Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/176

Nurse.[E 1]

Some comfort, nurse. Faith, here 'tis. Romeo Is banished; and all the world to nothing, That he dares ne'er come back to challenge[E 2] you;215 Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth. Then, since the case so stands as now it doth, I think it best you married with the county. O, he 's a lovely gentleman; Romeo's a dishclout[E 3] to him: an eagle, madam,220 Hath not so green,[E 4] so quick, so fair an eye As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart, I think you are happy in this second match. For it excels your first: or if it did not, Your first is dead, or 'twere as good he were225 As living here[E 5] and you no use of him.

Jul.	Speakest thou from thy heart?

Nurse.

Speakest thou from thy heart? And from my soul too;[E 6] Or else beshrew them both.[C 1]

1. 227, 228. And … both] F, one line (omitting or) Q.

1. 213. Nurse] In this speech Shakespeare adopts and develops suggestions from Brooke's poem.
2. 215. challenge] lay claim to. The word is also used for arraign, impeach.
3. 220. dishclout] A common mode of comparison; so Massinger, Bashful Lover, V. i.: "I am gazing on this gorgeous house; our cote's a dishclout to it."
4. 221. green] Hanmer, followed by Warburton and Johnson, read keen. From Chaucer to Longfellow the praises of green or greenish-yellow (citrine) eyes have been sung, and not in English poetry alone. In The Two Noble Kinsmen, V. i., we have "thy rare green eye." In a sonnet by Drummond, the gods advise Nature as to the most desirable colour for Auristella's eyes; Nature accepts the advice of Jove and Venus, and the eyes are "a paradise of green." Compare the comic praise of green eyes in Midsummer Night's Dream, V. i. 342.
5. 226. here] Hanmer read hence; Johnson says that here may signify in this world, an anonymous critic suggests there. Mr. A. Thiselton suggests that here is equal to he 're, that is he were.
6. 227.] To square the line to suit the editor's ear Steevens omitted And, Capell from (before my soul), Hanmer too.