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x which may justify or lead towards justifying the "Abraham" of all the early texts.

I may add here that if the nickname "Abraham" was given to Cupid because he is the "father of many nations," an additional comic effect might be gained by choosing for Cupid a name recognised as a favourite one with Elizabethan Puritans. In Middleton's The Family of Love, Dryfat, a member of the "Family," says, "I have Aminadabs and Abrahams to my godsons." I must leave it to some more ingenious critic to make the discovery that we should read "Abron Cupid," and that Shakespeare had noticed in Cooper's Thesaurus (1573): "Abron, the name of a man, whose sensualitie and delicate life is growne to a Proverbe."

The Quarto editions of Romeo and Juliet are the following:—

"An Excellent conceited Tragedie of Romeo and Iuliet, As it hath bene often (with great applause) plaid publiquely, by the right Honourable the L. of Hunsdon his Servants. London, Printed by Iohn Danter. 1597" (Q 1).

"The Most Excellent and lamentable Tragedie, of Romeo and Iuliet. Newly corrected, augmented, and amended: As it hath bene sundry times publiquely acted, by the right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his Servants. London Printed by Thomas Creede, for Cuthbert Burby, and are to be sold at his shop neare the Exchange. 1599." This, the second Quarto, I refer to as Q, unless there is special occasion to distinguish it as Q 2.

The third Quarto (Q 3) was printed in 1609 for