But I a maid, die maiden-widowed. Come, cords; come, nurse; I'll to my wedding bed; Nurse. Hie to your chamber: I'll find Romeo Jul. O find him! give this ring to my true knight, And bid him come to take his last farewel. SCENE III. Friar Laurence's Cell. Enter Friar LAURENCE and ROMEO. [Exeunt. Fri. Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man; Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts, And thou art wedded to calamity. Rom. Father, what news? what is the prince's doom? What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand, That I yet know not? Is my dear son with such sour company: I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom. Rom. What less than dooms-day is the prince's doom? Fri. A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips, Not body's death, but body's banishment. Rom. Ha! banishment? be merciful, say--death: Much more than death: do not say--banishment. Hence-banished is banish'd from the world, 4 - then banishment —] The quarto, 1599, and the folio, read -then banished. The emendation was made by Sir Thomas Hanmer. The words are not in the quarto, 1597. Malone. Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince, And turn'd that black word death to banishment: Rom. 'Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven is here, 5 This is dear mercy,] So the quarto, 1599, and the folio. The earliest copy reads-This is mere mercy. Malone. Mere mercy, in ancient language, signifies absolute mercy. So, in Othello: "The mere perdition of the Turkish fleet." Again, in King Henry VIII: 6 66 to the mere undoing "Of all the kingdom." Steevens. heaven is here, Where Juliet lives;] From this and the foregoing speech of Romeo, Dryden has borrowed in his beautiful paraphrase of Chaucer's Palamon and Arcite: "Heaven is not, but where Emily abides, "And where she 's absent, all is hell besides." Steevens 7 More validity, More honourable state, more courtship lives In carrion flies, than Romeo:] Validity seems here to mean worth or dignity: and courtship the state of a courtier permitted to approach the highest presence. Johnson. Validity is employed to signify worth or value, in the first scene of King Lear. Steevens. By courtship, the author seems rather to have meant, the state of a lover; that dalliance, in which he who courts or wooes a lady is sometimes indulged. This appears clearly from the subsequent lines: 66 they may seize "On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand, 8 Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,] This and the next line are not in the first copy. Malone. But Romeo may not; he is banished:9 Flies may do this, when I from this must fly; And says't thou yet, that exile is not death?1 O friar, the damned use that word in hell; A sin-absolver, and my friend profess'd, To mangle me with that word-banishment? Fri. Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word.3 Rom. O, thou wilt speak again of banishment. Fri. I'll give thee armour to keep off that word; Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy, To comfort thee, though thou art banished.3 9 But Romeo may not; he is banished:] This line has been very aukwardly introduced in the modern as well as ancient copies, and might better be inserted after—their own kisses sin. Steevens. This line, in the original copy, immediately follows-" And steal immortal blessing from her lips." The two lines, Who, even, &c. were added in the copy of 1599, and are merely parenthetical: the line, therefore, But Romeo may not; &c. undoubtedly ought to follow these two lines. By mistake, in the copy of 1599, it was inserted lower down, after-is not death. Malone. 1 They are free men, but I am banished. And say'st thou yet, that exile is not death?] These two lines are not in the original copy. Malone. 2 Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word.] So the quarto, 1597. The quartos 1599 and 1609 read: Then fond man, hear me a little speak. The folio: Then fond mad man, hear me speak. Malone. 3 Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy, To comfort thee, though thou art banished.] So, in Romeus and Juliet, the Friar says "Virtue is always thrall to troubles and annoy." t wisdom in adversity finds cause of quiet joy." See Lyly's Euphues, 1580: "Thou sayest banishment is better to the freeborne. There be many meates which are sowre in the mouth and sharp in the maw; but if thou mingle them with sweet sawces, they yeeld both a pleasant taste and wholesome nourishment. I speake this to this end; that though thy exile seeme grievous to thee, yet guiding thyselfe with the rules of philosophy, it shall be more tolerable." Malone. Rom. Yet banished?-Hang up philosophy! It helps not, it prevails not, talk no more. Fri. O, then I see that madmen have no ears. Rom. How should they, when that wise men have no, eyes? Fri. Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.4 Rom. Thou canst not speak of what thou dost not feel: Wert thou as young as 1, Juliet thy love, An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, Then might'st thou speak, then might'st thou tear thy hair, And fall upon the ground, as I do now, Taking the measure of an unmade grave. Fri. Arise; one knocks; good Romeo, hide thyself, [Knocking within. Rom. Not I; unless the breath of heart-sick groans, Mist-like, infold me from the search of eyes. [Knocking. Fri. Hark, how they knock!-Who 's there?—Ro meo, arise; Thou wilt be taken:-Stay a while :-stand up; [Knocking. Run to my study :-By and by:-God's will! will? Nurse. [within] Let me come in, and you shall know my errand; 4 Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.] The same phrase, and with the same meaning, occurs in The Winter's Tale: can he speak? hear? "Know man from man? dispute his own estate?" i. e. is he able to talk over his own affairs, or the present state he is in? Steevens. 5 Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,] Thus the original copy; for which in the folio we have Wert thou as young as Juliet my love. I only mention this to show the very high value of the early quarto editions. Malone. 6 What wilfulness-] Thus the quarto, 1597. That of 1599 and the folio, have-What simpleness. Malone. I come from lady Juliet. Fri. Welcome then. Enter Nurse. Nurse. O holy friar, O, tell me, holy friar, Where is my lady's lord, where 's Romeo? Fri. There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk. Nurse. O, he is even in my mistress' case, Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering :— Rom. Nurse! Nurse. Ah sir! ah sir!-Well, death 's the end of all. Rom. Spak'st thou of Juliet? how is it with her? Doth she not think me an old murderer, Now I have stain'd the childhood of our joy With blood remov'd but little from her own? Where is she? and how doth she? and what says My conceal'd lady to our cancell❜d love?8 Nurse. O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps; And now falls on her bed; and then starts up, And Tybalt calls; and then on Romeo cries, And then down falls again. Rom. As if that name, Shot from the deadly level of a gun, Did murder her; as that name's cursed hand 70 woeful sympathy Piteous predicament!] The old copies give these words to the Nurse. One may wonder the editors did not see that such language must necessarily belong to the Friar. Farmer. Dr. Farmer's emendation may justly claim that place in the text to which I have now advanced it. 8 Steevens. cancell'd love?] The folio reads-conceal'd love. Johnson. The quarto, cancell❜d love. Steevens. The epithet concealed is to be understood, not of the person, but of the condition of the lady. So, that the sense is, my lady, whose being so, together with our marriage which made her so, is concealed from the world. Heath. |