Such comfort, as do lusty young men feel" 7 do lusty young men feel-] To say, and to say in pompous words, that a young man shall feel as much in an assembly of beauties, as young men feel in the month of April, is surely to waste sound upon a very poor sentiment. I read: Such comfort as do lusty yeomen feel. You shall feel from the sight and conversation of these ladies, such hopes of happiness and such pleasure, as the farmer receives from the spring, when the plenty of the year begins, and the prospect of the harvest fills him with delight. JOHNSON. Young men are certainly yeomen. So, in A lytell Geste of Robyn Hode, printed by Wynken de Worde: "Robyn commaunded his wight yong men. "Of lii. wyght yonge men. "Seuen score of wyght yonge men. "Buske you my mery yonge men." In all these instances Copland's edition, printed not many years after, reads-yeomen. So again, in the ancient legend of Adam Bel, printed by Cop land: "There met he these wight yonge men. "Now go we hence sayed these wight yong men. But I have no doubt that he printed from a more antiquated edition, and that these passages have accidentally escaped alteration, as we generally meet with "wyght yemen." See also Spelman's Glossary; voce JUNIORES. It is no less singular that in a subsequent act of this very play the old copies should, in two places, read "young trees" and "young tree," instead of yew-trees, and yew-tree. RITSON. The following passages from Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose, and Virgil's third Georgick, will support the present reading, and show the propriety of Shakspeare's comparison: for to tell Paris that he should feel the same sort of pleasure in an assembly of beauties, which young folk feel in that season when they are most gay and amorous, was surely as much as the old man ought to say: ubi subdita flamma medullis, "Vere magis (quia vere calor redit ossibus).” Of limping winter treads, even such delight And like her most, whose merit most shall be: Romaunt of the Rose, v. 51, &c. Again, in The Romaunce of the Sowdon of Babyloyne &c. MS. Penes Dr. Farmer: "Hit bifelle by twyxte marche and maye, "When lovers slepen with opyn yee, "As nightingalis on grene tre, "That thay myghte with there love be" &c. p. 2. STEEVENS. Our author's 99th Sonnet may also serve to confirm the reading of the text: "From you I have been absent in the spring, "When proud-pied April dress'd in all his trim, "Hath put a spirit of youth in ev'ry thing." Again, in Tancred and Gismund, a tragedy, 1592: "Tell me not of the date of Nature's days, "Then in the April of her springing age-" MALONE. • Inherit at my house; ] To inherit, in the language of Shakspeare's age, is to possess. See Vol. XI. p. 3, n. 7. MALONE. 9 Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one, May stand in number, though in reckoning none.] The first of these lines I do not understand. The old folio gives no help; the passage is there, Which one more view. I can offer nothing better than this: Within your view of many, mine, being one, May stand in number, &c. JOHNSON. Such, amongst view of many, &c.] Thus the quarto, 1597. In the subsequent quarto of 1599, that of 1609, and the folio, the line was printed thus: Which one [on] more view of many, &c. MALONE. Come, go with me ;-Go, sirrah, trudge about A very slight alteration will restore the clearest sense to this passage. Shakspeare might have written the lines thus: Search among view of many: mine, being one, May stand in number, though in reckoning none. i. e. Amongst the many you will view there, search for one that will please you. Choose out of the multitude. This agrees exactly with what he had already said to him: Hear all, all see, “And like her most, whose merit most shall be.” My daughter (he proceeds) will, it is true, be one of the number, but her beauty can be of no reckoning (i. e. estimation) among those whom you will see here. Reckoning for estimation, is used before in this very scene: "Of honourable reckoning are you both." STEEVENs. This interpretation is fully supported by a passage in Measure for Measure: 66 our compell'd sins "Stand more for number, than accompt." i.e. estimation. There is here an allusion to an old proverbial expression, that one is no number. So, in Decker's Honest Whore, Part II: 66 to fall to one, is to fall to none, "For one no number is." Again, in Marlowe's Hero and Leander: "One is no number." Again, in Shakspeare's 136th Sonnet: "Among a number one is reckon'd none, " Then in the number let me pass untold." The following lines in the poem on which the tragedy is founded, may add some support to Mr. Steevens's conjecture: "To his approved friend a solemn oath he plight,— 66 every where he would resort where ladies wont "Eke should his savage heart like all indifferently, eye. * "No knight or gentleman of high or low renown 66 Young damsels thither flock, of bachelors a rout; "Not so much for the banquet's sake, as beauties to search out." MALONE. Whose names are written there,' [Gives a Paper.] and to them say, My house and welcome on their pleasure stay. [Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS. SERV. Find them out, whose names are written here? It is written-that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am sent to find those persons, whose names are here writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned:-In good time. ९ This passage is neither intelligible as it stands, nor do I think it will be rendered so by Steevens's amendment." To search amongst view of many,' "is neither sense nor English. The old folio, as Johnson tell us, reads Which one more view of many And this leads us to the right reading, which I should suppose to have been this: Whilst on more view of many, mine being one, &c. With this alteration the sense is clear, and the deviation from the folio very trifling. M. MASON. 1 -find those persons out, Whose names are written there,] Shakspeare has here closely followed the poem already mentioned: "No lady fair or foul was in Verona town, "No knight or gentleman of high or low renown, MALONE. * Find them out, whose names are written here?] The quarto, 1597, adds: "And yet I know not who are written here: I must to the learned to learn of them: that's as much as to say, the tailor," &c. STEEVENS. Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO. BEN. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning, One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish; Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning; One desperate grief cures with another's languish: Take thou some new infection to thy eye, 3 - with another's languish:] This substantive is again found in Antony and Cleopatra.-It was not of our poet's coinage, occurring also (as I think) in one of Morley's songs, 1595: "Alas, it skills not, 4 "For thus I will not, "Now tormented, "Live in love and languish." MALONE. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning, Take thou some new infection to thy eye, And the rank poison of the old will die.] So, in the poem: "Ere long the townish dames together will resort: "Some one of beauty, favour, shape, and of so lovely port, "With so fast-fixed eye perhaps thou may'st behold, "That thou shalt quite forget thy love and passions past 1 of old. "And as out of a plank a nail a nail doth drive, "So novel love out of the mind the ancient love doth rive." Again, in our author's Coriolanus: "One fire drives out one fire; one nail one nail.” So, in Lyly's Euphues, 1580: " a fire divided in twayne burneth slower-one love expelleth another, and the remembrance of the latter quencheth the concupiscence of the first." MALONE. Veterem amorem novo, quasi clavum clavo repellere, is a morsel of very ancient advice; and Ovid also has assured us, that"Alterius vires subtrahit alter amor." Or, "Successore novo truditur omnis amor." Priorem flammam novus ignis extrudit, is also a proverbial phrase. STEEVENS. |