Jul. O, fhut the door! and when thou hast done fo,
Come weep with me; Paft hope, paft cure, paft help!
Friar. Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;
It ftrains me paft the compafs of my wits:
I hear thou muft, and nothing may prorogue it,
On Thursday next be married to this county.
Jul. Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'ft of this,
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it:
lf, in thy wisdom, thou canft give no help,
Do thou but call my refolution wife,
And with this knife I'll help it presently.

God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo feal'd,.
Shall be the label to another deed,

Or my true heart with treacherous révolt
Turn to another, this fhall flay them both:
Therefore, out of thy long-experienc'd time,
Give me fome prefent counfel; or, behold,
"Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
7 Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that
Which the commiffion of thy years and art
Could to no iffue of true honour bring.
Be not fo long to fpeak; I long to die,
If what thou speak'ft fpeak not of remedy.

8

Fri. Hold, daughter; I do fpy a kind of hope, Which craves as defperate an execution As that is defperate which we would prevent. If, rather than to marry county Paris, Thou haft the ftrength of will to flay thyself; Then is it likely, thou wilt undertake A thing like death to chide away this shame, That cop'ft with death himself to fcape from it; And, if thou dar'ft, I'll give thee remedy.

7 Shall play the umpire;-] That is, this knife fhall decide the ftruggle between me and my diftreffes. JOHNSON.

2

--

commiffion of thy years and art] Commiffion is for authority or power. JOHNSON..

Thy

Jul. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, From off the battlements of yonder tower ';

Or walk in thievifh ways; or bid me lurk. Where ferpents are; chain me with roaring bears; Or hide me nightly in a charnel house,

O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,
With reeky thanks, and yellow chaplefs fculls;
Or bid me go into a new-made grave,

And hide me with a dead man in his fhroud, Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble;

And I will do it without fear or doubt,

To live an unftain'd wife to my fweet love.

Fri. Hold, then; go home, be merry, give confent To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow; To-morrow night look that thou lie alone, Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber: Take thou this phial', being then in bed,

And

-of yonder tower ;] Thus the quarto 1597. All other

ancient copies of any tower.

1 Or chain me, &c.]

STEEVENS.

Or walk in thievifh ways, or bid me lurk

Where ferpents are; chain me with roaring bears,
Or hide me nightly, &c.

It is thus the editions vary. Pore.

My edition has the words which Mr. Pope has omitted; but the old copy feems in this place preferable; only perhaps we might better read,

Where favage bears and roaring lions roam. JOHNSON. I have inferted the lines which Pope omitted; for which I must offer this fhort apology in the lines rejected by him we meet with three distinct ideas, fuch as may be fuppofed to excite terror in a woman, for one that is to be found in the others. The lines now omitted are these :

Or chain me to fome steepy mountain's top,

Where roaring bears and favage lions roam ;

Or fhut me

STEEVENS.

Take thou this phial, &c.] Thus Painter's Palace of Pleafure, tom. ii. p. 237. Beholde heere I give thee a viole, &c. drink fo much as is contained therein. And then you fhall feele a certaine kinde of pleasant fleepe, which incroching by litle and litle all the

K 2

parts

And this diftilled liquor drink thou off :
When, prefently, through all thy veins fhall run
A cold and drowly humour, which shall seize
Each vital fpirit; for no pulfe fhail keep
His natural progrefs, but furceafe to beat:
No warmth, no breath, fhall teftify thou liv'ft;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks fhall fade
To paly afhes; thy eyes' windows fall,
Like death, when he fhuts up the day of life;
Each part, depriv'd of fupple government,
Shall ftiff, and ftark, and cold appear like death:
And in this borrow'd likeness of fhrunk death.
Thou shalt remain full two and forty hours,
And then awake as from a pleasant fleep.
Now when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To roufe thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
Then (as the manner of our country is)

parts of your body, wil conftrain them in fuch wife, as unmoveable they fhal remaine and by not doing their accustomed duties, fhall loofe their natural feelings, and you abide in such extafie the fpace of xl houres at the leaft, without any beating of poulfe or other perceptible motion, which shall so aftonne them that come to fee you, as they will judge you to be dead, and according to the cuftome of our citie, you fhall be caried to the churchyard hard by our church, when you fhall be entombed in the common monument of the Capellets your ancestors, &c." STEEVENS. 3through all thy veins fhall run

A cold and drovfy humour,] The first edition in 1597, has In general been here followed, except only, that instead of a cold and drowsy humour, we there find a dull and heavy fumber? MALONE.

4 To paly ashes,] The first folio, by an evident error of the prefs, reads, To many afhes. The fecond-mealy; which might have been the author's word, on a revifion of his play. Paly is the reading of the quarto; and occurs again in King Henry V :

and through their paly flames,

"Each battle fees the other's umber'd face." We have had too already in a former fcene" Pak, pale, as ashes.".

MALONE.

In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier,
Thou shalt be borne to that fame ancient vault,
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the mean time, against thou fhalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift;
And hither fhall he come; and he and I
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this fhall free thee from this prefent fhame;
? If no unconftant toy, nor womanish fear,
Abate thy valour in thy acting it.

Ful.

5 In thy beft robes uncover'd on the bier,] Between this line and the next, the quartos 1599, 1609, and the first folio, introduce the following verfe, which the poet very probably had ftruck out on his revifal, becaufe it is quite unneceflary, as the fenfe of it is re peated, and as it will not connect with either:

Be borne to burial in thy kindred's grave.

Had Virgil lived to have revifed his Eneid, he would hardly have permitted both of the following lines to remain in his text: "At Venus obfcuro gradientes aëre fepfit;

"Et multo nebulæ circum dea fudit amictu."

The aukward repitition of the nominative cafe in the fecond of them, feems to decide very strongly against it. STEEVENS.

Then (as the manner of our country is)

-] The Italian

In thy beft robes, uncover'd on the biercustom here alluded to, of carrying the dead body to the grave with the face uncovered, (which is not mentioned by Painter) our author found particularly defcribed in The Tragicall Hiftory of Romeus and Juliet:

"Another ufe, there is, that whofoever dies,

"Borne to their church with open face upon the bier he lies, "In wonted weed attir'd, not wrapt in winding-fheet

and he and I

MALONE.

Will watch thy waking,-] Thefe words are not in the folio. JOHNSON.

If no unconftant toy,-] If no fickle freak, no light caprice, no change of fancy, hinder the performance. JOHNSON.

If no unconftant toy nor womanish fear

Abate thy valour in the acting it] Thefe expreffions are borrowed from the poem ;

"Caft off from thee at once the weed of avomanish dread,
"With manly courage arm thyfelf from heel unto the

head

Jul. Give me, O give me! tell me not of fear. Fri. Hold; get you gone, be ftrong and profperous' In this refolve: I'll fend a friar with speed

To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.

Jul. Love, give me ftrength! and strength fhall help afford.

Farewel, dear father!

SCENE II.

Capulet's houfe.

[Exeunt.

Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, Nurfe, and Servants.

Cap. So many guests invite as here are writ.Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.

Serv. You fhall have none ill, fir; for I'll try if they can lick their fingers.

Cap. How canft thou try them fo

Serv. Marry, fir, 'tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers: therefore he, that cannot lick his fingers, goes not with me,

Cap. Go, begone,

[Exit Servant.

We shall be much unfurnifh'd for this time.—

What, is my daughter gone to friar Laurence?
Nurfe. Ay, forfooth,

Cap. Well, he may chance to do fome good on her; A peevish felf-will'd harlotry it is,

Enter Juliet.

8

Nurfe. See, where he comes from thrift with

merry look.

Сар,

"God grant he fo confirm in thee thy prefent will,
"That no inconftant toy thee let thy promife to fulfill !"
MALONE.

-fram fhrift, i. e. from confeffion.] So, in the Merry Devil

of Edmonton, 1626:

Ay, like a wench comes roundly to her brift."