Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/132

Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint. A lover may bestride the gossamer[C 1][E 1] That idles in the wanton summer air, And yet not fall; so light is vanity.20

Jul.	Good even to my ghostly confessor.[E 2]

Fri.	Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.

Jul.	As much to him, else is[C 2] his thanks too much.

Rom.[C 3]

Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy Be heap'd like mine, and that thy skill be more25 To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath This neighbour air, and let rich music's[C 4] tongue Unfold the imagined happiness that both Receive in either by this dear encounter.

Jul.	Conceit,[E 3] more rich in matter than in words,30 Brags of his substance, not of ornament: They are but beggars that can count their worth;[E 4] But my true love is grown to such[C 5] excess I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth.[C 6][E 5]

1. 18, 19. gossamer … idles] F 4; gossamours, … ydeles Q, F.
2. 23. is Q, in F.
3. 24. Rom.] Q, Fri. F.
4. 27. music's] F, musicke Q.
5. 33. such] Q, such such F.
6. 34. sum up sum of half my Q; summe up some of halfe my Qq 4, 5, F.

1. 18. gossamer] floating thread or threads of spider's silk (goose-summer, possibly from its downy appearance; but see New Eng. Dict. for objections). Malone and others read "gossamers That idle."
2. 21. confessor] accented as here (on con) by Shakespeare; the variation of accent in Henry VIII. has been taken as one of the indications of double authorship. In Q I Juliet's first word is Romeo. He responds:
   "My Iuliet welcome. As doo waking eyes
   (Cloasd in Nights mysts) attend the frolicke Day,
   So Romeo hath expected Iuliet,
   And thou art come.
   Jul. I am (if I be Day)
   Come to my Sunne: shine foorth, and make me faire."
3. 30. Conceit … ] Such imagination as is more rich, etc. For conceit compare IV. iii. 37.
4. 32. worth] wealth, as in Twelfth Night, III. iii. 17. For the idea compare Ant. and Cleop. I. i. 15: "There's beggary in the love that can be reckon'd."
5. 34. sum … wealth] No emendation is required; Capell's has, however, found favour with editors—"sum up half my sum of wealth."