhunn'd who gladly fled from me. Mon. Many a morning hath he there been feen, With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew, Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep fighs: But all fo foon as the all-chearing fun

Should in the furtheft eaft begin to draw
The fhady curtains from Aurora's bed,
Away from light steals home my heavy fon,
And private in his chamber pens himself;
Shuts up his windows, locks fair day-light out,
And makes himfelf an artificial night:
Black and portentous muft this humour prove,
Unless good counfel may the caufe remove.

Ben. My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
Mon. I neither know it, nor can learn it of him.
Ben. Have you importun'd him by any means?
Mon. Both by myself, and many other friends;
But he, his own affections' counsellor,
Is to himself-I will not fay, how true-
But to himself fo fecret and fo close,
So far from founding and difcovery,
As is the bud bit with an envious worm,
Ere he can fpread his fweet leaves to the air,
Or dedicate his beauty to the fame.

-by my own,

Could

Which then most fought, where moft might not be found,
Being one too many by my weary self,

Purfu'd my humour, &c. POPE.

And gladly fbunn'd, &c.] The ten lines following, not in edition 1597, but in the next of 1599. POPE.

s Ben. Have you importun'd, &c.] Thefe two fpeeches alfo omitted in edition 1597, but inferted in 1599. POPE.

Or dedicate his beauty to the fame.] When we come to confider, that there is fome power elfe befides balmy air, that brings forth, and makes the tender buds spread themselves, I do not think it improbable that the poet wrote,

Or dedicate his beauty to the Sun.

Or, according to the more obfolete fpelling, Sunne; which brings it nearer to the traces of the corrupted text.

THEOBALD.

I cannot

Could we but learn from whence his forrows grow, We would as willingly give cure, as know.

Enter Romeo, at a distance.

Ben. See, where he comes: So pleafe you, ftep afide; I'll know his grievance, or be much deny'd.

Mon. I would, thou wert fo happy by thy ftay, To hear true fhrift.-Come, madam, let's away. [Exeunt.

Ben. Good morrow, coufin.
Rom. Is the day so young??
Ben. But new ftruck nine.

Rom. Ay me! fad hours feem long.

Was that my father that went hence fo faft? Ben. It was :-What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours?

Rom. Not having that, which, having, makes them short.

Ben. In love?

Rom. Out

Ben. Of love?

Rom. Out of her favour, where I am in love. Ben. Alas, that love, fo gentle in his view, Should be fo tyrannous and rough in proof!

8

Rom. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled ftill, Should, without eyes, fee path-ways to his will! Where

I cannot but fufpect that fome lines are loft, which connected this fimile more closely with the foregoing speech: these lines, if fuch there were, lamented the danger that Romeo will die of his melancholy, before his virtues or abilities were known to the world. JOHNSON.

1 fufpect no lofs of connecting lines. The fame expreffion occurs in Timon, act iv. sc. 2:

"A dedicated beggar to the air." STEEVENS.

7 Is the day fo young ?] i. e. is it fo early in the day? The fame expreffion (which might once have been popular) I meet with in Acolafus, a comedy, 1540:" It is yet young nyghte, or there moche of the nyghte to come." STEEVENS. -to bis will!] Sir T. Hanmer, and aftor him Dr. Warburton,

is yet

५

read,

Where fhall we dine?-O me!-What fray was here?

Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.
Here's much to do with hate, but more with love:
'Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first created!
O heavy lightnefs! ferious vanity!
Mif-shapen chaos of well-feeming forms!

read, to his ill. The prefent reading has fome obfcurity; the meaning may be, that love finds out means to purfue his defire. That the blind fhould find paths to ill is no great wonder. JOHNSON.

I fee no obfcurity in the text. It is not unufual for thofe who are blinded by love to overlook every difficulty that opposes their purfuit. NICHOLS.

The quarto 1597, reads

Should, without lacus, give path-ways to our will!

This reading is the most intelligible. STEEVENS.

Why then, O brawling love, &c.] Every fonnetteer character, ifes Love by contrarieties. Watfon begins one of his canzonets: "Love is a fowre delight, a fugred griefe,

"A living death, an ever-dying life, &c."

Turberville makes Reafon harangue against it in the fame.

manner:

"A fierie froft, a flame that frozen is with ise!

"A heavie burden light to beare! A vertue fraughte with "vice! &c."

Immediately from the Romaunt of the Rofe:
"Loue it is an hatefull pees,

"A free aquitaunçe without reles-
"An heavie burthen light to beare,
"A wicked wawe awaie to weare :
"And health full of maladie,
"And charitie full of envie-

"A laughter that in weeping aie,

"Reft that trauaileth night and daie, &c."

This kind of antithesis was very much the taste of the Provençal and Italian poets; perhaps it might be hinted by the ode of Sappho preferved by Longinus. Petrarch is full of it:

"Pace non trovo, e non hó da far guerra,
"E temo, e fpero, e ardo, e fon un ghiaccio,

E volo fopra'l ciel, e ghiaccio in terra,

"Enulla ftringo, e tutto'l mondo abbraccio,&c." Son. 105, Sir Tho. Wyat gives a tranflation of this fonnet, without any notice of the original, under the title of, Defcription of the contrarious Paffions in a Louer, amongst the Songes and Sonnettes, by the Earle of Surrey, and others, 1574. FARMER,

Feather