Jul. No, no.

But all this did I know before: What fays he of our marriage? What of that? Nurfe. Lord, how my head aches! what a head have I ?

It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces.

My back o' the other fide-O my back, my back!-
Befhrew your heart for fending me about

To catch my death with jaunting up and down!
Jul. I faith, I am forry that thou art not well.
Sweet, fweet, fweet Nurfe, tell me, what fays my love.
Nurfe. Your love fays like an honest gentleman,
And a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome,
And, I warrant, a virtuous:-Where is your mother?
Jul. Where is my mother?-why, fhe is within;
Where fhould fhe be? how oddly thou reply'ft!
Your love fays like an honest gentleman:
Where is your mother?-

Nurfe. Oh, God's lady dear!

Are you fo hot? marry, come up, I trow;
Is this the poultice for my aching bones?
Hence-forward do your meffages yourself.

Jul. Here's fuch a coil.-Come, what fays Romeo?
Nurfe. Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day?
Jul. I have.

Nurfe. Then hie you hence to friar Laurence' cell, There ftays a husband to make you a wife. Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks, They'll be in fcarlet straight at any news. Hie you to church; I must another way, To fetch a ladder, by the which your love Must climb a bird's neft foon, when it is dark. I am the drudge and toil in your delight, But you fhall bear the burden foon at night. Go, I'll to dinner, hie you to the cell.

Jul. Hie to high fortune!Honeft Nurfe, farewel.

[Exeunt.

SCENE

Enter Friar Laurence, and Romeo 1.

Friar. So fmile the heavens upon this holy act, That after-hours with forrow chide us not!

This fcene was entirely new formed: the reader may be pleased to fee it as it was first written:

Rom. Now, father Laurence, in thy holy grant
Confifts the good of me and Juliet.

Friar. Without more words, I will do all I may
To make you happy, if in me it lie.

Rom. This morning here the 'pointed we should meet
And confummate thofe never-parting bands,
Witness of our heart's love, by joining hands;
And come the will.

Friar. I guess fhe will indeed :

Youth's love is quick, fwifter than fwiftest speed.

Enter Juliet fomewhat faft, and embraceth Romeo.
See where he comes!

So light a foot ne'er hurts the trodden flower;
Of love and joy, fee, fee, the fovereign power!
Jul. Romeo!

Rom. My Juliet, welcome! As do waking eyes
(Clos'd in night's mists) attend the frolick day,
So Romeo hath expected Juliet;

And thou art come.

Jul. I am (if I be day)

Come to my fun; fhine forth, and make me fair. Rom. All beauteous fairness dwelleth in thine eyes. Jul. Romeo, from thine all brightnefs doth arife. Friar. Come, wantons, come, the stealing hours do pass; Defer embracements to fome fitter time:

Part for a time, "you fhall not be alone,

""Till holy church hath join'd you both in one." Rom. Lead, holy father, all delay feems long: Jul. Make hafte, make hafte, this ling'ring doth us wrong. Friar. O, foft and fair makes fweeteft work they say; Hafte is a common hind'rer in cross-way. [Exeunt. STEEVENS.

Rom. Amen, amen! but come what forrow can, It cannot countervail the exchange of joy, That one fhort minute gives me in her fight: Do thou but close our hands with holy words, Then love devouring death do what he dare, It is enough I may but call her mine.

Friar. Thefe violent delights have violent ends, And in their triumph, die; like fire and powder, Which, as they kifs, confume. The sweetest honey Is loathfome in its own deliciousness,

And in the tafte confounds the appetite; Therefore, love mod'rately; long love doth fo: 2 Too fwift arrives as tardy as too flow.

Enter Juliet.

3 Here comes the lady:-O, fo light a foot
Will ne'er wear out the everlafting flint:
A lover may beftride the goffamour
That idles in the wanton fummer air,
And yet not fall;. fo light is vanity.

Jul. Good even to my ghoftly confeffor.
Friar. Romeo fhall thank thee, daughter, for us both.
Jul. As much to him, elfe are his thanks too much.
Rom. Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy
De heap'd like mine, and that thy fkill be more

2 Too fwift arrives] He that travels too fast is as long before he comes to the end of his journey, as he that travels flow. Precipitation produces mishap. JOHNSON.

3 Here comes the lady, &c.] However the poet might think the alteration of this fcene on the whole to be neceffary, I am afraid, in refpect of the paffage before us, he has not been very fuccessful. The violent hyperbole of the everlafting flint appears to me not only more reprehenfible, but even lefs beautiful than the lines as they were originally written, where the lightnefs of Juliet's motion is accounted for from the cheerful effects the paiйion of love produced in her mind. However, the everlafting flint may mean the circular paths paved with flint, which thofe who were enjoined penance were obliged to tread barefoot: yet, on that fuppofition, whatever is gained in propriety is loft in beauty. STEEVENS

To

To blazon it, then fweeten with thy breath
This neighbour air; and let rich mufick's tongue
Unfold the imagin'd happiness, that both
Receive in either, by this dear encounter.

Jul. Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his fubftance, not of ornament:
They are but beggars that can count their worth;
But my true love is grown to fuch excefs,

I cannot fum up half my fum of wealth.

Friar. Come, come with me, and we will make fhort work;

For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone, 'Till holy church incorporate two in one.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I.

A

STREET.

I

Enter Mercutio, Benvolio, and Servants.

BENVOLIO.

PRAY thee, good Mercutio, let's retire; The day is hot, the Capulets abroad; And, if we meet, we fhall not 'fcape a brawl; For now, these hot days, is the mad blood ftirring.

Mer. Thou art like one of those fellows, that, when he enters the confines of a tavern, claps me his fword upon the table, and fays, God fend me no need of thee! and, by the operation of the fecond cup, draws it on the drawer, when, indeed, there is no need.

Ben. Am I like fuch a fellow?

Mer. Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy, and as foon mov'd to be moody, and as foon moody to be mov'd.

The day is hot,] It is obferved, that in Italy almost all affallinations are committed during the heat of fummer. Jons. E 4

Ben.

Ben. And what to?

Mer. Nay, an' there were two fuch, we should have none fhortly, for one would kill the other. Thou! why thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or a hair lefs, in his beard, than thou hast. Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reafon but because thou haft hazel eyes; what eye, but fuch an eye, would spy out fuch a quarrel? Thy head is as full of quarrels as an egg is full of meat, and yet thy head hath been beaten as addle as an egg, for quarrelling. Thou hast quarrelled with a man for coughing in the street, because he hath wakened thy dog that hath lain afleep in the fun. Didit thou not fall out with a taylor for wearing his new doublet before Eafter? with another, for tying his new fhoes with old ribband? and yet thou wilt tutor me for quarrelling!

2 Ben. If I were fo apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee-fimple of my life for an hour and a quarter.

Mer. The fee-fimple? O fimple!

Enter Tybalt and others,

Ben. By my head, here come the Capulets.
Mer. By my heel, I care not,

Tyb. Fellow me clofe, for I will speak to them.
Gentlemen, good den; a word with one of you.

Mer. And but one word with one of us? Couple it with fomething, make it a word and a blow.

Tyb. You shall find me apt enough to that, Sir, if you will give me occafion.

Mer. Could you not take fome occafion without giving?

Tyb. Mercutio, thou confort'ft with Romeo

2 These two speeches have been added fince the old quarto, as well as fome few circumftances in the rest of the fcene, as well as in the enfuing one, STEEVENS.