Chapter CVII: Act I

SC. 1. "Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
Or dedicate his beauty to the same."

This is the reading of all the old editions; but the correction of Theobald, _sun_ for 'same,' is so obvious and so natural that I had made it long before I was aware I had been anticipated.

* * * * *

"Why, _gentle cousin_, such is love's transgression."

I make this insertion with confidence; for this is the only speech in this play beginning with a short line not complementary to the end of a preceding speech. In our poet's plays of this period speeches never began with a short line, unless when complementary, and at no time was the second line of a couplet short. (Introd. p. 82.) Lower down (i. 5) we have "Content thee, _gentle coz_, let him alone," where the 4to, 1597, omits all but "let him alone."

* * * * *

"Being vexed, a sea nourish'd with lover's tears."

As Johnson also saw, a line is lost here.

* * * * *

"Tell me, in sadness, who she is you love."

This is the reading of 4to 1597, which, however, has 'whom' (see Introd. p. 59). The other 4tos and the folios read "who is that you love."

* * * * *

"But sadly tell me who _she is you love_."

These words seem evidently to have been lost; and the repetition is very agreeable. Moreover in this play speeches do not thus end with a short line.

* * * * *

"From Love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd."

A correction of Rowe's for _uncharm'd_ of the originals.

* * * * *

"Only poor,
That when she dies with beauty dies her store."

The plain meaning of this is, that beauty was 'her store,' she had nothing but it, poor praise indeed from a lover! I would read, with Theobald,

"That when she dies with her dies beauty store."

The meaning would then be that, as the whole store of beauty lay, as it were, in her, by not marrying and transmitting it to her children, she would cause it to die with her, and would thus be poor as leaving nothing after her. The same idea is expressed in the poet's first and following sonnets: in Venus and Adonis we have--

"For he being dead, with him is beauty slain,"

and other passages of a similar nature. See also Twelfth Night, i. 5.

* * * * *

"'Tis the way
To call hers, exquisite, in question more."

This is not very intelligible. We might read 'her exquisite,' or rather '_to_ question.' To "call in question," in Shakespeare always means, to express a doubt of. 'Question' is examine, a word just used.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she,
She is the hopeful lady of my earth."

Here a rime is lost, in consequence of the 'earth' of the first line being in the printer's mind. There can be little question, I should think, that the original word was not 'earth,' but _fee_, feud, fief, landed property, as in _knight's fee_, _in fee_, etc., with which alone 'lady' accords. '_The_ earth' has long been the reading the first line.

* * * * *

"Which on more view of many--mine being one,
May stand in number, though in reckoning none" ...

This is the reading of both 4tos and folio, except 4to of 1597, which reads "_Such amongst_." I should feel inclined to read "Such _as on_ view." By 'more' must be meant more extensive. The aposiopesis, so suited to the hasty, impetuous character of the speaker, makes all clear.

* * * * *

"But in that crystal scales, let there be weighed
Your lady's love against some other maid."

This is very oddly expressed; for it was the lady herself, not her love, that was to be weighed. Theobald proposed _lady-love_; but I doubt if that phrase was then in use. I read '_lady and love_,' the & of the MS. having been made s by the printer, as it became _t_ in 'meant' for 'mean _and_' in All's Well, iv. 3.

* * * * *

SC. 4. "Oh! then, I see, Queen Mab has been with you.
_Ben._ Queen Mab! What's she?
_Mer._ She is the fairies' midwife, etc."

I think it best to read thus with 4to, 1597, adding _Mer._ before 'She is.' Benvolio's question is evidently wanted.

* * * * *

"Of healths five fathom deep."

It seems almost incredible that such a glaring absurdity as this should have escaped a long succession of critics; and yet I am not aware that any have noticed it. What is a _health_? a wish, a moral idea, and how could that be 'five fathom deep'? or be an object of terror to a soldier? It may be said that it is the cup that is meant, but of this we have no instance; and even if we had, Master Silence, who was a man of peace, sings--

"Fill the cup and let it come;
I'll pledge you a mile to the bottóm."

So, as we may see, he was not, and why should a soldier be, afraid of it? Malone quotes from Westward Hoe, 1607, a passage in which we have drinking _fathom deep_, and it is apparently drinking healths; but there is nothing about terror in it, and it seems, no unusual circumstance, to have arisen from the present line. In fine, something must have been named that was a real object of terror to a soldier; and I know no word so likely to have been used as _trenches_, which might easily have been mistaken for 'healths.' In that case the metric accent falling on 'five' would augment the terror.

* * * * *

"This is she _that_."

* * * * *

SC. 5. "His son was but a ward two years ago.--
Good youths, i' faith!--Oh! youth's a jolly thing."

The last line is only found in 4to 1597. It is so natural and so pleasing, that I could not refrain from adopting it.

* * * * *

"It seems she hangs upon the cheek of Night,
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear."

This is the reading of both 4tos and folio; yet editors have adopted the far inferior reading of the 2nd folio '_Her beauty_ hangs!' We have the same idea in

"Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new."
Son. xxvii.

* * * * *

"So shews a snowy dove, trooping with crows,
As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows."

The 4to 1597 reads in the first line _shines_; and the first 'shews' has every appearance of having been, as usual, suggested by the second.

* * * * *

"This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this."

So Warburton, for _sin_ of 4tos and folio.