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“ Take him and cut him out into little ſtars,
“ And he will make the face of heaven ſo fine,
“ That all the world ſhall be in love with night,
“ And pay no worſhip to the gariſh ſun.”
Romeo and Juliet.
Mr. Steevens in his obſervations on Romeo and Juliet has quoted theſe lines from Daniel’s Complaint of Roſamond:
“ And nought-reſpecting death (the laſt of paines)
“ Plac'd his pale colours (th’ enſign of his might)
“ Upon his new-got ſpoil, &c.”
So in Romeo and Juliet, Act V. Sc. iii.
“ Beauty’s enſign yet
“ Is crimſon in thy lips, and in thy cheeks,
“ And death’s pale flag is not advanced there.”
That Shakeſpeare imitated Daniel, or was imitated by him, there can, I think, be little doubt. The early appearance of The Complaint of Roſamond[1], (which is commended by Naſhe, in a tract entitled Pierce Pennileſſe his Supplication, &c. 1592,) ſeems to authorize the former opinion.
From a ſpeech of the Nurſe in this play, which contains theſe words–“ It is now ſince the earthquake eleven years, &c.” Mr. Tyrwhitt conjectures, that Romeo and Juliet, or at leaſt part ot it, was written in 1591; the novels from which Shakſpeare may be ſuppoſed to have drawn his ſtory, not mentioning any ſuch circumſtance; while, on the other hand, there actually was an earthquake in England on the 6th of April, 1580, which he might here have had in view[2].—It is not without great diſtruſt of my own opinion that I expreſs my diſſent from a gentleman, to whoſe judgment the higheſt reſpect is due; but, I own, this argument does not appear to me concluſive. It ſeems extremely improbable, that Shakſpeare, when he was writing this tragedy, ſhould have adverted, with ſuch preciſion, to the date of an earthquake that had been felt in his youth; unleſs we ſuppoſe him to have entertained ſo ſtrange and incongruous a thought, as to wiſh to perſuade his audience, that the events which
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