63-83 Yes, better, sir . . . seek a foe The action of these lines, omitted from Q1, is represented in that edition by the following stage direction: 'They draw. To them enters Tybalt. They fight. To them the Prince, old Montague and his Wife, old Capulet and his Wife, and other Citizens, and part them.'
76 Citizens Editors usually include an Officer with the Citizens entering after l. 75, on the evidence of Q2's speech heading Offi. However, this would appear to be the Q2 compositor's misreading of Citti., the parts of ll. 76-7 being 'confused cries' to be as- signed to various supernumeraries in the crowd of Citizens. Compare the Q2 speech heading Citti. at III.1.141.
78 long sword Capulet calls for the old fashioned medieval weapon rather than the newfangled rapier introduced from the continent to England in Elizabethan times. See II.3.28 N.
79 SD Enter old Montague . . . Wife Editors usually follow Q2 in locating this direction after l. 81, but the dialogue indicates that Montague is already on stage by l. 80.
99-100 If ever you disturb . . . the peace According to Ren- aissance political theory, the Prince's clemency at this point is an error of civil policy, as he himself later recognizes. (Compare III.1.201 N and V.3.294-5.) Machiavelli, for example, in dis- cussing the problem of restoring unity to a divided city, lists three courses of action open to the civil governor: 'the one is to put the leaders [of the opposing factions] to death . . . or to banish them from the city, or to reconcile them to each other under a pledge not to offend again. Of these three ways, the last is the worst, being the least certain and effective; for it is im- possible that, after dissensions that have caused so much blood- shed and other outrages, a forced peace should be enduring. The parties meeting each other daily face to face will with difficulty abstain from mutual insults, and in their daily intercourse fresh causes for quarrel will constantly occur.' ( Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius, 3, 27, in The Prince and the Dis- courses, Modern Library ed., New York, 1940, p. 490.)
134-45 Many a morning . . . remove Montague's description of his son's romantic melancholy parodies the posturing required of the courtly lover. Compare Rosalind's description of 'a man in love' ( As You Like It, III.2.392-403) and Ophelia's account of
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Publication Information: Book Title: The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Contributors: Richard Hosley - editor, William Shakespeare - author. Publisher: Yale University Press. Place of Publication: New Haven, CT. Publication Year: 1954. Page Number: 131.
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