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Here in this city visiting the sick,

And finding him, the searchers of the town,
Suspecting, that we both were in a house
Where the infectious pestilence did reign,
Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us forth;
So that my speed to Mantua there was stay'd.
Lau. Who bare my letter then to Romeo?
John. I could not send it, here it is again,-
Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,
So fearful were they of infection.

Lau. Unhappy fortune! by my brotherhood,
The letter was not nice, but full of charge,
Of dear import; and the neglecting it
May do much danger: Friar John, go hence;
Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight
Unto my cell.

John. Brother, I 'll go and bring 't thee.
Lau. Now must I to the monument alone;
Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake;"

[Exit.

Friar John sought for a brother merely for the sake of form, to accompany him in his walk, and had no intention of visiting the sick; the words, therefore, to associate me, must be considered as parenthetical, and Here in this city, &c. must refer to the barefoot brother. Malone.

8was not nice,] i. c. was not written on a trivial or idle subject.

Nice signifies foolish in many parts of Gower and Chaucer. So, in the second Book De Confessione Amantis, fol. 37:

"My sonne, eschewe thilke vice.-
"My father elles were I nice."

Again, in Chaucer's Scogan unto the Lordes, &c.
the most complaint of all,

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"Is to thinkin that I have be so nice,

"That I ne would in vertues to me call," &c.

Again, in The longer thou livest the more Fool thou art, 1570: "You must appeare to be straunge and nyce."

The learned editor of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 1775, ob. serves, that H. Stephens informs us, that nice was the old French word for niais, one of the synonymes of sot. Apol. Herod. L. I, c. iv. Steevens.

See Vol. XI, p. 118, n. 8. Malone.

Within these three hours will fair Juliet wake;] Instead of this line, and the concluding part of the speech, the quarto, 1597, reads only:

"Lest that the lady should before I come

"Be wak'd from sleep, I will hye

"To free her from that tombe of miserie." Steevens.

She will beshrew me much, that Romeo
Hath had no notice of these accidents:
But I will write again to Mantua,

And keep her at my cell till Romeo come;

Poor living corse, clos'd in a dead man's tomb! [Exit. SCENE III.

A Church-Yard; in it, a Monument belonging to the

Capulets.

Enter PARIS, and his Page, bearing Flowers and a Torch.

Par. Give me thy torch, boy: Hence, and stand aloof;— Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. Under yon yew-trees lay thee all along, Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground; So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread, (Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,) But thou shalt hear it: whistle then to me, As signal that thou hear'st something approach. Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go. Page. I am almost afraid to stand alone

Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure. [Retires. Par. Sweet flower, with flowers I strew thy bridal bed: Sweet tomb, that in thy circuit dost contain

The perfect model of eternity;

Fair Juliet, that with angels dost remain,1
Accept this latest favour at my hands;

That living honour'd thee, and, being dead,

1 Fair Juliet, that with angels &c.] These four lines from the old edition. Pope.

The folio has these lines:

"Sweet flow'r, with flow'rs thy bridal bed I strew;
"O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones,

"Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,
"Or, wanting that, with tears distill'd by moans.
"The obsequies that I for thee will keep,

"Nightly shall be, to strew thy grave, and weep."

Johnson. Mr. Pope has followed no copy with exactness; but took the first and fourth lines from the elder quarto, omitting the two in. termediate verses, which I have restored. Steevens.

The folio follows the quarto of 1599. In the text the seven lines are printed as they appear in the quarto, 1597. Malone.

With funeral praises do adorn thy tomb!

[The Boy whistles. The boy gives warning, something doth approach. What cursed foot wanders this way to-night, To cross my obsequies, and true love's rites? What, with a torch!-muffle me, night, a while.

[Retires. Enter ROMEO and BALTHASAR with a Torch, Mattock, &c.

Rom. Give me that mattock, and the wrenching iron.
Hold, take this letter; early in the morning
See thou deliver it to my lord and father.
Give me the light: Upon thy life I charge thee,
Whate'er thou hear'st, or seest, stand all aloof,
And do not interrupt me in my course.
Why I descend into this bed of death,
Is, partly, to behold my lady's face;

But, chiefly, to take thence from her dead finger
A precious ring; a ring, that I must use

In dear employment:3 therefore hence, be gone :-
But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry

In what I further shall intend to do,

By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,

And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs:
The time and my intents are savage-wild;4

More fierce, and more inexorable far,

Than empty tigers, or the roaring sea.

Bal. I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.

2

muffle me, night, a while.] Thus, in Drayton's Polyolbion: "But suddenly the clouds which on the winds do fly, "Do muffle him againe

Muffle was not become a low word even in the time of Milton, as the Elder Brother in Comus uses it:

"Unmuffle ye faint stars" &c.

A muffler, as I have already observed, was a part of female dress. See Vol. III, p. 125, n. 1. Steevens.

3

dear employment:] That is, action of importance. Gems were supposed to have great powers and virtues. Johnson.

See Vol. IV, p. 366, n. 6.

Ben Jonson uses the word dear in the same sense:
"Put your known talents on so dear a business."

4

Catiline, Act I. Steevens.

- savage-wild;] Here the speech concludes in the old copy. Steevens.

Rom. So shalt thou show me friendship.-Take thou

that:

Live, and be prosperous; and farewel, good fellow.
Bal. For all this same, I'll hide me hereabout
His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.

[Retires.
Rom. Thou détestable maw, thou womb of death,
Gorg'd with the dearest morsel of the earth,
Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,

[Breaking open the Door of the Monument.
And, in despite, I'll cram thee with more food!
Par. This is that banish'd haughty Montague,
That murder'd my love's cousin;-with which grief,
It is supposed, the fair creature died,—

And here is come to do some villainous shame
To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him.—[Advances.
Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague;
Can vengeance be pursu'd further than death?
Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee:
Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.

Rom. I must, indeed; and therefore came I hither-
Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man,
Fly hence and leave me;-think upon these gone;
Let them affright thee.—I beseech thee, youth,
Heap not another sin upon my head,

5

détestable-] This word, which is now accented on the second syllable, was once accented on the first; therefore this line did not originally seem to be inharmonious. So, in The Tragedie of Crasus, 1604

"Court with vain words and détestable lyes." Again, in Shakspeare's King John, Act III, sc iii:

"And I will kiss thy détestable bones." Steevens.

Again, in Daniel's Civil Warres, 1595:

"Such détestable vile impiety." Malone.

6 Heap not &c.] Thus the quarto, 1597. The quartos 1599, and 1609, and the folios-Put not; which led Mr. Rowe to introduce the unauthorised reading-pull. That in the text, however, is the true one. So, in Cymbeline: 66- -thou heapest

"A year's age on me."

Again, in a Letter from Queen Elizabeth to Lady Drury: "Heape not your harmes where helpe ther is none," &c. See Nichols's Progresses &c. Vol. II, p. 36, F. 2, b.

After all, it is not impossible our author designed we should read-Pluck not &c. Thus, in King Richard III: “ — sin will pluck on sin." Steevens.

By urging me to fury:-O, be gone!
By heaven, I love thee better than myself;
For I come hither arm'd against myself:
Stay not, be gone;-live, and hereafter say-
A madman's mercy bade thee run away.
Par. I do defy thy conjurations,7

And do attach thee as a felon here.

Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy.

[They fight.

Page. O lord! they fight: I will go call the watch.

[Exit Page.

Par. O, I am slain! [falls]-If thou be merciful, Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.

[Dies.

Rom. In faith, I will:-Let me peruse this face; Mercutio's kinsman, noble county Paris :

So, in the poem of Romeus and Juliet:

"With sighs and salted tears her shriving doth begin,
"For she of heaped sorrows hath to speak, and not of sin."

Malone.

7 I do defy thy conjurations,] Thus the quarto, 1597. Paris conceived Romeo to have burst open the monument for no other purpose than to do some villainous shame on the dead bodies, such as witches are reported to have practised; and therefore tells him he defies him, and the magick arts which he suspects he is preparing to use. So, in Painter's translation of the novel, Tom. II, p. 244: ". - the watch of the city by chance passed by, and seeing light within the grave, suspected straight that they were necromancers which had opened the tombs to abuse the dead bodies, for aide of their arte." The folio reads:

I do defy thy commiseration.

Among the ancient senses of the word-to defy, was to disdam, refuse, or deny. So, in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601:

"Or, as I said, for ever I defy your company."

Again, in The Miseries of Queen Margaret, by Drayton: "My liege, quoth he, ali mercy now defy."

Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. II, c. viii:

"Foole, (said the Pagan) I thy gift defye."

Paris may, however, mean-I refuse to do as thou conjurest me to do, i. e. to depart.

Steevens.

I do defy thy conjurations,] So the quarto, 1597. Instead of this, in that of 1599, we find-commiration. In the next quarto of 1609 this was altered to commiseration, and the folio being probably printed from thence, the same word is exhibited there. The obvious interpretation of these words, "I refuse to do as thou conjurest me to do, i. e. to depart,” is in my apprehension the true one. Malone.

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