Then (as the manner of our country is)
In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier,
Be borne to burial in thy kindred's grave,
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; 7 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 present shame,
8 If no unconftant toy, nor womanish fear,
Abate thy valour in the acting it.

Jul. Give me, oh give me! Tell me not of fear.

[Taking the phial. 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.

Farewell, dear father!

[Exeunt.

In thy beft robes uncover'd on the bier,] Between this line and the next, the quarto, 1609, and the first folio, introduce the following verfe, which the poet very probably had struck out on his revifal, because it is quite unneceffary, as the fenfe of it is repeated, and as it will not connect with either:

Be borne to burial in thy kindred's grave.

Had Virgil lived to have revised 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 repetition of the nominative cafe in the fecond of them, feems to decide very ftrongly against it. STEEVENS.

7

and he and I

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

8

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

SCENE

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, Sir, for I'll try if they can lick their fingers.

Cap. How canft thou try them fo?

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

Cap. Go, begone.

We shall be much unfurnished for this time.-
What, is my daughter gone to friar Laurence?
Nurfe, Ay, forfooth.

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

Enter Juliet.

Nurfe. See, where she comes from fhrift with merry look.

Cap. How now, my head-strong? where have you been gadding?

Jul. Where I have learnt me to repent the fin Of difobedient oppofition

Το

you and your behefts; and am enjoin'd

By holy Laurence to fall proftrate here, [She kneels, And beg your pardon.-Pardon, I beseech you! Henceforward I am ever rul'd by you.

Cap. Send for the County; go, tell him of this; I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning. Jul. I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell; And gave him what becoming love I might, Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.

Cap. Why, I am glad on't; this is well, ftand up: This is as't fhould be. Let me fee the County;

Ay, marry

-Go, I fay, and fetch him hither.

Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar,
All our whole city is much bound to him.
Jul. Nurfe, will you go with me into my closet,
To help me fort fuch needful ornaments

As you think fit to furnish me to-morrow?

La. Cap. No, not 'till Thursday; there is time enough.

to-morrow.

Cap. Go, Nurse, go with her :-We'll to church [Exeunt Juliet and Nurfe. La. Cap. We fhall be fhort in our provifion; 'Tis now near night.

Cap. Tufh! I will stir about,

And all things fhall be well, I warrant thee, wife.
Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her;

I'll not to bed to-night.-Let me alone;

I'll play the housewife for this once.-What, ho!-
They are all forth: well, I will walk myself
To County Paris, to prepare him up

Against to-morrow. My heart is wondrous light,
Since this fame wayward girl is fo reclaim'd.

[Exeunt Capulet and lady Capulet.

Jul. Ay, thofe attires are beft:-But, gentle Nurfe, I pray thee, leave me to myself to-night; 3 For I have need of many orifons

All our whole city is much bound to him.] Thus the folio and the quarto, 1609. The oldeft quarto reads, I think, more grammatically:

All our whole city is much bound unto. STEEVENS.

2 We shall be short-] That is, we fhall be defective. JOHNS. 3 For I have need, &c.] Juliet plays moft of her pranks under the appearance of religion: perhaps Shakespeare meant to punish her hypocrify. JOHNSON.

To

To move the heavens to fmile upon my state,
Which, well thou know'ft, is cross, and full of fin.

Enter lady Capulet.

La. Cap. What, are you bufy? do you need my help? Jul. No, Madam; we have cull'd fuch neceffaries As are behoveful for our ftate to-morrow:

So please you, let me now be left alone,

And let the nurse this night fit up with you;
For, I am fure, you have your hands full all,
In this fo fudden business.

La. Cap. Good-night!

Get thee to bed and reft, for thou haft need. [Exeunt. Jul. 2 Farewell!-God knows when we fhall meet again.

I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins,
That almost freezes up the heat of life.

I'll call them back again to comfort me :--
Nurfe!-What fhould fhe do here?

My dismal fcene I needs must act alone:
Come, phial

What if this mixture do not work at all,

3 Shall I of force be married to the Count?No, no;-this fhall forbid it.-Lie thou there

[Laying down a dagger. What if it be a poifon, which the friar Subtly hath miniftred, to have me dead; Left in this marriage he fhould be dishonour'd, Because he married me before to Romeo? I fear it is and yet, methinks, it fhould not, For he hath ftill been tried a holy man:

+ I will not entertain fo bad a thought..

? This fpeech received confiderable additions after the elder copy was published. STEEVENS.

3 Shall I of force be married to the Count ?] Thus the eldest quarto. Succeeding quarto's, and the folio read,

Shall I he married then to-morrow morning? STEEVENS. 4 I will not entertain fo bad a thought. This line I have reftored from the quarto, 1597. STEEVENS.

How,

How, if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Comes to redeem me? there's a fearful point!
Shall I not then be ftifled in the vault,

To whofe foul mouth no healthfome air breathes in,
And there be strangled ere my Romeo comes?
Or, if I live, is it not very like,

The horrible conceit of death and night,
Together with the terror of the place,
5 As in a vault, an ancient receptacle,
Where, for these many hundred years, the bones
Of all my buried ancestors are packt;

Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies feftring in his fhroud; where, as they say,
At fome hours in the night, fpirits refort.--
Alas, alas! it is not like that I

So early waking,-what with loathsome smells;
And fhrieks, like mandrakes torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, 7 run mad-
Or, if I wake, fhall I not be diftraught,
Invironed with all these hideous fears,

And madly play with my fore-fathers' joints,

5 As in a vault, &c.] This idea was probably supplied to our poet by his native place. The charnel at Stratford upon Avon is a very large one, and perhaps contains a greater number of bones than are to be found in any other repository of the fame kind in England.-I was furnished with this anecdote by Mr. Murphy, whofe very elegant and fpirited defence of Shakespeare against the criticifms of Voltaire, is one of the leaft confiderable out of many obligations which he has conferred on the literary world. STEEVENS.

6

is it not like, that I] This fpeech is confufed, and inconfequential, according to the diforder of Juliet's mind. JOHNS. run mad-] So in Webster's Dutchess of Malfy, 1623. "I have this night dig'd up a mandrake,

7

"And am grown mad with't."

So in The Atheift's Tragedy, 1611.

"The cries of mandrakes never touch'd the ear
"With more fad horror than that voice does mine."

Again, in A Christian turn'd Turk, 1612.

"Ill rather give an ear to the black shrieks

"Of mandrakes," &c. STEEVENS.

And