Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/13

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INTRODUCTION


In the text of this edition of Romeo and Juliet I have introduced only two readings not previously found in editions of authority; first, I have placed a comma in I. ii. 32 after the words "view of"; secondly, in III. v. 43 I have inserted the hyphens in "love-lord" and "husband-friend." I hope these slight changes may commend themselves to some readers; if the former be correct, it solves a long recognised difficulty. I have not altered the received punctuation of III. ii. 5–8, although I venture to suggest in Appendix III. ("Runaway's eyes") a new punctuation, which, as regards lines 5, 6, commends itself to me; the suggestion respecting line 7 I offer as a mere possibility. I am not so sanguine as to expect that readers long familiar with the received text will accept my suggestions as to that difficult passage; but how should any critic neglect to add his stone to the cairn under which the meaning lies buried? I accept Theobald's reading "sun" in I. i. 157, and in so doing follow the best modern editors. With some reluctance I read in II. i. 13, "Adam Cupid," yielding to the authority of Dyce (ed. 2), the Cambridge editors, Furness, and others; and in a note I try to point out possi-

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