It is used also in Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch. 669. STEEVENS, -You are a princox, go:-] A princox is a coxcomb, a conceited person. The word is used by Ben Jonson in The Case is Alter'd, 1600; by Chapman, in his comedy of MayDay, 1610; in the Return from Parnassus, 1606, "Your proud university princox;" again, in Fuimus Troes, 1633, "That princox proud ;" and indeed by most of the old dramatick writers. Cotgrave renders un jeune estoudeau superbe-a young princox boy. STEEVENS. 672. Patience perforce,] This expression is in part proverbial: the old adage is, "Patience perforce is a medicine for a mad dog." STEEVENS. 694. You kiss by the book.] In As You Like It, we find it was usual to quarrel by the book, and we are told in the note, that there were books extant for good manners. Juliet here appears to refer to a third kind, containing the art of courtship, an example from which it is probable that Rosalind hath adduced. HENLEY. 708. We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.] Towards is ready, at hand. So, in Hamlet: "What might be towards, that this sweaty haste Again, in the Phanix, by Middleton, 1607: "here's "-here's a voyage towards will make us all." STEEVENS. It appears from the former part of this scene, that Capulet's company had supped. A banquet, it should be remembered, often meant in old times nothing more than a collation of fruit, wine, &c. So, in The Life of Lord Cromwell, 1602: "Their dinner is our banquet after dinner.” Again, in Howel's Chronicle of the Civil Wars, 1661, p. 662. "After dinner he was served with a banquet.” MALONE. 710. -honest gentlemen ;] Here the quarto, 1597, adds, “I promise you, but for your company, "I would have been in bed an hour ago : "Light to my chamber, ho!" STEEVENS. 714. Come hither, nurse: What is yon gentleman ?] This and the following questions are taken from the The use of this chorus is not easily discovered; it conduces nothing to the progress of the play, but relates what is already known, or what the next scene will show; and relates it without adding the improvement of any moral sentiment. JOHNSON. ACT II. Line 12. CRY but-Ay me!-couple but love and dove;] The quarto, 1597, reads pronounce, the two succeeding quartos and the first folio, provant: the 2d, 3d, and 4th folios couply; and Mr. Rowe, who printed from the last of these, formed the present reading. Provant, in ancient language, signifies provision. So, in The Court and Kitchen of Elizabeth, called Joan Cromwell, the Wife of the late Usurper, truly described and represented, 1664, p. 14. "-carrying some dainty provant for her own and her daughter's repast." To provant is to provide; and to provide is to furnish. "Provant but love and dove," may therefore mean furnish; bút such hackney'd rhimes as these are the trite effusions of lovers. STEEVENS. 15. Young Adam Cupid,] All the old copies read, Abraham Cupid. The alteration was proposed originally by Mr. Upton. (See Observations, p. 243.) It evidently, as Mr. Reed hath observed, alludes to the famous archer, Adam Bell. 16. When king Cophetua, &c.] Alluding to an old ballad preserved in the first volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. STEEVENS. -her pur-blind son and heir, Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim, When, &c.] This word trim, the first editors consulting the general sense of the passage, and not per ceiving ceiving the allusion, would naturally alter to true; yet the former seems the more humorous expression, and, on account of its quaintness, more likely to have been used by Mercutio. PERCY. So trim is the reading of the oldest copy, and this ingenious conjecture is confirmed by it. In Decker's Satiromastix is a reference to the same archer : 46 -He shoots his bolt but seldom; but when Adam lets go, he hits : "He shoots at thee too, Adam Bell; and his arSTEEVENS. rows stick here." 18. The ape is dead,-] This was a term of endearment in our author's time. So, in Nash's Apologie of Pierce Pennilesse, 1593: "EUPHUES I read, when I was a little ape at Cambridge." MALONE. 33. the humorous night:] I suppose Shakspere means humid, the moist dewy night. Chapman uses the word in that sense in his translation of Homer, Book II. edit. 1598: "The other gods and knights at arms slept all the humorous night." Again, in Drayton's Polyolbion, song 3. "Such matter as she takes from the gross humorous earth." Again, song 13th: “ —which late the humorous night "Bespangled had with pearl.-" Again, in his Barons' Wars, Canto I. "The humorous fogs deprive us of his light." 38. As maids, &c.] After this line in the quarto, 1597, I find two other verses, containing such ribaldry, that I cannot venture to insert them in the text. STEEVENS. 44. He jests at scars,] That is, Mercutio jests, whom he overheard. JOHNSON. He (that person) jests, is merely an allusion to his having conceived himself so armed with the love of Rosalind, that no other beauty could make any impression on him. This is clear from the conversation he has with Mercutio, just before they go to Capulet's feast. REMARKS. 50. Be not her maid,] Be not a votary to the moon, to Diana. JOHNSON. 53. It is my lady;-] This line and half I have replaced. JOHNSON. 68. touch that check!] The quarto, 1597, reads, kiss that cheek. STEEVENS. 71. O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art As glorious to this night,- -] The sense is, that Juliet appeared as splendid an object in the vault of heaven obscured by darkness, as an angel could seem to the eyes of mortals, who were falling back to gaze upon him. As glorious to this night, means, as glorious an appearance in this dark night, &c. It should be observed, however, that the simile agrees precisely with Theobald's alteration-sight-and not so well with the old reading. STEEVENS. |