Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Balth. I will be gone, Sir, and not trouble you. Rom. So shalt thou shew me Friendship. Take

thou that.

Live and be prosp'rous, and farewel, good fellow.
Balth. For all this fame, I'll hide me hereabout.
His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. [Exit Balth.
Rom. Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
Gorg'd with the dearest morsel of the earth,
Thus I inforce thy rotten jaws to open,

[Breaking up the Monument.

And in despight I'll cram thee with more food.
Par. This is that banish'd haughty Montague,
That murder'd my love's coufin, with which grief,
It is supposed, the fair Creature dy'd,
And here is come to do fome villainous shame
To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him.
Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague,
Can vengeance be pursu'd further than death?
Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee;
Obey, and go with me, for thou must die.

Rom. I must, indeed, and therefore came I hither.
Good gentle youth, tempt not a defp'rate man';
Fly hence and leave me. Think upon these gone,
Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,
Pull not another fin upon my head,
By urging me to fury. O be gone!
By heav'n, I love thee better than myself;
For I come hither arm'd against myself.
Stay not, be gone. Live, and hereafter say,
A madman's Mercy bade thee run away.
Par. I do defy thy commiferation,
And apprehend thee for a felon here.

:

Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee,

boy.

[They fight, Paris falts.

Page. Oh Lord, they fight! I will go call the

Watch.

Par. Oh, I am flain; if thou be merciful,

Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.

12

[Dies. Rom. Rom. In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face And never from this Palace of dim night Depart again: Here, here will I remain, With worms that are thy chamber-maids; oh here Will I fet up my everlasting Rest; And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this world-weary'd flesh. Eyes, look your last Arms, take your last embrace! and lips, oh you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death. Come, bitter conduct! come unsav'ry guide! Thou desp'rate pilot, now at once run on The dashing rocks my fea-sick, weary, bark. Here's to my love? Oh, true apothecary!

Mercutio's kinsman; Noble County Paris!
What said my man, when my betossed soul
Did not attend him as we rode? I think,
He told me, Paris should have married Juliet.
Said he not so? or did I dream it so?

Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet,
To think it was so? Oh give me thy hand,
One writ with me in four Misfortune's book,
I'll bury thee in a triumphant Grave.

A Grave? O, no; a Lanthorn, slaughter'd Youth;
For here lies Juliet; and her beauty makes
This vault a feasting + Presence full of Light.
Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd.

[Laying Paris in the Monument,
How oft, when Men are at the point of death,
Have they been merry? which their Keepers call
A Lightning before Death. 5 O, how may I
Call this a Lightning!-Oh my love, my wife!
Death, that hath fuckt the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty,
Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips, and in thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
Tybalt, ly'st thou there in thy bloody sheet?
Oh, what more favour can I do to thee,
Than with that hand, that cut thy youth in twain,
To funder his, that was thy enemy?
Forgive me, coufin. Ah dear Juliet,
Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe
That unsubstantial death is amorous,
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark, to be his paramour?
For fear of that, I ftill will stay with thee

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

1

[Drinks the poison.

Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. [Dies.

6 And never from this Palace
of dim night
Depart again. (Come lie thou
in my Arms:
Here's to thy Health. O true
Apothecary!

I

Thy drugs are quick)] Mr. Pope's, and some other of the worser editions acknowledge abfurdly the lines which I have put into parenthesis here; and which I have expung'd from the text, for this reason: Romeo is made to confess the effect of the poison before ever he has tasted it. suppose, it hardly was so savoury that the patient should chuse to make two draughts of it. And, eight lines after these, we find him taking the poison in his hands, and making an apostrophe to it; inviting it to perform its office at once; and then, and not 'till then, does he clap it to his lips, or can with any probability

speak of its instant force and ef-
fects. Besides, Shakespeare would
hardly have made Romeo drisk to
the health of his dead Miftrefs.
Though the first quarto in 1599,
and the two old folios acknow-
ledge this absurd stuff, I find it
left out in feveral later quarto im-
pressions. I ought to take notice,
that tho' Mr. Pope has thought
fit to stick to the old copies in this
addition, yet he is no fair tran-
scriber; for he has funk upon us
an hemistich of most profound
absurdity, which possesses all those
copies,

-Come, lie thou in my Arms;
Here's to thy Health, where-
e'er thou tumblest in.
true Apothecary! &c.

THEOBALD.

I have no edition but the folio, which has all the passage here mentioned. I have followed Mr. Theobald.

[blocks in formation]

Enter Friar Lawrence with lanthorn, crow, and spade.

Fri. St. Francis be my speed! How oft to-night Have my old feet stumbled at graves? Who's there?

Enter Balthafar.

Balth. Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you

well.

Fri. Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend,

What torch is yond, that vainly lends his light
To grubs and eyeless sculls? as I difcern,

It burneth in the Capulets' Monument.

Balth. It doth so, holy Sir, and there's my master,

One that you love.

Fri. Who is it?

Balth. Romeo.

Fri. How long hath he been there?"

Balth. Full half an hour.

Fri. Go with me to the vault.

Balth. I dare not, Sir.

My master knows not, but I am gone hence;

And fearfully did menace me with death,

If I did stay to look on his intents.

:

Fri. Stay then, I'll go alone. Fear comes upon me;

O, much I fear fome ill unlucky thing.

Balth. As I did fleep under this yew tree here,
I dreamt, my master and another fought,
And that my master flew him.

Fri. Romeo !

Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains
The stony entrance of this fepulchre?
What mean these masterless and goary swords,
To lie discolour'd by this place of peace?
Romeo! oh pale! Who elfe? what Paris too?
And steep'd in blood? ah, what an unkind hour

Is guilty of this lamentable chance?

The lady stirs.

Jul. [awaking.] Oh comfortable Friar, where is

my Lord ?

I do remember well, where I should be;
And there I am. Where is my Romeo?

Fri. I hear fome noise! Lady, come from that neft
Of death, contagion, and unnatural fleep;
A greater Power, than we can contradict,
Hath thwarted our intents; come, come away;
Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead,
And Paris too-Come, I'll dispose of thee
Among a sisterhood of holy Nuns.
Stay not to question, for the watch is coming.
Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay. [Exit.
Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.
What's here? a cup, clos'd in my true love's hand?
Poison, I fee, hath been his timeless end.
O churl, drink all, and leave no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips,
Haply, fome poifon yet doth hang on them;
To make me die with a Restorative.

Thy lips are warm.

Enter Boy and Watch.

Watch. Lead, boy. Which way?
Jul. Yea, noise?

Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger!

[Finding a dagger.

This is thy sheath, there rust and let me die.

[Kills herself.

Boy. This is the place; there, where the torch doth

burn.

Watch. The ground is bloody. Search about the

church-yard;

Go, some of you, whom e'er you find, attach.

14

Pitiful

« ПредишнаНапред »