Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate :
If ever you disturb 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 case,
To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.4
Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.
[Exeunt Prince, and Attendants; CAPULET,
Lady CAPULET, TYBALT, Citizens, and
Servants.

MON. Who fet this ancient quarrel new abroach?-
Speak, nephew, were you by, when it began?
BEN. Here were the fervants of
your adversary,
And yours, close fighting ere I did approach:
I drew to part them; in the inftant came
The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepar'd ;
Which, as he breath'd defiance to my ears,
He fwung about his head, and cut the winds,
Who, nothing hurt withal, hifs'd him in fcoru:
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 today?

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 east,5

*To old Free-town, 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 castle of the Capulets.

MALONE. s Peer'd forth the golden window of the eaft,] The fame thought occurs in Spenfer's Fairy Queen, B. II. c x:

A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;
Where, underneath the grove of fycamore,
That weftward rooteth from the city's fide,-
So early walking did I see your fon :

Towards him I made; but he was 'ware of me,
And stole into the covert of the wood:
I, measuring his affections by my own,-
That most are bufied when they are most alone,6-
Purfu'd my humour, not pursuing 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-cheering fun

Should in the furtheft eaft begin to draw
The shady 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 daylight out,
And makes himself an artificial night:

Early before the morn with cremofin ray

"The windows of bright heaven opened had,
"Through which into the world the dawning day

66

Might looke," &c. STEEVENS.

Again, in Summa Totalis; or All in All, or the fame for ever, 4to. 1607:

"Now heaven's bright eye (awake by Vefpers fheene) Peepes through the purple windowes of the Eaft."

• That most are bufied &c.] Edition 1597. it is in the other editions thus:

HOLT WHITE. Instead of which

"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 hunn'd &c.] The ten lines following, not in

edition 1597, but in the next of 1599. POPE.

Black and portentous muft this humour prove,
Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

BEN. My noble uncle, do you know the cause? MON. I neither know it, nor can learn of him. BEN. Have you impórtun'd him by any means? MoN. Both by myself, and many other friends: But he, his own affections' counsellor, Is to himfelf-I will not fay, how trueBut to himself fo fecret and fo clofe, So far from founding and discovery, As is the bud bit with an envious worm, Ere he can spread his fweet leaves to the air, Or dedicate his beauty to the fun.9

Ben. Have you importun'd &c.] These two speeches alfo omitted in edition 1597, but inserted in 1599. РОРЕ.

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

Or dedicate his beauty to the fun.

Or, according to the more obfolete spelling, funne; which brings it nearer to the traces of the corrupted text. THEOBALD.

I cannot but fufpe&t 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,

I fufpect no lofs of connecting lines. An expreffion fomewhat fimilar occurs in Timon, A& IV. fc. ii:

"A dedicated beggar to the air."

I have, however, adopted Theobald's emendation. Mr. M. Mafon oberves" that there is not a fingle paffage in our author where so great an improvement of language is obtained, by fo flight a deviation from the text." STEEVENS.

Dr. Johnson's conjecture is, I think unfounded; the fimile relates folely to Romeo's concealing the caufe of his melancholy, and is again used by Shakspeare in Twelfth Night:

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

Enter ROMEO, at a difiance,

BEN. See, where he comes: So please you, step afide;

I'll know his grievance, or be much denied.

MON. I would, thou wert fo happy by thy stay, To hear true fhrift.-Come, madam, let's away. [Exeunt MONTAGUE and Lady.

BEN. Good morrow, coufin.

ROM.

Is the day fo young? 1

་ She never told her love,

"But let concealment, like a worm i'th' bud,
"Feed on her damask cheek."

In the last Act of this play our poet has evidently imitated the Rofamond of Daniel; and in the prefent paffage might have remembered the following lines in one of the Sonnets of the fame writer, who was then extremely popular. The lines, whether remembered by our author or not, add fuch fupport to Mr. Theobald's emendation, that I fhould have given it a place in my text, but that the other mode of phraseology was not uncommon in Shakspeare's time:

And whilft thou spread ft unto the rifing funne, "The fairest flower that ever faw the light, "Now joy thy time, before thy fweet be done." Daniel's Sonnets, 1594.

The line quoted by Mr. Steevens does not appear to me to be adverse to this emendation. The bud could not dedicate its beauty to the fun, without at the fame time dedicating it to the air.

A fimilar phrafeology, however, to that of my text may be found in Daniel's 14th, 32d, 44th, and 53d Sonnets.

1

MALONE.

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 Acolafius, a comedy, 1540: "It is yet young nyghte, or there is yet moche of the nyghte to come." STEEVENS.

33

BEN. But new ftruck nine.

ROM.

Ah me! fad hours feem long.

Was that my father that went hence fo faft!

BEN. It was:-What fadness 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! ROM. Alas, that love, whofe view is muffled ftill, Should, without eyes, fee pathways to his will!"

to his will!] Sir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. War burton, read-to his ill. The prefent reading has some obfcurity; the meaning may be, that love finds out means to pursue his defire. That the blind fhould find paths to ill is no great wonder. JOHNSON,

It is not unusual for those who are blinded by love to overlook every difficulty that opposes their purfuit. NICHOLS.

What Romeo feems to lament is, that love, though blind, fhould discover pathways to his will, and yet cannot avail himfelf of them; fhould perceive the road which he is forbidden

to take.

The quarto, 1597, reads

Should, without laws, give path-ways to our will! i.e. being lawless itself, prescribe laws to others. STEEVENS. This paffage feems to have been misapprehended. Benvolio has lamented that the God of love, who appears fo gentle, fhould be a tyrant. It is no lefs to be lamented, adds Romeo, that the blind god fhould yet be able to direct his arrows at those whom he wishes to hit, that he should wound whomever he wills, 01. defires to wound. MALONE.