Bentley's Miscellany, Volume II

The original words are, "Idem vir vanus et mundanus, ut nimis inolevit nostris pontificibus."

3

The Peris of Persian romance are supposed to feed upon the choicest odours; by which food they overcome their bitterest enemies the Deevs, (with whom they wage incessant war,) whose malignant nature is impatient of fragrance.

4

It is curious that whilst the Hebrew word Beelzebub means "prince of flies," Bugaboo, in negro language, signifies "the white ant," which is deemed the devil's familiar.

5

Was Sir Walter thinking of his own case when he wrote this passage? See his Life by Lockhart, vol. i. p. 242. His family used to call Sir Walter Old Peveril, from some fancied resemblance of the character.

6

Is there not a line missing?

7

Rosaline was niece of Capulet. The list of persons invited to the ball is

• "Signior Martino, and his wife and daughters;

• County Anselm[o], and his beauteous sisters;

• The lady widow of Vetruvio;

• Signior Placentio, and his lovely nieces;

• Mercutio, and his brother Valentine;

• Mine uncle Capulet, his wife and daughters;

• My fair niece Rosaline; [and] Livia;

• Signior Valentio, and his cousin Tybalt;

• Lucio, and the lively Helena."

I have altered Anselme to the Italian form Anselmo, and in the seventh line inserted and. I think I may fairly claim this list as being in verse. It is always printed as prose.

8

Is there not some mistake in the length of time that this sleeping-draught is to occupy, if we consider the text as it now stands to be correct? Friar Lawrence says to Juliet, when he is recommending the expedient,

"Take thou this phial, being then in bed,
And this distilled liquor drink thou off:
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour, which shall seize
Each vital spirit, &c.
And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt remain full two and forty hours,
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep."

Juliet retires to bed on Tuesday night, at a somewhat early hour. Her mother says after she departs, "'Tis now near night." Say it is eleven o'clock: forty-two hours from that hour bring us to five o'clock in the evening of Thursday; and yet we find the time of her awakening fixed in profound darkness, and not long before the dawn. We should allow at least ten hours more, and read, which would fix her awakening at three o'clock in the morning, a time which has been marked in a former scene as the approach of day.

"Thou shalt remain full two and fifty hours," —

"Cap. Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock has crow'd, —
The curfew bell hath rung, – 'tis three o'clock."

Immediately after he says, "Good faith, 'tis day." This observation may appear superfluously minute; but those who take the pains of reading the play critically will find that it is dated throughout with a most exact attention to hours. We can time almost every event. Ex. gr. Juliet dismisses the nurse on her errand to Romeo when the clock struck nine, and complains that she has not returned at twelve. At twelve she does return, and Juliet immediately proceeds to Friar Lawrence's cell, where she is married without delay. Romeo parts with his bride at once, and meets his friends while "the day is hot." Juliet at the same hour addresses her prayer to the fiery-footed steeds of Phœbus, too slowly for her feelings progressing towards the west. The same exactness is observed in every part of the play.

I may remark, as another instance of Romeo's ill luck, the change of the original wedding-day. When pressed by Paris, old Capulet says that "Wednesday is too soon, – on Thursday let it be;" but afterwards, when he imagines that his daughter is inclined to consult his wishes, he fixes it for Wednesday, even though his wife observes that Thursday is time enough. Had this day not been lost, the letter of Friar Lawrence might still have been forwarded to Mantua to explain what had occurred.

9

Vide Chaucer, &c.

10

For the former specimen, as well as some critical account of the comic sonnets of the Italians, see the April number of Bentley's Miscellany.

11

This incident has suggested to Sir Walter Scott the catastrophe of the diabolical Alasco, in Kenilworth:

"The old woman assured Varney that Alasco had scarce eaten or drunk since her master's departure, living perpetually shut up in the laboratory, and talking as if the world's continuance depended on what he was doing there.

"'I will teach him that the world hath other claims on him,' said Varney, seizing a light and going in search of the alchemist. He returned, after a considerable absence, very pale, but yet with his habitual sneer on his cheek and nostril. 'Our friend,' he said, 'has exhaled.'

"'How! what mean you?' said Foster; 'run away – fled with my forty pounds, that should have been multiplied a thousand fold? I will have Hue and Cry!'

"'I will tell thee a surer way,' said Varney.

"'How! which way?' exclaimed Foster. 'I will have back my forty pounds – I deemed them as surely a thousand pounds multiplied – I will have back my in-put at the least.'

"'Go hang thyself, then, and sue Alasco in the devil's court of Chancery, for thither he has carried the cause.'

"'How! – what dost thou mean? – is he dead?'

"'Ay, truly is he,' said Varney, 'and properly swollen already in the face and body. He had been mixing some of his devil's medicines, and the glass mask, which he used constantly, had fallen from his face, so that the subtle poison entered the brain and did its work.'

"'Sancta Maria!' said Foster; 'I mean, God in his mercy preserve us from covetousness and deadly sin!'"

12

Military terms for a professed duellist, and a duellist-killer.