Chapter CVIII: Act II

SC. 1. "Young Abraham Cupid, he that shot so trim."

Mr. Dyce reads auburn, and he gives undoubted instances of _Abraham_ or _Abram_ being used for this word. Still I incline to the general reading, first given by Upton, of _Adam_, with an allusion to Adam Bell, the great archer; and I think there may be another to Adam, the first man; for Shakespeare may have known that in classic mythology Love was the first of beings. There would be humour, then, in 'young Adam' denoting the union of youth and age.

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SC. 2. "Her vestal-livery is but pale and green."

The reading of 4to 1597; the others and the folio have 'sick and green.'

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"As glorious to this night being o'er my head."

Theobald most tastelessly read the _sight_.

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"When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds."

The reading of 4to 1597; the others and the folio read '_puffing_,' caused, as has been observed, by _passing_ spelt with long _s_s in the MS.

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"To cease thy strife, and leave me to my grief."

The undated 4to reads _suit_ for 'strife,' which has been generally, and rightly, adopted. In the poem of Romeus and Juliet, the latter uses the very expression _cease your suit_ on the same occasion.

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"Romeo!--My dear!--At what o'clock to-morrow?"

For 'My dear,' the reading of the undated 4to, that of 1597 has _Madam_; the others and the folio _My niece_; the 2nd folio _My sweet_, the usual reading.

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SC. 4. "She will indite him to some supper."

The 4to 1597 has _invite_; but Benvolio was probably anticipating the nurse's language.

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"Bid her devise some means to come to shrift
This afternoon." * * * *

There is something lost here; perhaps _to the Franciscan convent_.

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"R is for the ... no; I know it begins" etc.

Editors in general read, after Tyrwhitt, 'R is for the _dog_.' Mr. Collier has 'R is for thee? no.'

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SC. 5. "My words would bandy her to my sweet love,
And his to me. * * * *
But old folks many faine as they were dead,
Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead."

In the second line we might add _would bandy her again_. 'Many faine' in the next is nonsense; for 'many,' _marry_ has been proposed, and I adopt it, reading _fare_ (to go, to move along, a Spenserian term) for 'fame.' In Cor. ii. 2 we have again _ain_ for _ar_. For 'pale' we should probably read _dull_.

"And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
Is fashion'd for the journey, _dull and heavy_."
Timon, ii. 1.

We have elsewhere (Mer. of Ven. ii. 7) "_dull_ lead." Moreover lead is not pale, and the Nurse would seem to have been rather a jolly, rubicund sort of woman; if _fare_ be the right reading, it would almost require _dull_. On the other hand, we have in Chaucer (Tr. and Cr. ii), "With asshen _pale as lede_," and (Dream) "That _pale_ he wax as any _lede_."

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"They'll be in scarlet straight at any news."

I had been anticipated by Hanmer in reading 'straight_way_' and '_my_'. Sidney Walker, too, I find, read 'at _my next_ news.' In the errata of a work printed in 1754 I have met "for _my_ r. _any_." I, however, read in preference,

"They will be straight in scarlet at my news."