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That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you;
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the county.
O, he's a lovely gentleman!

Romeo's a dishclout to him; an eagle, madam,
Hath not so green,' so quick, so fair an eye,
As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first; or if it did not,
Your first is dead; or 'twere as good he were,
As living here, and you no use of him.
Jul. Speakest thou from thy heart?
Nurse.

Or else beshrew them both.

Jul.

Nurse.

From my soul too;

Amen!

To what?

Jul. Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much. Go in; and tell my lady I am gone,

Having displeased my father, to Laurence' cell,
To make confession, and to be absolved.

Nurse. Marry, I will; and this is wisely done.

[Exit. Jul. Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!

Is it more sin-to wish me thus forsworn,
Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
Which she hath praised him with above compare
So many thousand times?-Go, counsellor ;
Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.—
I'll to the friar, to know his remedy;

If all else fail, myself have power to die.

[Exit.

1 In The Two Noble Kinsmen, by Fletcher and Shakspeare, we find :—

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ACT IV.

SCENE I. Friar Laurence's Cell.

Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and PARIS.

Fri. On Thursday, sir? The time is very short. Par. My father Capulet will have it so; And I am nothing slow, to slack his haste.1

Fri. You say you do not know the lady's mind: Uneven is the course; I like it not.

Par. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death, And therefore have I little talked of love; For Venus smiles not in a house of tears. Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous, That she doth give her sorrow so much sway; And, in his wisdom, hastes our marriage, To stop the inundation of her tears; Which, too much minded by herself alone, May be put from her by society.

Now do you know the reason of this haste.

Fri. I would I knew not why it should be slowed.2

[Aside. Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my cell.

Enter JULIET.

Par. Happily met, my lady, and my wife!
Jul. That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
Par. That may-be, must be, love, on Thursday

next.

Jul. What must be, shall be.

Fri.

That's a certain text.

Par. Come you to make confession to this father?

1 The meaning of Paris is, there is nothing of slowness in me, to induce me to slacken or abate his haste; but the words the Poet has given him import the reverse. The first edition reads,

"And I am nothing slack to slow his haste."

2 To slow and to foreslow were anciently in common use as verbs.

Jul. To answer that, were to confess to you.
Par. Do not deny to him that you love me.
Jul. I will confess to you that I love him.
Par. So will you, I am sure, that you love me.
Jul. If I do so, it will be of more price,

Being spoke behind your back, than to your face.
Par. Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears.
Jul. The tears have got small victory by that;
For it was bad enough before their spite.

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

Jul. That is no slander, sir, which is a truth; And what I spake, I spake it to my face.

be may So,

Par. Thy face is mine, and thou hast slandered it. Jul. It for it is not mine own.Are you at leisure, holy father, now; Or shall I come to you at evening-mass? 1

1

Fri. My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now. My lord, we must entreat the time alone.

Par. God shield, I should disturb devotion.Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you;

Till then, adieu! and keep this holy kiss.

[Exit PARIS. Jul. O, shut the door! and when thou hast done So, Come weep with me; past hope, past cure, past help! Fri. Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;

It strains me past the compass of

my wits.

I hear thou must, and nothing must prorogue it,

On Thursday next be married to this county.
Jul. Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this,
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.

If, in thy wisdom, thou canst give no help,
Do thou but call my resolution wise,
And with this knife I'll help it presently.

God joined my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo sealed,
Shall be the label to another deed,2

1 Juliet means vespers; there is no such thing as evening-mass.

2 The seals of deeds formerly were appended on distinct slips or labels affixed to the deed.

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Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
Turn to another, this shall slay them both.
Therefore, out of thy long-experienced time,
Give me some present counsel; or, behold
'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire; arbitrating that
Which the commission of thy years and art
Could to no issue of true honor bring.
Be not so long to speak; I long to die,
If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.

2

Fri. Hold, daughter; I do spy a kind of hope,
Which craves as desperate an execution,
As that is desperate which we would prevent.
If, rather than to marry county Paris,

Thou hadst the strength of will to slay thyself;
Then is it likely thou wilt undertake

A thing like death to chide away this shame,
That cop'st with death himself to scape from it;
And, if thou dar'st, I'll give thee remedy.

Jul. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder tower;
Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk
Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears;
Or hide me nightly3 in a charnel house,

O'er covered quite with dead men's rattling bones,
With reeky shanks, and yellow chapless-skulls;
Or bid me go into a new-made grave,

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,

To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.1

1 i. e. shall decide the struggle between me and my distress. 2 Commission may be here used for authority.

3 The quarto 1597 reads:—

"Or chain me to some steepy mountain's top,
Where roaring bears and savage lions roam."

In the text, the quarto of 1599 is followed, except that it has "or hide me nightly."

4 Thus the quarto 1599 and the folio: the quarto 1597 reads:

"To keep myself a faithful unstained wife

To my dear lord, my dearest Romeo."-Boswell.

Fri. Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent 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 distilled liquor drink thou off; When, presently, through all thy veins shall run A cold and drowsy humor, [which shall seize Each vital spirit ;] for no pulse shall keep His natural progress, but surcease [to beat :]1 No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou liv'st; The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade To paly ashes; thy eyes' windows fall, Like death, when he shuts up the day of life; Each part deprived of supple government,

1

Shall, stiff, and stark, and cold, appear like death:
And in this borrowed likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt remain full two-and-forty hours,2
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Now when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
Then (as the manner of our country is)
In thy best robes uncovered on the bier,3
Thou shalt be borne to that same 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 shall he come; and he and I
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this shall free thee from this present shame;

1 Not in the folio of 1623.

2 Instead of the remainder of this scene, the quarto 1597 has only these four lines :

"And when thou art laid in thy kindred's vault,
I'll send in haste to Mantua to thy lord;

And he shall come and take thee from thy grave.

Jul. Friar, I go; be sure thou send for my dear Romeo."

3 The Italian custom here alluded to, of carrying the dead body to the grave richly dressed, and with the face uncovered (which is not mentioned by Painter), Shakspeare found particularly described in the Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet.

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