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Say either, and I'll stay the circumstance :
Let me be fatisfied; Is't good or bad?

Nurfe. Well, you have made a fimple choice; you know not how to chufe a man: Romeo! no, not he; though his face be better than any man's, yet his leg excels all men's; and for a hand, and a foot, and a body, though they be not to be talk'd on, yet they are paft compare: He is not the flower of courtesy, but, I'll warrant him, as gentle as a lamb.-Go thy ways, wench; ferve God-What, have you din'd at home?

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Jul. 7 No, no: But all this did I know before; What fays he of our marriage? what of that? Nurfe. Lord, how my head akes! 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, fwect nurfe, tell me, what fays my
love?

Nurfe, Your love fays like an honeft gentleman, And a courteous, and a kind, and a handfome, 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 honeft gentleman,Where is your mother?

Nurje, O, God's lady dear!

Are you fo hot? Marry, come up, I trow;

7 No, no: but all this did I know before;

What fays he of our marriage? what of that?] So, in

The Tragicall Hyftory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562:

66

Tell me elie what, quoth the, this evermore I thought, "But of our marriage, fay at once, what anfwer have you brought?" MALONE.

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Is this the poultice for my aking bones?
Henceforward do your meffages yourself.

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

ful. 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 muft another way, To fetch a ladder, by the which your love Muft 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!-honest nurse, farewel, [Exeunt.

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Enter Friar Laurence, and Romeo3.

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

Rom.

8 This fcene was entirely new formed: the reader may be pleafed to have it as it was at firft written :

Rom. Now, father Laurence, in thy holy graut

Confifts the good of me and Juliet.

Friar. Without more words, 1 will do all I may

To make you happy, if in me it lie.

Rom. This morning here fhe 'pointed we fhould meet,
And confummate thofe never-parting bands,
Witnefs of our hearts' love, by joining hands;

And come the will.

Friar. I guefs fhe will indeed:

Youth's love is quick, fwifter than fwifteft fpeed.

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 clofe 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 his own delicioufnefs,

And in the tafte confounds the appetite: Therefore, love moderately; long love doth fo; "Too fwift arrives as tardy as too flow.

Enter Juliet.

'Here comes the lady :-O, fo light a foot

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

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

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

And thou art come.

Jul. I am (if I be day)

Come to my fun; thine forth, and make me fair.
Rom. All beauteous fairnefs dwelleth in thine eyes.
Jul. Romeo, from thine all brightnefs doth arife.

Will

Friar. Come, wantons, come, the ftealing hours do país;
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:

ful. Make hafte, make hafte, this ling'ring doth us wrong.
Friar. O, foft and fair makes sweetest work they say;
Hafte is a common hind'rer in cross-way.

[Exeunt. STEEVENS.

• Too fwift arrives] He that travels too faft is as long before he comes to the end of his journey, as he that travels flow. Precipi tation produces miflap. JOHNSON.

Here comes the lady, &c.] However the poet might think the

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Will ne'er wear out the everlafting flint:
A lover may bestride 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, else are his thanks too much.
Rom. Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy
Be heap'd like mine, and that thy skill be more
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 substance, 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.

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 never wearing out the everlasting flint appears to me not only more reprehenfible, but even lets beautiful than the lines as they were originally written, where the lightnefs of Juliet's motion is accounted for from the cheerful effects the paffion of love produced in her mind. STEEVENS.

A lover may beftride the goflamour.] The Goffamer is the long white filament which flies in the air in fummer. So, in Hannibal and Scipio, 1637, by Nabbes:

and,

"Fine as Arachne's web, or goffamer

"Whofe curls when garnifh'd by their dreffing, fhew "Like that spun vapour when 'tis pearl'd with dew?”

STEEVENS.

I cannot fum up half my fum f wealth.] The old copies read
I cannot fum up fum of half my wealth,

I cannot fum up fome of half my wealth. STEEVENS. The following would be nearer the original reading:

I cannot fum up th' sum of half my wealth. REMARKS

ACT

:

ACT III. SCENE I.

A STREET.

Enter Mercutio, Benvolio, Page, and Servants.

Ben. I 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.

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Mer. Thou art like one of thofe 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,

Ben. And what too?

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 haft. Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reafon but becaufe thou haft hazel eyes; What eye, but fuch an eye, would fpy 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 haft quarrell'd with a man for coughing in the street, becaufe he hath waken'd thy dog that hath lain afleep in the fun. Didft thou not fall out with a taylor for wearing his new doublet before Eafter? with another, for tying

4 The day is bot.] It is obferved, that in Italy almost all affaffinations are committed during the heat of fummer. JOHNSON.

his

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