Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/178

And I am nothing slow to slack[C 1][E 1] his haste.

Fri.	You say you do not know the lady's mind: Uneven[E 2] is the course; I like it not.5

Par.

Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death, And therefore have I little talk'd[C 2][E 3] of love, For Venus smiles not in a house of tears. Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous That she doth[C 3] give her sorrow so much sway,[E 4]10 And in his wisdom hastes our marriage,[E 5] To stop the inundation of her tears, Which, too much minded by herself alone, May be put from her by society: Now do you know the reason of this haste.[C 4]15

Fri.	[Aside.][C 5] I would I knew not why it should be slow'd—[E 6] Look, sir, here comes the lady towards[C 6] my cell.

Enter Juliet.

Par.	Happily met,[C 7] my lady and my wife!

Jul.	That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.

1. 3. slow to slack] Q, F; slacke to slow Q 1.
2. 7. talk'd] Q 5; talke Q, F.
3. 10. doth] Q (alone) reads do.
4. 15. haste.] Q, hast? F.
5. 16. [Aside]] Theobald.
6. 17. towards] F, toward Q.
7. 18. Happily met] Q, F; Welcome my love Q 1.

1. 3. slow to slack] Malone: "There is nothing of slowness in me, to induce me to slacken or abate his haste." Johnson conjectured back(for slack), i.e. to abet and enforce. Knight: "I am nothing slow (so as) to slack his haste," which seems the right explanation.
2. 5. Uneven] indirect, not straightforward. See New Eng. Dict., even, 4. Compare "even play of battle," Henry V. IV. viii. 114, and Hamlet, II. ii. 298: "be even and direct with me."
3. 7. talk'd] Mommsen defends talk Q, F, as referring to Juliet's silence consequent on her grief.
4. 10. sway] Collier (MS.) way.
5. 11. marriage] a trisyllable, as occasionally elsewhere in Shakespeare.
6. 16. slow'd] Steevens cites Gorges' Lucaris Pharsalia, ii.: "will you overflow The fields, thereby my march to slow."