*

serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man.(1) I am peppered, I warrant, for this world:-A plague o' both your houses!'zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetic !-Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.

ROM. I thought all for the best.

MER. Help me into some house, Benvolio, Or I shall faint: a plague o' both your houses! They have made worm's meat of me; I have it, and soundly too :-your houses!

[Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO. ROM. This gentleman, the prince's near ally, My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt In my behalf; my reputation stain'd With Tybalt's slander, Tybalt, that an hour Hath been my cousin :-O sweet Juliet, Thy beauty hath made me effeminate, And in my temper soften'd valour's steel.

Re-enter BENVOLIO.

BEN. O Romeo, Romeo! brave Mercutio's dead; That gallant spirit hath aspir'd the clouds, Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.

ROM. This day's black fate on more days doth depend;

This but begins the woe, others must end.

Re-enter TYBALT.

BEN. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again. Roм. Alive in triumph! and Mercutio slain! Away to heaven, 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 soul
Is but a little way above our heads,
Staying for thine to keep him company;
Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.
TYв. Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort
him here,
Shalt with him hence.
ROM.

(*) First folio, What.

This shall determine that. [They fight; TYBALT falls.

(+) First folio, fire and fury.

Enter PRINCE, attended; MONTAGUE, CAPULET, their Wives and others.

PRIN. Where are the vile beginners of this fray? BEN. O noble prince, I can discover all The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl: There lies the man, slain by young Romeo, That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.

LA. CAP. Tybalt, my cousin!-O my brother's child!

O prince! O cousin! husband! O the blood is spill'd'
Of my dear kinsman!-Prince, as thou art true,
For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague.—
O cousin, cousin!

*

PRIN. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray? BEN. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay;

Romeo that spoke him fair, bid him bethink How nice the quarrel was,(2) and urg'd withal Your high displeasure: 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 sends
It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity
Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud,

(*) First folio omits bloody.

e Respective lenity,-] Considerate mildness.

d My conduct now!] My guide, my conductor.

e O! I am fortune's fool!] I am the sport of fortune. The first quarto reads, "Ah, I am fortune's slave."

f The quarto, 1597, reads,

Unhappy sight! ah, the blood is spilt.

g How nice-] Nice here signifies, not delicate, squeamish, &c., as in some other instances in these Plays, but trivial, unimportant, as in Act V. Sc. 2,

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

Hold, friends! friends, part! and, swifter 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 stout 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 Romeo turn and fly:
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

LA. CAP. He is a kinsman to the Montague,
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 slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live.

PRIN. Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio; Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe? MON.* 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 exíle him hence :

b

I have an interest in your hates' proceeding,
My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a bleeding;
But I'll amerce you with so strong a fine,
That you shall all repent the loss of mine:
It will be deaf to pleading and excuses;
Nor tears, nor prayers, shall purchase out‡ abuses,
Therefore use none: let Romeo hence in haste,
Else, when he's found, that hour is his last.
Bear hence this body, and attend our will:
Mercy but § murders, pardoning those that kill.
[Exeunt.

a His agile arm-] So the quarto, 1597; that of 1599, and folio, 1623, read aged, which the editor of the second folio altered to able.

b Your hates'-] The quarto, 1599, and folio, read hearts.

c Towards Phoebus' lodging;] The first quarto reads, To Phoebus' mansion.

d Immediately.-] Here Juliet's speech terminates in the first quarto, 1597; the whole scene is very much amplified in the edition of 1599.

e By their own beauties:] Steevens observed that Milton, in his "Čomus," might have been indebted to this passage:"Virtue could see to do what virtue would,

By her own radiant light, though sun and moon
Were in the flat sea sunk."

f Grown bold,-] An emendation of Rowe's; the old copies have, "grow bold."

*

e

As Phaeton would whip you to the west,
And bring in cloudy night immediately."—
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night!
That run-aways' (3) eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalk'd of, and unseen !-
Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
By their own beauties: or, if love be blind,
It best agrees with night.-Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods:
Hood my unmann'd blood bating in my cheeks,(4)
With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown
bold,

Think true love acted, simple modesty.
Come, night! come, Romeo! come, thou day in
night!

For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night
Whiter than snow upon a raven's back.
Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow'd
night,

h

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 will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish' sun.—
O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not possess'd it; and, though I am sold,
Not yet enjoy'd: so tedious is this day,
As is the night before some festival
To an impatient child, that hath new robes,
And may not wear them. O, here comes my nurse,
And she brings news; and every tongue, that
speaks

But Romeo's name, speaks heavenly eloquence.

Enter Nurse, with cords.(5)

Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there?
the cords,
That Romeo bid thee fetch?
NURSE.

JUL. Ah me! what news! thy hands?

Ay, ay, the cords. [Throws them down. why dost thou wring

he's dead!

We are undone, lady, we are undone !—

Alack the day!—he's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead!
JUL. Can heaven be so envious?
Nurse.
Romeo can,
Though heaven cannot :-O Romeo! Romeo!-
Who ever would have thought it?-Romeo!

JUL. What devil art thou, that dost torment me thus ?

This torture should be roar'd in dismal hell.
Hath Romeo slain himself? say thou but I‚a
And that bare vowel I shall poison more
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice:
I am not I, if there be such an I;

b

Or those eyes shut,* that make thee answer, I.
If he be slain, say—I; or if not—no :
Brief sounds determine of my weal, or woe.

NURSE. I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes,

God save the mark! —here on his manly breast:
A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse;
Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub'd in blood,
All in gore blood ;-I swounded at the sight.
JUL. O break, my heart!-poor bankrupt,
break at once!

To prison, eyes! ne'er look on liberty!

Vile earth, to earth resign; end motion here;
And thou, and Romeo, press one heavy bier!

NURSE. O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had!
O courteous Tybalt! honest gentleman!
That ever I should live to see thee dead!

JUL. What storm is this, that blows so contrary? Is Romeo slaughter'd? and is Tybalt dead? My dear-lov'd+ cousin, and my dearer lord?— Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom! For who is living, if those two are gone?

NURSE. Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished; Romeo, that kill'd him, he is banished.

JUL. O God!-did Romeo's hand shed Tybalt's blood?

NURSE. It did, it did; alas the day! it did.a JUL. O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical! Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb!

When I, thy three-hours' wife, have mangled it ?-
But, wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?
That villain cousin would have kill'd my husband:
Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring;
Your tributary drops belong to woe,
Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.
My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain;
And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my hus-
band:

All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?
Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death,
That murder'd me: I would forget it fain;
But, O! it presses to my memory,
Like damned guilty deeds to sinners' minds:
Tybalt is dead, and Romeo-banished;
That-banished, that one word-banished,
Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt's death
Was woe enough, if it had ended there:

(*) First folio omits at.

been proverbial, but its meaning has hitherto baffled the research and sagacity of every commentator. It occurs again in "Henry IV." Part I. Act I. Sc. 3, and in "The Merchant of Venice," Act II. Sc. 2; and in "Othello," Act I. Sc. 1, we have God bless the mark. In the quarto, 1597, instead of "God save the mark!" in the present passage, we have, "God save the sample," an expression equally obscure.

d Alas the day! it did.] The speeches here are misappropriated in the quarto, 1599, and the folio, 1623, but are correctly given in the undated quarto.

e Dove-feather'd raven!] The quarto, 1599, and folio read"Ravenous dove-feather'd raven, wolvish-ravening lamb." fA damned saint,-] So the undated quarto. That of 1599 has dimme, the folio, 1623, dimne.

Will you go to them? I will bring you thither. JUL. Wash they his wounds with tears; mine shall be spent,

When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment. Take up those cords: poor ropes, you are beguil❜d,

Both you and I; for Romeo is exil'd:
He made you for a highway to my bed;
But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed.
Come, cords; come, nurse; I'll to my wedding bed;
And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!

NURSE. Hie to your chamber: I'll find Romeo
To comfort you:-I wot well where he is.
Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night;
I'll to him; he is hid at Laurence' cell.
JUL. O find him! give this ring to my true knight,
And bid him come to take his last farewell.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-Friar Laurence's Cell.
Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and ROMEO.

FRI. Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man;

Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts,
And thou art wedded to calamity.

ROM. Father, what news? what is the prince's doom?

What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand,
That I yet know not?

(*) First folio, which.

a Sour woe delights in fellowship,-] Compare-
"Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris."

b Modern lamentation-] That is, ordinary, well-known lamentation. So, in "All's Well That Ends Well," Act II. Sc. 3:"Make modern and familiar things, Supernatural and causeless."

And in "As You Like It," Act II. Sc. 9:

"Full of wise saws, and modern instances."

e Wash they his wounds with tears;] All the modern editions place a note of interrogation after these words, but perhaps in error. The Nurse tells Juliet her father and mother are weeping

my dear son with such sour company:

I bring thee tidings of the prince's doom. ROM. What less than dooms-day is the prince's doom?

FRI. A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips, Not body's death, but body's banishment.

ROM. Ha! banishment? be merciful, saydeath:

For exile hath more terror in his look,
Much more than death: do not say-banishment.
FRI. Here from Verona art thou banished:
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.
ROM. There is no world without Verona walls,
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
Hence banished is banish'd from the world,
And world's exile is death:-then banished
Is death mis-term'd: calling death, banishment,*
Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe,
And smil'st upon the stroke that murders me.

*

FRI. O deadly sin! O rude unthankfulness! Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince, Taking thy part, hath rush'd aside the law, And turn'd that black word, death, to banishment: This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not.

ROM. 'Tis torture, and not mercy heaven is here,

Where Juliet lives; and every cat, and dog,
And little mouse, every unworthy thing,
Live here in heaven, and may look on her,
But Romeo may not.-More validity,
More honourable state, more courtship lives
In carrion flies, than Romeo; they may seize
On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand,
And steal immortal blessing from her lips;
Who, even in pure and vestal modesty,
Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin;
This may flies do, when I from this must fly;
But Romeo may not; he is banished.a
And say'st thou yet, that exile is not death ?—
Hadst thou no poison mix'd, no sharp-ground knife,
No sudden mean of death, though ne'er so mean,
But-banished-to kill me; banished?

O friar, the damned use that word in hell;
Howlings attend it: how hast thou the heart,
Being a divine, a ghostly confessor,

A sin-absolver, and my friend profess'd,

(*) First folio, banished.

over Tybalt's corse, and asks if she will go to them; to which Juliet replies,-"No, let them wash his wounds with tears; mine shall be spent in wailing Romeo's banishment."

d He is banished.] Here, in the quarto, 1599, occur the following two lines; they are omitted in the folio:

"Flies may do this, but I from this must fly,
They are free men, but I am banished."

Capell rightly conjectures that the author's first draft of this passage was left standing in the MS., and so got printed with the after version.

e That exile is not death ?-] This line and the preceding one are transposed in the old copies.

To mangle me with that word-banished?

FRI. Thou fond mad man, hear me a little speak." ROM. O, thou wilt speak again of banishment. FRI. I'll give thee armour to keep off that word; Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy, To comfort thee, though thou art banished.

ROM. Yet banished ?-hang up philosophy! Unless philosophy can make a Juliet, Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom; It helps not, it prevails not; talk no more.

FRI. O, then I see that madmen have no cars. ROM. How should they, when that* wise men have no eyes?

FRI. Let me disputet with thee of thy estate."

ROM. Thou canst not speak of that thou dost

not feel:

Wert thou as young as I,* Juliet thy love,
An hour but married, Tybalt murdered,
Doting like me, and like me-banished,
Then might'st thou speak, then might'st thou tear
thy hair,

And fall upon the ground, as I do now,
Taking the measure of an unmade grave.
[Knocking within.

FRI. Arise, one knocks; good Romeo, hide thyself.

ROM. Not I; unless the breath of heart-sick groans,

(*) First folio, as Juliet my love.

b Dispute with thee of thy estate.] Let me reason with you upon your affairs.

e Knocking within.] The stage direction in the old copies is, "Enter Nurse, and knockes."