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Enter friar Laurence with lanthorn, crow, and spade. Fri. St. Francis be my fpeed! How oft to-night Have my old feet stumbled at graves ?-Who's there? Enter Balthafar.

Balb. Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well.

Fri. Blifs be upon you! Tell me, my good friend, What torch is yond', that vainly lends his light To grubs and eyelefs fculls? as I discern,

It burneth in the Capulets' monument.

Balth. It doth fo, holy Sir;-and there's my mafter, One that you love.

Fri. Who is it?
Balth. Romeo.

Fri. How long hath he been there?

Balth. Full half an hour.

Fri. Go with me to the vault.

Balth. I dare not, Sir:

My mafter knows not, but I am gone hence;
And fearfully did menace me with death,

If I did ftay to look on his intents.

Fri. Stay then, I'll go alone. Fear comes upon me; O, much I fear fome ill unlucky thing.

Balth. As I did fleep under this yew-tree here, 7 I dreamt, my mafter and another fought, And that my mafter flew him.

7 I dreamt, my mafier and another fought,] This is one of the touches of nature that would have efcaped the hand of any painter lefs attentive to it than Shakespeare. What happens to a perfon while he is under the manifeft influence of fear, will feem to him when he is recovered from it, like a dream. Homer, Book 8th, reprefents Rhefus dying faft afleep, and as it were beholding his enemy in a dream plunging a fword into his bofom. Euftathius and Dacier both applaud this image as very natural; for a man in fuch a condition, fays Pope, awakes no further than to fee confufedly what environs him, and to think it not a reality, but a viñon. STEEVENS.

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Fri. Romeo!

Alack, alack, what blood is this, which ftains
The ftony entrance of this fepulchre ?————
What mean these masterlefs and gory fwords,
To lie difcolour'd by this place of peace?
Romeo! oh pale! Who elfe? what Paris too!
And steep'd in blood! ah, what an unkind hour
Is guilty of this lamentable chance!

The lady ftirs.

Jul. [awaking.] Oh, comfortable Friar! where is my lord?

I do remember well, where I should be,
And there I am:-Where is my Romeo?

Fri. I hear fome noife! Lady, come from that neft Of death, contagion, and unnatural fleep;

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A greater Power, than we can contradict,
Hath thwarted our intents: come, come away:
Thy hufband in thy bofom there lies dead,
And Paris too:-Come, I'll difpofe of thee
Among a fifterhood of holy nuns.

Stay not to queftion, for the watch is coming.
Come, go, good Juliet. I dare ftay no longer.
[Exit.

Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away. What's here? a cup, clos'd in my true love's hand? Poifon, I fee, hath been his timelcfs end.--Oh, churl! drink all, and leave no friendly drop To help me after! I will kifs thy lips; Haply, fome poifon yet doth hang on them, To make me die with a reftorative.

Thy lips are warm!

Enter Boy and Watch.

Watch. Lead, boy:-Which way?

8- and unnatural fleep ;] Shakespeare very poetically calls the death of thofe who have fallen prematurely, unnatural jicep

STEEVENS.

Jul.

Jul. Yea, noife!-then I'll be brief.-Oh happy dagger!

[Finding a dagger. This is thy fheath, there ruft and let me die 9.

[Kills herself. Boy. This is the place; there, where the torch doch

burn.

Watch. The ground is bloody. Search about the church-yard;

Go, fome of you, whom e'er you find, attach.
Pitiful fight! here lies the County flain ;-
And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead,
Who here hath lain thefe two days buried.
Go tell the prince.-Run to the Capulets;

'Raife

up the Montagues.-Some others; fearch:We fee the ground whereon these woes do lie; But the true ground of all thefe piteous woes We cannot without circumftance descry.

Enter fome of the Watch with Balthafar.

2 Watch. Here's Romeo's man, we found him in the church-yard.

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I Watch. Hold him in fafety 'till the prince comes hither.

there ruft and let me die.] Is the reading of the quarto 1599. That of 1597 gives the paffage thus:

Ay, noife! then muft I be refolute.

"Oh, happy dagger! thou shalt end my fear,

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Reft in my bofom, thus I come to thee.".

The alteration was probably made by the poet, when he intro

duced the words,

"This is thy fheath."
the Montagues.

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Raife up

STEEVENS.

Some others; fearch:--] Here feems to be a rhyme intended, which may be cafily refered; "Raife up the Montagues. Some others, go. "We fee the ground whereon thefe woes do lie, But the true ground of all this piteous woe "We cannot without circumflance defcry."

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Enter another Watchman with friar Laurence.

Watch. Here is a Friar that trembles, fighs, and

weeps.

We took this mattock and this fpade from him,
As he was coming from this church-yard fide.
1 Watch. A great fufpicion: Stay the friar too.

Enter 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.

Cep. What should it be, that they fo fhriek abroad? La. Cap. The people in the street cry, Romeo, Some, Juliet, and fome, Paris; and all run With open out-cry toward our monument.

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Prince. What fear is this, which startles in our 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

Thefe dead men's tombs.

Cap. Oh, heaven! oh, wife! look how our daughter bleeds.

This dagger hath mifta'en; for, 3 lo! his houfe
Lies empty on the back of Montague,
And it mif-fheathed in my daughter's bofom.

La.

JOHNS.

2 What fear is this, which fartles in your ears ] Read, "What fear is this, which fartles in our ears? 3 - -lo! his houfe, &c.] The modern editors (contrary to the authorities of all the ancient copies, and without attention to the difagreeable affonance of sheath and feathed, which was first introduced by Mr. Pope) read,

La. Cap. Oh me, this fight of death is as a bell, That warns my old age to a fepulchre.

Enter Montague and others.

Prince. Come, Montague; for thou art early up 4, To fee thy fon and heir now early down.

Mon. 5 Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night; Grief of my fon's exile hath ftopt her breath. What further woe confpires against my age? Prince. Look, and thou fhalt fee.

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,

"This dagger hath mifta'en; for, lo! the sheath
"Lies empty on the back of Montague,

"The point mif-fheathed in my daughter's bofom.' The quarto, 1597, erroneously,

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this dagger hath mistook,

"For (loe) the backe is empty of yong Montague, "And it is heathed in our daughter's breaft.” The quarto, 1599, affords the true reading,

This dagger hath mistane, for, loe! his houfe "Is emptie on the back of Mountague,

"And it mif-fheathed in my daughter's bofome."

If we do not read it instead of is, Capulet will be made to say— The fcabbard is at once empty on the back of Montague, and heathed in fuliet's bofom. The conftruction even then will be irregular.

The quartos, 1609, 1637, and the folio 1623, offer the fame reading, except that they concur in giving is instead of it. STEEVENS.

for thou art early up, &c.] This fpeech (as appears from the following paffage in The Second Part of the Dorunfall of Rob. E. of Huntington, 1601) has fomething proverbial in it. "In you i'faith the proverb's verified,

"You are early up, and yet are ne'er the near."

STEEVENS.

Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night;] After this line the quarto adds,

"And young BENVOLIO is deceafed too." But this I fuppofe the poet rejected on his revifion of the play, as an unneceffary death. STEEVENS.

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