To wield old partisans, in hands as old, Cankered with peace, to part your cankered hate. Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace. [Exeunt Prince, and Attendants; CAPULET, LA. CAP., TYBALT, Citizens, and Servants. Mon. Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach? Speak, nephew, were you by when it began? Ben. Here were the servants of your adversary, La. Mon. O, where is Romeo?-saw you him Right glad I am he was not at this fray. Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipped sun Towards him I made; but he was 'ware of me, I, measuring his affections by my own, That most are busied when they are most alone, 1 The Poet found the name of this place in Brooke's Tragicall History of Romeus and Juliet, 1562. It is there said to be the castle of the Capulets. Pursued my humor, not pursuing his, And gladly shunned who gladly fled from me. Ben. My noble uncle, do you know the cause? Is to himself-I will not say, how true- So far from sounding and discovery, Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.1 Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow, We would as willingly give cure, as know. Enter ROMEO, at a distance. Ben. See, where he comes. So please you, step aside; I'll know his grievance, or be much denied. Mon. I would thou wert so happy by thy stay, To hear true shrift.-Come, madam, let's away. [Exeunt MONTAGUE and Lady. 1 The old copy reads: "Or dedicate his beauty to the same." The emendation is by Theobald; who states, with plausibility, that sunne might easily be mistaken for same. Ben. Good morrow, cousin. Ben. But new struck nine. Is the day so young? Ah me! sad hours seem long. Was that my father that went hence so fast? Ben. It was.-What sadness 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 favor, where I am in love. Ben. Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof! Rom. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will! 1 Where shall we dine?-O me!-—What fray was here? Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. Here's much to do with hate, but more with love. O heavy lightness! serious vanity! Mishapen chaos of well-seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! This love feel I, that feel no love in this. Dost thou not laugh? Ben. No, coz, I rather weep. Rom. Good heart, at what? Ben. At thy good heart's oppression. 1 i. e. should blindly and recklessly think he can surmount all obstacles to his will. 2 Every ancient sonnetteer characterized Love by contrarieties. Watson begins one of his canzonets "Love is a sowre delight, and sugred griefe, Turberville makes Reason harangue against it in the same manner :-"A fierie frost, a flame that frozen is with ise! A heavie burden light to beare! A vertue fraught with vice!" &c. Rom. Why, such is love's transgression.Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast; Which thou wilt propagate, to have it pressed With more of thine: this love, that thou hast shown, Doth add more grief to too much of mine own. Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; Being urged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears. What is it else? a madness most discreet, A choking gall, and a preserving sweet. Farewell, my coz. Ben. Soft, I will go along; An if you leave me so, you do me wrong. [Going. 'Rom. Tut, I have lost myself; I am not here; This is not Romeo; he's some other where. 3 Ben. Tell me in sadness, whom she is you love. Ben. But sadly tell me who. Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will. Ah, word ill urged to one that is so ill! In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman. Ben. I aimed so near, when I supposed you loved. From love's weak, childish bow she lives unharmed. That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.* 1 Such is the consequence of unskilful and mistaken kindness. 2 The old copy reads, " Being purged a fire," &c.-The emendation admitted into the text was suggested by Dr. Johnson. To urge the fire is to kindle or excite it. 3 i. e. in seriousness. 4 The meaning appears to be, as Mason gives it," She is poor only, because she leaves no part of her store behind her, as with her, all beauty will die." Ben. Then she hath sworn, that she will still live chaste? Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste; For beauty, starved with her severity, Ben. Be ruled by me, forget to think of her. Rom. 'Tis the way To call hers, exquisite, in question more.1 These happy masks,2 that kiss fair ladies' brows, Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair; He that is strucken blind, cannot forget The precious treasure of his eyesight lost. Show me a mistress that is passing fair, What doth her beauty serve, but as a note Where I may read, who passed that passing fair? Farewell; thou canst not teach me to forget. Ben. I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt. [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Street. Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant. Cap. And Montague is bound as well as I, In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think, For men so old as we to keep the peace. Par. Of honorable reckoning are you both; 1 i. e. to call her exquisite beauty more into my mind, and make it more the subject of conversation. 2 This means no more than the happy masks, according to a form of expression not unusual with the old writers. |