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Come, go with me.—Go, sirrah, trudge about |
| Serv. | Find them out whose names are written here! It[C 1] is written that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last, the 40 fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am sent to find those persons whose names are here writ[C 2], and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned. In good time. 45 |
Enter Benvolio and Romeo.
| Ben. | Tut, man, one fire[E 1] burns out another's burning, One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish; Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning; One desperate grief cures with another's languish: |
- ↑ 46. one fire] Rolfe refers to the proverb "fire drives out fire," and compares Julius Cæsar, III. i. 171, and Coriolanus, iv. vii. 54. The passage was probably suggested by lines in Brooke's poem.
and dashes to make the meaning clearer. Which for who and whom is common in Shakespeare. Reckoning is used for estimation in line 4 of this scene. The meaning I take to be: On more view of whom (i.e. the lady of most merit), many (other ladies)—and my daughter among them—may stand in a count of heads, but in estimation (reckoning, with a play on the word) none can hold a place. The same construction of "which" governed by a following "view of" occurs in Henry VIII. IV. i. 70, 71: "which when the people Had the more view of, such a noise," etc. Commentators, I think, have been misled into supposing an allusion here to the old saying that "one is no number." Q1 has Such amongst view of many myne beeing one,; Capell, On which more view; Mason proposed and Dyce read, Whilst on more view of many,; Daniel, Such amongst, view o'er many,; other suggestions of less value may be found in Cambridge Shakespeare.
