P. 142. (33) "Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That rude day's eyes may wink, and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen!" The old eds. have "That runnawayes eyes," &c., and "That run-awayes eyes," &c.-Theobald printed, at Warburton's suggestion, "That th' Run-away's eyes,” &c.,—“ the Run-away" being, as Warburton thought, the sun.—According to Steevens, here "runaway" means night; according to Douce, Juliet; and the late Rev. N. J. Halpin wrote a whole essay (Shakespeare Soc. Papers, ii. 14) to prove that it means Cupid!—Heath (in his Revisal) and Mr. Grant White (in Shakespeare's Scholar, &c. p. 374) would read "That Rumour's eyes," &c., the latter remarking that "Rumor' was spelt rumoure, in Shakespeare's day, and the possessive case rumoures, of course:" but the first folio is directly opposed to such a conclusion; in it the substantive "rumour," which occurs twenty-one times, IS ALWAYS SPELT either "rumour" or "rumor,"-in the plural, either "rumours" or "rumors;" nor can I see any probability that "rumour's," in whatsoever manner spelt, should have been mistaken for "runnawayes.” Besides, though writers frequently make mention of Rumour's tongues or tongue (so our author in the Induction to The Sec. Part of Henry IV., "From Rumour's tongues They bring smooth comforts," &c. and in King John, act iv. sc. 2, "but this from rumovr's tongue I idly heard," &c.), they never, I believe, allude to Rumour's eyes, except when they are describing that personage in detail.—Mason's emendation is "That Renomy's eyes," &c.! Jackson's, "That unawares eyes," &c.; the Rev. J. Mitford's (Gent. Magazine for June 1845, p. 580), “That Luna's eyes," &c.,-" when the L of Luna was changed into R, and made 'Runa,' then the sense was entirely lost, and, to give at least some meaning to the word, it was made into 'Runa-way';" the late Sydney Walker's (as Mr. W. N. Lettsom informs me), "That Cynthia's eyes," &c.; and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector's, "That enemies' eyes," &c. In my Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's eds. of Shakespeare, &c., 1844, p. 172, I offered two restorations,-" That rude day's eyes," &c., and "That soon day's eyes," &c.; and in my Few Notes, &c., 1853, p. 112, I started a third one," That roving eyes," &c. The first of these I have now inserted in the text; and I have given it the preference to all the other readings yet proposed, not from any overweening fondness for my own conjecture, but because it indisputably comes the nearest to the ductus literarum of the old corruption. I must not omit to add, that it also occurred to a gentleman, who, not aware that it was already in print, communicated it to Notes and Queries for Sept. 1853, p. 216.-Mr. Mitford, indeed, objects to it (ubi supra) that "Day's eyes would wink' whether the night was cloudy or clear; so the force of 'cloudy' would be lost by this reading,"- -an objection which carries no weight, for the present address to Night is certainly to be considered as distinct from the lines which precede it.-Again, Mr. Grant White (ubi supra, p. 378) is of opinion that "all the suggestions, except Rumor's, fail to meet "The sullen Night hath her black Curtaines spred, Whose faire eyes closing softly steales to bed," &c. Barons Warres, b. iii. st. 17, ed. 8vo. (This stanza,—which goes far to support the reading, “rude day's eyes,”—is very different in the folio ed.): and I need hardly cite the well-known lines in our author's Macbeth,— "Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day," &c. Act iii. sc. 2. Nor ought any one to urge against the reading, "That rude day's eyes may wink, and Romeo," &c.,-that it makes "Romeo" a trisyllable, while afterwards in this speech that name occurs as a dissyllable; for elsewhere we find “Romeo" used both as a dissyllable and a trisyllable in the same speech. So, p. 140, Again, p. 145, And p. 165, "Ben. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's [dissyll.] hand did slay; Romeo [dissyll.] that spoke him fair, bade him bethink And, as he fell, did Romeo [dissyll.] turn and fly,” &c. "Nur. Hie to your chamber: I'll find Romeo [trisyll.] To comfort you:-I wot well where he is. Hark ye, your Romeo [dissyll.] will be here at night," &c. Because he married me before to Romeo [dissyll.]? And there die strangled ere my Romeo [dissyll.] comes ?" &c. P. 142. (5) "Whiter than new snow on a raven's back." This is not in the first quarto.-The quartos of 1599 and 1609, and the folio, have “Whiter then new snow vpon a rauens backe.”—The undated quarto has "Whiter then snow vpon a Rauens backe."-With the editor of the second folio, I have changed "vpon” to “on.” The old eds. have "swounded," &c., "sounded," &c., and (the fourth folio) "swooned:" see note (87), p. 88. The old eds. have "Rauenous douefeatherd rauen," &c. P. 146. (9) "hath rush'd aside the law," &c. Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector,-see Mr. Collier's one-volume Shakespeare,— substitutes "brush'd” for “rush'd" but vide Todd's Johnson's Dict. in "Rush, V. a." P. 147. (40) "And steal immortal blessing from her lips; This may flies do, when I from this must fly : And say'st thou yet, that exile is not death? : So the folio, except that it gives the line “But Romeo may not,—he is banishèd” after “And say'st thou yet," &c.,—an error retained from the quartos of 1599 and 1609, and the undated quarto, where the passage stands thus,— "And steale immortall blessing from her lips, Who euen in pure and vestall modestie Still blush, as thinking their owne kisses sin. This may flies doe, when I from this must flie, Here the first quarto is much less full. VOL. V. P. 148. (1) "Fri. L. O woeful sympathy! Piteous predicament !” In the old eds. this is spoken by the Nurse. Farmer first suggested that it should be assigned to the Friar. P. 150. (42) "Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love.” So the undated quarto (“ Thou powts upon," &c.); which I notice because Mr. Knight (who prints, with the folio, "Thou puttest up thy fortune," &c.!) misrepresents in his note the reading of that quarto. P. 152. (43) “Afore me, it is so very very late, That we may call it early by and by :— So the first line stands in the first quarto.-The subsequent quartos have so very late," &c.; and the folio has merely "so late," &c.-The passage is usually given thus,— 66 "Afore me, it is so very late, that we May call it early by and by:-good night,”— an arrangement evidently against the author's intention: and compare the close of the preceding scene. P. 152. (4) "I'll say yon grey is not the morning's eye, 66 Cyn The two Ms. Correctors,-Mr. Collier's and Mr. Singer's,-read thia's bow" but "brow" suits the context ("eye") better than "bow." P. 153. (45) "Art thou gone so? my lord, my love, my friend!" &c. So the first quarto; which reading I have preferred to that of the later eds.,"Art thou gone so, Loue, Lord, ay husband, friend," &c. because I have great doubts (though Mr. Knight and Mr. Collier have none) if the "ay" is to be understood as equivalent to "yes" (the usual old spelling of it in that sense being "I"): the editor of the second folio altered it to "ah;" for which perhaps it was intended. The "him" was inserted by the editor of the second folio. P. 155. (47) "To wreak the love I bore my cousin," &c. This line being imperfect, the editor of the second folio added "Tybalt." But the omitted word, as Malone remarks, was more probably an epithet to Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector assigns these words to Lady Capulet; and Mr. Collier calls it “a judicious arrangement."-Can any thing be plainer than that Juliet exclaims "these are news indeed!" in reference to what her mother has said a little before, "But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl”? P. 155. (49) "When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle dew," &c. Mr. Collier, who (like Mr. Knight) gives " the earth doth drizzle dew," &c., observes here: “Malone says that the undated quarto has air for ‘earth.' Such does not appear to be the case, according to Steevens's collation of it with the quarto 1609; and certainly every other ancient copy has 'earth,' which Malone fully justifies (though he prints air) by the following line from Shakespeare's Lucrece,' 'But as the earth doth weep, the sun being set.'”The undated quarto (in the British Museum) is now before me; and it gives the line exactly thus, "When the Sun sets, the Ayre doth drisle deaw," &c. As to the passage from our author's Lucrece,-Steevens showed long ago that it did not "justify" (what, indeed, could ?) such an utter absurdity as "the EARTH DRIZZLING dew." P. 157. (50) "God's bread! it makes me mad: Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play, So all the old eds. except the first quarto, which has, "Gods blessed mother wife it mads me, Day, night, early, late, at home, abroad, Still my care hath beene to see her matcht," &c. In neither form is the passage free from corruption. The usual modern read ing is a composite one, P. 162. ($1) "God's bread! it makes me mad: day, night, late, early, At home, abroad, alone, in company, Waking or sleeping, still my care hath been To have her match'd," &c. "In thy best robes, uncover'd, on the bier, Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault," &c. |