The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she, "The maid that soon married is, soon marred is." The jingle between marr'd and made is likewise frequent among the old writers. So, Sidney: "Oh! he is marr'd, that is for others made!" Spenser introduces it very often in his different poems. Steevens. Making and marring is enumerated among other unlawful games in the Stat. 2 and 3, Phi. and Ma. c. 9. Great improvements have been made on this ancient game in the present century. Malone. 2 She is the hopeful lady of my earth:] This line is not in the first edition. Pope. She is the hopeful lady of my earth:] This is a Gallicism: Fille de terre is the French phrase for an heiress. King Richard II calls his land, i. e. his kingdom, his earth: "Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth.” Again: "So weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth." Steevens. The explanation of Mr. Steevens may be right; but there is a passage in The Maid's Tragedy, which leads to another, where Amintor says: "This earth of mine doth tremble, and I feel "A stark affrighted motion in my blood." Here earth means corporal part. M. Mason. Again, in this play: "Can I go forward, when my heart is here? Again, in our author's 146th Sonnet: "Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth, -." Malone. -- 3 My will to her consent is but a part;] To, in this instance, signifies in comparison with, in proportion to. So, in King Henry VIII: "These are but switches to them." Steevens. 4 Earth-treading stars, that make dark heaven light:] This nonsense should be reformed thus: Such comfort, as do lusty young men feels Earth-treading stars that make dark even light: i. e. When the evening is dark, and without stars, these earthly stars supply their place, and light it up. So again, in this play: "Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night, "Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear." Warburton. But why nonsense? is any thing more commonly said, than that beauties eclipse the sun? Has not Pope the thought and the word? "Sol through white curtains shot a tim'rous ray, Both the old and the new reading are philosophical nonsense; but they are both, and both equally, poetical sense. Johnson. I will not say that this passage, as it stands, is absolute nonsense; but I think it very absurd, and am certain that it is not capable of the meaning that Johnson attributes to it, without the alteration I mean to propose, which is, to read: Earth-treading stars that make dark, heaven's light. That is, earthly stars that outshine the stars of heaven, and make them appear dark by their own superior brightness. But according to the present reading, they are earthly stars thatenlighten the gloom of heaven. M. Mason. The old reading is sufficiently supported by a parallel passage in Churchyard's Shore's Wife, 1593: 66 My beautie blasd like torch or twinckling starre, "A liuely lamp that lends darke world some light.' Mr. M. Mason's explanation, however, may receive countenance from Sidney's Arcadia, Book III: 5 "Did light those beamy stars which greater light did dark." Steevens. do lusty young men feel-1 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 Copland: Of limping winter treads, even such delight And like her most, whose merit most shall be: "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 amarous, was surely as much as the old man ought to say: ubi subdita flamma medullis, "Vere magis (quia vere calor redit ossibus).” "That al thing ginnith waxin gay, &c.— 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, "Whan kynde corage begynneth to pryke; "And sore desire 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 have I been absent in the spring Again, in Tancred and Gismund, a tragedy, 1592: "Tell me not of the date of Nature's days, وو "Then in the April of her springing age· Malone. 6 Inherit at my house;] To inherit, in the language of Shak speare's age, is to possess. See Vol. VII, p. 12, n. 7. Malone. Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one, 7 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. 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, 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: 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, 66 is to fall to none, "For one no number is." Again, in Shakspeare's 136th Sonnet: 66 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, every where he would resort where ladies wont to meet; "Eke should his savage heart like all indifferently, Come, go with me;-Go, sirrah, trudge about Whose names are written there,. [gives a paper] and to them say, My house and welcome on their pleasure stay. [Exeunt CAP. and PAR. Serv. Find them out, whose names are written here ?9 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. 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:1 "No knight or gentleman of high or low renown 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 tells 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. 8 - 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, "Or by his name, in paper sent, appointed as a guest." Malone. 9 Find them out, whose names are writtten 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. 1 with another's languish :] This substantive is again found |