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.

ROM. O blessed blessed night! I am afeard,
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,

6

6 If that thy bent of love be honourable, &c.] In The Tragical History already quoted Juliet uses nearly the same expres

sions :

if your thought be chaste, and have on virtue ground,

"If wedlock be the end and mark which your desire hath found,

"Obedience set aside, 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 whereso you go, my father's house

forsake:

"But if by wanton love and by unlawful suit

"You think in ripest years to pluck my maidenhood's

dainty fruit,

"You are beguil'd, and now your Juliet you beseeks,
"To cease your suit, and suffer her to live among her
likes." MALONE.

Thy purpose marriage, send 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:
NURSE. [Within.] Madam.

JUL. I come, anon:-But if thou mean'st not well,

I do beseech thee,

NURSE. [Within.] Madam.

JUL.

By and by, I come:

To cease thy suit, and leave me to my grief:
To-morrow will I send.

ROM.

So thrive my soul,—

JUL. A thousand times good night!

[Exit.

ROM. A thousand times the worse, to want thy

light.

Love goes toward love, as school-boys from their

books;

But love from love, toward school with heavy looks. [Retiring slowly.

Re-enter JULIET, above.

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

To lure this tassel-gentle back again !8

7 To cease thy suit,] So the quarto, 1597. The two subsequent quartos and the folio have thy strife. MALONE.

• To lure this tassel-gentle back again !] The tassel or tiercel (for so it should be spelt) is the male of the gosshawk; so 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 Turberville, Gent. printed in 1575, I find a whole chapter on the falcon-gentle, &c. So, in The Guardian, by Massinger :

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 musick to attending ears!

then, for an evening flight,

"A tiercel-gentle."

Taylor the water poet uses the same expression: "-By casting out the lure, she makes the tassel-gentle come to her fist." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. III. c. iv:

"Having far off espyde a tassel-gent,

"Which after her his nimble wings doth straine." Again, in Decker's Match me in London, 1631:

"Your tassel-gentle, she's lured off and gone.'

This species of hawk had the epithet of gentle annexed to it, from the ease with which it was tamed, and its attachment to man. STEEvens.

It appears from the old books on this subject that certain hawks were considered as appropriated to certain ranks. The tercelgentle was appropriated to the prince; and thence, we may suppose, was chosen by Juliet as an appellation for her beloved Romeo. In an ancient treatise entitled Hawking, Hunting, and Fishing, with the true Measures of Blowing, is the following

passage:

"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

tear the cave] This strong expression is more suitably employed by Milton:

1

A shout that tore hell's conçave- 99 STEEVENS.

My sweet! Mr. Malone reads-Madam, and justifies his choice by the following note. STEEVENS,

JUL.

Shall I send to thee?

ROM.

At what o'clock to-morrow

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 still stay, to have thee still forget, Forgetting any other home but this.

JUL. 'Tis almost 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 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:

Thus the original copy of 1597. In the two subsequent copies and the folio we have-My niece. What word was intended it is difficult to say. The editor of the second folio substituted

My sweet. I have already shown, that all the alterations in that copy were made at random; and have therefore preserved the original word, though less tender than that which was arbitrarily substituted in its place. MALONE.

As I shall always suppose the second folio to have been corrected, in many places, by the aid of better copies than fell into the hands of the editors of the preceding volume, I have in the present instance, as well as many others, followed the authority rejected by Mr. Malone.

I must add, that the cold, distant, and formal appellationMadam, which has been already put into the mouth of the Nurse, would but ill accord with the more familiar feelings of the ardent Romeo, to whom Juliet has just promised every gratification that youth and beauty could bestow. STEEVENS.

Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing. Good night, good night! parting is such sweet

sorrow,

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

[Exit.

ROM. Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy

breast!

'Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest! Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell; His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell.2 [Exit.

SCENE III.

Friar Laurence's Cell.

Enter Friar LAURENCE, with a Basket.

FRI. The grey-ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night,3

Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light:

2 Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell;

His help to crave, and my dear hap 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 ghostly frier's close cell,

His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell. MALONE. 'The grey-ey'd morn &c.] These four lines are here replaced, conformable to the first edition, where such a description is much more proper than in the mouth of Romeo just before, when he was full of nothing but the thoughts of his mistress. POPE.

In the folio these lines are printed twice over, and given once to Romeo, and once to the Friar. JOHNSON.

The same mistake has likewise happened in the quartos, 1599, 1609, and 1637. STEEVENS.