Enter another Watchman, with Friar Lawrence,

3 Watch. Here is a Friar that trembles, fighs and

weeps,

We took this mattock and this fpade from him,
As he was coming from this church-yard fide.
1 Watch. A great fufpicion.

Stay the Friar too.

SCENE V.

Bater the Prince, and Attendants.

Prince. What mifadventure is fo early up, That calls our perfon from our morning's Reft? Enter Capulet and lady Capulet.

Cap. What fhould it be, that they fo fhriek abroad? La. Cap. The people in the freet cry, Romeo ? Some, Juliet; and some, Paris; and all run With open out-cry tow'rd our Monument.

Prince. (8) What fear is this, which startles in your

ears

Watch. Sovereign, here lies the County Paris flain, And Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before,

Warm and new kill'd.

Prince Search, feek, and know, how this foul murder comes..

Watch. Here is a Friar, and flaughter'd Romeo's

man,

With inftruments upon them, fit to open
Thefe dead men's tombs.

Cap. Oh, heav'n! oh, wife! look how our daughter bleeds.

This dagger hath mifta'en; for, (9) lo! the fheath
Lies empty on the back of Montague,

The point mif-fheathed in my daughter's bofom.

(8) What fear is this, which startles in your ears P1 Read,, What fear is this, which flartles in our ears ?

(9)

•lo! the fbeath

Lies empty] The folio,
-For, lo! his houfe

Is empty on the back, &c.

La.

La. Cap. Oh me, this fight of death is as a bell, That warns my old age to a fepulchre.

Enter Montague.

Prince. Come, Montague, for thou art early up,
To fee thy fon and heir now early down.

Mon. Álas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night;
Grief of my fon's exile hath ftopt her breath.
What further woe confpires against my age?
Prince. Look, and thou fhalt fee.

Mon. Oh, thou untaught! what manners is in this, To prefs before thy father to a Grave?

Prince. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while, 'Till we can clear thefe ambiguities,

And know their fpring, their head, their true descent;
And then I will be General of your woes,

And lead you ev'n to Death. Mean time forbear,
And let mifchance be flave to patience.
-Bring forth the parties of fufpicion.

Fri. I am the greateft, able to do leaft,
Yet moft fufpected; as the time and place
Doth make against me, of this direfome murder
And here I ftand both to impeach and purge

Myfelf condemned, and myself excus'd.

Prince. Then fay at once what thou doft know in this.

(1) Fri. I will be brief, for my fhort date of breath Is not fo long as is a tedious tale.

Romeo, there dead, was hufband to that Juliet,
And fhe, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife :
I married them; and their ftolen marriage-day
Was Tybalt's dooms-day, whofe untimely death
Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city;
For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.
You, to remove that fiege of grief from her,
Betroth'd, and would have married her perforce
To County Paris. Then comes the to me,

(1) Friar.] It is much to be lamented that the Poet did not conclude the dialogue with the action, and avoid a narrative of events which the audience already knew.

And,

And, with wild looks, bid me devise some means
To rid her from this fecond marriage;

f

Or, in my Cell, there would the kill herself.
Then gave I her, fo tutor❜d by my art,
A fleeping potion, which fo took effect
As I intended; for it wrought on her
The form of death. Mean time I writ to Romeo,
That he should hither come, as this dire night,
To help to take her from her borrowed Grave,
Being the time the potion's force fhould ceafe.
But he which bore my letter, Friar John,
Was ftaid by accident; and yesternight
Return'd my letter back; then all alone,
At the prefixed hour of her awaking,
Came I to take her from her kindred's Vault;
Meaning to keep her closely at my Cell,
'Till I conveniently could fend to Romeo.
But when I came, (fome minute ere the time
Of her awaking) here untimely lay

The noble Paris, and true Romeo dead.
She wakes, and I intreated her come forth,
And bear this work of heav'n with patience :
But then a noife did fcare me from the tomb,
And fhe, too defp'rate, would not go with me:
But, as it feems, did violence on herself.
All this I know, and to the marriage
Her nurse is privy; but if aught in this
Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
Be facrific'd, fome hour before the time,
Unto the rigour of fevereft law.

Prince. We still have known thee for an holy man.
Where's Romeo's man? what can he fay to this?
Balth. I brought my mafter news of Juliet's death,
And then in poft he came from Mantua

To this fame place, to this fame Monument.
This letter he early bid me give his father,
And threatned me with death, going to the Vault,
If I departed not, and left him there.

Prince. Give me the letter, I will look on it. Where is the County's page, that rais'd the Watch ? -Sirrah, what made your mafter in this place?

Page.

Page. He came with flowers to ftrew his lady's
Grave,

And bid me ftand aloof, and fo I did:

Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb,

And, by and by, my mafter drew on him ;
And then I ran away to call the Watch.

Prince. This letter doth make good the Friar's
words,

Their courfe of love, the tidings of her death:
And here he writes, that he did buy a poifon
Of a poor 'pothecary, and therewithal
Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet.
Where be thefe enemies? Capulet! Montague!
See, what a fcourge is laid upon your hate,
That heav'n find's means to kill your joys with love!
And I, for winking at your difputes too,

Have loft a brace of kinfmen. All are punifh'd !
Cap. O brother Montague, give me thy hand,
This is my daughter's jointure; for no more
Can I demand.

Mon. But I can give thee more,

For I will raife her Statue in pure gold;
That, while Verona by that name is known,
There fhall no figure at that rate be fet,
As that of true and faithful Juiet.

Cap. As rich fhall Romeo's by his lady lye;
Poor facrifices of our enmity!

Prince. A gloomy peace this morning with it brings,

The Sun for Sorrow will not fhew his head; Go hence to have more talk of these fad things;

Some fhall be pardon'd, and fome punished.

For never was a story of more woe,

Than this of Juliet, and her Romeo.

[Exeunt omnes.

This play is one of the most pleasing of our Authour's performances. The fcenes are bufy and various, the incidents numerous and important, the catastrophe irrefiftably affecting, and the procefs of the action carried on with fuch probability, at leaft with fuch congruity to popular opinions, as tragedy requires.

Here

Here is one of the few attempts of Shakespeare to exhibit the converfation of gentlemen, to reprefent the airy fprightlinefs of juvenile elegance. Mr. Dryden mentions a tradition, which might easily reach his time, of a declaration made by Shakespeare, that he was obliged to kill Mercutio in the third act, left he should have been kil led by him. Yet he thinks him no fuch formidable person, but that he might have lived through the play, and died in his bed, without danger to a poet. Dryden well knew, had he been in queft of truth, that in a pointed fentence, more regard is commonly had to the words than the thought, and that it is very seldom to be rigorously understood. Mercutio's wit, gaiety and courage, will always procure him friends that with him a longer life but his death is not precipitated, he has lived out the time allotted him in the conftruction of the play; nor do I doubt the ability of Shakespeare to have continued his existence, though fome of his fallies are perhaps out of the reach of Dryden; whofe genius was not very fertile of merriment, nor ductile to humour, but acute, argumentative, comprehenfive, and fublime.

;

The Nurfe is one of the characters in which the Authour delighted: He has, with great fubtilty of diftinction, drawn her at once loquacious and fecret, obfequious and infolent, trufty and dishonest.

His comick scenes are happily wrought, but his pathetick strains are always polluted with fome unexpected depravations. His perfons, however diftreffed, bave a conceit left them in their mifery, a miserable con

ceit.

HAM