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2

Nay, fit, nay, fit 'good coufin Capulet;
For you and I are paft our dancing days:
How long is't now, fince laft yourself and I
Were in a mask?

2 Cap. By'r lady, thirty years.

1 Cap. What, man! 'tis not fo much, 'tis not fo

much:

'Tis fince the nuptial of Lucentio,

Come pentecoft as quickly as it will,

Some five and twenty years; and then we mask’d. 2 Cap. 'Tis more, 'tis more: his fon is elder, fir; His fon is thirty.

1 Cap. 3 Will you tell me that?

His fon was but a ward two years ago.

-good coufin Capulet,] This coufin Capulet is unkle in the paper of invitation; but as Capulet is defcribed as old, confin is probably the right word in both places. I know not how Capulet and bis lady might agree, their ages were very difproportionate; he has been paft masking for thirty years, and her age, as the tells Juliet, is but eight-and-twenty. JOHNSON.

Coufin was a common expreffion from one kinfman to another, out of the degree of parent and child, brother and fifter. Thus in Hamlet, the King his uncle and stepfather addreffes him with But now my coufin Hamlet and my fon." And in this very play, act iii. lady Capulet fays:

"Tybalt my cousin!-O my brother's child." So, in As you Like It:

"Rof. Me uncle?

"Duke. You coufin !”

And Olivia, in Twelfth Night, constantly calls her uncle Toby coufin. REMARKS.

2 our dancing days:] Thus the folio: the quarto reads, CL our fanding days." STEEVENS.

3 will you tell me, &c.] This fpeech stands thus in the first copy:

Will you tell me that it cannot be fo?

His fon was but a ward three years ago;

Good youths i'faith!-Oh, youth's a jolly thing!" There are many triffing variations in almost every speech of this play; but when they are of little confequence I have foreborn to encumber the page by the infertion of them. The last, however, of these three lines is natural, and worth preferving. STEEVENS.

Rom.

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Rom. What lady's that, which doth enrich the hand

Of yonder knight?

Serv. I know not, fir.

Rom. O, the doth teach the torches to burn bright! Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of nights Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear: Beauty too rich for ufe, for earth too dear! So fhews a fnowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o'er her fellows fhows. The measure done, I'll watch her place of ftand, And, touching hers, make happy my rude hand. Did my heart love 'till now? forfwear it, fight! For I ne'er faw true beauty 'till this night 7.

Tyb. This, by his voice, fhould be a Montague :Fetch me my rapier, boy :-What! dares the flave Come hither, cover'd with an antick face, To fleer and fcorn at our folemnity? Now, by the stock and honour of my kin, To ftrike him dead I hold it not a fin.

4 What lady's that, which doth enrich the hand

Of yonder knight?] Here is another proof that our author had the poem, and not Painter's Novel, in his mind. In the latter we are told-" A certain lord of that troupe took Juliet by the hand to dance."

In the poem of Romeus and Juliet, as in the play, her partner is a knight:

5

With torch in hand a comely night did fetch her forth to dance." MALONE.

-cheek of night.] Shakspeare has the fame thought in his 27th fonnet:

"Which, like a jewel hung in ghaftly night,

"Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new.” The quartos 1597, 1599, 1609, 1637, and the folio 1623, read: It feems he hangs upon the cheek of night.

It is to the folio 1632, that we are indebted for the present reading; but I know not that it is the true one. STEEVENS.

6 Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear:] So, in Lilly's Euphucs:

"A fair pearl in a Morian's ear." T. H. W. 7 For I ne'er faw true beauty till this night.] Thus K. Henry VIII.

66 -0 beauty,

" 'Till now I never knew thee!" STEEVENS.

2.

I Cap.

1 Cap. Why, how now, kinfman? wherefore ftorm. you fo?

Tyb. Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe;
A villain, that is hither come in fpight,
To fcorn at our folemnity this night.
1 Cap. Young Romeo is't?

Tyb. 'Tis he, that villain Romeo.

1 Cap. Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone, He bears him like a portly gentleman; And, to fay truth, Verona brags of him, To be a virtuous and well-govern'd youth: I would not for the wealth of all this town, Here in my houfe, do him difparagement: Therefore be patient, take no note of him, It is my will; the which if thou refpect, Shew a fair prefence, and put off thefe frowns, An ill-befeeming femblance for a feast.

Tyb. It fits, when fuch a villain is a gueft; I'll not endure him.

1 Cap. He fhall be endur'd;

What, goodman boy!-I fay, he fhall:-Go to;-
Am I the mafter here, or you? go to.

You'll not endure him!-God fhall mend my foul→→→
You'll make a mutiny among my guests!
You will fet cock-a-hoop! you'll be the man!
Tyb. Why, uncle, 'tis a fhame.

1 Cap. Go to, go to,

You are a faucy boy :-Is't fo, indeed?

This trick may chanee to feathe yous;-I know what. You must contrary me! marry, 'tis time

To fcathe you,] i. e. to do you an injury. See vol. iv. p. 276. v. 26. vii. 37. STEEVENS.

9 You must contrary me.]. The use of this verb is common to our old writers. So, in Tully's Love by Greene, 1616: "- rather -wifhing to die than to contrary her refolution." Many inftances more might be felected from Sidney's Arcadia.

Again, in Warner's Albions England, 1602. B. 10. Chap. 59. "his countermand should have contraried fo." The fame verb is used in Sir Tho. North's tranflation of Plutarch. STEEVENS,

VOL. X.

E

Well

I

Well faid, my hearts: You are a princox; go:Be quiet, or-More light, more light, for fhame!-I'll make you quiet; What !-Cheerly, my hearts.

Tyb. Patience perforce with wilful choler meeting, Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting. I will withdraw: but this intrufion fhall, Now feeming fweet, convert to bitter gall. [Exit. Rom. If I profane with my unworthy hand [To Juliet. This holy fhrine, the gentle fine is this My lips, two blufhing pilgrims, ready stand

To finooth that rough touch with a tender kifs. Jul. Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,

Which mannerly devotion fhews in this; For faints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers' kifs.

Rom. Have not faints lips, and holy palmers too? ful. Ay, pilgrim, lips that they muft ufe in prayer. Rom. O then, dear faint, let lips do what'hands do; They pray, grant thou, left faith turn to despair.

You are a princox, go:-] A princor is a coxcomb, a conceited perfon.

The word is ufed by Ben Jonfon in The Cafe is alter'd, 1609; by Chapman in his comedy of May-Day, 1610; in the Return from Parnaffus, 1606: "Your proud univerfity Princox;" again, in Fuimus Trocs, 1633: "That Princox proud;" and indeed by moft of the old dramatick writers. Cotgrave renders un jeune efloudeau fuperbe a young princox boy. STEEVENS.

2

Patience perforce,] This expreffion is in part proverbial: the old adage is,

"Patience perforce is a medicine for a mad dog "

3 If I profane quith my unworthy hand

This holy fhrine, the gentle fin is this,

STEEVENS.

My lips, two blushing pilgrims, &c.] All profanations are fuppofed to be expiated either by fome meritorious action, or by fomne penance undergone, and punishment fubmitted to. So Romeo would here fay, If I have been profane in the rude touch of my hand, my lips ftand ready, as two blushing pilgrims, to take off that offence, to atone for it by a sweet penance. Our poet therefore must have wrote,

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the gentle fine is this. WARBURTON.

Jul. Saints do not move, though grant for prayers'

fake.

Rom. Then move not, while my prayer's effect I

take.

Thus from my lips, by yours, my fin is purg'd.
[Kiffing her.
Jul. Then have my lips the fin that they have took.
Rom. Sin from my lips? O trefpafs fweetly urg'd!
Give me my fin again.

Jul. 4 You kifs by the book.

Nurfe. Madam, your mother craves a word with

you.

Rom. What is her mother?
Nurfe. Marry, bachelor,

Her mother is the lady of the house,
And a good lady, and a wife, and virtuous:
I nurs'd her daughter, that you talk'd withal;
I tell you-he, that can lay hold of her,
Shall have the chink.

Rom. Is fhe a Capulet?

O dear account! my life is my foe's debt.
Ben. Away, begone; the sport is at the best.
Rom. Ay, fo I fear; the more is my unrest.
1 Cap. Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone;
We have a trifling foolish banquet towards'.-

Is

4 You kiss by the book.] In As you Like It, we find it was usual to quarrel by the book, and we are told in the note, that there were books extant for good manners. Juliet here appears to refer to a third kind, containing the art of courtship, an example from which it is probable that Rofalind hath adduced. HENLEY. 2 We have a foolish trifling banquet towards.] Towards is ready, at hand. So, in Hamlet:

"What might be towards, that this fweaty hafte "Doth make the night joint labourer with the day?" Again, in the Phenix, by Middleton, 1607:

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here's a voyage towards will make us all."
STEEVENS.

It appears from the former part of this fcene that Capulet's @ompany had fupped. A banquet, it fhould be remembered, E 2

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