SCENE III.--1. _Fearful._ Full of fear, afraid; Cf. _M.N.D._ v. 1. 101,

165, etc.

2. _Parts._ Gifts, endowments. Cf. iii. 5. 181 below: "honourable parts."

6. _Familiar._ A quadrisyllable here.

7. _Sour company._ Cf. "sour woe" in iii. 2. 116 above, "sour misfortune" in v. 3. 82 below, etc. The figurative sense is a favourite one with S.

10. _Vanish'd._ A singular expression, which Massinger has imitated in _The Renegado_, v. 5: "Upon those lips from which those sweet words vanish'd." In _R. of L._ 1041 the word is used of the breath.

20. _Exile._ For the variable accent (cf. 13 above and 43 below), see on iii. 1. 190.

26. _Rush'd aside the law._ Promptly eluded or contravened the law. The expression is peculiar, and may be corrupt. "Push'd" and "brush'd" have been suggested as emendations.

28. _Dear mercy._ True mercy. Cf. _Much Ado_, i. 1. 129: "A dear happiness to women," etc.

29. _Heaven is here_, etc. "All deep passions are a sort of atheists, that believe no future" (Coleridge).

33. _Validity._ Value, worth. Cf. _A.W._ v. 3. 192:--

"O, behold this ring, Whose high respect and rich validity Did lack a parallel."

See also _T.N._ i. 1. 12 and _Lear_, i. 1. 83.

34. _Courtship._ Courtesy, courtliness (as in _L. L. L._ v. 2. 363: "Trim gallants, full of courtship and of state," etc.); with the added idea of privilege of courting or wooing. For a similar blending of the two meanings, cf. _A.Y.L._ iii. 2. 364.

38. _Who._ Cf. i. 1. 109 and i. 4. 97 above.

42. _Free men._ Bitterly sarcastic.

45. _Mean._ Often used by S. in the singular, though oftener in the plural. Cf. _W.T._ iv. 4. 89:--

"Yet nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean," etc.

See also v. 3. 240 below.

48. _Howling._ For the association with _hell_, cf. _2 Hen. IV._ ii. 4. 374 and _Ham._ v. 1. 265.

49. _Confessor._ For the accent, see on ii. 6. 21 above.

52. _Fond_ = foolish; as often in S. Cf. iv. 5. 78 below.

55. _Adversity's sweet milk._ Cf. _Macb._ iv. 3. 98: "the sweet milk of concord," etc.

59. _Displant._ Transplant. S. uses the word only here and in _Oth._ ii. 1. 283: "the displanting of Cassio."

60. _Prevails._ Avails. Cf. _unprevailing_ in _Ham._ i. 2. 107.

62. _When that._ This use of _that_ as a "conjunctional affix" is common. Cf. ii. 6. 25 above.

63. _Dispute._ That is, reason. The verb is used transitively in a similar sense in _W.T._ iv. 4. 411 and _Macb._ iv. 3. 220.

70. _Taking the measure_, etc. Cf. _A.Y.L._ ii. 6. 2: "Here lie I down, and measure out my grave."

77. _Simpleness._ Folly. Elsewhere = simplicity, innocence; as in _Much Ado_, iii. 1. 70, _M.N.D._ v. 1. 83, etc. Cf. _simple_ in ii. 5. 38 and iii. 1. 35.

85. _O woful sympathy_, etc. The early eds. give this speech to the Nurse. Farmer transferred it to the Friar, and is followed by most of the modern eds.

90. _O._ Grief, affliction. In _Lear_, i. 4. 212, it means a cipher. It is also used for anything circular; as marks of small-pox (_L. L. L._ v. 2. 45), stars (_M.N.D._ iii. 2. 188), a theatre (_Hen. V._ prol. 13), and the earth (_A. and C._ v. 2. 81).

94. _Old._ Practised, experienced. Cf. _L. L. L._ ii. 1. 254, v. 2. 552, _T. and C._ i. 2. 128, ii. 2. 75, etc.

98. _My conceal'd lady._ Not known to the world as my wife. _Conceal'd_ is accented on the first syllable because before the noun.

103. _Level._ Aim; as in _Sonn._ 117. 11: "the level of your frown;" _Hen. VIII._ i. 2. 2: "the level Of a full-charg'd confederacy," etc. Cf. the use of the verb in _Much Ado_, ii. 1. 239, _Rich. III._ iv. 4. 202, etc.

106. _Anatomy._ Contemptuous for body; as in _T.N._ iii. 2. 67.

108. _Hold thy desperate hand!_ etc. Up to this point, as Marshall remarks, the Friar "treats Romeo's utter want of self-control with a good-humoured tolerance.... It is only when the young man's passion threatens to go to the point of violating the law of God and man that he speaks with the authority of a priest, and in the tone of stern rebuke. This speech is a most admirable composition, full of striking good sense, eloquent reasoning, and noble piety."

109. _Art thou_, etc. Cf. Brooke's poem:--

"Art thou quoth he a man? thy shape saith, so thou art: Thy crying and thy weping eyes, denote a womans hart. For manly reason is quite from of [off] thy mynd outchased, And in her stead affections lewd, and fancies highly placed. So that I stoode in doute this howre (at the least) If thou a man, or woman wert, or els a brutish beast."

113. _Ill-beseeming._ Cf. i. 5. 76 above.

115. _Better temper'd._ Of better temper or quality. Cf. _2 Hen. IV._ i. 1. 115: "the best temper'd courage in his troops."

118. _Doing damned hate._ Cf. v. 2. 20 below: "do much danger," etc.

119. _Why rail'st thou_, etc. Malone remarks that Romeo has not here railed on his birth, etc., though in Brooke's poem he does:--

"And then, our Romeus, with tender handes ywrong: With voyce, with plaint made horce, wͭ sobs, and with a foltring tong, Renewd with nouel mone the dolours of his hart, His outward dreery cheere bewrayde, his store of inward smart, Fyrst nature did he blame, the author of his lyfe, In which his ioyes had been so scant, and sorrowes aye so ryfe: The time and place of byrth, he fiersly did reproue, He cryed out (with open mouth) against the starres aboue," etc.

In his reply the Friar asks:--

"Why cryest thou out on loue? why doest thou blame thy fate? Why dost thou so crye after death? thy life why dost thou hate?"

122. _Wit._ See on i. 4. 47 above.

127. _Digressing._ Deviating, departing. It is = transgressing in _Rich. II._ v. 3. 66: "thy digressing son."

132. _Like powder_, etc. See on ii. 6. 10 above. Steevens remarks: "The ancient English soldiers, using match-locks instead of flints, were obliged to carry a lighted _match_ hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden _flask_ in which they kept their powder."

134. _And thou_, etc. And thou torn to pieces with thine own means of defence.

144. _Pout'st upon._ Cf. _Cor._ v. 1. 52: "We pout upon the morning."

151. _Blaze._ Make public. Cf. _blazon_ in ii. 6. 26 above, and _emblaze_ in _2 Hen. VI._ iv. 10. 76.

154. _Lamentation._ Metrically five syllables.

157. _Apt unto._ Inclined to, ready for. Cf. iii. 1. 32 above.

166. _Here stands_, etc. "The whole of your fortune depends on this" (Johnson). Cf. ii. 3. 93 and ii. 4. 34 above.

171. _Good hap._ Piece of good luck. Cf. ii. 2. 190 above.

174. _So brief to part._ To part so soon.