Cap. How now, my head-ftrong? where have you been gadding? Jul. Where I have learnt me to repent the fin. Of difobedient oppofition To you, and your behefts; and am enjoin'd And beg your pardon :-Pardon, I beseech you! Cap. Send for the county; go tell him of this; I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning. Jul. I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell; And gave him what becomed love I might, Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty. Cap. Why, I am glad on't; this is well, stand up : This is as't fhould be.--Let me fee the county; Ay marry, go, I fay, and fetch him hither.Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar, 'All our whole city is much bound to him. Jul. Nurfe, will you go with me into my closet, To help me fort fuch needful ornaments As you think fit to furnish me to-morrow? La. Cap. No, not 'till Thurfday; there is time enough... Cap. Go, nurfe, go with her :-we'll to church [Exeunt Juliet, and Nurse. to-morrow. In the old Morality of Every Man, bl. 1. no date, confeffion is perfonified: "Now I pray you shrifte, mother of falvacyon." STEEVENS. 9 All our whole city is much bound to him.] Thus the folio and the quartos 1599 and 1609. The oldest quarto reads, I think, more grammatically: All our whole city is much bound unto. So, in Romeus and Juliet, 1562: 66 STEEVENS. this is not, wife, the friar's first desert, "In all our commonweal fcarce one is to be found "But is, for fome good turn, unto this holy father bound." K4 MALONE. La. La. Cap. We fhall be fhort in our provifion : 'Tis now near night, Cap. Tuth! I will stir about, And all things fhall be well, I warrant thee, wife: I'll not to bed to-night;-let me alone; Againft to-morrow: my heart is wondrous light, [Exeunt Capulet, and lady Capulet. SCENE Juliet's Chamber. III. Enter Juliet, and Nurfe'. Jul. Ay, thofe attires are beft:-But, gentle nurse, I pray thee, leave me to myself to-night; For I have need of many orifons 'We shall be short-] That is, we shall be defective. JOHNSON. 2 'Tis now near night.] It appears in a foregoing scene, that Romeo parted from his bride at day-break on Tuesday morning. Immediately afterwards the went to Friar Lawrence, and he particularly mentions the day of the week, [Wednfday is to-morrow."] She could not well have remained more than an hour or two with the friar, and the is just now returned from fhrift;-yet lady, Capulet fays, 'tis near night," and this fame night is afcertain ed to be Tuesday. This is one out of the many inftances of our author's inaccuracy in the computation of time. MAlone. 3 Enter Juliet and Nurse.] Iuftead of the next fpeech, the quarto 1597, fupplies the following fhort dialogue: Nurje. Come, come, what need you anie thing else? Juliet. Nothing, good nurfe, but leave me to myselfe, Nurfe. Well there's a cleane imocke under your pillow, and fo good night. STEEVENS, 4 For I bave need, &c.] the appearance of religion: her hypogrify, JOHNSON, Juliet plays moft of her pranks under perhaps Shakspeare meant to punish To To move the heavens to fmile upon my state, Enter Lady Capulet. La. Cap. What, are you busy? do help? Jul. No, madam; we have cull'd fuch neceffaries As are behoveful for our ftate to-morrow: So please you, let me now be left alone, And let the nurse this night fit up with you; La. Cap. Good night! Get thee to bed, and reft; for thou haft need. I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins, I'll call them back again to comfort me 3-- My difmal fcene I needs must act alone.— What if this mixture do not work at all"? Shall 5 Farewel! &c.] This fpeech received confiderable additions after the elder copy was published. STEEVENS. What if this mixture do not work at all?] So, in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, tom. ii. p. 239. but what know I (faid fhe) whether the operation of this pouder will be to foone or to late, or not correfpondent to the due time, and that my faulte being difcovered, I shall remayne a jefting stocke and fable to the people? what know I moreover, if the ferpents and other venomous and crauling wormes, which commonly frequent the graves and pittes of the earth, will hurt me thinkyng that I am dead? Bur how fhall I indure the ftinche of fo many carions and bones of myne auncestors which reft in the grave, it by fortune I do awake before Romeo and frier Laurence doe come to help me? And as fhe was thus plunged in the deepe contemplation of things, fhe thought 5 8 7 Shall I of force be married to the count?- I will thought that the fawe a certaine vifion or fanfie of her coufin Thibault, in the very fame fort as the fawe him wounded and imbrued with blood; &c." STEEVENS. e; -Shakspeare, appears however, to have followed the poem : -to the end I may my name and confcience fave, * I must devour the mixed drink that by me here I have "Whofe working and whofe force as yet I do not know :"And of this piteous plaint began another doubt to grow"What do I know, (quoth fhe) if that this powder shall *Sooner or latter than it fhould, or elfe not work at all? 66 Or how fhall I that always have in fo fresh air been bred, "Endure the loathsome stink of fuch a heaped ftore Where all my ancestors do reft, my kindred's common Shall not the friar and my Romeus, when they come, 7 Shall I of force be married to the count?] quarto. Succeeding quartos and the folio read: MALONE. Thus the eldest Shall I be married then to-morrow morning? STEEVENS, 8 lie thou there. Laying down a dagger.] This ftage-direction. has been fupplied by the modern editors, The quarto, 1597. reads: "Knife, lie thou there." It appears from feveral paffages in our old plays, that knives were formerly part of the ascoutrements of a bride; and every thing behoveful for Juliet's state had just been left with her. So, in Decker's Match me in Loudon, 1632: "See at my girdle hang my swedding knives !". Again, in King Edward III, 1599: "Here by my fide do hang my wedding knives :** * I will not entertain fo bad a thought-- Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point! To whofe foul mouth no health fome air breathes in, The horrible conceit of death and night, Lies In order to account for Juliet's having a dagger, or, as it is called in old language, a knife, it is not neceffary to have recourfe to the ancient accoutrements of brides, how prevalent foever the custom mentioned by Mr. Steevens may have been; for Juliet appears to have furnished herself with this inftrument immediately after her father and mother had threatened to force her to marry Paris. "Ifall fail elfe, myfelf have power to die." Accordingly, in the very next fcene, when the is at the friar's celi, and before fhe could have been furnished with the apparatus of a bride, (not having then confented to marry the count) the fays: "Give me fome prefent counfel, or behold, "'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife 9 I will not entertain fo bad a thought.] This line I have restored from the quarto, 1597: STEEVENS. As in a vault, &c.] This idea was probably fuggested to our poet by his native place. The charnel at Stratford upon Avon is a very large one, and perhaps contains a greater number of bones than are to be found in any other repofitory of the fame kind in England. I was furnished with this obfervation by Mr. Murphy, whofe very elegant and fpirited defence of Shakspeare against the criticisms of Voltaire, is one of the leaft confiderable out of many favours which he has conferred on the literary world. 2 STEEVENS. -green in earth,] i. e. fresh in earth, newly buried. So, in Hamlet: |
