Enter Tybalt.

Ben. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.
Rom. Alive? in Triumph? and Mercutio lain ?

Away to heav'n, respective lenity,
And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now!
Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again,
That late thou gav'st me; for Mercutio's foul

Is but a little way above our heads,

Staying for thine to keep him company;
Or thou or I, or both, must go with him.

Tyb. Thou, wretched boy, that didft confort him

here,

Shalt with him hence.

Rom. This shall determine that.

[They fight, Tybalt falls.

Ben. Romeo, away. Begone:

The citizens are up, and Tybalt flain-
Stand not amaz'd. The Prince will doom thee death,

If thou art taken. Hence. Begone.

Rom. Oh! I am fortune's fool.

Ben. Why doft thou stay ?

SCENE III.

Enter Citizens.

Away.

[Exit Romeo.

Cit. Which way ran he that kill'd Mercutio?
Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he ?
Ben. There lies that Tybalt.

2 Oh! I am fortune's fool.] I am always running in the way of evil fortune, like the fool in a VOL. VIII.

F

play. Thou art death's fool: in Measure for Measure. See Dr. Warburton's Note.

Cit.

Cit. Up, Sir. Go with me.
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
Th' unlucky manage of this fatal brawl.
There lies the man, flain by young Romeo,
That flew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.

La. Cap. Tybalt, my coufin! O my brother's

Prince,

child!

O-coufin-husband-O-the blood is spill'd

Of my dear kinsman. Prince, 3 as thou art true,
For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague.
O! coufin, coufin.

Prin. Benvolio, who began this fray?

Ben. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did

flay;

Romeo, that spoke him fair, bid him bethink
* How nice the quarrel was, and urg'd withal
Your high difpleasure; all this uttered
With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd,
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
Of Tybalt, deaf to peace; but that he tilts
With piercing steel 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 fends
It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity
Retorts it. Romeo he cries aloud,

3 as thou art true, As thou art just and upright.

4 How nice the quarrel-] How flight, how unimportant, how

6

petty. So in the last Act.

:

The letter was not nice, but
full of charge
Of dear import.

Hold, Hold, friends! friends, part! and, fwifter 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 ftout 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;
And as he fell, did Romco turn to fly.
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

La. Cap. He is a kinsman to the Montagues,
5 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 flew Tybalt, Romeo must not live.

Prin. Romeo flew him, he flew Mercutia;
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
La. Mont. Not Romeo, Prince, he was Mercutio's

friend;

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

Prin. And for that offence,
Immediately we do exile him hence :

I have an interest in your hearts' proceeding, My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a bleeding;

But

6 I have an interest in your hearts' proceeding,] Sir Th. Hanmer saw that this line gave no sense, and therefore put, by a very easy change,

I have an interest in your beat's proceeding, Which is undoubtedly better than the old reading which Dr. Warburton has followed; but the fenfe

But I'll amerce you with so strong a fine,
That you shall all repent the loss of mine.
I will be deaf to pleading and excuses,
Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abufes;
Therefore use none; let Romeo hence in haste,
Elfe, when he's found, that hour is his last.
Bear hence his body, and attend our will :
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.

[Exeunt.

Jul.

SCENE IV.

Changes to an Apartment in Capulet's House.

G

Enter Juliet alone.

ALLOP apace, you fiery-footed steeds,

Tow'rds Phœbus manfion; fuch a wag

goner,

As Phaeton, would whip you to the west,
And bring in cloudy night immediately.

7 Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
That Run-aways eyes may wink; and Romeo

sense yet seems to be weak, and perhaps a more licentious correction is necessary. I read therefore,

I had no interest in your heat's preceding.

This, fays the Prince, is no quarrel of mine, I had no interest in your former difcord; I suffer merely by your private animofity.

Leap

eyes Juliet is wishing to have stopt? Macbeth, we may remember, makes an invocation to Night much in the same strain, Come, feeling Night,

Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, &c.

So Juliet would have Night's darkness obsure the great eye of the day, the Sun; whom confidering in a poetical light as Phœbus, drawn in his carr with fieryfooted steeds, and posting thro' the heavens, she very probably calls

Leap to these arms, untalkt of and unseen.
Lovers can fee to do their am'rous rites
By their own beauties, or, if love be blind,
It best agrees with night. * Come, civil night,
Thou fober-fuited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenheads.
Hood my unmann'd blood baiting in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle; 'till strange love, grown

bold,

Thinks true love acted, simple modefty.

Come, night; come, Romeo! come, thou day in

night,

For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night,

Whiter than fnow upon a raven's back:

Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow'd

night!

Give me my Romeo, and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine,
That all the world shall be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the gairish sun.
O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not poffefs'd it; and though I am fold,
Not yet enjoy'd; so tedious is this day,

him, with regard to the swift-
ness of his course, the Runaway.
In the like manner our Poet
speaks of the Night in the Mer-
chant of Venice ;

For the clofe Night doth play the
Runaway.

yet unacquainted with man.

The gairish fun.] Milton had this speech in his thoughts when he wrote Il Penserofo. Civil night,