ACT II.
Scene 2. Page 398.
Rom. It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.
This line in particular, and perhaps the whole of the Scene, has been imitated by the ingenious author of the Latin comedy of Labyrinthus. In Act III. Scene 4, two lovers meet at night, and the Romeo of the piece says to his mistress, "Quid mihi noctem commemoras, mea salus? Splendens nunc subitò illuxit dies, ubi tu primum, mea lux, oculorum radiis hasce dispulisti tenebras." This excellent play was acted before King James I. at Cambridge, and for bustle and contrivance has perhaps never been exceeded.
Scene 2. Page 398.
Jul. Thou art thyself though, not a Montagu.
Dr. Johnson would have substituted then for though; but without necessity, because in that sense the latter word was anciently written tho: unskilful printers, deceived by sound, substituted though; whence the ambiguity has arisen. Thus Chaucer in his Canterbury tales, v. 2214,
"Yet sang the larke, and Palamon right tho
With holy herte and with a high corāge
He rose."
And again, v. 2392,
"For thilk sorrow that was tho in thyn herte."
Thus much in explanation of though, if put here for then, which is by no means clear. Mr. Malone's quotations on the other side of the question carry great weight with them.
Scene 2. Page 400.
Rom. When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds
And sails upon the bosom of the air.
On this occasion Shakspeare recollected the 104th psalm, "Who maketh the clouds his charet, who walketh upon the wings of the winde."
Scene 2. Page 405.
Jul. ... at lovers perjuries,
They say, Jove laughs.
This Shakspeare found in Ovid's Art of love, perhaps in Marlow's translation, book I,
"For Jove himself sits in the azure skies,
And laughs below at lovers perjuries."
With the following beautiful antithesis to the above lines, every reader of taste will be gratified. It is given memoriter from some old play, the name of which is forgotten;
"When lovers swear true faith, the list'ning angels
Stand on the golden battlements of heaven,
And waft their vows to the eternal throne."
Scene 2. Page 410.
Rom. How silver-sweet sound lovers tongues by night.
In Pericles, Act V., we have silver-voic'd. Perhaps these epithets have been formed from the common notion that silver mixed with bells softens and improves their tone. We say likewise that a person is silver-tongued.
Scene 3. Page 414.
Fri. O mickle is the powerful grace, that lies
In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities:
For nought so vile that on the earth doth live,
But to the earth some special good doth give;
Nor aught so good, but strain'd from that fair use
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse.
Thus all the copies. But in Swan's Speculum mundi, the first edition of which was published in 1635, they are quoted with the following variations;
"O mickle is the powerful good that lies
In herbs, trees, stones, and their true qualities:
For nought so vile that on the earth doth live,
But to the earth some secret good doth give.
And nought so rich on either rock or shelf;
But, if unknown, lies uselesse to itself."
Scene 4. Page 427.
Mer. ... for this driveling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.
When the physical conformation of idiots is considered, the latent but obscene allusion which this speech conveys will be instantly perceived. What follows is still less worthy of particular illustration. Mercutio riots in this sort of language. The epithet driveling is applied to love as a slavering idiot; but Sir Philip Sidney has made Cupid an old drivell. See the lines quoted from the Arcadia by Dr. Farmer, Much ado about nothing, Act III. Scene 2.
Scene 4. Page 431.
Nurse. I pray you sir, what saucy merchant was this, that was so full of his ropery?
Mr. Steevens has justly observed that the term merchant was anciently used in contradistinction to gentleman. Whetstone, in his Mirour for majestrates of cyties, 1584, 4to, speaking of the usurious practices of the citizens of London who attended the gaming-houses for the purpose of supplying the gentlemen players with money, has the following remark: "The extremity of these men's dealings hath beene and is so cruell as there is a natural malice generally impressed in the hearts of the gentlemen of England towards the citizens of London, insomuch as if they odiously name a man, they foorthwith call him, a trimme merchaunt. In like despight the citizen calleth every rascall a joly gentleman. And truly this mortall envie betweene these two woorthie estates, was first engendred of the cruell usage of covetous merchaunts in hard bargaines gotten of gentlemen, and nourished with malitious words and revenges taken of both parties."
With respect to ropery,—the word seems to have been deemed unworthy of a place in our early dictionaries, and was probably coined in the mint of the slang or canting crew. It savours strongly of the halter, and appears to have signified a low kind of knavish waggery. From some other words of similar import, it may derive illustration. Thus a rope-rype is defined in Hulæt's Abcedarium to be "an ungracious waghalter, nequam;" and in Minsheu's dictionary, "one ripe for a rope, or for whom the gallowes grones." A roper has nearly the same definition in the English vocabulary at the end of Thomasii Dictionarium, 1615, 4to; but the word occasionally denoted a crafty fellow, or one who would practise a fraud against another (for which he might deserve hanging). So in the book of blasing of arms or coat armour, ascribed to Dame Juliana Bernes, the author says, "which crosse I saw but late in tharmes of a noble man: the whiche in very dede was somtyme a crafty man, a roper, as he himself sayd," sig. Aij. b. Roper had also another sense, which, though rather foreign to the present purpose, is so quaintly expressed in one of our old dictionaries, that the insertion of it will doubtless be excused:—"Roper, restio, is he that loketh in at John Roper's window by translation, he that hangeth himselfe."—Hulæt's Abcedarium Anglico-Latinum, 1552, folio. Rope-tricks, elsewhere used by Shakspeare, belongs also to this family.
Scene 4. Page 431.
Nurse. I am none of his skains-mates.
This has been explained cut-throat companions, and frequenters of the fencing school, from skein, a knife or dagger. The objection to this interpretation is, that the nurse could not very well compare herself with characters which it is presumed would scarcely be found among females of any description. One commentator thinks that she uses skains-mates for kins-mates, and ropery for roguery; but the latter words have been already shown to be synonymous, and the existence of such a term as kins-mate may be questioned. Besides, the nurse blunders only in the use of less obvious words.
The following conjecture is therefore offered, but not with entire confidence in its propriety. It will be recollected that there are skains of thread; so that the good nurse may perhaps mean nothing more than sempstresses, a word not always used in the most honourable acceptation. She had before stated that she was "none of his flirt-gills."