Sound drums and trumpets boldly and cheer- If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell, fully; God and Saint George! Richmond and victory! [Exeunt. 270 Re-enter KING RICHARD, RATCLIFF, Attendants and Forces. K. Rich. What said Northumberland as touching Richmond? His oration to his Army. What shall I say more than I have inferr'd? wives, 321 They would restrain the one, distain the other. Let's whip these stragglers o'er the seas again; 331 Rat. My lord ? K. Rich. The sun will not be seen to-day; The sky doth frown and lour upon our army. I would these dewy tears were from the ground. Have in their own land beaten, bobb'd, and thump'd, Not shine to-day! Why, what is that to me More than to Richmond? for the selfsame heaven That frowns on me looks sadly upon him Ravish our daughters? [Drum afar of.] Nor. Arm, arm, my lord; the foe vaunts in the field. K. Rich. Come, bustle, bustle; caparison my horse. Call up Lord Stanley, bid him bring his power: thou, Norfolk ? 301 Nor. A good direction, warlike sovereign. This found I on my tent this morning. [He sheweth him a paper. K. Rich. [Reads] Jockey of Norfolk, be For Dickon thy master is bought and sold.' Conscience is but a word that cowards use, March on. join bravely, let us to't pell-mell; Alarums. Enter KING RICHARD, K. Rich. A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! Cate. Withdraw, my lord; I'll help you to a horse. K. Rich. Slave, I have set my life upon a cast, 10 And I will stand the hazard of the die : SCENE V. Another part of the field. Alarum. Enter RICHARD and RICHMOND; they fight. RICHARD is slain. Retreat and flourish. Re-enter RICHMOND, DERRY bearing the crown, with divers other Lords. Richm. God and your arms be praised, victorious friends; The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead. Der. Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee. Lo, bere, this long-usurped royalty But, tell me, is young George Stanley living? Der. He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town; Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us. Rickm. What men of name are slain on either side ? Der. John Duke of Norfolk, Walter Lord Ferrers, Sir Robert Brackenbury, and Sir William Brandon. Richm. Inter their bodies as becomes their births: 20 Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled The brother blindly shed the brother's blood, 30 With smiling plenty and fair prosperous days! Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord, That would reduce these bloody days again, And make poor England weep in streams of blood! Let them not live to taste this land's increase That would with treason wound this fair land's peace! Now civil wounds are stopp'd, peace lives again: That she may long live here, God say amen! [Exeunt. ROMEO AND JULIET. (TWO DATES ARE ASSIGNED TO IT, 1591 AND 1596-97.) INTRODUCTION. The story of the unhappy lovers of Verona, as a supposed historical ccurrence, is referred to the year 1303; but no account of it exists of an earlier date than that of Luigi da Porto, about 1530. The story quickly acquired a European celebrity. Published by Bandello in his collection of Italian novels in 1554, it was translated into French in 1559 by Pierre Boisteau, and in three years more touched English soil. Arthur Brooke in 1562 produced his long metrical version, founded upon Boisteau's novel, and a pure translation of Boisteau's work appeared in Paynter's Palace of Pleasure in 1537. We have here reached Shakespeare's sources: Paynter he probably consulted; in nearly all essentials he follows the Romeus and Juliet of Brooke. The precise date of Shakespeare's play is uncertain. In 1597 it was published in quarto, as it hath been often (with great applause) plaid publiquely by the right Honorable the Lord of Hunsdon his servants." Now the Lord Chamberlain, Henry Lord Hunsdon, died July 22, 1596; his son, George Lord Hunsdon, was appointed Chamberlain in April, 1597. Before July, 1596, or after April, 1597, the theatrical company would have been stylel by the more honorable designation, "the Lord Chamberlain's servants;" but during the interval they would have been described as on the title-page of the quarto. The Nurse's mention of the earthquake (Act I Sc. 1., L. 23), "'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years, has been referred to as giving the date 1591, a memorable earthquake, felt in London, having occurred in 1580; but, while professing an infallibly accurate recollection, the old woman blunders sadly bout her dates, so that even if an actual English eart! quake were alluded to, he point of the jest may have been in the inaccuracy of the reference. The internal evidence favors the opinion that this tragedy was an early work of the poet, and tha it was subsequently revised and enlarged. There is much rhyme, and much of this is in the form f alternate rhyme; the forced playing upon words, and the overstrained conceits point to an arly date. We may perhaps accept the opinion that the pla was begun, and in part written, as early as 1591, and that it assumed its final form about 1597. Apart from its intrinsic beauty, Romeo and Ju'iet is of doep interes when viewed as Shakespeare's first tragedy, and as a work which probably occupied hi thoughts, from time to time, during a series of year. It is a young man's tragedy, in whi Youth and Love are brought face to Dice with Hatred and Death. The scene is essentielly Italian: the burning noon of July in the Italian city nflame the blood of the street quarrelers; he voluptuous moonlit nights are only lik a softer d. y. And the characters are Italian, with their yrical arder, their southern impetuosity of passion, and the southern forms and color of their speech. Romeo's nature is prone to enthusiastic feeling, and, as it were, vaguely trembling in the direction of love before he sees Juliet; to meet her gives form and fixit, to his vague emotion. To Juliet-a girl of fourteen-love comes as a thing previously unknown; it is at once terrible and blissful; she rises, through love, and sorrow, and trial, from hild into a heroic woman. After Shakespeare has exalted their enthusiastic joy and rapture to the highest point, he suddenly casts it down. Romeo is at first completely unmanned; but Juliet exhibits a noble fortitude and self com mand. Mercutio and the Nurse are almost creations of Shakespeare. Brooke had described Mercutio as "a lion among maidens," and speaks of his "ice-cold hand;" but it was the dramatist who drew at full length the figure of this brilliant being, who though with wit running beyond what is becoming, and effervescent animal spirits, yet acts as a guardian of Romeo, and is always a gallant gentleman. He dies forcing a jest through his bodily anguish, bu he dies on Romeo's behalf: the scene darkens as his figure disappears. The action is accelerated by Shakespeare to the utmost, the four or five months of Brooke's poem being reduced to as many days. On Sunday the lovers meet, next day they are made one in marriage, on Tuesday morning at dawn they part, and they are finally re-united in the tomb on the night of Thursday Shakespeare does not close the tragedy with Juliet's death: as he has shown in the first scene the hatred of the houses through the comic quarrel of the servants, thereby introducing the causes which produce the tragic issue, so in the last scene he shows us the houses sorrowfully reconciled over the dead bodies of a son and daughter. MONTAGUE, heads of two houses at variance with each other. An old man, cousin to Capulet. ROMEO, son to Montague. MERCUTIO, kinsman to the prince, and friend to Romeo. BENVOLIO, nephew to Montague, and friend to Romeo. TYBALT, nephew to Lady Capulet. loves me. 10 Gre. To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand: therefore, if thou art moved, thou rumi'st away. Sam. A dog of that house shall move me to stand: I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's. Gre. That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes to the wall. Som, True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall: therefore I will push Montague's men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall. Gre. The quarrel is between our masters and us their men. Sam. 'Tis all one, I will show myself a tyrant: when I have fough, with the men, I will be cruel with the maids, and cut off their heads. 29 Gre. The heads of the maids? Sam. Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt. Gre. They must take it in sense that feel it. Sam. Me they shall feel while I am able to stand: and 'tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh. Gre. 'Tis well thou art not fish: if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor John. Draw thy tool; here comes two of the house of the Montagues. Sam. My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will back thee. Gre. How! turn thy back and run ? Gre. No, marry; I fear thee! 40 1 Enter CAPULET in his gown, and LADY CAPULET. Right glad I am he was not at this fray. Cap. What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho! sun La. Cap. A crutch, a crutch! why call you for a sword? Cap. My sword, I say! Old Montague is come, And flourishes his blade in spite of me. Enter MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE. Mon. Thou villain Capulet, -Hold me not, let me go. La. Mon. Thou shalt not stir a foot to seek a foe. Enter PRINCE, with Attendants. Prin. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, Profaners of this neighbor-stained steel, Will they not hear? What, ho! you men, you beasts, 90 That quench the fire of your pernicious rage With purple fountains issuing from your veins, On pain of torture, from those bloody hands Throw your mistemper'd weapons to the ground, And hear the sentence of your moved prince. Have thrice disturb'd the quiet of our streets, hate: 130 Peer'd forth the golden window of the east, seen, With tears augmenting the fresh morning' Mon. I neither know it nor can learn means? 12 But he, his own affections' counsellor, Could we but learn from whence his sorro grow, |