And to't they go like lightning; for, ere I
Could draw to part them, was ftout Tybalt flain;
And as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly.
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

La. Cap. He is a kinfman to the Montagues,
2 Affection makes him falfe, he speaks not true.
Some twenty of them fought in this black ftrife;
And all thofe twenty could but kill one life.
I beg for juftice, which thou, prince, must give;
Romeo flew Tybalt, Romeo muft not live.

Prin. Romeo flew him, he flew Mercutio;
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
La. Mont. Not Romeo, prince, he was Mercutio's
friend;

His fault concludes but, what the law fhould end, The life of Tybalt.

Prin. And for that offence,

Immediately we do exile him hence:

3 I have an intereft in your hate's proceeding,
My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a bleeding;
But I'll amerce you with fo ftrong a fine,
That you fhall all repent the lofs of mine.

2 Affection makes him falfe,] The charge of falfhood on Benvolio, though produced at hazard, is very juft. The author, who feems to intend the character of Benvolio as good, meant perhaps to fhew, how the beft minds, in a ftate of faction and difcord, are detorted to criminal partiality. JOHNS.

3 I have an intereft in your hearts' proceeding,] Sir Thomas Hanmer faw that this line gave no fenfe, and therefore put, by a very eafy change,

I have an interest in your heat's proceeding:

which is undoubtedly better than the old reading which Dr. Warburton has followed; but the fenfe yet feems to be weak, and perhaps a more licentious correction is neceffary. I read therefore,

I had no intereft in your heat's preceding.

This, fays the prince, is no quarrel of mine, I had no intereft in your former difcord; I fufter merely by your private animofity. JOHNSON.

The quarto, 1567, reads hate's proceeding. This renders all emendation unneceffury. I have followed it.

STEEVENS.

I will be deaf to pleading and excuses;

Nor tears nor prayers fhall purchase out abuses;
Therefore ufe none: let Romeo hence in hafte,
Elfe, when he's found, that hour is his last.
Bear hence this body, and attend our will:
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.

SCEN
NE II.

[Exeunt.

Changes to an apartment in Capulet's house.
Enter Juliet alone.

Jul. Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,
Towards Phoebus' manfion; fuch a waggoner,
As Phaeton, would whip you to the weft,
And bring in cloudy night immediately 2.

3 Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
That run-away's eyes may wink; and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalkt of, and unfeen.

1

Lovers

Phœbus' manfion;] The firft quarto and folio read, lodging. STEEVENS.

Here ends this fpeech in the eldest quarto. The rest of the fcene has likewife received confiderable alterations and additions. STEEVENS.

3 Spread thy clofe curtain, love-performing night,

That run-away's eyes may wink;] What run-away's are thefe, whofe eyes Juliet is withing to have ftopt? Macbeth, we may remember, makes an invocation to night much in the fame ftrain,

"Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day," &c. So Juliet would have night's darknefs obfcure the great eye of the day, the fun; whom confidering in a poetical light as Phabus, drawn in his car with fiery-footed fteeds, and pofting through the heavens, the very properly calls him, with regard to the swiftnefs of his courfe, the run-away. In the like manner our poet fpeaks of the night in the Merchant of Venice; "For the clofe night doth play the run-away. WARB. I am not fatisfied with this explanation, yet have nothing better to propofe. JOHNSON.

The

Lovers can fee to do their amorous rites
By their own beauties; or, if love be blind,
It beft agrees with night.-4 Come, civil night,
Thou fober-fuited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenheads.
Hood my 5 unmann'd blood bating in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle, 'till strange love, grown bold,
Thinks true love acted, fimple modefty.

Come, night!-come, Romeo! come, thou day in night!
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night,

The conftruction of this paffage, however eliptical or perverfe, I believe to be as follows:

May that run-away's eyes wink!

Or, That run-away's eyes, may (they) wink!

Juliet first wishes for the abfence of the fun, and then invokes the night to fpread its curtain clofe around the world;

Spread thy clofe curtain, love-performing night! next recollecting that the night would feem fhort to her, fhe fpeaks of it as of a run-away, whofe flight fhe would wish to retard, and whofe eyes fhe would blind left they fhould make difcoveries. The eyes of night are the ftars, fo called in the Midfummer Night's Dream. Dr. Warburton has already proved that Shakespeare calls the night a run-away in the Merchant of Venice: and Middleton, in his Family of Love, fpeaks of it under the fame character;

"The night hath play'd the fwift-foot run-away." Romeo was not expected by Juliet 'till the fun was gone, and therefore it was not of confequence to her that any eyes fhould wink but thofe of the night. The author of the Revifal would read, "That rumour's eyes may wink." Yet Shakespeare, who has introduced this perfonage by way prologue-fpeaker to one of his hiftorical plays, has only defcribed her as painted full of tongues. STEEVENS.

of

4 Come, civil night,] Civil is grave, decently folemn. JOHNS. unmann'd blood] Blood yet unacquainted with man. JOHNSON.

-Hood my unmann'd blood bating in my cheeks,] Thefe are terms of falconry. An unmanned hawk is one that is not brought to endure company. Bating (not baiting, as it has hitherto been printed) is fluttering with the wings as ftriving to fly away. So in Ben Jonfon's Sad Shepherd,

"A hawk yet half fo haggard and unmann'd.” STEEV.

2

Whiter

Whiter than fnow upon a raven's back:

Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow'd night;

Give me my Romeo; and, when he fhall die,

Take him and cut him out in little ftars,

And he will make the face of heaven fo fine,
That all the world fhall be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the gairifh fun.
O, I have bought the manfion of a love,
But not poffefs'd it; and, though I am fold,
Not yet enjoy'd: fo tedious is this day,
As is the night before fome feftival,

To an impatient child, that hath new robes,
And may not wear them. O, here comes my nurse!

Enter Nurfe with cords.

And the brings news; and every tongue, that speaks But Romeo's name, fpeaks heavenly eloquence.

Now, Nurfe, what news? what haft thou there? the cords

That Romeo bid thee fetch?
Nurfe. Ay, ay, the cords.

Jul. Ah me! what news? Why doft thou wring thy hands?

Nurfe. Ahwelladay, 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!
Jul. Can heaven be fo envious?

Nurfe. Romeo can,

Though heaven cannot.O Romeo! Romeo!
Who ever would have thought it? Romeo!

The gairifh fun.] Milton had this fpeech in his thoughts when he wrote Il Penjerojo.

66

Civil night,

"Thou fober-fuited matron."-Shakespeare.

"Till civil-fuited morn appear."-Milton.

66

Pay no worship to the gairith fun."-Shakespeare. "Hide me from day's gairish eye."-Milion. JOHNSON.

VOL. X.

F

Jul.

Jul. What devil art thou, that doft torment me thus?

This torture fhould be roar'd in difmal hell.
Hath Romeo flain himself? fay thou but, I,
7 And that bare vowel, I, fhall poison more
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice.
I am not I, if there be fuch an I;

Or those eyes fhut, that make thee answer, I.
If he be flain fay-I; or if not, no:

Brief founds determine of my weal, or woe.
Nurfe. I faw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes,
God fave the mark! here on his manly breast.
A piteous corfe, a bloody piteous corfe;
Pale, pale as afhes, all bedawb'd in blood,
All in gore blood:-I fownded at the fight.

And that bare vowel, ay, shall poifon more

Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice.] I queftion much whether the grammarians will take this new vowel on trust from Mr. Pope, without fufpc&ting it rather for a diphthong. In short, we must reftore the fpelling of the old books, or we lofe 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 vorvel, 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 fhot, that makes thee answer I;
If he be fain, fay I; or if not, no;

Brief founds determine of my weal 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 firft of them being evidently tranfpofed; we fhould read,

That one vowel I fhall poifon more,

Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice,

Or thofe eyes fhot, that make thee aníwer, I.

I am not 1, &c. JOHNSON.

I think the tranfpofition recommended may be fpared. The fecond line is corrupted. Read but inftead of hot, and then the meaning will be fufficiently intelligible. STEEVENS.

Ful