42
ROMEO AND JULIET
[ACT I
|
Of yonder knight? |
| Serv. | I know not, sir. |
| Rom. | O, she doth teach the torches[E 1] to burn bright! It seems she[C 1][E 2] hangs upon the cheek of night Like[C 2] a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear[E 3]; Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! 50 So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows,[E 4] As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make blessed[C 3] my rude hand. Did my heart love till now?[C 4] forswear it, sight! 55 For I ne'er[C 5] saw true beauty till this night. |
| Tyb. | This, by his voice, should be a Montague. Fetch me my rapier, boy.—What! dares[C 6] the slave Come hither, cover'd with an antic face[E 5], |
- ↑ 46, 47. knight? … torches] Malone notes that Painter's novel has a lord, Brooke's poem has a knight: "With torch in hand a comely knight did fetch her forth to dance." The complete forgetfulness of Rosaline is also in Brooke's poem.
- ↑ 48. It seems she] The reading Ff 2–4 Her beauty is adopted by many editors; Daniel thinks that Beauty in line 50 requires beauty here. But how came all the early editions, including Q1, to read It seems? If Her beauty be an improvement, it may be the improvement of a stage Romeo, and not Shakespeare's. Steevens quotes Sonnets, xxvii.:
"Which [thy shadow], like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous."
Possibly one may detect faint echoes here of 1 Henry VI. v. iii. 45–71 (Suffolk with Margaret in his hand), touching of hands, kissing fingers, the image of a swan (see note on line 51), "senses rough," and "So seems this gorgeous beauty to mine eyes." Both passages express the sudden tyranny of beauty. - ↑ 49. Ethiop's ear] Holt White quotes Lyly, Euphues: "A fair pearl in a Morian's ear." Scoloker, in Daiphantus (1604}, p. 11, ed. Grosart, echoes this passage: "Or a faire Iewell by an Ethiope worne."
- ↑ 51. So … crows] Q1 has "So shines a snow-white Swan trouping with Crowes."
- ↑ 59. antic face] Romeo's fantastic mask.
