Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow'd night! Give me my Romeo, and, when he shall die, As is the night before fome feftival, To an impatient child that hath new robes, Enter Nurfe with cords. And the brings news; and every tongue, that speaks Nurfe. Ay, ay, the cords. Jul. Ah me, what news? Why doft thou wring thy hands ? Nurfe. Ah welladay, he's dead, he's dead, he's dead! We are undone, lady, we are undone. Alack the day! he's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead. Nurfe. Romeo can, Though heav'n cannot. O Romeo Romeo! Who ever would have thought it, Romeo? Jul. What devil art thou, that doft torment This torture fhould be roar'd in difmal hell. me (1) The gairifh fun.] Milton had this fpeech in his thoughts when he wrote Il Penferofo. Civil night, Thou fober-fuited matron. Till civil-fuited morn appear. Pay no worship to the gairish fun, Shakespeare. Milton. Shakespeare. Milton. (2) And (2) And that bare vowel, I, fhall poison more Nurfe. I faw the wound, I faw it with mine eyes, Jul. O break, my heart!poor bankrupt, break at once! To prifon eyes! ne'er look on liberty; Nurfe. O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had : ful. What ftorm is this, that blows fo contrary! (2) And that bare vervel, ay, fball poifon more Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice.] I queftion much whe ther the grammarians will take this new wewel on truft from Mr. Pope, without fufpecting it rather for a diphthong, Infhort, we must restore the fpelling of the old books, or we lose the Poet's conceit. At his time of day, the affirmative adverb ay was generally written, I: and by this means it both becomes a vowel, and anfwers in found to eye, upon which the conceit turns in the fecond line. THEOBALD. -death darting eye of cockatrice.] The ftrange lines that follow here in the common books are not in the old edition. POPE. The ftrange lines are thefe : I am not I, if there be fuch an I, Or thefe eyes foot, that makes thee answer I; If be be flain, fay I; or if not, No, Brief found determine of my real or woe. Thefe lines hardly deferve emendation, yet it may be proper to obferve, that their meannefs has not placed them below the malice of fortune, the two first of them being evidently transpofed we fhould read, : That one vowel, I, fhall poifon more, Than the death darting eye of cockatrice, Or thofe eyes foot that make thee anfver, I. I am not I, &c. Nurfe, Nurfe. Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banished, Romeo, that kill'd him, he is banished. ful. O God! did Romeo's hand fhed Tybalt's blood? (3) Dove feather'd raven! wolvish rav'ning Lamb! Nurfe. There's no truft, No faith, no honefty, in men ; all perjur'd; Jul. Blifter'd be thy tongue, For fuch a wifh! he was not born to fhame; For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd Sole monarch of the univerfal earth. O,, what a beaft, was I to chide him fo? (3) In old editions. Ravenous Dove, feather'd Raven, &c.) The four following lines not in the first edition, as well as fome others which I have omitted.. POPE. Ravenous Dove, feather'd Raven, Wolvifh ravening Lamb!] This paffage Mr. Pope has thrown out of the text, because these two noble bemiftichs are inharmonious: But is there no fuch thing as a crutch for a labouring, halting verfe? F'll venture to reftore to the Poet a line that is in his own mode of thinking, and truly worthy of him. Ravenous was blunderingly coin'd out of raven and ravening; and, if we only throw it out, we gain at once an harmonious verfe, and a proper contraft of epithets and images. Dove feather'd Raven ! welvish-rav'ning Lamb THEOBALD. Nurse. Nurfe. Will you speak well of him, that kill'd coufin ? your Jul. Shall I speak ill of him, that is my husband? Ah, poor my Lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name, When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it! But, wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my coufin? That villain coufin would have kill'd my hufband. Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring; Your tributary drops belong to woe, Which, you miftaking offer up to joy. My husband lives, that Tybalt would have flain; And Tybalt's dead that would have kill'd my husband; All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then? Some word there was, worfer than Tybalt's death, That murder'd me ; I would forget it, fain But! oh, it presses to my memory, Like damned guilty deeds to finners' minds. That banished, that one word banished, (4) Hath flain ten thoufand Tybalts. Tybalt's death Was woe enough, if it had ended there; Or if fow'r woe delights in fellowship, And needly will be rank'd with other griefs, (5) Which modern lamentation might have mov'd; 2 (4) Hath flain ten thoufand Tybalts.] Hath put Tybalt out of my mind as if out of being. (5) Which modern lamentation, &c.] This line is left out of the latter editions, I fuppofe because the editors did not remember that Shakespeare ufes modern for common, or flight: I believe it was in his time confounded in colloquial language with moderate. Jul. ful. Wafh they his wounds with tears? mine shall be spent, When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment. Take up thofe Cords guil'd; poor Ropes, you are be Both you and I, for Romeo is exil'd. He made you for a high-way to my bed: But I, a maid, die Maiden widowed. Come, Cord; come, nurfe; I'll to my wedding-Bed :: To comfort you. I wot well, where he is. I'll to him, he is hid at Lawrence' cell. Jul. Oh find him, give this ring to my true knight, And bid him come, to take his last farewel. [Exeunt. SCENE V. Changes to the Monastery. Enter Friar Lawrence 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 forrow craves acquaintance at my hand, That I yet know not? Fri. Too familiar Is dear fon with fuch fow'r company my I bring thee tidings of the Prince's doom? Rom. What lefs than doom's-day is the Prince's doom? Fri. A gentler judgment vanifh'd from his lips, Not body's death, but body's banishment. Rom. Ha, banishment! be merciful, fay, death Much more than death. Do not fay, banishment. Rom. |
