But I must hasten to notice another point of view in which the subject is presented.
3. Didactic expositions of the theme.
With a mere reference to Montague’s description of his son’s humors, in the first scene, I pass to the following speech of Benvolio in the second scene:
Tut man! one fire burns out another’s burning,
One pain is lessened by another’s anguish;
Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;
One desperate grief cure with another’s languish;
Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
And the rank poison of the old will die.
And thus throughout the play one passion, sentiment, or whim, is constantly succeeding and driving out another.