It any

of

my

kinsmen find thee here.

ROM. With love's light wings did I o'er-perch
these walls,

For stony limits cannot hold love out :
And what love can do, that dares love attempt;
Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.

JUL. If they do see thee, they will murder thee. ROM. Alack! there lies more peril in thine eye, Than twenty of their swords; look thou but sweet, And I am proof against their enmity.

JUL. I would not for the world they saw thee here.
ROM. I have night's cloak to hide me from their
eyes,

And, but thou love me, let them find me here:
My life were better ended by their hate,
Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.

JUL. By whose direction found'st thou out this
place?

ROM. By love, that first did prompt me to in-
quire;

He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes.
I am no pilot, yet, wert thou as far

As that vast shore wash'd with the farthest sea,
I would* adventure for such merchandise.

JUL. Thou know'st the mask of night is cn
my face,

Else would a maiden blush bepaint my check,
For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night.
Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny
What I have spoke; but farewell complement !"
Dost thou love me?+ I know, thou wilt say-Ay;
And I will take thy word: yet, if thou swear'st,
Thou may'st prove false; at lovers' perjuries,
They say, Jove laughs. O, gentle Romeo,
If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully:
Or if thou think'st I am too quickly won,
I'll frown, and be perverse, and say thee
nay,
So thou wilt woo; but, else, not for the world.
In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond,
And therefore thou may'st think my 'haviour§

light:

But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true
Than those that have more cunning to be strange.d
I should have been more strange, I must confess,
But that thou over-heard'st, ere I was 'ware,
My true love's passion: therefore pardon me,
And not impute this yielding to light love,
Which the dark night hath so discovered.
ROM. Lady, by yonder blessed | moon I vow,

That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops,JUL. O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant

moon,

That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
ROM. What shall I swear by?
JUL.
Do not swear at all;
Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,
Which is the god of my idolatry,
And I'll believe thee.
ROM.
If my
heart's dear love-
JUL. Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee,
I have no joy of this contract to-night:
It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden,
Too like the lightning, which doth case to be,
Ere one can say it lightens. Sweet, good night!
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
Good night, good night! as sweet repose and rest
Come to thy heart, as that within my breast!
ROM. O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
JUL. What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?
ROM. The exchange of thy love's faithful vow
for mine.

JUL. I gave thee mine before thou didst request it:

And yet I would it were to give again.

ROM. Would'st thou withdraw it? for what

purpose, love?

JUL. But to be frank, and give it thee again. And yet I wish but for the thing I have: My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.

[Nurse calls within. I hear some noise within; dear love, adieu ! Anon, good nurse.-Sweet Montague, be true. Stay but a little, I will come again. [Exit.

Roм. O blessed, blessed night! I am afcard, Being in night, all this is but a dream, Too flattering-sweet to be substantial.

Re-enter JULIET, above.

JUL. Three words, dear Romeo, and good night, indeed.

If that thy bent of love be honourable, (2)
Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow,
By one that I'll procure to come to thee,

"'till strange love, grown bold, Think true love acted, simple modesty."

So, too, in Greene's "Mamilia," 1593:

"Is it the fashion in Padua to be so strange with your friends?"

e Sweet, good night!] This, and the intermediate lines down

to "Stay but a little," &c., were added after the printing of the 1597 quarto,

175

Re-enter JULIET, above.

JUL. Hist! Romeo, hist!—O, for a falconer's voice,

To lure this tassel-gentle (3) back again!
Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud;
Else would I tear the cave where echo lies,
And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine,*
With repetition of my Romeo's name."

ROM. It is my soul, that calls upon my name : How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night, Like softest music to attending ears!

*

What o'clock to-morrow

By the hour of nine.

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

ROм. Let me stand here till thou remember it. JUL. I shall forget, to have thee still stand there, Remembering how I love thy company.

ROM. And I'll still stay, to have thee still forget,

(*) First folio omits mine.

a So the undated quarto; the first folio reads strife.

b My Romeo's name.] So the quarto, 1597; that of 1599, and first folio, read only, "of my Romeo."

My dear!] The quarto, 1597, has madam; that of 1599, and folio, 1623, have My neece, which, in the second folio, was altered to My sweet. Our reading is that of the undated quarto.

d Parting is such sweet sorrow,-] In the folio, 1623, and some of the quartos, this speech is allotted to Romeo, and the first line of the next to Juliet.

e My ghostly father's cell;] My ghostly father is, my spiritual father.

f And flecked darkness-] Flecked, or, as the folio, 1623, spells it, fleckled, means spotted, dappled, flaked. We meet with the same image in "Much Ado About Nothing," Act V. Sc. 3:

"and look, the gentle day,

Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about,
Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey."

g From forth day's path, and Titan's fiery wheels:] This is the reading of the first quarto, 1597: in the other editions, these

Forgetting any other home but this.

JUL. "Tis almost morning; I would have thee gone:

And yet, no farther than a wanton's bird d;
That lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a silk thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.

ROM. I would, I were thy bird.
JUL.

Sweet, so would I :
Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
Good night, good night! parting is such sweet
sorrow,d

That I shall say-good night, till it be morrow.

SCENE III.-Friar Laurence's Cell.

Enter Friar LAURENCE, with a basket. FRI. The grey-ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night,

Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light;
And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels
From forth day's path, and Titan's fiery § wheels: "
Now ere the sun advance his burning eye,
The day to cheer, and night's dank dew to dry,
I must up-fill this osier cage of ours,
With baleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers.(4)
The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb; h
What is her burying grave, that is her womb:
And from her womb children of divers kind,
We sucking on her natural bosom find;
Many for many virtues excellent,
None but for some, and yet all different.
O, mickle is the powerful grace, that lies
In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities:

(*) Quarto, 1599, and first folio, his.

(†) Quarto, 1599, and first folio, silken. (1) First folio, friar's close cell.

(§) First folio, burning.

four lines, slightly varied in the concluding couplet, which runs thus,

And darknesse fleckeld like a drunkard reeles,

From forth dayes pathway, made by Titans wheeles,

are also printed in the middle of Romeo's speech above. The editor, or printer, of the folio, 632, thought he was correcting the blunder by crossing the lines out of the friar's speech, and assigning them to Romeo.

h The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb;] So Lucretius:

"Omniparens, eadem rerum commune sepulchrum.” And our author, in "Pericles," has a parallel idea:

"Time's the king of men,

For he's their parent, and he is their grave."

For nought so vile that on the earth doth live,
But to the earth some special good doth give;
Nor aught so good, but, strain'd from that fair use,
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;
And vice sometime 's by action dignified."
Within the infant rind of this weak flower
Poison hath residence, and medicine power:
For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each
part;

Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart.
Two such opposed kings encamp them still
In man as well as herbs,-grace, and rude will;
And, where the worser is predominant,
Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

a By action dignified.] After these words the ancient copies, except the first quarto, which has no direction, have,-" Enter Romeo;" but it very frequently happens in old plays that the

Enter ROMEO.

ROM. Good morrow, father!
FRI.
Benedicite!
What early tongue so sweet saluteth me?-
Young son, it argues a distemper'd head,
So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed:
Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie:
But where unbruised youth with unstuff'd brain
Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth
reign:

Therefore thy earliness doth me assure,
Thou art up-rous'd with some distemperature;
Or if not so, then here I hit it right-

entrance of a character is marked some time before he really takes part in the scene. Such direction probably meaning that the actor is to be at hand, ready to enter when the cue is given.

Our Romeo hath not been in bed to-night.

ROM. That last is true, the sweeter rest was mine.
FRI. God pardon sin! wast thou with Rosaline?
ROM. With Rosaline, my ghostly father? no;
I have forgot that name, and that name's woe.
FRI. That's my good son: but where hast thou
been then?

ROM. I'll tell thee, ere thou ask it me agen.
I have been feasting with mine enemy;
Where, on a sudden, one hath wounded me,
That's by me wounded; both our remedies
Within thy help and holy physic lies:
I bear no hatred, blessed man; for, lo,
My intercession likewise steads my foe.

FRI. Be plain, good son, and *homely in thy drift;

Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.

ROM. Then plainly know, my heart's dear love is set

On the fair daughter of rich Capulet:
As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine;
And all combin'd, save what thou must combine
By holy marriage. When, and where, and how,
We met, we woo'd, and made exchange of vow,
I'll tell thee as we pass; but this I pray,
That thou consent to marry us to-day.

FRI. Holy saint Francis! what a change is here!
Is Rosaline, that thou didst love so dear,
So soon forsaken? young men's love then lies,
Not truly in their hearts, but in their
eyes.
Jesu Maria! what a deal of brine
Hath wash'd thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline!
How much salt water thrown away in waste,
To season love, that of it doth not taste!
The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears,
Thy old groans ringt yet in my ancient ears;
Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit
Of an old tear that is not wash'd off yet:
If e'er thou wast thyself, and these woes thine,
Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline;
And art thou chang'd? pronounce this sentence
then-

Women may fall, when there's no strength in men.
ROM. Thou chidd'st me oft for loving Rosaline.
FRI. For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.
ROM. And bad'st me bury love.
FRI.

To lay one in, another out to have.

Not in a grave,

Enter BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO.

MER. Where the devil should this Romeo be?— Came he not home to night?

BEN. Not to his father's; I spoke with his man. MER. Why, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline,

Torments him so, that he will sure run mad.
BEN. Tybalt, the kinsman to old Capulet,
Hath sent a letter to his father's house.
MER. A challenge, on my life.

BEN. Romeo will answer it.

MER. Any man, that can write, may answer a letter.

BEN. Nay, he will answer the letter's master, how he dares, being dared.

MER. Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead! stabb'd with a white wench's black eye; shot through the ear with a love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's butt-shaft; and is he a man to encounter Tybalt? BEN. Why, what is Tybalt? MER.

More than prince of cats,(5 ,(5) I can tell you. O, he's the courageous captain of complements: he fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion; rests me his minim rest,§ one, two,-and the third in your bosom: the very butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellist; a gentleman of the very first house,of the first and second cause: Ah, the immortal passado! the punto reverso! the hay!—(6) BEN. The what?

a She whom I love now,-] So the earliest quarto, 1597. The other old copies, including the folio, 1623, read

"I pray thee, chide me not, her I love now."

b I stand on sudden haste.] It imports me much to be speedy. So in "Richard II." Act II. Sc. 3:

"It stands your grace upon, to do him right."

Again, in "Richard III." Act IV. Sc. 2:

"It stands me much upon,

To stop all hopes whose growth may danger me."