Whoever will compare this with the text as it now stands, which is the text of the 1599 Quarto, will see at once that the additions represent a rewriting of the passage and not any supplement to imperfect reporting or printing; it is the poet's development of his own cruder work.

Take again Romeo's soliloquy in the tomb, V, iii. This in the Quarto of 1597, lines 88 to 124, is solely represented by the following:

"Death lye thou there, by a dead man interd,
How oft have many at the houre of death

Beene blith and pleasant? which their keepers call
A lightning before death But how may I

Call this a lightning. Ah deare Juliet,

How well thy beauty doth become this grave?
OI beleeve that unsubstanciall death,
Is amorous, and doth court my love.
Therefore will I, O heere, O ever heere,
Set up my everlasting rest

With wormes, that are thy chamber mayds.
Come desperate Pilot now at once runne on
The dashing rockes thy sea-sicke weary barge.
Heers to my love. O true Apothecary:

Thy drugs are swift: thus with a kisse I dye."

Here, as in all the former cases, there is no hiatus in the Quarto of 1597; the additions are the poet's own rich and splendid supplements and improvements. Compare again in the second scene of the second act Juliet's

"Sweare not at al, though I doo joy in thee,
I have small joy in this contract to night,

It is too rash, too sodaine, too unadvisde,

Too like the lightning that doth cease to bee
Ere one can say it lightens."

Compare this with its superb expression in the second Quarto:

Ju. "Well do not sweare, although I joy in thee:
I have no joy of this contract to night,

It is too rash, too unadvisd, too sudden,

Too like the lightning which doth cease to bee,
Ere one can say, it lightens. sweete goodnight:
This bud of love by Sommers ripening breath,
May prove a bewtious floure when next we meete,
Goodnight, goodnight, as sweete repose and rest,
Come to thy heart, as that within my brest.

Ro. O wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
Juli. What satisfaction canst thou have to night?
Ro. Th' exchange of thy loves faithful vow for mine.
Ju. I gave thee mine before thou didst request it:
And yet I would it were to give againe.

Ro. Woldst thou withdraw it for what purpose love?
Ju. But to be franke and give it thee againe,
And yet I wish but for the thing I have,

My bountie is as boundlesse as the sea,

My love as deepe, the more I give to thee

The more I have, for both are infinite.

I heare some noyse within."

Take again the dialogue between Romeo and Friar Laurence in the sixth scene of the second act.

1597 Quarto we have:

"Rom. And come she will.

Fr. I gesse she will indeed,

Youths love is quicke, swifter than swiftest speed.

In the

Enter Juliet somewhat fast, and embraceth Romeo.

See where she comes.

So light of foote nere hurts the troden flower:
Of love and joy, see see the soveraigne power."

For this is substituted in the 1599 Quarto:

"Fri. These violent delights have violent endes,
And in their triumph die like fier and powder:
Which as they kisse consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his owne deliciousnesse,

And in the taste confoundes the appetite.
Therefore love moderately, long love doth so,
Too swift arrives, as tardie as too slowe.

Enter Juliet.

Here comes the Lady, Oh so light a foote
Will nere weare out the everlasting flint,
A lover may bestride the gossamours,
That ydeles in the wanton sommer ayre,
And yet not fall, so light is vanitie."

Whoever, I repeat, will consider these passages must feel that they can only represent Shakespeare's revision of his own work, and that it is in a high degree improbable that they merely restore what was deficient either in an imperfect acting copy or an imperfect transcript. It is, of course, possible that some of them may represent the restoration of "cuts" of what had been excised for the purpose of shortening the play for stage purposes, but this is not likely.

The plot is founded on a story which had been often told, and was familiar to Shakespeare's contemporaries

through a long narrative poem by Arthur Brooke, entitled "The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet," published first in 1562 and again by the same printer, Richard Tottel, in 1587, and by a prose version in Painter's "Palace of Pleasure"; there was also, as we learn from Brooke's preface, a play on the subject, his words being, “I saw the same argument lately set foorth on stage with more commendation than I can hope for," but of this play not a vestige remains. It was originally told in Italian by Luigi da Porto in a novel first printed in 1535, and reprinted in 1539 and again in 1553. Bandello then related it more elaborately in 1554. It then appeared in French under the title of "Histoire de deux amans dont l'un mourut de venin, l'autre de tristesse," a version with numerous variations of Bandello's novel by Pierre Boisteau and inserted in Belleforest's "Histoires Tragiques," 1559. It was on Boisteau's version, not on Bandello's, that Brooke founded his poem, in spite of the assertion on his titlepage that Bandello was his original. It is abundantly clear that Shakespeare travelled no further than Brooke's poem, unless there was some play on the subject possibly the one referred to by Brooke not now extant. Shakespeare follows Brooke with almost servile fidelity, so far at least as the incidents are concerned, and he is indebted to him for much more besides. The feuds between the Capulets and Montagues and the brawl between the servants and their masters, with which the play opens; Romeo's infatuation for Rosaline, who is anonymous in the poem; Benvolio's taunting pleasantry;

the feast at Capulet's house with his list of the guests; the discovery of the presence of a Montague and the forbearance of the Capulets that the feast may not be disturbed; the first meeting of Romeo and Juliet, and the instantaneous transference of Romeo's affections from Rosaline to Juliet; Mercutio and the part played by him; the nurse, who is evolved from Brooke's sketch, and the part played by her; Juliet at her window and the interview with Romeo; the visit to Friar Laurence; the secret marrriage; the encounter in the streets and the death of Tybalt; the exile of Romeo; his violence in Friar Laurence's cell and the Friar's rebuke; the parting of the lovers; the plan of Capulet and his wife to marry Juliet to the County Paris and the poor girl's protests; the visit to Friar Laurence and the poison-potion; Juliet's agonies of fear; the scene on the morning of the marriage; the letter to Romeo and Friar John's miscarriage because of the plague; the conveyance of the news of Juliet's supposed death to Romeo; his visit to the Apothecary and the purchase of the poison by a heavy bribe; the scene in the grave; the death of the lovers, and the arrest and explanation of Friar Laurence,—all this is directly transferred from Brooke. Among the many touches suggested by Brooke may be cited Juliet's asking the nurse the names of other guests, that she may disguise the real object of her inquiry — Romeo — whom she places last:

"What twayne are those quoth she that prease unto the doore, Whose pages in theyr hand doe beare two toorches light before? And then as eche of them had of his house-hold name,