If that thy bent of love be honourable,
Thy purpose marriage, fend me word to-morrow,
By one that I'll procure to come to thee,

Where, and what time, thou wilt perform the rite;
And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay,

And follow thee my lord throughout the world:
Nur. [Within.] Madam.

Jul. I come, anon :-But if thou mean'ft not well,
I do befeech thee,-

Nurfe. [Within.] Madam.

Jul. By and by, I come:

To ceafe thy fuit, and leave me to my grief:
To-morrow will I fend.

Rom. So thrive my foul,

ful. A thousand times good night!

[Exit

Rom. A thousand times the worie, to want thy light. Love goes toward love, as fchool-boys from their books; But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.

Re-enter JULIET, above.

[retiring flowly.

Jul. Hift! Romeo, hift!-O, for a faulconer's voice, To lure this taffel-gentle back again!

Bondage

If that thy bent of love be bonourable, &c.] In The Tragical Hyfory already quoted Juliet ufes nearly the fame expreffions : "if your thought be chafte, and have on virtue ground, "If wedlock be the end and mark which your defire hath found, "Obedience fet afide, unto my parents due,

"The quarrel eke that long ago between our housholds grew, "Both me and mine I will all whole to you betake,

"And following you wherefo you go, my father's house forfake:

"But if by wanton love and by unlawful fuit

"You think in ripeft years to pluck my maidenhood's dainty fruit. "You are beguil'd, and now your Juliet you befeeks,

"To cease your fuit, and fuffer her to live among her likes."

MALONE. 7 To cease thy suit,-] So the quarto, 1597. The two fubfequent quartos and the follo have-thy ftrife. MALONE.

To lure this taffel-gentle back again!] The tafel or tiercel (for fo it should be spelt) is the male of the goshawk; fo called, because it is a tierce or third less than the female. This is equally true of all birds of prey. In the Booke of Falconrye, by George Turbervile, gent. VOL. IX.

F

printed

Bondage is hoarfe, and may not speak aloud;
Elfe would I tear the cave where echo lies,
And make her airy tongue more hoarfe than mine
With repetition of my Romeo's name.

Rom. It is my foul, that calls upon my name:
How filver-fweet found lovers' tongues by night,
Like fofteft mufick to attending ears!

Jul. Romeo!

Rom. Madam 9.

Jul. At what o'clock to-morrow

Shall I fend to thee?

Rom. At the hour of nine.

Jul. I will not fail; 'tis twenty years till then. I have forgot why I did call thee back.

Rom. Let me stand here till thou remember it. Jul. I shall forget, to have thee still stand there, Rememb'ring how I love thy company.

Rom. And I'll fill stay, to have thee still forget, Forgetting any other home but this.

printed in 1575, I find a whole chapter on the falcon-gentle, &c. So, in The Guardian, by Maflinger:

"then for an evening flight,

"A tiercel-gentle."

Again, in Decker's Match me in London, 1631:

Your taffel-gentle, she's lur'd off and gone."

This fpecies of hawk had the epithet of gentle annexed to it, from the eafe with which it was tamed, and its attachment to man. STEEV. It appears from the old books on this fubject that certain hawks were confidered as appropriated to certain ranks. The tercel-gentle was appropriated to the prince; and thence, we may fuppofe, was chofen by Juliet as an appellation for her beloved Romeo. In an ancient treatife entitled Haruking, Hunting, and Fishing, with the true mcafures of blowing, is the following pallage:

"The names of all manner of hawkes, and to whom they belong:

For a PRINCE

There is a falcon gentle, and a tercel gentle; and these are for a prince.” MALONE.

9-Madam.] Thus the original copy of 1597. In the two subse quent copies and the folio we have-My niece. What word was intended it is difficult to fay. The editor of the fecond folio fubiti. tuted-My feet. I have already fhewn, that all the alterations in that copy were made at random; and have therefore preferved the original word, though lefs tender than that which was arbitrarily subftituted in its place. MALONE.

Jul. 'Tis almoft morning, I would have thee gone :
And yet no further than a wanton's bird;
Who lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor prifoner in his twifted gyves,
And with a filk thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.

Rom. I would, I were thy bird.
Jul. Sweet, fo would I:

Yet I fhould kill thee with much cherishing.

Good night, good night! parting is fuch fweet forrow, That I fhall fay-good night, till it be morrow.

[Exits Rom. Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy

breaft!

'Would I were fleep and peace, fo sweet to reft!

Hence will I to my ghoftly father's cell;

His help to crave,

and my dear hap to tell1.

III.

SCENE

Friar Laurence's Cell.

Enter Friar LAWRENCE, with a baskets

[Exit.

Fri.The grey-ey'd morn fmiles on the frowning night2, Checkering the eastern clouds with ftreaks of light; And flecked darkness3 like a drunkard reels From forth day's path, and Titan's firy wheels:

Hence will I to my ghoftly father's cell;

Now

His belp to crave, and my dear bap to tell.] Thus the quarto, 1597, except that it has good instead of dear. That of 1599, and the folio, read:

Hence will I to my ghoftly frier's clofe cell,

His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell. MALONE. 2 The grey ey'd morn, &c.] So the first edition. The first four lines of this fpeech, as has been obferved by Mr. Pope and Dr. Johnfon, are inadvertently printed twice over in the fubfequent ancient copies, and form the conclufion of Romeo's preceding fpeech as well as the commencement of the friar's in the prefent fcene. MALONE.

3 And flecked darkness-] Flecked is fpotted, dappled, fteak'd, or variegated. In this fenfe it is ufed by Churchyard, in his Legend of Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolk. Mowbray, fpeaking of the Germans, fays:

F 2

"All

Now ere the fun advance his burning eye,
The day to cheer, and night's dank dew to dry,
I must up-fill this ofier cage of ours,

With baleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers.
The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb';
What is her burying grave, that is her womb:
And from her womb children of divers kind
We fucking on her natural bosom find;
Many for many virtues excellent,

None but for fome, and yet all different.

O, mickle is the powerful grace, that lies
In herbs, plants, itones', and their true qualities:

"All jagg'd and frounc'd, with divers colours deck'd, "They fwear, they curfe, and drink till they be fleck'd,” Lord Surrey ufes the fame word in his translation of the 4th Æneid: "Her quivering cheekes flecked with deadly staine."

The fame image occurs in Much ado about Nothing: A& V. sc. iii.

"Dapples the drowsy eaft with fpots of grey." STEEVENS. The word is ftill ufed in Scotland, where "a flecked cow" is a common expreffion. See the Gloffary to Gawin Douglas's translation of Virgil, in v. fleekit. MALONE.

4 From fortb day's path, and Titan's firy wheels :] Thus the quarto 1597. That of 1599, and the folio have-burning wheels.

The modern editions read corruptly, after the fecond folio:

From forth day's path-way made by Titan's wheels. MALONE.

5 The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb ;]

"Omniparens, eadem rerum commune fepulchrum."

Lucretius.

"The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave." Milton.

So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609: "Time's the king of men,

STEEVENS.

"For be's their parent, and he is their grave." MALONE. -powerful grace,] Efficacious virtue. JOHNSON.

70, mickle is the powerful grace, that lies

In herbs, plants, ftones, &c.] This affords a natural introduction to the friar's furnishing Juliet with the fleepy potion in Act IV. Ja the paflage before us Shakspeare had the poem in his thoughts:

"But not in vain, my child, hath all my wand'ring been ;-
"What force the fenes, the plants, and metals, have to work,
"And divers other thinges that in the bowels of earth do lurk,
"With care i have fought out, with pain I did them prove.

MALUNE.

For

For nought fo vile that on the earth doth live,
But to the earth fome fpecial good doth give;
Nor aught fo good, but, ftrain'd from that fair use,
Revolts from true birth, ftumbling on abuse:
Virtue itself turns vice, being mifapply'd;
And vice fometime's by action dignify'd.
Within the infant rind of this small flower'
Poison hath refidence, and med'cine power:
For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part;
Being tafted, flays all fenfes with the heart.
Two fuch oppofed foes encamp them still
In man3 as well as herbs, grace, and rude will;
And, where the worfer is predominant,

Full foon the canker death eats up that plant *.

Enter ROMEO.

Rom. Good morrow, father!

Fri. Benedicite!

8 For nought fo vile that on the earth doth live,] The quarto, 1597,

reads:

For nought fo vile that vile on earth doth live. STEEVENS. 9-te the earth-] i. e. to the inhabitants of the earth. MALONE. 1 of this fmall flower-] So the quarto 1597. All the fubfequent ancient copes have-this weak flower. MALONE.

2-with that part-] i. e. with the part which fmells; with the olfactory nerves. MALONE.

3 Two fuch oppofed foes encamp them ftill

In man-] So, in our authour's Lover's Complaint :
"-terror, and dear modefty,

66 Encamp'd in bearts, but fighting outwardly."

Thus the quarto of 1597. The quarto of 1599, and all the fubfequent ancient copies read-fuch oppofed kings. - Our authour has more than once alluded to these oppofed foes, contending for the dominion of man. So, in Othello:

"Yea, curfe his better angel from his fide."

Again, in his 144th Sonnet:

"To win me foon to hell, my female evil
"Tempteth my better angel from my fide:

"Yet this I ne'er fhall know, but live in doubt,
"Till my bad angel fire my good one out."

MALONE.

4 Full foon the canker death eats up that plant.] So, in our authour's 99th Sonnet :

"A vengeful canker eat him up to death." MALONE.