The expression, "a gentleman of the very first house," has been, however, usually understood in a genealogical sense; in which form it occurs also in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Women Pleased," Act I. Sc. 3 :—

"A gentleman's gone then:

A gentleman o' the first house!-there's the end on't!" Warburton supposed the allusion was to Tybalt's pretending to be at the head of his family; to which Steevens objects that Capulet and Romeo were both before him; but the truth is, that neither of them at all interfered with such claim. Romeo was of the house of Capulet only by marriage with Juliet, and in the list of persons represented in the tragedy, Tybalt is called Nephew to Lady Capulet. The real heraldical reference, if that be the genuine sense of the passage, appears to have been quite overlooked. When the bearing of armorial-ensigns became reduced to a science, a series of differences was instituted, the more readily to distinguish between the arms borne by the several sons and descendants of the same family, and to show their order and consanguinity. They consisted of six small figures, called a label, crescent, mullet, martlet, annulet, and fleur-de-lis, which were always to be placed in the most prominent part of the coat-armour. These signs, borne singly, were for the sons of the original ancestors, who constituted that which heralds denominated "the First House;" the issue of those sons formed "the Second House," and carried their differences doubled, beginning with the crescent surmounted of a label, a crescent of a crescent, and so of the rest. It was ordained by Otho, Emperor of Germany, that the eldest son of the first member of the first house should be preferred in dignity before his uncle; and the same regulation was also established in France, and made to include females. Tybalt was, therefore, the eldest son of Lady Capulet's elder brother, and, without pretending to be at the head of his family, was still a gentleman descended of "the very first house."

The passado, more properly passata, meant a step forward or aside in fencing.

"If your enemy be first to strike at you, and if, at that instant, you would make him a passata or remove, it behoveth you to be very ready with your feet and hand, and, being to passe or enter, you must take heede," &c.— SAVIOLO, H. 3.

The punto reverso and the hay were also Italian terms, the former meaning a back-handed stroke :

-or, in both these false thrusts, when he beateth them by with his rapier, you may, with much sodainnesse make a passata with your lefte foote, and your Dagger commanding his Rapier, you maie give him a punta, either dritta, or riversa."-SAVIOLO, K. 2.

And the latter being the exclamation hai, thou hast it, used when a thrust or blow tells; from whence Johnson supposes modern fencers, on the same occasion, cry out ha!

(7) SCENE IV.-Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done.] The wild-goose chase was a barbarous sort of horse-race, in which two horses were started together; and the rider who first got the lead compelled the other to follow him over whatever ground the foremost jockey chose to go. See Chambers' Dictionary, last edition, under the article CHASE; and Holt White's note to this passage in the Variorum Shakespeare.

R

(9) SCENE IV.-Ah, mocker! that's the dog's name. is for the dog.] R, from its resemblance in sound to the growl of a dog, has, time out of mind, been known as the dog's letter; and was, therefore, a very unbefitting initial in the ear of the old woman for anything so sweet as rosemary and Romeo. The dog's letter is amusingly illustrated in a quotation Steevens has adduced from Barclay's "Ship of Fooles," 1578:

"This man malicious which troubled is with wrath, Nought els soundeth but the hoorse letter R. Though all be well, yet he none auns were hath Save the doggees letter glowming with nar, nar.” And Ben Jonson, in his "English Grammar," says "R is the dog's letter, and hurreth in the sound:""Sonat hic de nare caninâ Litera."-Pers. Sat. 1.

Erasmus, as Douce has shown, in explaining the adage, "canina facundia," says, "R, litera quæ in rixando prima est, canina vocatur."

(10) SCENE VI.-Friar Laurence's Cell.] How much the dialogue in this scene was amplified and improved after the publication of the earliest quarto, let the reader judge from a comparison of it with the corresponding scene in that edition :

Jul. I am (if I be Day)

Come to my Sunne: shine foorth, and make me faire.
Rom. All beauteous fairnes dwelleth in thine eyes.
Iul. Romeo from thine all brightnes doth arise.
Fr. Come wantons, come, the stealing houres do passe,
Defer imbracements till some fitter time,
Part for a while, you shall not be alone,
Till holy Church haue ioynd ye both in one.
Rom. Lead holy Father, all delay seemes long.
Iul. Make hast, make hast, this lingring doth vs wrong.
Fr. O, soft and faire makes sweetest worke they say.
Hast is a common hindrer in crosse way.

Exeunt omnes.

(1) SCENE I.-Ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man.] In Italy the funeral follows close upon death, and it was so formerly in England too; hence poor Mercutio's quibble, and the fact of the narcotic administered to Juliet being tempered to operate only "two-and-forty hours," are strictly in keeping with the usages of the period. The same play on the word grave Steevens has found in "The Revenger's Tragedy," 1608, where Vindici dresses up his Lady's skull :

"She has a somewhat grave look with her."

It is met with also in Overbury's "Characters," ed. 1616, where, speaking of a sexton, the author says, "He could willingly all his life time be confinde to the church-yard; at least within five foot on 't for at every church stile, commonly ther's an ale-house: where let him be found never so idle pated, hee is still a grave drunkard.”

Mercutio's last words were improved after the 1597 quarto. There they stand thus:

"I am pepperd for this world, I am sped yfaith, he hath made wormes meate of me, and ye aske for me to morrow you shall find me a graue-man. A poxe of your houses, I shall be fairely mounted vpon foure-mens shoulders: For your house of the Mountegues and the Capolets: and then some peasantly rogue, some Sexton, some base slaue shall write my Epitapth, that Tybalt came and broke the Princes Lawes, and Mercutio was slaine for the first and second cause. Wher's the Surgeon?"

In the quarto, 1597, the speech is continued as follows:

"But Tibalt still persisting in his wrong,

The stout Mercutio drewe to calme the storme,
Which Romeo seeing cal'd stay Gentlemen,
And on me cry'd, who drew to part their strife,
And with his agill arme yong Romeo,

As fast as tung cryde peace, sought peace to make.
While they were enterchanging thrusts and blows,
Vnder yong Romeos laboring arme to part,

The furious Tybalt cast an enuious thrust,

That rid the life of stout Mercutio.

With that he fled, but presently return'd,

And with his rapier braued Romeo:

That had but newly entertain'd reuenge.

And ere I could draw forth my rapyer

To part their furie, downe did Tybalt fall,
And this way Romeo fled."

Roving eyes Luna's eyes Enemies' eyes. Rumourer's eyes. Wary ones' eyes

by Heath.

Monck Mason.

Z. Jackson.

- Dyce.

Gent. Mag. June 1845. Perkins' Folio.

- Singer.

-Anon.

Those who are in favour of retaining run-aways interpret it diversely. Steevens says, Night is the runaway; Warburton thinks, Day is the run-away; Douce, that it is Juliet; and some one else, that it is Romeo; while Mr. Halpin, in an elegant contribution to the Shakespeare Society's Papers, called "The Bridal Run-away," (vol. ii. p. 24,) endeavours to prove the fugitive none other than Cupid himself. Of the proposed emendations, that of Zachary Jackson has found most favour, having been adopted by two very opposite authorities, Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight; but we must decline the invidious task of pronouncing an opinion upon the relative merits of these suggestions, believing that all are equally inadmissible. Whether Shakespeare's "run-away" applied to Romeo, or to Juliet, or to Day, or to Night, or to the Sun, for whom a good case might be made out,

"You, grandsire Phoebus, with your lovely eye,
The firmament's eternal vagabond,

The Heav'n's promoter that doth peep and pry."
Return from Parnassus.

or to the moon, who has some claim to the distinction,—

"Blest night, wrap Cynthia in a sable sheet
That fearful lovers may securely sleep."

Blurt, Master Constable, Act III. Sc. I.

or to the stars, for whom much might be said; or whether "run-away' sometimes bore a wider signification, and implied a spy as well as a fugitive,-in which case the poet may have meant, any wandering, prying eyes,-we are convinced that the old word is the true word, and that "run-aways" (runnawayes) ought to retain its place in the

text.

(4) SCENE II.-Hood my unmann'd blood bating in my cheeks.] The terms hood, unmann'd, and bating, are derived from falconry. The hood was a cap with which the hawk was usually hood-winked. An unmann'd hawk was one not sufficiently trained to be familiar with her keeper, and such birds commonly fluttered and beat their wings violently in efforts to escape. Thus Petruchio, speaking of Katharine, says :

"Another way I have to man my haggard,

To make her come and know her keeper's call;
That is, to watch her, as we watch those kites,
That bate, and beat and will not be obedient."
Taming of the Shrew, Act IV. Sc. I.

(5) SCENE II.-Enter Nurse, with cords.] In the quarto, 1597, the stage direction is :

"Enter Nurse wringing her hands, with the ladder of cords in her lap ;"

and the dialogue, which is much abridged, begins,

"Iul. But how now Nurse: O Lord, why lookst thou sad? What hast thou there, the cordes?

Nur. I, I, the cordes: alacke we are vndone,

We are vndone, Ladie we are vndone.

Iul. What diuell art thou that torments me thus?

Nurs. Alack the day, hees dead, hees dead, hees dead.
Jul. This torture should be roard in dismall hell.

Can heauens be so enuious?

Nur. Romeo can if heauens cannot.

I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes,

God saue the sample, on his manly breast:

A bloodie coarse, a piteous bloodie coarse,

All pale as ashes, I swounded at the sight." &c. &c.

(8) SCENE V.-Hunting thee hence with hunts-up to the day.] "Any song intended to arouse in the morning,even a love-song,-was formerly called a hunt's-up; and the name was, of course, derived from a tune or song employed by early hunters. Butler in his Principles of Musik, 1636, defines a hunt's-up as 'morning music;' and Cotgrave defines Resveil' as a hunt's-up, or Morning Song, for a new married wife." See W. CHAPPELL'S Popular Music of the Olden Time; &c.

The following song, which is taken from a manuscript in Mr. Collier's possession, is of the character of a love-song:THE NEW HUNT'S-UP.

"THE hunt is up, the hunt is up,

Awake, my lady free,

The sun hath risen, from out his prison,

Beneath the glistering sea.

"The hunt is up, the hunt is up,
Awake, my lady bright,
The morning lark is high, to mark
The coming of day-light.

"The hunt is up, the hunt is up,
Awake, my lady fair,

The kine and sheep, but now asleep,
Browse in the morning air.

"The hunt is up, the hunt is up,
Awake, my lady gay,

The stars are fled to the ocean bed,
And it is now broad day.

"The hunt is up, the hunt is up,

Awake, my lady sheen,

The hills look out, and the woods about Are drest in lovely green.

"The hunt is up, the hunt is up, Awake, my lady dear,

A morn in spring is the sweetest thing Cometh in all the year.

"The hunt is up, the hunt is up, Awake, my lady sweet,

I come to thy bower, at this lov'd hour, My own true love to greet."

(9) SCENE V.-A joyful bride.] In the later copies this dialogue between Lady Capulet and Juliet varies in some respects from the earliest quarto. The reader desirous of seeing it in its original form is referred to the Variorum Edition, where it is given at length.

(1) SCENE I.

Take thou this phial, being then in bed, And this distilled liquor drink thou off.] Compare the corresponding passage in the old poem :"Receive this vyoll small, and keepe it as thine eye;

And on the mariage day, before the sunne doe cleare the skye, Fill it with water full up to the very brim,

Then drinke it of, and thou shalt feele throughout eche veyne

and lim

A pleasant slumber slide, and quite dispred at length
On all thy partes, from every part reve all thy kindly strength;
Withouten moving thus thy ydle parts shall rest,

No pulse shall goe, ne hart once beate within thy hollow brest,
But thou shalt lye as she that dyeth in a traunce;
Thy kinsmen and thy trusty friendes shall wayle the sodain
chaunce,

The corps then will they bring to grave in this churchyarde,
Where thy forefathers long agoe a costly tombe preparde,
Both for himselfe and eke for those that should come after,
Both deepe it is, and long and large, where thou shalt rest my
daughter,

Till I to Mantua sende for Romeus, thy knight;

Out of the tombe both he and I will take thee forth that night."

(2) SCENE I.

Then (as the manner of our country is,)

In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier,
Thou shalt be borne.]

The custom of bearing the dead body to burial clad in its ordinary habiliments, and with the face uncovered, appears to have been peculiar to Italy; it is mentioned in the old poem:

"An other use there is, that whosoever dyes,

Borne to their church with open face upon the beere he lyes, In wonted weede attyrde, not wrapt in winding sheete."

and in a passage quoted by Mr. Hunter, ("New Illustrations of Shakespeare," Vol. II. p. 139,) from " Coryat's Crudities:"-" The burials are so strange, both in Venice, and all other cities, towns, and parishes of Italy, that they differ not only from England, but from all other nations whatever in Christendom. For they carry the corse to church with the face, hands, and feet all naked, and wearing the same apparel that the person wore lately before it died, or that which it craved to be buried in; which apparel is interred together with their bodies."Vol. II. p. 27.

(3) SCENE II.—

And am enjoin'd

By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here.]

From this point the scene is thus exhibited in the first quarto :

"And craue remission of so foule a fact.
She kneeles downe.

Moth. Why thats well said.

Capo. Now before God this holy reuerent Frier
All our whole Citie is much bound vnto.
Goe tell the Countie presently of this,
For I will haue this knot knit vp to morrow.
Jul. Nurse, will you go with me to my Closet,
To sort such things as shall be requisite
Against to morrow.

Moth. I pree thee do, good Nurse goe in with her,
Helpe her to sort Tyres, Rebatoes, Chaines,
And I will come vnto you presently.

Nur. Come sweet hart, shall we goe;
Jul. I pree thee let vs.

Exeunt."

(4) SCENE III.-I have a faint cold fear thrills through

my veins.] So the old poem :

"Her dainty tender parts gan shever all for dred,

Her golden heares did stand upright upon her chillish hed.
Then pressed with the feare that she there lived in,

A sweat as colde as mountaine yse pearst through her slender skin."

(5) SCENE III.—

And shrieks like mandrakes' torn out of the earth, That living mortals, hearing them, run mad.] The plant called mandrake was fabulously endowed with a degree of animal life and feeling, and, when drawn from the earth, was said to utter cries so terrible as to kill the gatherer, and madden all who heard them: "Therefore, they did tye some dogge or other lyving beast unto the roote thereof wyth a corde, and digged the earth in compasse round about, and in the meane tyme stopped their own eares for feare of the terreble shriek and cry of this Mandrack. In whych cry it doth not only dye itselfe, but the feare thereof kylleth the dogge or beast which pulleth it out of the earth."-Bulleine's "Bulwarke of Defence Against Sickness," &c. 1575.

(6) SCENE III.-Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.] The reading of the quarto, 1597, which has been deservedly preferred to the redundant and seemingly corrupt line of the subsequent old copies,

"Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, here's drink, I drink to thee."

In other respects the soliloquy is much superior in the latter editions, as will be seen by comparing their version with the following of the first quarto :

"Ah, I doo take a fearfull thing in hand.

What if this Potion should not worke at all,
Must I of force be married to the Countie?
This shall forbid it. Knife, lye thou there.
What if the Frier should giue me this drinke
To poyson mee, for feare I should disclose

Our former marriage? Ah, I wrong him much,
He is a holy and religious Man:

I will not entertaine so bad a thought.
What if I should be stifled in the Toomb?
Awake an houre before the appointed time:

Ah then I feare I shall be lunaticke,

And playing with my dead forefathers bones,
Dash out my franticke brains. Me thinkes I see
My Cosin Tybalt weltring in his bloud,
Seeking for Romeo: stay Tybalt stay.
Romeo I come, this doe I drinke to thee."

(7) SCENE V.

[She fals vpon her bed within the Curtaines.

But one thing to rejoice and solace in,

And cruel death hath catch'd it from my sight.] In this part of the scene the quarto, 1597, has the following stage direction:-"All at once cry out and wring their hands;" and to the next couplet

"And all our joy, and all our hope is dead,

Dead, lost, undone, absented, wholly fled "

is prefixed, All cry. From which we must infer that all the characters present here spoke together. At the close of the scene the direction is:-"They all but the Nurse goe foorth, casting Rosemary on her and shutting the Curtens."

(8) SCENE V.-Enter Peter.] The first quarto has "Enter Seruingman;" and the scene begins :

"Ser. Alack alack what shal I doe, come Fidlers play me some mery dumpe.

1 Mus. A sir, this is no time to play. Ser. You will not then?

1. No marry will wee.

Ser. Then will I giue it you, and soundly to.

1-. What will you giue vs?

Ser. The fidler, Ile re you, Ile fa you, Ile sol you.

1. If you re vs and fa vs, we will note you, &c. &c. &c."

In the after quartos, 1599 and 1609, the direction is, "Enter Will Kemp;" from which it appears that Peter was one of the characters played by this popular actor.

Here dwells a Pothecarie whom oft I noted
As I past by, whose needie shop is stufft
With beggerly accounts of emptie boxes:
And in the same an Aligarta hangs,

Old ends of packthred, and cakes of Roses,
Are thinly strewed to make vp a show.

Him as I noted, thus with my selfe I thought:
And if a man should need a poyson now,
(Whose present sale is death in Mantua)
Here he might buy it. This thought of mine

Did but forerunne my need: and here about he dwels."

(2) SCENE III.-Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?] Compare the old poem :

"Ah cosin dere, Tybalt, where so thy restles sprite now be, With stretched handes to thee for mercy now I crye,

For that before thy kindly howre I forced thee to dye.
But if with quenched lyfe, not quenched be thine yre,
But with revengeing lust as yet thy hart be set on fyre,
What more amendes or cruel wreke desyrest thou

To see on me, then this which here is shewd forth to thee now?
Who reft by force of armes from thee thy living breath,
The same with his owne hand (thou seest,) doth poyson himselfe
to death."

(3) SCENE III.-Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished.] "This line has reference to the novel from which the fable is taken. Here we read that Juliet's female attendant was banished for concealing the marriage: Romeo's servant set at liberty, because he had only acted in obedience to his master's orders: the apothecary taken, tortured, condemned and hanged: while Friar Laurence was permitted to retire to a hermitage in the neighbourhood of Verona, where he ended his life in penitence and tranquillity."-STEEVENS.