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SCENE III.

Friar Laurence's Cell.

Enter Friar LAURENCE and ROMEO.

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?

FRI.

Too familiar

Is dear son with such sour company: my

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: For exile hath more terror in his look, Much more than death: do not say-banishment. FRI. Hence from Verona art thou banished: Be patient, for the world is broad and wide. ROM. There is no world without Verona walls, But purgatory, torture, hell itself.

Hence-banished is banish'd from the world, And world's exíle is death:-then banishment"

then banishment-] The quarto 1599, and the folio,

Is death mis-term'd: calling death-banishment,
Thou cut'st my head off with a golden axe,
And smil❜st upon the stroke that murders me.

FRI. O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness!
Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince,
Taking thy part, hath rush'd aside the law,
And turn'd that black word death to banishment:
This is dear mercy," and thou seest it not.

ROM. 'Tis torture, and not mercy heaven is

here,

Where Juliet lives; and every cat, and dog,
And little mouse, every unworthy thing,
Live here in heaven, and may look on her,
But Romeo may not.-More validity,
More honourable state, more courtship lives
In carrion flies, than Romeo:" they may seize

read-then banished. The emendation was made by Sir Thomas Hanmer. The words are not in the quarto 1597. MALONE.

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:

66

to the mere undoing

"Of all the kingdom." STEEVens.

8 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."

More validity,

More honourable state, more courtship lives

In carrion flies, than Romeo:]

STEEVENS.

Validity seems here to mean

worth or dignity and courtship the state of a courtier permitted

to approach the highest presence. JOHNSON.

1

On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand,
And steal immortal blessing from her lips;
Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,
Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin;
But Romeo may not; he is banished:2
Flies may do this, when I from this must fly;
They are free men, but I am banished.

And say'st thou yet, that exile is not death?3
Hadst thou no poison mix'd, no sharp-ground knife,
No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean,
But-banished-to kill me; banished?

O friar, the damned use that word in hell;
Howlings attend it: How hast thou the heart,

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:

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they may seize

"On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand,
"And steal immortal blessing from her lips ;-
"Flies may do this." MALONE.

1 Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,] This and the next line are not in the first сору. MALONE.

2 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 those two lines. By mistake, in the copy of 1599, it was inserted lower down, after-is not death.

3

They are free men, but I am banished.

MALONE.

And say'st thou yet, that exile is not death?] These two lines are not in the original copy. MALONE.

Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,

A sin-absolver, and my friend profess'd,
To mangle mé with that word-banishment?
FRI. Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a
word.

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.5
ROM. Yet banished?-Hang up philosophy!
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom;
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.

• Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word.] So the quarto, 1597. The quartos 1599 and 1609 read:

Then fond mad man, hear me a little speak.

The folio:

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Then fond mad man, hear me speak. MALONE.

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,

"But wisdom in adversity finds cause of quiet joy." See also 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.

"Let me dispute with thee of thy estate.] The same phrase, and with the same meaning, occurs in The Winter's Tale :

ROM. Thou canst not speak of what thou dost not feel:

Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,"
An hour but married, Tybalt murdered,
Doting like me, and like me banished,

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?—

Romeo, arise;

Thou wilt be taken :-Stay a while :-stand up; [Knocking. Run to my study :-By and by :-God's will!

66 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.

7 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.

then might'st thou tear thy hair,] So, in the poem: "These heavy tidings heard, his golden locks he tare, "And like a frantick man hath torn the garments that

he ware.

"He riseth oft, and strikes his head against the walls; "He falleth down again, and loud for hasty death he calls." MALONE.

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