This dialogue is not found in Painter's Romeo and Julietta.

MALONE. 564. - should be thoughts, &c.] The speech is thus continued in the quarto, 1597:

-should be thoughts,
And run more swift than hasty powder fir'd,
Doth hurry from the fearful cannon's mouth.
Oh, now she comes! Tell me, gentle Nurse,

What says my love ?The greatest part of the scene is likewise added since that edition.

STEEVENS. 586. Fie, how my bones ache!what a jaunt have I had ?] This is the reading of the folio. The quartos read :

-what a jaunce have I had ? The two words appear to have been formerly synonymous. See King Richard II. “ Spur-gall'd and tir'd by jauncing Bolingbroke."

MALONE. The signification of these two words is obviously different. 607. No, no: but all this did I know before ;

What says he of our marriage ? what of that?] So, in The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562: “ Tell me else what, quoth she, this evermore I

thought, ** But of our marriage, say at once, what answer have you brought ?"

MALONE.

641. This scene was entirely new formed: the reader

may be pleased to have it as it was at first written :

Rom. Now, father Lawrence, in thy holy grant,

Consists the good of me and Juliet.
Friar. Without more words, I will do all I may

To make you happy, if in nie it lie.
Rom. This morning here she 'pointed we should

meet,
And consummate those never-parting bands,
Witness of our hearts' love, by joining hands;

And come she will.
Friar. I guess, she will indeed :
Youth's love is quick, swifter than swiftest

speed.
Enter Juliet somewhat fast, and embraceth Romeo.

See where she comes !
So light a foot ne'er hurts the trodden flower ;

Of love and joy, see, see the sovereign power!
Jul. Romeo !
Rom. My Juliet, welcome! As do waking eyes

(Clos'd in night's mists) attend the frolick day,
So Romeo hath expected Juliet ;

And thou art come.
Jul. I ain (if I be day
Come to my sun; shine forth, and make me

fair.
Rom. All beauteous fairness dwelleth in thine

eyes. Jul. Romeo, froin thine all brightness doth arise.

Friar. Come, wantons, come; the stealing hours

do pass ;

Defer embracements to some fitter time;
Part for a time, “ you shall not be alone,
“'Till holy church hath join'd you both in

one.',

Rom. Lead, holy father, all delay seems long.
Jul. Make haste, make haste, this ling'ring doth

us wrong.
Friar. O, soft and fair makes sweetest work they

say
Haste is a common hind'rer in cross-way.

[Exeunt.

STEEVENS. 655. Too swift arrives] He that travels too fast, is as long before he comes to the end of his journey, as he that travels slow. Precipitation produces mishap.

JOHNSON 656. Here comes the lady, &c.] However the poet might think the alteration of this scene on the whole to be necessary, I am afraid, in respect of the passage before us, he has not been very successful. The violent hyperbole of never wearing out the everlasting flint, appears to me not only more reprehensible, but even less beautiful than the lines as they were originally written, where the lightness of Juliet's motion is accounted for from the cheerful effects the passion of love produced in her mind.

STEEVENS. 658. A louer may bestride the gossamer.] The gossamer is the long white filament which lies in the

air in summer. So, in Hannibal and Scipio, 1637, by
Nabbes :

- Fine as Arachne's web, or gossamer,
“Whose curls when garnish'd by their dressing,

shew
66 Like that spun vapour when 'tis pearld with
dew !”

1 STEEVENS. 673. I cannot sum up half my sum of wealth.] The old copies read :

I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth,
and,
I cannot sum up somes of half my wealth.

STEEVENS.
The following would be nearer the original read-
ing :
I cannot sum up th' sum of half

my

wealth. REMARKS.

ACT III.

Line 2.

The day is hot,–] It is observed, that in Italy almost all assassinations are committed during the heat of summer.

JOHNSON. 31. These two speeches have been added since the first quarto, together with some few circumstances in the rest of the scene, as well as in the ensuing one.

STEEVENS.

74. A la stoccata-] Sloccata is the Italian term for a thrust or stab with a rapier. So, in The Devil's Charter, 1607 :

“ He makes a thrust; I with a swift passado
“ Make quick avoidance, and with this stoccata,"
&c.

STEEVENS. 80. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears?] We should read pilche, which signifies a cloke or coat of skins, meaning the scabbard.

WARBURTON The old quarto reads scabbard. Dr. Warburton's explanation is, I believe, just. Nash, in Pierce Penny. less his Supplication, 1595, speaks of a carman in a leather pilche. Again, in Decker's Satiromastix:

“ I'll beat five pounds out of his leather pilch." Again,

«« Thou hast forgot how thou ambled'st in a leather pilch, by a play-waggon in the highway, and took 'st mad Jeronimo's part, to get service among the mic micks." It

appears from this passage, that Ben Jonson acted the part of Hieronimo in the Spanish tragedy, the speech being addressed to Horace, under which character old Ben is ridiculed.

STEEVENS. a grave man.] After this, the quarto, 1597, continues Mercutio's speech as follows : A pox o' both your houses ! I shall be fairly

four men's shoulders for your house of the Montagues and the Capulets : and then some pleasantly roglie, some sexion, some base slave, shall

100.

:

mounted upon