Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/60

Ben.	A right fair mark[E 1], fair coz, is soonest hit.

Rom.

Well[C 1], in that hit you miss: she'll not be hit With Cupid's arrow; she hath Dian's wit; And, in strong proof[E 2] of chastity well arm'd, From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd[C 2][E 3].215 She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide[C 3] the encounter of assailing eyes, Nor ope[C 4] her lap to saint-seducing gold: O, she is rich in beauty; only poor That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store[E 4].220

Ben.	Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste?

Rom.	She hath, and in that sparing makes[C 5] huge waste[E 5]; For beauty, starved[E 6] with her severity,

1. 212. Well] Q, F; But Q1.
2. 215. unharm'd] Q1; uncharmd Q, F.
3. 217. bide] Q, bid F.
4. 218. ope] Q, open F.
5. 222. makes] Q4; make Q, F.

1. 211. mark] Compare Lyly, Gallathea, v. iii.: "But beautie is a faire marke to hit."
2. 214. proof] armour of proof, impenetrable armour, as in Coriolanus, I. iv. 25.
3. 215. unharm'd] Collier (MS.) has encharmed, meaning protected by a charm, as a correction of Q, F uncharmd. Steevens supposed that a compliment to Queen Elizabeth was designed. Q1, from which unharm'd is taken, reads 'Gainst Cupid's childish bow.
4. 220. with … store] I think her store means beauty's store. Rosaline is the possessor of beauty and also of beauty's store, i.e. the reserve of beauty (in posterity) or the propagating power of beauty. Compare Sonnets, xi. , and especially the lines:
   "Let those whom Nature hath not made for store,
   Harsh featureless and rude, barrenly perish."
   If Rosaline dies wedded, beauty indeed dies; but if she dies single, beauty dies and also beauty's store. Theobald read, "with her dies Beauty's store"; but it is not required. Compare also Sonnets, xiv.: "Truth and beauty shall together thrive, If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert," i.e. if you would propagate children.
5. 222. She … waste] Compare Sonnets, i., for the same idea: "And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding."
6. 223. starved] Singer supposes sterv'd (so spelled in Q, F) to mean, as it certainly may, perished, dead.