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, 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 Cap. Oh, heav'n! oh, wife! look how our daughter bleeds. This dagger hath mifta'en; for, (9) lo! the fheath 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, 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, Mon. Álas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night; 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 lead you ev'n to Death. Mean time forbear, Fri. I am the greateft, able to do leaft, 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, (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 f Or, in my Cell, there would the kill herself. The noble Paris, and true Romeo dead. Prince. We still have known thee for an holy man. To this fame place, to this fame Monument. 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 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 ; Prince. This letter doth make good the Friar's Their courfe of love, the tidings of her death: Have loft a brace of kinfmen. All are punifh'd ! Mon. But I can give thee more, For I will raife her Statue in pure gold; Cap. As rich fhall Romeo's by his lady lye; 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 |