Note VI.
II. 2. 184-II. 3. 5. This passage was printed substantially right in the Quarto of 1597. The Quarto of 1599 inserted after the first line of Romeo's speech the first four of the Friar's, repeating them in their proper place. In Juliet's speech, the same edition by printing one line as two, and mistaking the stage directions gave rise to a further corruption in the Quarto of 1609.
In Q2 (1599) the passage stands:
'Good night, good night.
Parting is such sweete sorrow,
That I shall say good night, till it be morrow.
Iu. Sleep dwel vpon thine eyes, peace in thy breast.
Ro. Would I were sleepe and peace so sweet to rest
The grey eyde morne smiles on the frowning night,
Checkring the Easterne Clouds with streaks of light,
And darknesse fleckted like a drunkard reeles,
From forth daies pathway, made by Tytans wheeles.
Hence will I to my ghostly Friers close cell,
His helpe to craue, and my deare hap to tell.
Exit.
Enter Frier alone with a basket.
Fri. The grey-eyed morne smiles on the frowning night,
Checking the Easterne clowdes with streaks of light:
And fleckeld darknesse like a drunkard reeles,
From forth daies path, and Titans burning wheeles:
Now ere &c.'
In Q3(1609) we read:
'Good night, good night.
Ro. Parting is such sweete sorrow,
That I shall say goodnight, till it be morrow.
Iu. Sleepe dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast.
Rom. Would I were sleepe and peace so sweete to rest
The gray-eyde morne, &c.'
For the rest Q3 follows Q2 without any material variation, except that it reads 'fleckeld' for 'fleckted,' in the eighth line.
The fourth Quarto, undated, has ejected the intruding lines and distributed the dialogue right. One error alone remains, viz. that 'Good night, good night ... sorrow' is divided still into two lines. The fifth Quarto follows the fourth.
The first Folio follows the third Quarto as usual without any variation of importance.
The second Folio, followed by the third and fourth, inserts, 'Exit' after the word 'breast,' adopts the reading of the first down to the end of Romeo's speech, and makes the Friar's begin at line 5, thus:
'Fri. Now ere the Sun advance his burning eye, &c.'
Pope restored the true arrangement. In the fourth line of the Friar's speech he introduced 'pathway made by Titan's wheels' from the passage as first given in Q2 Q3 F1.