Rom. O! I am fortune's fool! Ben, Why doft thou stay? Enter Citizens, &c. [Exit Romico. Cit. Which way ran he, that kill'd Mercutio? Cit. Up, fir, go with me; I charge thee in the prince's name, obey. Enter Prince, Montague, Capulet, their Wives, &c. Prin. Where are the vile beginners of this fray? Ben. O noble prince, I can difcover all The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl: There lies the man, flain by young Romeo, That flew thy kinfman, brave Mercutio. La. Cap. Tybalt, my coufin!-O my brother's child! O prince!-O husband !-O, the blood is spill'd Prin. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray? Romeo that spoke him fair, bid him bethink • How nice the quarrel was, ' and urg'd withal Your way O! I am fortune's fool!] I am always running in the of evil fortune, like the fool in the play. Thou art death's fool, in Measure for Mcafure. See Dr. Warburton's note. JOHNSON. In the first copy, O! 1 am fortune's flave. STEEVENS. 3-as thou art true.] As thou art juft and upright. JOHNSON. 4 Hotu nice the quarrel-] How flight, how unimportant, how petty. So in the last act, The letter was not nice, but full of charge Of dear import. JOHNSON. 5-and urg'd witbal-] The reft of this speech was new writ. Your high difpleafure: all this-uttered With gentle breath, calm look,knees humbly bow'd,- Hold, friends! friends, part! and swifter than his tongue, His agile arm beats down their fatal points, La. Cap. He is a kinfman to the Montague, Prin. Romeo flew him, he flew Mercutio; Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe ? ten by the poet, as well as a part of what follows in the fame fcene. STEVENS. 5 Affection makes him falfe,] The charge of falfhood on Benvolio, though produced at bazard, is very jut. The author, who feems to intend the character of Benvolio as good, meant perhaps to fhew, how the beft minds, in a state of action and difcord, are destorted to criminal partiality. JoHNSON, La. La. Mon. Not Romeo, prince, he was Mercutio's friend; His fault concludes but, what the law fhould end, The life of Tybalt. Prin. And, for that offence, 7 I have an intereft in your hates' proceeding, 7 I have an intereft in your hearts' proceeding,] Sir Thomas Hanmer faw that this line gave no fenfe, and therefore put, by a very eafy change, I have an interest in your beats proceeding : which is undoubtedly better than the old reading which Dr. Warburton has followed; but the fenfe yet feems to be weak, and perhaps a more licentious correction is neceffary. I read therefore, I had no intereft in your beats preceding. This, fays the prince, is no quarrel of mine, I had no intereft in your former difcord; I fuffer merely by your private animofity. JOHNSON. The quarto, 1597, reads hates' proceeding. This renders all emendation unneceffary. I have followed it. STEEVENS. 8 Nor tears nor prayers, shall purchase out abufes :] This was probably defigned as a stroke at the church of Rome, by which the different prices of murder, inceft, and all other crimes, were minutely fettled, and as fhamelessly received. STEEVENS. 9 Mercy but murders, pardoning thofe that kill.] So, in Hale's Memorials: "When I find myfelf fwayed to mercy, let me remember likewife that there is a mercy due to the country." MALONE. VOL. X, H SCENE I SCENE II. An apartment in Capulet's houfe. Enter Juliet. Jul. Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Towards Phoebus' manfion; fuch a waggoner As Phacton would whip you to the west, 2 And bring in cloudy night immediately 3. Spread thy clofe curtain, love-performing night! Gallop apace, you fiery-footed feeds, That Towards Phabus' manfion, &c.] Our author probably re membered Marlow's King Edward II. which was performed be fore, 1593: Gallep apace, bright Phoebus, through the skie, "And dufky night in rufty iren car; "Between you both, fhorten the time, I pray, "That I may fee that most defired day." MALONE. -Phebus' manfion;] The fecond quarto and folio read, lodging. STEEVENS. -immediately.] Here ends this fpeech in the eldest quarto. The reft of the fcene has likewife received confiderable alterations and additions. STEEVENS. Spread thy clofe curtain, love-performing night, That run-aways eyes may wink;] What run-aways are thefe, whofe eyes Juliet is wishing to have ftopt? Macbeth, we may remember, makes an invocation to night much in the same strain: "Come, feeling night, "Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day," &c. So Juliet would have night's darknefs obfcure the great eye of the day, the fun; whom confidering in a poetical light as Phabus, drawn in his car with fiery-footed steeds, and pofting through the heavens, the very properly calls him, with regard to the fwiftnefs of his courfe, the run-away. In the like manner our poet speaks of the night in the Merchant of Venice: "For the clofe night doth play the run-away," WARBURTON. The construction of this paffage, however elliptical or perverfe, I believe to be as follows: May that run-away's eyes wink! Or, That run-away's eyes, may (they) ink! Thefe ellipfes are frequent in Spenfer; and that for oh! that is not uncommon, as Dr. Farmer obferves in a note on the first fcene That run-away's eyes may wink; and Romeo By their own beauties: or, if love be blind, fcene of the Winter's Tale. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, a&t iii. se. 6. That ever I fhould call thee caft-away! Juliet first wishes for the absence of the fun, and then invokes the night to fpread its curtain clofe around the world : Spread thy clofe curtain, love-performing night! next, recollecting that the night would feem fhort to her, she speaks of it as of a run-away, whofe flight she would wish to retard, and whofe eyes fhe would blind left they should make discoveries. The eves of night are the stars, fo called in the Midsummer Night's Dream. Dr. Warburton has already proved that Shakspeare terms the night a run-away in the Merchant of Venice: and in the Fair Maid of the Exchange, 1607, it is fpoken of under the fame character: The night hath play'd the fwift-foot run-away." Romeo was not expected by Juliet till the fun was gone, and therefore is was of no confequence to her that any eyes fhould wink but thofe of the night; for, as Ben Jonfon fays in Sejanus; -night bath many eyes, 66 Whereof, tho' moft do fleep, yet fome are fpies." STEEVENS. That seems not to be the optative adverb utinam, but the pronoun ifta. Thefe lines contain no wish, but a reafon for Juliet's preceding wifh for the approach of cloudy night; for in fuch a night there may be no ftar-light to difcover our stolen pleasures: "That run-away eyes may wink, and Romeo Leap to thofe arms, untalked of and unfeen." BLACKSTONE. 5 Come, civil night,] Civil is grave, decently folemn. JOHNSON. 6 unmann'd blood] Blood yet unacquainted with man. JOHNSON, Hood my unmann'd blood bating in my cheeks,] Thefe are terms of falconry. An unmanned hawk is one that is not brought to endure company. Bating (not baiting, as it has hitherto been H 2 printed |