Of limping winter treads, even fuch delight And like her moft, whofe merit most shall be: "That al thing ginnith waxin gay, &c.- "For to ben gaie and amorous, "The time is then fo favorous." Romaunt of the Rofe, v. 51," &c. Again, in The Romaunce of the Sowdon of Babyloyne &c. MS. Penes Dr. Farmer. "Hit bifelle by twyxte marche and maye, "As nightingalis on grene tre, "And fore defire that thai cowde flye "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, Again, in Tancred and Gifmund, a tragedy, 1592: "Then in the April of her Springing age-." MALONE. * Inherit at my houfe ;] To inherit, in the language of Shakfpeare's age, is to poffefs. See Vol. XI. p. 3, n. 7. MALONE. Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one, May ftand in number, though in reckoning none.] The first of thefe lines I do not understand. The old folio gives no help; the paffage is there, Which one more view. I can offer nothing better than this: Within your view of many, mine, being one, Such, amongst view of many, &c.] Thus the quarto, 1597. In the fubfequent 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, firrah, trudge about A very flight alteration will restore the clearest sense to this paffage. Shakspeare might have written the lines thus: Search among view of many: mine, being one, May ftand in number, though in reckoning none. i. e. Amongst the many you will view there, fearch for one that will pleafe you. Choose out of the multitude. This agrees exactly with what he had already faid to him: 66 Hear all, all fee, "And like her moft, whofe 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 fee 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 paffage in Measure for Measure: 66 our compell'd fins "Stand more for number, then accompt." i.e. eftimation. There is here an allufion to an old proverbial expreffion, that one is no number. So, in Decker's Honeft Whore, Part II: 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 folemn oath he plight, 66 every where he would refort where ladies wont to meet ; "Eke fhould his favage heart like all indifferently, "No knight or gentleman of high or low renown Young damfels thither flock, of bachelors a rout; "Not fo much for the banquet's fake, as beauties to Search out." MALONE. Whofe names are written there,' [Gives a Paper.] and to them fay, My house and welcome on their pleasure stay. [Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS, SERV. Find them out, whofe names are written here? It is written-that the fhoemaker 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 fent to find those perfons, whose names are here writ, and can never find what names the writing perfon hath here writ. I muft to the learned:-In good time. This paffage is neither intelligible as it ftands, nor do I think it will be rendered fo by Steevens's amendment." To fearch amongst view of many," is neither fenfe nor English. The old folio, as Johnson tells us, reads→→→→→ Which one more view of many And this leads us to the right reading, which I should fuppofe to have been this: Whilft on more view of many, mine being one, &c. With this alteration the fenfe is clear, and the deviation from the folio very trifling. M. MASON. find thofe perfons out, Whofe 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, "Or by his name, in paper fent, appointed as a guest." MALONE. 2 Find them out, whofe 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 fay, the tailor," &c. STEEVENS. Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO. BEN. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning, One pain is leffen'd by another's anguish; Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning; One defperate grief cures with another's languish: 3 Take thou fome new infection to thy eye, And the rank poifon of the old will die.+ 3with another's languifh:] This fubftantive is again found in Antony and Cleopatra.-It was not of our poet's coinage, occurring alfo (as I think) in one of Morley's fongs, 1595: "Alas, it fkills not, "For thus I will not, "Now tormented, "Live in love and languish." MALONE. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning,- And the rank poifon of the old will die.] So, in the poem : "Some one of beauty, favour, fhape, and of fo lovely port, "With fo faft-fixed eye perhaps thou may'ft behold, 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 flower;-one love expelleth another, and the remembrance of the latter quencheth the concupifcence of the first." MALONE. Veterem amorem novo, quafi clavum clavo repellere, is a morfel of very ancient advice; and Ovid also has affured us, that-"Alterius vires fubtrahit alter amor.” Or, "Succeffore novo truditur omnis amor." Priorem flammam novus ignis extrudit, is also a proverbial phrafe. STEEVENS. ROM. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.5 ROM. For your broken fhin. BEN. Why, Romeo, art thou mad? ROM. Not mad, but bound more than a madman is: Shut up in prifon, kept without my food, Whipp'd, and tormented, and-Good-e'en, good fellow. SERV. God gi' good e'en.-I pray, fir, can you read? ROM. Ay, mine own fortune in my mifery. SERV. Perhaps you have learn'd it without book: But I pray, can you read any thing you fee? ROM. Ay, if I know the letters, and the language. SERV. Ye fay honeftly; Reft you merry! ROM. Stay, fellow; I can read. [Reads. Signior Martino, and his wife, and daughters; County Anfelme, and his beauteous fifters; The lady widow of Vitruvio; Signior Placentio, and his lovely nieces; Mercutio, and his brother Valentine; Mine Your plantain leaf is excellent for that,] Tackius tells us, that a toad, before the engages with a spider, will fortify herself with fome of this plant; and that, if she comes off wounded, fhe cures herself afterwards with it. DR. GREY. The fame thought occurs in Albumazar, in the following lines: "Help, Armellina, help! I'm fall'n i' the cellar: "Bring a fresh plantain leaf, I've broke my shin." Again, in The Cafe is Alter'd, by Ben Jonfon, 1609, a fellow who has had his head broke, fays: ""Tis nothing, a fillip, a device fellow Juniper, prithee get me a plantain." The plantain leaf is a blood-ftauncher, and was formerly applied to green wounds. STEEVENS. |