Jul. The tears have got small victory by that; For it was bad enough, before their spight.

Par. Thou wrong'ft it, more than tears, with that report.

That cop'ft with death himself to scape from it:
And, if thou dar'ft, I'll give thee remedy.

Jul. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder tower;

5 Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk
Where ferpents are; chain me with roaring bears;
Or hide me nightly in a charnel house,
O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,
With reeky thanks, and yellow chaplefs fculls;
Or bid me go into a new-made grave,

10

And hide me with a dead man in his shroud,
Things that, to hear them told, have made me
tremble;

And I will do it without fear or doubt,
15 To live an unftain'd wife to my fweet love.

Jul. That is no flander, fir, which is a truth;
And what I fpake, I spake it to my face. [it.
Par. Thy face is mine, and thou haft flander'd 20
Jul. It may be fo, for it is not mine own.-

Are you at leifure, holy father, now;
Or fhall I come to you at evening mass?

Fri. My leisure ferves me, penfive daughter,|

Come weep with me; Paft hope, paft cure, paft
Fri. Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;
It strains me paft the compass of my wits:
I hear thou muft, and nothing may prorogue it,
On Thursday next be married to this county.

Jul. Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'ft of this,
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it:
If, in thy wisdom, thou canft give no help,
Do thou but call my refolution wife,
And with this knife I'll help it presently.
God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo feal'd,
Shall be the label to another deed,
Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
Turn to another, this fhall flay them both:
Therefore, out of thy long-experienc'd time,
Give me fome prefent counfel; or, behold,
'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
Which the commiffion of thy years and art
Could to no iffue of true honour bring.
Be not fo long to fpeak; I long to die,

If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.

Fri. Hold, daughter; I do fpy a kind of hope,|
Which craves as defperate an execution
As that is defperate which we would prevent.
If, rather than to marry county Paris,
Thou hast the strength of will to flay thyfelf;
Then is it likely, thou wilt undertake
A thing like death to chide away this shame,

25

30

Fri. Hold, then; go home; be merry, give
confent

To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow;
To-morrow night look that thou lie alone,
Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:
Take thou this phial, being then in bed,
And this diftilled liquor drink thou off:
When, prefently, through all thy veins fhall run
A cold and drowsy humour, which shall seize
Each vital fpirit; for no pulse shall keep
His natural progrefs, but furcease to beat:
No warmth, no breath, fhall testify thou liv'ft;
The rofes in thy lips and cheeks fhall fade

To paly afhes; thy eyes' windows fall,
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
Each part, depriv'd of fupple government,
Shall ftiff, and ftark, and cold appear like death:
And in this borrow'd likeness of fhrunk death
Thou fhalt remain full two and forty hours,
35 And then awake as from a pleasant fleep.

Now when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To roufe thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
Then (as the manner of our country is)
In thy beft robes uncover'd on the bier,
40 Thou shalt be borne to that fame ancient vault,
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the mean time, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift;
And hither fhall he come; and he and I

45 Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this fhall free thee from this present shame;
If no unconftant toy 2, nor womanish fear,
Abate thy valour in the acting it.

50 Jul. Give me, O give me! tell me not of fear.
Fri. Hold; get you gone, be ftrong and prof

160 Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, Nurfe, and Servants. Cap. So many guefts invite as here are writ.Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.

Commiffion for authority or power. 2 If no fickle freak, no light aprice, no change of fancy, hinder

the performance.

Serv.

Serv. You fhall have none ill, fir; for I'll try if they can lick their fingers.

Cap. How canft thou try them fo?

Serv. Marry, fir, 'tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers: therefore he, that cannot 5 lick his fingers, goes not with me.

Cap. Go, begone.-
[Exit Servant.
We shall be much unfurnish'd for this time.-
What, is my daughter gone to friar Lawrence?
Nurfe. Ay, forfooth.
[her
Cap. Well, he may chance to do fome good on
A peevish felf-will'd harlotry it is.
Enter Juliet.

merry look.

Which, well thou know'ft, is crofs and full of fin.
Enter Lady Capulet.

La. Cap. What, are you buy? do you need my

help?

Jul. No, madam; we have cull'd fuch neceffaries
As are behoveful for our state to-morrow:
So please you, let me now be left alone,
And let the nurfe this night fit up with you;
For, I am fure, you have your hands full all,
10 In this fo fudden bufinefs.
La. Cap. Good night!

Nurfe. See, where she comes from shrift 1 with
[been gadding?15)
Cap. How now, my head-strong? where have you
Jul. Where I have learnt me to repent the fin
Of difobedient oppofition

To you, and your behests; and am enjoin'd
By holy Lawrence to fall proftrate here,
And beg your pardon :--Pardon, I beseech you!
Henceforward I am ever rul'd by you.

meet again.
I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins,
That almoft freezes up the heat of life:
I'll call them back again to comfort me ;-
Nurfe!---What should the do here?

20 My difmal fcene I needs must act alone.-
Come, phial.

Cap. Send for the county; go, tell him of this ;
I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning.
Jul. I met the youthful lord at Lawrence' cell; 25
And gave him what becomed love I might,
Not ftepping o'er the bounds of modeity.

[up :|

Cap. Why, I am glad on 't; this is well, ftand
This is as 't fhould be.-Let me fee the county;
Ay, marry, go, I fay, and fetch him hither.-
Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar,
All our whole city is much bound to him.

Jul. Nurfe, will you go with me into my clofet,
To help me fort fuch needful ornaments
As you think fit to furnish me to-morrow?

La. Cap. No, not 'till Thursday; there is time
enough.

Cap. Go, nurse, go with her :-we'll to church

to-morrow. [Exeunt Juliet, and Nurse. La. Cap. We shall be short in our provifion; "Tis now near night.

Cap. Tush! I will stir about,

And all things fhall be well, I warrant thee, wife:
Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her;
I'll not to-bed to-night ;---let me alone:
I'll play the housewife for this once.---What, ho!--
They are all forth: Well, I will walk myself
To county Paris, to prepare him up
Againft to-morrow: my heart is wondrous light,
Since this fame wayward girl is fo reclaim'd.

[Exeunt Capulet, and Lady Capulet.
SCENE III.

Juliet's Chamber.

Enter Juliet, and Nurse.

Jul. Ay, thofe attires are beft:---But, gentle

nurse,

I pray thee, leave me to myfelf to-night;

For I have need of many orifons

To move the heavens to fmile upon my state,

What if this mixture do not work at all?
Shall I of force be married to the count?-
No, no;---this fhall forbid it :---lie thou there.--
[Laying down a dagger 2.

What if it be a poifon, which the friar
Subtly hath minifter'd to have me dead;
Left in this marriage he should be dishonour'd,
Because he married me before to Romeo?
30I fear, it is: and yet, methinks, it fhould not,
For he hath ftill been tried a holy man :
I will not entertain fo bad a thought.-
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,

35

I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point!
Shall I not then be ftifled in the vault,

To whole foul mouth no healthfome air breathes in,
And there die ftrangled ere my Romeo comes?
Or, if I live, is it not very like,

4c The horrible conceit of death and night,
Together with the terror of the place,-
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle,
Where, for these many hundred years, the bones
Of all my buried ancestors are pack'd;
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth 3,
Lies feft'ring 4 in his fhroud; where, as they say,
At fome hours in the night fpirits refort ;---
Alack, alack! is it not like, that I,

145

So early waking,---what with loathsome smells;
50 And fhrieks like mandrakes torn out of the carth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad-
O! if I wake, fhall I not be diftraught 5,
Environed with all thefe hideous fears?
And madly play with my forefathers' joints?
55 And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his fhroud?
And, in this rage, with fome great kinfman's bone,
As with a club, dash out my desperate brains?
O, look! methinks 1 fee my cousin's ghoft
Seeking out Romeo, that did fpit his body
160lUpon a rapier's point :---Stay, Tybalt, stay!-

i. e. from confeffion. 2 This ftage-direction has been fupplied by the modern editors. The quarto, 1597, reads: "Knife, lie thou there." It appears from feveral paffages in our old plays, that knives were formerly part of the accoutrements of a bride. 3 i. e. fresh in earth, newly buried. 4 To fefter is to corrupt.

5 Diftraught is distracted.

Romeo,

All night for a lefs caufe, and ne'er been fick.

La. Cap. Ay, you have been a moufe-hunt in your time;

But I will watch you from fuch watching now.

|(Marry, and amen!) how found is she asleep!
I must needs wake her: Madam! madam! madam!
Ay, let the county take you in your bed;
He'll fright you up, i' faith.Will it not be?
5 What, dreft! and in your clothes! and down again!
I must needs wake you :-Lady! lady! lady!
Alas! alas!-Help! help! my lady's dead!-
O, well-a-day, that ever I was born!
Some aqua-vitæ, ho!-My lord !---my lady!
Enter Lady Capulet.

10

15

20

La. Cap. What noife is here?

Nurse. O lamentable day!

La. Cap. What's the matter?

Nurse. Look, look! O heavy day!

La. Cap. O me, O me !---my child, my only life!
Revive, look up, or I will die with thee!—
Help, help !---call help.

Enter Capulet.

Cap. For shame, bring juliet forth; her lord is

Cap. Ha! let me fee her :---Out, alas! she's cold;

[Exeunt Lady Capulet, and Nurfe. 25 Her blood is fettled, and her joints are stiff;

Cap. A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood!-Now,

fellow,

What's there?

Enter three or four, with spits, and logs, and baskets.
Serv. Things for the cook, fir; but I know not 30

what.

[logs!

Cap. Make haste, make haste. Sirrah, fetch dricr
Call Peter, he will fhew thee where they are.

Serv. I have a head, fir, that will find out logs,
And never trouble Peter for the matter. [Exit. 35
Cap. 'Mafs, and well faid; A merry whorefon! ha,
Thou shalt be logger-head.-Good faith, 'tis day:
The county will be here with mufick ftraight,
[Mufick within.
For fo he faid he would. I hear him near:
Nurfe!-Wife!--what, ho!-what, Nurse, I fay!
Enter Nurfe.

Life and thefe lips have long been separated :
Death lies on her, like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field,
Accurfed time! unfortunate old man!
Nurse. O lamentable day!
La. Cap. O woeful time!

Cap. Death, that hath ta'en her hence to make
me wail,

Ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak.
Enter Friar Lawrence, and Paris, with Muficians.
Fri. Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
Cap. Ready to go, but never to return :---
O fon, the night before thy wedding-day
Hath death lain with thy bride :---See, there the lies
40 Flower as he was, deflowered now by him.
Death is my fon-in-law, death is my heir;
My daughter he hath wedded! I will die,
And leave him all; life leaving, all is death's.
Par. Have I thought long to fee this morning's
face,

Go, waken Juliet, go, and trim her up;
I'll go and chat with Paris:-Hie, make hafte,
Make hafte! the bridegroom he is come already :45
Make hafte, I say!

SCENE

[Exeunt.

V.

Juliet's Chamber; Juliet on the Bed.

Enter Nurfe.

And doth it give me fuch a fight as this?

La. Cap. Accurs'd, unhappy, wretched, hateful
Moft miferable hour, that time e'er faw [day!
In lafting labour of his pilgrimage!
50 But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,
But one thing to rejoice and folace in,
And cruel death hath catch'd it from my fight.
Nurfe. O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day!
Moft lamentable day! moft woeful day,
55 That ever, ever, I did yet behold!
O day! O day! O day! O hateful day!
Never was feen so black a day as this:
O woeful day, O woeful day!

Par. Beguil'd, divorced,wronged, spighted, flain! That you shall reft but little.God forgive me, 60 Moft deteftable death, by thee beguil'd,

This expreffion, which is frequently employed by the old dramatic writers, Mr. Steevens fays, is taken from the manner of firing the harquebufs. This was fo heavy a gun, that the foldiers wert obliged to carry a supporter called a reft, which they fixed in the ground before they levelled to take

aim.

By

I

35

1 Maf. Marry, fir, because filver hath a sweet Pet. Pretty! What say you, Hugh Rebeck+? 2 Muf. I fay-filver found, because musicians found for filver.

Pet. Pretty too!-What say you, James Soundpost?

3 Muf. 'Faith, I know not what to say.

Pet. O, I cry you mercy! you are the finger: I will fay for you. It is-mufick with her filver 40 sound, because such fellows as you have no gold for founding :

Nurfe. Honeft good fellows, ah, put up, put up; For, well you know, this is a pitiful cafe. 45 [Exit Nurfe.

Muf. Ay, by my troth, the cafe may be amended.

1 A dump anciently fignified some kind of dance, as well as forrow. On this occafion it means a mournful fong. 2 To gleek is to scoff. 3 A catling was a small luteftring made of catgut. 4 The fiddler is fo called from an inftrument with three strings, mentioned by feveral of the old writers, Rebec, rebecquin. 5 The fenfe is, If I may only trust the honesty of fleep, which I know however not to be fo mice as not often to practise flattery. The oldest copy reads the flattering eye of fleep.

Ah me! how sweet is love itself possest,
When but love's fhadows are fo rich in joy?
Enter Baltbafar.

News from Verona!How now, Balthafar?
Doft thou not bring me letters from the friar?
How doth my lady? Is my father well?
How fares my Juliet? That I ask again;
For nothing can be ill, if the be well.

Baith. Then she is well, and nothing can be ill;
Her body fleeps in Capulet's monument,
And her immortal part with angels lives;
I faw her laid low in her kindred's vault,
And presently took post to tell it you:
O pardon me for bringing these ill news,
Since you did leave it for my office, fir.

Rom. Is it even fo? then I defy you, stars!—
Thou know'ft my lodging: get me ink and paper,
And hire poft-horses; I will hence to-night.

Balth. Pardon me, fir, I dare not leave you thus: Your looks are pale and wild, and do import Some mifadventure.

Rom. Tufh, thou art deceiv'd;

ΤΟ

Is death, to any he that utters them.

Rom. Art thou fo bare, and full of wretchedness,
And fear'ft to die? Famine is in thy cheeks,
Need and oppreffion starveth in thine eyes,

5 Upon thy back hangs ragged mifery,
The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law:
The world affords no law to make thee rich;
Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.
Ap. My poverty, but not my will, confents.
Rom. I pay thy poverty, and not thy will.
Ap. Put this in any liquid thing you will,
And drink it off; and, if you had the ftrength
Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight.
Rem. There is thy gold; worse poison to men's
fouls,

15

Doing more murders in this loathsome world,
Than these poor compounds that thou may'st not
I fell thee poifon, thou haft fold me none. [fell:
Farewel; buy food, and get thyfelf in flesh.
20 Come, cordial, and not poison; go with me
To Juliet's grave, for there must I ufe thee.

Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do:
Haft thou no letters to me from the friar?
Balb. No, my good lord.

25

Rem. No matter; get thee gone,

And hire thofe horfes; I'll be with thee ftraight.
[Exit Baltbafar.
Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night.
Let's fee for means :-O, mischief! thou art fwift
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!
I do remember an apothecary,-

And hereabouts he dwells,-whom late I noted
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of fimples; meagre were his looks,
Sharp mifery, had worn him to the bones;
And in his needy fhop a tortoife hung,

An alligator ftuff'd, and other skins

Of ill-fhap'd fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders, and mufty feeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of rofes,
Were thinly fcatter'd, to make up a fhew.
Noting this penury, to myself I faid-
An if a man did need a poifon now,
Whofe fale is prefent death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would felt it him.
O, this fame thought did but fore-run my need ;
And this fame needy man must fell it me.
As I remember, this fhould be the house:
Being holiday, the beggar's fhop is fhut.-
What, ho! apothecary!

Enter Apothecary.

Ap. Who calls fo loud?

[poor;

SCENE

Friar Lawrence's Cell.

Enter Friar Jobn.

II.

[Exeunt,

Jobn. Holy Francifcan friar! brother, ho!
Enter Friar Lawrence.

Law. This fame fhould be the voice of friar John.-
Welcome from Mantua: What fays Romeo?
30 Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.

John. Going to find a bare-foot brother out,
One of our order, to affociate me,
Here in this city vifiting the fick,
And finding him, the fearchers of the town,
35 Sufpecting that we both were in a house
Where the infectious pestilence did reign,
Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us forth;
So that my fpeed to Mantua there was stay'd.
Law. Who bare my letter then to Romeo?
John. I could not fend it,-here it is again,
Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,
So fearful were they of infection.

40

45

50

Law. Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood,
The letter was not nice 1, but full of charge
Of dear import; and the neglecting it
May do much danger: Friar John, go hence ;
Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight
Unto my cell.

John. Brother, I'll go and bring it thee. [Exit.
Law. Now muft I to the monument alone;
Within thefe three hours will fair Juliet wake;
She will befhrew me much, that Romeo
Hath had no notice of these accidents:
But I will write again to Mantua,

Rom. Come hither, man.-1 fee, that thou art 55 And keep her at my cell till Romeo come;

Poor living corfe, clos'd in a dead man's tomb !

[Exit.

1 i. e. was not written on a trivial or foolish fubje&t.

Yet