what you

Sam. Yes, better, fir.
Abr. You lie.

Sam. Draw, if you be men,-Gregory, remember thy swashing blow?

[They fight. Ben. Part, fools; put up your swords ; you know not do.

[beats down their swords.

Enter TYBALT. Tyb. What, art thou drawn among these heartless

hinds? Turn thee, Benvolio, look upon thy death.

Ben. I do but keep the peace; put up thy sword, Or manage it to part these men with me. Tyb. What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the

word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee : Have at thee, coward.

[They fight. Enter several Partizans of both houses, who join the fray;

then enter Citizens, with Clubs. 1. Cit. Clubs', bills, and partizans ! ftrike! beat them

down! Down with the Capulets ! down with the Montagues !

pened in this place : Gregory is a servant of the Capulets; and Benvolio was of the Montague faction. FARMER.

Perhaps there is no mistake. Gregory may mean Tybalt, who entert immediately after Benvolio, but on a ditferent part of the stage. The eyes of the lervant may be directed the way he sees Tybalt coming, and in the mean time, Benvolio enters on the opposite fide. STEEV,

9-by swathing bluw.] Ben Jonson uses this expression in his Staple of News: " I do confess a a /washing blow." Again, in As you like it :

“ I'll have a martial and a swafoing outside." To swasn seems to have meant to be a bully, to be noisily valiant. So, Greene, in his Card of Fancy, 1608: “min 1pending and spoiling, in Twearing and swojhing," Barrett, in his Alvearie, 1580, says, that " to swash is to make a noile with (wordes against tergats." STEEV.

See Vol. V. p. 323, n. 6. MALONE.

1 Clubs, bills, &c.] When an affray arose in the freets, clubs was the usual exclamation. See Vol. Ni, p. 219, n. 6, and Vol. VI. p. 22, n, l. MALONE.

Enter

Enter CAPULET, in his gown; and Lady CAPULET. Cap. What noise is this ?--Give me my long sword!?,

ho! La. Cap. A crutch, a crutch!-- Why call you for a

sword? Cap. My sword, I say !-Old Montague is come, And Aourishes his blade in spight of me.

Enter MONTAGUE, and Lady MONTAGUE. Mon. Thou villain, Capulet,-Hold me not, let me

go. La. Mon. Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.

Enter Prince, with Attendants. Prin. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, Profaners of this neighbour-ftained steel, Will they not hear? - what ho! you men, you beasts,That quench the fire of your pernicious rage With purple fountains issuing from your veins, On pain of torture, from those bloody hands Throw your mif-temper'd weapons to the ground, And hear the sentence of your moved prince.Three civil brawis, bred of an airy word, By thee, old Capulet, and Montague, Have thrice disturb’d the quict of our streets; And made Verona's ancient citizens

2 Give me my long sword,] The long sword was the sword used in war, which was sometimes wielded with both hands. JOHNSON.

See Vol. 1. p. 228, n. 8. MALONE.

'This long sword is mentioned in The Coxcomb, a comedy by Beaumont and Fletcher, where the justice says:

6. Take their confessions, and any long sword;

I cannot tell what danger we may meet with." It appears that it was once the tathion to wear two swords of different fizes at the same time. So in Decker's Satiromaftix: “ Peter Salamander, tie up your great and your little sword."

STEEVENS. The little sword was probably nothing more than a dagger,

MALONE. i-mis-temper'd weapons] are angry weapons. So in K. Jobn: " This inundation of mis-temper'd humour," &c. STEEVENS.

Caft by their grave beseeming ornaments,
To wield old partizans, in hands as old,
Canker'd with peace, to part your canker'd hate :
If ever you disturb our streets again,
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace.
For this time, all the rest depart away:
You, Capulet, Mall go along with me;
And, Montague, come you this afternoon,
To know our further pleasure in this case,
To old Free-town, our common judgment-place *.
Once more, on pain of death, all men depart.

[Exeunt Prince, and Attendants ; CAPULET, Lady

CAPULET, 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,
And yours, close fighting ere I did approach :
I drew to part them; in the instant came
The firy 'iybalt, with his sword prepar'd;
Which, as he breath'd defiance to my ears,
He swung about his head, and cut the winds,
Who, nothing hurt withal, hiss’d him in scorn:
While we were interchanging thrusts and blows,
Came more and more, and fought on part and part,
Till the prince came, who parted either part.

La. Mon. O, where is Romeo !--saw you him to-day? Right glad I am, he was not at this fray.

Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipp'd fun
Peer'd forth the golden window of the eart,
A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad;

4 To old Freetown, our common judgment-place.) This name the poet found in The Tragicall Ily,fcry of Romeus and Juliet, 1562. It is there laid to be the caitle of the Capulets. MALONE.

Peer'd fortb the golden window of the eafi,] The same thought of. curs in Spenser's Faery Quein, B. 2. C. 10.

“ Early before the murn with cremosin ray

“ The windows of bright heaven opened had,
« Through which into the world the dawning day
" Might looke," &c. STEEVENS.

Where,

Where,-underneath the grove of sycamour,
That westward rooteth from the city's fide,
So early walking did I see your son:
Towards him I made ; but he was 'ware of me,
And stole into the covert of the wood:
1, measuring his affections by my own,-
That most are busied when they are most alone,
Pursu'd my humour, not pursuing his,
And gladly shunn'd who gladly fed from me?.

Mon. Many a morning hath he there been seen,
With tears augmenting the fresh morning's dew,
Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep fighs :
But all so soon as the all-cheering sun
Should in the furthest east begin to draw
The shady curtains from Aurora's bed,
Away from light steals home my heavy son,
And private in his chamber pens himself;
Shuts up his windows, locks fair day-light out,
And makes himself an artificial night;
Black and portentous must this humour prove,
Unless good counsel may the cause remove.

Ben. My noble uncle, do you know the cause?
Mon. I'neither know it, nor can learn of him.
Ben. Have you impórtun'd' him by any means ?

Mon. Both by myself, and many other friends:
Bat he, his own affections' counfellor,
Is to himself— I will not say, how true
But to himself so secret and so close,
So far from founding and discovery,
As is the bud bit with an envious worm,

o Tbat most are bufied, &c.] Edition 1597. Instead of which it is in the other editions thus :

by my own,
Which then moit fought, where most might not be found,
Being one too many by my weary self,

Pursu'd my humour, &c. РОРЕ. ? And gladly punn'd, &c.] The ten lines following, not in the edition 1597, but in the next of 1599. POPE.

Ben. Have you impórrun'd, &c.] These two specches also omitted n edition 1597, buc inserted in 1599. Popr.

Ere

Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
Or dedicate his beauty to the same.
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 deny'd.

Mon. I would, thou wert so happy by thy stay, To hear true fhrift.-Come, madam, let's away.

[Exeuni MONTAGUE, and Lady. Ben. Good morrow, cousin.

9 Or dedicate bis beauty to the same.] I cannot but suspect that some lines are lost, which connected this fimile more closely with the fore. going speech: these lines, if such there were, lamented the danger that Romeo will die of his melancholy, before his virtues or abilities were known to the world. JOHNSON,

I suspect no loss of connecting lines. The same expression occurs in Timon, Act 4. Sc. 2.

“ A dedicated beggar to the air." STEEVENS. Dr. Johnson's conjecture is, I think unfounded; the fimile relates! solely to Romeo's concealing the cause of his melancholy, and is agaia used by Shakspeare in Twe'fi b Night:

66 - She never told her love,
“ But let concealment, like a worm i'ibe bud,

« Feed on her damask cheek." Mr. Theobald reads--to the sun. In the old spelling sunne and fame were easily confounded. In the last act of this play our poet has evi. dently imitated the Rosamond of Daniel; and in the present passage might have remembered the following lines in one of the Sonnets of the same writer, who was then extremely popular. The lines, whether remembered by our authour or not, add such support to Mr. Theobald's emendation, that I should have given it a place in the text, but that the other mode of phraseology was not uncommon in Shako speare's time :

“ And whilst thou Spread'f unto the rising funne,
" The fairert flower that ever saw the light,
“ Now joy thy time, before thy sweet be done."

Daniel's Sonnets, 1594. The line quoted by Ms. Steevens does not appear to me to be adverse to this emendation. The bud could not dedicate its beauty to the fun, without at the same time dedicating it to the air.

A fimilar phraseology, however, to that of the text may be found in Daniel's 14th, 320, 44th, and 53d Sonnets. MALONI.

Rom.