Sc. 1.
"Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
Or dedicate his beauty to the same."
This is the reading of all the old editions; but the correction of Theobald, sun for 'same,' is so obvious and so natural that I had made it long before I was aware I had been anticipated.
"Why, gentle cousin, such is love's transgression."
I make this insertion with confidence; for this is the only speech in this play beginning with a short line not complementary to the end of a preceding speech. In our poet's plays of this period speeches never began with a short line, unless when complementary, and at no time was the second line of a couplet short. (Introd. p. [82].) Lower down (i. 5) we have "Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone," where the 4to, 1597, omits all but "let him alone."
"Being vexed, a sea nourish'd with lover's tears."
As Johnson also saw, a line is lost here.