MER. O calm, dishonourable, vile submission! A la stoccata1 carries it away.

Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?

TYB. What wouldst thou have with me?

[Draws.

MER. Good king of cats, 2 nothing, but one of your nine lives; that I mean to make bold withal, and as you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher5 by the ears? make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it be out.

TYB. I am for you.

ROM. Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.
MER. Come, sir, your passado."
ROм. Draw, Benvolio;

Beat down their weapons:

[Drawing.

[They fight.

Gentlemen, for shame;

Forbear this outrage; Tybalt

Mercutio

The prince expressly hath forbid this bandying

In Verona streets:

MER. I am hurt;

hold, Tybalt; -good Mercutio.
[Exeunt TYBALT and his Partisans.

A plague o' both the houses! I am sped:" Is he gone, and hath nothing?9 BEN. What, art thou hurt? MER. Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, 'tis enough. Where is my page?-go, villain, fetch a surgeon. [Exit Page. ROM. Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much. MER. No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve: ask for me tomorrow, and 10 shall find me a grave man. you I am pep

1) The Italian term for a thrust | common in comic language, nor, or stab with a rapier, an attack, like perhaps, altogether disused. Nares. passado, a pass, or motion forwards. 7) To cease, to abstain from any 2) Alluding to his name. See p. thing. 38, 5).

3) That I demand or claim. To make bold, to take a liberty, a common, but not a correct phrase.

4) To dry up by beating, to deprive of any thing which enlivens.

5) Pilcher, pilch, something lined with fur, from the French pelisse, the Latin pellis, skin, meaning the case or scabbard.

8) To speed, to dispatch in haste, to kill.

9) Without being hurt.

10) This jest was better in old language, than it is at present. Lidgate says, in his elegy upon Chaucer: "My master Chaucer now is grave." Farmer. We meet with the same quibble in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1608, where Vindici dresses up a lady's skull, and observes: "- she has a somewhat grave look with her."

6) Your put without any possessive meaning, nearly equivalent to a. It is a sort of vulgarism not un-Steevens.

pered, I warrant, for this world: A plague o' both your houses! A dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetick! Why, the devil, came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.

ROM. I thought all for the best.

MER. Help me into some house, Benvolio,

Or I shall faint. A plague o' both your houses!
They have made worm's meat of me:

I have it, and soundly too: Your houses!

[Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO. ROM. This gentleman, the prince's near ally, My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt In my behalf; my reputation stain'd

With Tybalt's slander, Tybalt, that an hour
Hath been my kinsman: O sweet Juliet,
Thy beauty hath made me effeminate,
And in my temper soften'd valour's steel.

Re-enter BENVOLIO.

BEN. O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead;

That gallant spirit hath aspir'd2 the clouds,

Which too untimely3 here did scorn the earth.

ROм. This day's black fate on more days doth depend;

This but begins the woe, others must end.

Re-enter TYBALT.

BEN. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.

ROM. Alive! in triumph! and Mercutio slain!

Away to heaven, respective lenity, 4

And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct5 now!
Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again,
That late thou gav'st me; for Mercutio's soul
Is but a little way above our heads,
Staying for thine to keep him company;

Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.

6

TYB. Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here, Shalt with him hence.

1) A boaster; a vain fellow.
2) We never use this verb at
present without some particle, as,
to and after. Steevens.

3) Before the natural time.
4) Cool, considerate gentleness.

Respect formerly signified consideration; prudential caution. Malone. 5) Literally, the act of leading, guidance; here, conductor, guide, leader.

6) To accompany.

ROM.

This shall determine that.

[They fight; TYBALT falls.

BEN. Romeo, away, be gone!
The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain:

Stand not amaz'd: 1- the prince will doom thee death,
If thou art taken: hence! be gone!
ROM. O! I am fortune's fool!2

BEN.

away!

Why dost thou stay? [Exit ROMEO.

Enter Citizens, &c.

1 CIT. Which way ran he, that kill'd Mercutio! Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?

BEN. There lies that Tybalt.

1 CIT.

Up, sir, go with me;

I charge thee in the prince's name, obey.

Enter Prince, attended; Montague, Capulet, their Wives, and others.
PRIN. Where are the vile beginners of this fray?
BEN. O noble prince, I can discover all

The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl:
There lies the man slain by young Romeo,

That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.

LA. CAP. Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother's child! Unhappy sight! ah me, the blood is spill'd3

Of my dear kinsman! Prince, as thou art true,1
For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague.
O cousin, cousin!

PRIN. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray?

BEN. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay; Romeo that spoke him fair, bade him bethink How nice the quarrel was, and urg'd withal

Your high displeasure:

All this - uttered

With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd,
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
Of Tybalt, deaf to peace, but that he tilts 6
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast;
Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point,
And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats

1) Confounded, in a state of confusion.

2) I am always running in the way of evil fortune, like the fool in the play. Johnson.

3) To shed; to waste.

4) As thou art just and upright. Johnson.

5) How slight, how unimportant, how petty.

6) To fight with rapiers; to rush, as in combat.

Cold death aside, and with the other sends

It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity

Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud,

Hold friends! friends part! and, swifter than his tongue,
His agile arm beats down their fatal points,

And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm
An envious 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 stout Tybalt slain;
And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly:
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

LA. CAP. He is a kinsman to the Montague,
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 slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live.

PRIN. Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio;
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
MON. 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 hates' proceeding,
My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a bleeding;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,
Else, when he's found, that hour is his last.

1) Excited or directed by envy; as an envious attack.

2) So we say, to go a fishing, a begging; this letter a is prefixed to a participle, to denote an action still continued. It is something like a preposition, yet it is not exactly either on, at, to, in, or any thing else. The force seems to be its own. Nares,

3) A verb formed from a, for on or at, and the French merci, mercy; or from the Latin merces, reward; meaning, to inflict a penalty at mercy; to punish by a pecuniary penalty, the amount of which is not fixed by law, but left to the discretion or mercy of the judge.

Bear hence this body, and attend our will:
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.

JUL. Gallop apace,1 you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus' mansion; such a waggoner
As Phaeton would whip you to the west,
And bring in cloudy night immediately.
Spread thy close curtain, and come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black:

[Exeunt.

Come, night! - Come, Romeo! come, thou day in night!
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night

Whiter than new snow on 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 will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun. -

Enter Nurse, with Cords.

Here comes my nurse,

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 bade thee fetch?

NURSE.

Ay, ay, the cords.

[Throws them down.

JUL. Ah me! what news! why dost thou wring thy hands? NURSE. Ah well-a-day! 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,

Romeo!

Though heaven cannot: 0 Romeo! Romeo!
Who ever would have thought it?

1) With a quick pace, fast, spee-woe on woe; as Dr. Johnson, on ma

dily.

2) Grave, solemn.

3) Gaudy, showy.

ture inquiry, determined. Now corrupted to well-a-day; often written welladay, welaway, and wealaway, as if dirived from weal, prosperity, hap

4) Alas; from walawa, Saxon, for piness.