Hold, friends! friends, part! and, swifter than his

tongue,
His agile arm beats down their fatal points,
And 'twixt them rushes ; underneath whose arm
Anenvious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled;
But by and by comes back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertain'd revenge,
And to't they go like lightning; for ere I
Could draw to part them, was ftout Tybalt Alain;
And as he fell, did Romco turn to fly.
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

La. Cap. He is a kinsman to the Montagues,
s Affection makes him false, he speaks not true.
Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,
And all those twenty could but kill one life.
I beg for justice, which thou, Prince, must give ;
Romeo New Tybalt, Romeo must not live.

Prin. Romeo New him, he new Mercutio ; Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe? La. Mont. Not Romeo, Prince, he was Mercutio's

friend; His fault concludes but what the law should end, The life of Tybalt.

Prin. And for that offence, Immediately we do exile him hence : • I have an interest in your hearts' proceeding, My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a bleeding;

But

s Affection makes him false.]

6 I have an interest in your The charge of falshood on Ben bearts' proceeding,] Sir Th rivolio, though produced at ha- Hanmer saw that this line gave zard, is very just

. The authour, no sense, and therefore put, by who seems to intend the charac a very easy change, ter of Bentivolio as good, meant I have an interest in your heat's perhaps to shew, how the best proceeding, minds, in a state of faction and Which is undoubredly better discord, are desorted to criminal than the old reading which Dr. partiality.

Warburton has followed; but the

Sense

F 2

But I'll amerce you with so strong a fine,
That you shall all repent the loss of mine.
I will be deaf to pleading and excuses,
Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses;
Therefore use none; let Romeo hence in haste,
Elfe, when he's found, that hour is his last.
Bear hence his body, and attend our will:
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.

(Exeunt.

SCENE

IV.

Changes to an Apartment in Capulet's House.

Enter Juliet alone.

GA

Jul. ALLOP apace, you fiery-footed steeds,

Tow'rds Phæbus' mansion ; such a' wag

goner, As Phaeton, would whip you to the west, And bring in cloudy night immediately. 7 Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, That Run-aways eyes may wink; and Romeo

Leap fense yet seems to be weak, and eyes Juliet is withing to have perhaps a more licentious cor- fopt? Macbeth, we may rememrection is necessary, I read there. ber, makes an invocation to fore,

Night much in the same strain, I had no interest in your heat's

-Come, feeling Night, preceding:

Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful This, says ihe Prince, is no quar

day, &c. rel of mine, I had no interest in So Juliet would have Night's your former discoid; I fuffir darkness obsure the great eye of merely by your private animajity. the day, the Sun; whom confia 7 Spread thy el fe curtain, love dering in a poetical light as Phæ. Ferforming Nigbr,

bus, drawn in his carr with f.erye That runaways eyes may wink ;] footed fleeds, and postirg thro' the What runaways are there, whole heavens, the very probably calls

Leap to these arms, untalkt of and unseen.
Lovers can see to do their am'rous rites
By their own beauties, or, if love be blind,
It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenheads.
Hood my' unmann'd blood baiting in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle; 'till strange love, grown

bold, Thinks true love acted, simple modesty. Come, night; come, Romeo! come, thou day in

night,
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night,
Whiter than snow upon a raven's back:
Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow'd

night!
Give me my Romeo, and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine,
That all the world shall be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the gairish sun.
O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not posless'd it; and though I am fold,
Not yet enjoy'd ; so tedious is this day,

bim, with regard to the swift- yet un acquainted with man.
Dess of his course, the Runaway. "The gairish fun.] Milton had
In the like manner our Poet this speech in his thoughts when
speaks of the Night in the Mier- he wrote Il Penerof.,
cbant of Venice;

Civil night,
For the close Night doth play the Thouf ber-suited matron.
Runaway,
WARB.

Shakespeare. I am not satisfied with this Till ciril-fuited morn appear. emendation, yet have nothing

Milton. better to propose.

Pay no worship to the griri, & Come, civil night,] Civil is Jun.

Shakelpeare. grave, decently folenin.

Hide me from Day's, gairish eye. , 9 inmann'd blood-] Blood

Milton.

As is the night before some festival,
To an impatient child that hath new robes,
And may not wear them. O, here comes my nurse. !

Enter Nurse with cords. And she brings news; and every tongue, that speaks But Romeo's name, speaks heavenly eloquence; Now, nurse, what news? what hast thou there? The cords that Romeo bid thee fetch ?

Nurse. Ay, ay, the corde.

Jul. Ah me, what news? Why dost thou wring thy hands? Nurse. Ah welladay, he's dead, he's dead, he's

dead! We are undone, lady, we are undone. Alack the day! he's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead.

Jul. Can heaven be so envious ?

Nurse. Romeo can, Though heav'n cannot. 0 Romeo! Romeo ! Who ever would have thought it, Romeo? Jul. What devil art thou, that dost torment mc

thus ? This torture should be roar'd in dismal hell. Hath Romeo Nain himself? say thou but, I; . And that bare vowel, I, shall poison more Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice,

Nurse.

* And that bare vowel, ay, foall Poet's conceit. At his time of poison more

day, the affirmative adverb ay Ihan the dea'h darting eye of was generally written, I: and

cockatrice.) I quellion much by this means it both becomes a whether the grammarians will vowel, and answers in found to take this new vowel on trust eye, upon which the conceit turos from Mr. Pope, without suspect- in the second line. THEOB. ing it rather for a diphthong. In deaik-darting eye of cockashort, we must rellore the spelling trice.] The strange lines of the old books, or we lose the chat follow here in the common

books

Nurfe. I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes,
(God save the mark,) here on his mánly breast.
A piteous coarse, a bloody piteous coarse;
Pale, pale as ashes, all bedawb'd in blood,
All in gore blood. I swooned at the fight.
Jul. O break, my heart !-poor bankrupt, break

at once!
To prison, eyes! ne'er look on liberty
Vile earth to earth resign, end motion here,
And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier !

Nurse. O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had:
O courteous-Tybalt, honest gentleman,
That ever I should live to see thee dead!

Ful. What storm is this, that blows so contrary!
Is Romeo slaughter'd ? and is Tybalt dead ?
My dear-lov'd cousin, and my dearer Lord ?
Then let the trumpet found the general Doom,
For who is living, if those two are gone?

Nurse. Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banished, Romeo, that killd him, he is banished, Jul. O God! did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's

blood ?
Nurse. It did, it did. Alas, the day! it did.

Jul. O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face !
Did ever dragon keep fo fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical !

books are not in the old edition. per to observe, that their mean

Pope, ness has not placed them below The strange lines are these : the malice of fortune, the (wo I am not 1, if there be such an 1, firft of them being evidently Or these eyes foot, ihat makes transposed: we should read, tbee arter I;

That one vowel, I, fhall poison If he be flain, Jay 1; or if not, more,

Than the deatb-darting eye of Brief found" determine of my cockatrice, weal or wot.

Or those eyes shot that make These lines hardly deserve thee answer, 1. emendation, yet it may be pro I am not l, &c,

F4

Dove

No;