Or thou, or I, or both shall follow him. [here,]
Tyb.Thou wretched boy, that didst consort him
Shalt with him hence.

Rom. This shall determine that.
[They fight.
Ben. Romeo, away, be gone!
The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain [death,
Stand not amaz'd: the prince will doom thee|
If thou art taken:-hence!-be gone!-away!
Rom. O! I am fortune's fool!

:--

[Exit Romeo.

Ben. Why dost thou stay?
Enter Citizens, &c.
Cit. Which way ran he that kill'd Mercutio?
Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?
Ben. There lies that Tybalt.
Cit. Up, sir, go with me;

Tybalt falls.

Romeo that spoke him fair, bid him bethink
How nice the quarrel was, and urg'd withal
Your high displeasure: all this--utter'd
With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly

This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

5

La. Cap. He is a kinsman to the Montague,
Affection makes him false, he speaks not true:
Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,
And all those twenty could but kill one life:
I beg for justice, which thou, prince, must give;
Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live.

Prin. Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio;
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
La. Mon. Not Romeo, prince; he was Mer-
cutio's friend;

10

Prin. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray? 30 Ben. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay;

bow'd,

Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts
With piercing steei at bold Mercutio's breast;
Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point,
And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
Cold death aside, and with the other sends
It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity
Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud,

I charge thee in the prince's name, obey.
Enter Prince, Montague, Capulet, their Wives, &c.
Prin. Where are the vile beginners of this fray
Ben. O, noble prince, I can discover all
The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl:
There lies the man, slain by young Romeo,
That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.
La. Cap. Tybalt, my cousin!- -O my bro-

Nor tears, nor prayers, shall purchase out abuses,
Therefore use none : let Romeo hence in haste,
Else, when he's found, that hour is his last.
Bear hence this body, and attend our will:
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.
[Exeunt.

ther's child!

25

O prince!-O husband!-O, the blood is spill'd
Of my dear kinsman!-Prince, as thou art true',
For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague.-
O cousin, cousin!

His fault concludes but what the law should end,
The life of Tybalt.

Prin. And, for that offence,

15

Immediately we do exile him hence:

I have an interest in your hates' proceeding, [ing;
My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleed-
But I'll amerce you with so strong a fine,
That you shall all repent the loss of mine:
20I will be deaf to pleading and excuses;

SCENE II.

An Apartment in Capulet's House.
Enter Juliet.

Jul. Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus' mansion; such a waggoner
As Phaeton would whip you to the west,
35 And bring in cloudy night immediately.
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night!
That run-away's eyes may wink 4; and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalk'd of, and unseen !—
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
40 By their own beauties: or, if love be blind,

It best agrees with night.-Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Play'd for a pair of stainless maiden-hoods:
45 Hood my unmann'd blood baiting in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle; 'till strange love grown
bold,

Hold, friends! friends, part! and, swifter than
his tongue,

His agile arm beats down their fatal points,
And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled:
But by-and-by comes back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertain'd revenge,
And to't they go like lightning; for, ere I
Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain; 55 Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly:
And he will make the face of heaven so fine,

Thinks true love acted, simple modesty. [night!
Come, night !--Come, Romeo! come, thou day in
50 For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than new snow on a raven's back.
Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow'd
night,

Give me my Romeo: and when he shall die,

2i. e. as thou art

I am always running in the way of evil fortune, like the fool in the play. just and upright. 3 how slight, how unimportant, how petty. 4 Juliet would have night's darkness obscure the great eye of the day, the sun; whom considering in a poetical light as Phabus, drawn in his car with fiery-footed steeds, and posting through the heavens, she very properly calls him, with regard to the swiftness of his course, the run-away. 'Civil is grave, decently solemn. "These are terms of falconry. An unmanned hawk is one that is not brought to endure company.-Bating is fluttering with the wings as striving to fly away,

3 K 4

That

Nurse. Romeo can,

Though heaven cannot :-O Romeo! Romeo!-
Who ever would have thought it?-Romeo!

Jul. What devil art thou, that dost torment|
me thus?

eyes,

God save the mark!-here on his manly breast:
A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse;
Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub'd in blood,
All in gore blood:-I sownded at the sight.
Jul. Ö break, my heart!-poor bankrupt, break
at once!

To prison, eyes! ne'er look on liberty!
Vile earth, to earth resign; end motion here;
And thou, and Romeo, press one heavy bier!
Nurse.OTybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had!
O courteous Tybalt! honest gentleman!
That ever I should live to see thee dead!

Jul. What storm is this that blows so contrary
Is Romeo slaughter'd? and is Tybalt dead?
My dear-lov'd cousin, and my dearer lord?-
Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom!
For who is living, if those two are gone?

Nurse. Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banish'd;
Romeo, that kill'd him, he is banish'd;
Jul, O God!—did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's
blood?

Nurse. It did, it did; alas the day! it did.
Jul. O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring 60
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave ?

[face!

1 Garish is gaudy, showy. 2 In our author's time, the affirmative adverb ay was generally written I: and by this means it both becomes a vowel, and answers in sound to eye, upon which the conceit turns in the second line. 3 Hath put Tybalt out of my mind, as if out of being.

Jul.

Jul. Wash they his wounds with tears? mine] shall be spent,

[guil'd, 5

[bed;j

When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment.
Take up those cords:-Poor ropes, you are be-
Both you and I; for Romeo is exil'd:
He made you for a highway to my bed;
But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed.
Come, cords; come, nurse; I'll to my wedding-
And death, not Romeo, take my maiden-head!
Nurse. Hie to your chamber: I'll find Romeo
To comfort you;-1 wot well where he is.
Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night;
I'll to him; he is hid at Lawrence' cell.

Jul. O, find him! give this ring to my true knight,

And bid him come to take his last farewell.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Friar Lawrence's Cell.

Enter Friar Lawrence, and Romeo.

Fri. Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou
fearful man;
Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts,
And thou art wedded to calamity.

[doom?

Rom. Father, what news? what is the prince's What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand, That yet know not?

And steal immortal blessings from her lips;
Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,
Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin:
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?
But Romeo may not; he is banished. [knife,
Hadst thou no poison mix'd, no sharp-ground
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,
Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,
A sin-absolver, and my friend profest,

10

15 To mangle me 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; 20 Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy,

To comfort thee, though thou art banished.
Rom. Yet banished?-Hang up philosophy!
Unless philosophy can make a Juliet,
Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom;
25It 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?

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
On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand,

Friar. Too familiar

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 judgement vanish'd from his lips, 35
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. Here 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 exile is death; then banishment
Is death mis-term'd; calling death-banishment,
Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe,
And smil'st upon the stroke that murders me.

Thou wilt be taken :--Stay a while:-stand up:
[Knock.
Fri. O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness! Run to my study:-By-and-by:-God's will!
Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince, 50 What wilfulness is this?—I come, I come.
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

155

301

40

Fri. Let me dispute with thee of thy estate. Rom. Thou canst not speak of what thou dost not feel:

45

Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,
An hour but marry'd, Tybalt murdered,
Doating 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.
[Knock within.
Rom. Not I; unless the breath of heart-sick
groans,

Mist-like, infold me from the search of eyes.

[Knock. Fri. Hark, how they knock!-Who's there? Romeo, arise;

[Knock. Who knocks so hard? whence come you? what's your will?

Nurse. [within.] Let me come in, and you shall
know my errand;
I come from lady Juliet.
Fri. Welcome then.

1

Validity seems here to mean worth or dignity; and courtship the state of a courtier permitted to approach the highest presence.

Nurse.

Nurse. O, he is even in my mistress' case, Just in her case!

Fri. O woeful sympathy ! Piteous predicament!

For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead;
There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slew'st Tybalt; there too art thou happy:
The law, that threaten'd death,becomes thy friend,
And turns it to exile; there art thou happy:
A pack of blessings light upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But, like a mis'hav'd and a sullen wench,
Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love:
10 Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed,
Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her;
But, look, thou stay not 'till the watch be set,
For then thou canst not pass to Mantua;
15 Where thou shalt live, 'till we can find a time
To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,
Beg pardon of the prince, and call thee back
With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.—
20 Go before, nurse: commend me to thy lady;
And bid her hasten all the house to bed,
Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto:
Romeo is coming.

[night,
Nurse. O Lord, I could have stay'd here all the
25 To hear good counsel: O, what learning is !—
My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.

Rom. Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.
Nurse. Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you,

Nurse. Even so lies she,
[ing:
Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubber-
Stand up, stand up; stand, an you be a man:
For Juliet's sake, for her sake, rise and stand;
Why should you fall into so deep an O?

Rom. Nurse!

Nurse. Ah sir! ah sir!-death is 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?

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
Murder'd her kinsman.-O tell me, friar, tell me,
In what vile part of this anatomy

Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sack
The hateful mansion.
[Drawing his sword.

Fri. Hold thy desperate hand :
Art thou a man? thy form cries out, thou art;
Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote
The unreasonable fury of a beast:
Unseemly woman, in a seeming man!
Or ill-beseeming beast, in seeming both1!
Thou hast amaz'd me: by my holy order,
I thought thy disposition better temper'd.
Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself?
And slay thy lady too that lives in thee,
By doing damned hate upon thyself? [earth 40
Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and
Since birth, and heaven, and earth, all three do
meet

sir:

30

Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.
Rom. How well my comfort is reviv'd by this!
Fri. Go hence. Good night :-and here stands
all your state 4,-

Either be gone before the watch be set,
35 Or by the break of day disguis'd from hence:
Sojourn in Mantua; I'll find out your man,
And he shall signify from time to time
Every good hap to you, that chances here:
Give me thy hand; 'tis late: farewell; good night.
Rom. But that a joy past joy calls out on me,
It were a grief, so brief to part with thee:
Farewell.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

A Room in Capulet's House.
Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, and Paris.
Cap. Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily,
That we have had no time to move our daughter:
Look you, she lov'd her kinsman Tybalt dearly,
50 And so did I;-Well, we were born to die.-
'Tis very late, she'll not come down to-night;
I promise you, but for your company,
I would have been a-bed an hour ago.

In thee at once; which thou at once would'st lose.
Fie, fie! thou sham'st thy shape, thy love, thy wit; 45
Which, like an usurer, abound'st in all,
And usest none in that true use indeed
Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit.
Thy noble shape is but a form of wax,
Digressing from the valour of a man:
Thy dear love, sworn, but hollow perjury,
Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish.
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
Mis-shapen in the conduct of them both,
Like powder in the skill-less soldier's flask 2,
Is set on fire by thine own ignorance,
And thou dismember'd with thine own defence '.
What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive,

Par. These times of woe afford no time to woo: 55Madam, good night: commend me to your [morrow; La. Cap. I will, and know her mind early toTo-night she's mew'd' up to her heaviness.

daughter.

That is, Thou art a beast of ill qualities, under the appearance both of a woman and a man. 2 To understand the force of this allusion, it should be remembered that the ancient English soldiers, using match-locks, instead of locks with flints as at present, were obliged to carry a lighted match hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden flusk in which they kept their powder.

3 That is,

And thou torn to pieces with thy own weapons.

The whole of your fortune depends on this.

•

A mew was a place of confinement for hawks.

987

Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so.-
How is 't, my soul? let's talk, it is not day.
Jul. It is, it is, hie hence, be gone, away;
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
5 Straming harsh discords, and unpleasing sharps.
Some say, the lark makes sweet division 3;
This doth not so, for she divideth us:

6

Some say, the lark and loathed toad change eyes'; O, now I would they had chang'd voices too! 10 Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray, Hunting thee hence with hunts-up to the day. O, now be gone; more light and light it grows. Rom. More light and light?-more dark and dark our woes.

Enter Nurse.

Par. Monday, my lord.

[soon,
Cap. Monday? ha! ha! Well, Wednesday is too
O' Thursday let it be;-o' Thursday, tell her,
She shall be married to this noble earl:-
Will you be ready? do you like this haste?
We'll keep no great ado;—a friend, or two:-
For hark you, Tybalt being slain so late,
It may be thought we held him carelessly,
Being our kinsman, if we revel much:
Therefore we'll have some half a dozen friends,
And there an end. But what say you to Thurs-|
day?
[morrow.
Par. My lord, I would that Thursday were to- 20
Cap. Well, get you gone:―o' Thursday be
it then :-

:

15

Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed;
Prepare her, wife, against this wedding-day.-
Farewell, my lord.-Light to my chamber, ho! 25
'Fore me, it is so very late, that we
May call it early by-and-by: Good night. [Exeunt.]

Nurse. Madam!
Jul. Nurse?
[chamber:
Nurse. Your lady mother's coming to your
The day is broke; be wary, look about.

[Exit Nurse.
Jul. Then, window, let day in, and let life out.
Rom. Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and I'll de-
scend.
[Romeo descends.
Jul. Art thou gone so? Love! lord! ah, hus-
band! friend!

I must hear from thee every day i' the hour,
For in a minute there are many days:
O! by this count I shall be much in years,
30 Ere I again behold my Romeo.

Rom. Farewell! I will omit no opportunity
That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.
Jul. O, think'st thou, we shall ever meet again?
Rom. I doubt it not; and all these woes shall

serve

SCENE V.

Juliet's Chamber.

Enter Romeo, and Juliet.

35

Jul. Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day:
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree:
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

For sweet discourses in our time to come.
Jul. O God! I have an ill-divining soul;
Methinks, I see thee, now thou art so low,
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb:

Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks 40 Either my eye-sight fails, or thou look'st pale.
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:
Rom. And trust me, love, in my eye so do you:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu! adieu!
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountains' tops;
[Exit Romeo.
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
Jul. O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle:
45 If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him
That is renown'd for faith? Be fickle, fortune;
For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long,
But send him back.

Jul. Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I;
It is some meteor that the sun exhales,
To be to thee this night a torch-bearer,
And light thee on thy way to Mantua:
Therefore stay yet, thou need'st not to be gone.
Rom. Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death;|50|
I am content, if thou wilt have it so.
I'll say, yon grey is not the morning's eye,
"Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow;
Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat
The vaulty heaven so high above our heads:
I have more care to stay, than will to go;—

155

La. Cap. [within.] Ho, daughter! are you up?
Jul. Who is't that calls? is it my lady mother?
Is she not down so late, or up so early?
What unaccustom'd cause procures ' her hither?

Enter Lady Capulet.

La. Ca
Why, how now, Juliet?
Jul. Madam, I am not well.

1 Desperate means only bold, advent'rous.

2 The appearance of a cloud opposed to the moon.

3 Division seems to have been the technical term for the pauses or parts of a musical composition.
* The toad having very fine eyes, and the lark very ugly ones, was the occasion of a common saying
amongst the people, that the toad and lark had changed eyes. To this the speaker alludes.
5 The
meaning is this: The lark, they say, has lost her eyes to the toad, and now I would the toad had her
voice too, since she uses it to the disturbance of lovers. The huntsup was the name of the tune
anciently played to wake the hunters, and collect them together. 1 Procures for brings.

La. Cap