THE

TRAGICALL HYSTORY

OF

ROMEUS AND JULIET.

CONTAYNING IN IT

A RARE EXAMPLE OF TRUE CONSTANCIE;

WITH THE

SUBTILL COUNSELS AND PRACTICES OF AN OLD FRYER; AND THEIR ILL EVENT.

RES EST SOLLICITI PLENA TIMORIS AMOR."

AMID the defert rockes the mountaine beare
Bringes forth unformd, unlyke herselfe, her yonge,
Nought els but lumpes of fiefhe, withouten heare;
In tract of time, her often lycking tong

Geves them fuch fhape, as doth, ere long, delight
The lookers on; or, when one dogge doth thake
With moofled mouth the joyntes too weake to fight,
Or, when upright he ftandeth by his stake,
(A noble creaft!) or wylde in favage wood
A dofyn dogges one holdeth at a baye,

With gaping mouth and stayned jawes with blood;
Or els, when from the fartheft heavens, they
The lode-ftarres are, the wery pilates marke,
In ftormes to gyde to haven the toffed barke ;-

Right fo my mufe
Hath now, at length, with travell long, brought forth
Her tender whelpes, her divers kindes of style,
Such as they are, or nought, or little woorth,
Which carefull travell and a longer whyle
May better thape. The eldeft of them loe
I offer to the stake; my youthfull woorke,
Which one reprochefull mouth might overthrowe:
The reft, unlickt as yet, a whyle shall lurke,

Tyll Tyme geve ftrength, to meete and match in fight,
With Ślaunder's whelpes. Then fhall they tell of ftryfe,
Of noble trymphes, and deedes of martial might;
And fhall geve rules of chaft and honest lyfe,
The whyle, I pray, that ye with favour blame,
Or rather not reprove the laughing game

Of this my mufe.

THE ARGUMENT.

LOVE hath inflamed twayne by fodayn fight,
And both do graunt the thing that both defyre;
They wed in thrift, by counfell of a frier;
Yong Romeus clymes fayre Juliets bower by night.
Three monthes he doth enjoy his cheefe delight:
By Tybalt's rage provoked unto yre,

He payeth death to Tybalt for his hyre.
A banisht man, he scapes by fecret flight:

New marriage is offred to his wyfe:

She drinkes a drinke that feemes to reve her breath;
They bury her, that fleping yet hath lyfe.

Her husband heares the tydinges of her death;
He drinkes his bane; and the, with Romeus' knyfe,
When the awakes, her felfe, alas! the fleath.

ROMEUS AND JULIET.*

THERE is beyond the Alps a towne of ancient fame, Where bright renoune yet fhineth cleare, Verona men it name; Bylt in an happy time, bylt on a fertyle foyle,

Maynteined by the heavenly fates, and by the townish toyle.

* In a preliminary note on Romeo and Juliet I observed that it was founded on The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet, printed in 1562. That piece being almost as rare as a manufcript, I reprinted it a few years ago, and shall give it a place here as a proper fupplement to the commentaries on this tragedy. From the following lines in An Epitaph on the Death of Maister Arthur Brooke drownde in passing to New-Haven, by George Tuberville, [Epitaphes, Epigrammes, &c. 1567,] we learn that the former was the author of this poem:

"Apollo lent him lute, for folace fake,

"To found his verfe by touch of ftately ftring,
"And of the never-fading baye did make
"A lawrell crowne, about his browes to cling.

"In proufe that he for myter did excell,

"As may be judge by Julyet and her mate;
"For there he fhewde his cunning paffing well,
"When he the tale to English did tranflate.
"But what? as he to forraigne realm was bound,
"With others moe his foveraigne queene to serve,
"Amid the feas unluckie youth was drownd,

"More speedie death than fuch one did deserve."

The original relater of this story was Luigi da Porto, a gentleman of Vicenza, who died in 1529. His novel did not appear till fome years after his death; being firft printed at Venice, in octavo, in 1535, under the title of La Giulietta. In an epiftle prefixed to this work, which is addressed Alla bellissima e leggiadra Madonna Lucina Savorgnana, the author gives the following account (probably a fictitious one) of the manner in which he became acquainted with this ftory:

"As you yourself have feen, when heaven had not as yet levelled against me its whole wrath, in the fair spring of my youth I devoted myself to the profeffion of arms, and, following therein many brave and valiant men, for fome years I ferved in your delightful country, Frioli, through every part of which, in the course of my private service, it was my duty to roam. I was ever accustomed, when upon any expedition on horseback, to bring with me an archer of mine, whofe name was Peregrino, a man about fifty years old, well practised in the military art, a pleasant companion, and, like almost all his countrymen of Verona, a great talker. This man was not only a brave and experienced foldier, but of a gay and lively difpofition, and, more perhaps than became his age, was for ever in love; a quality which gave a double value to his valour. Hence it was that he delighted in relating the most amuling novels, efpecially fuch as treated of love, and this he did with more

The fruitefull hilles above, the pleasant vales belowe,

The filver ftreame with chanel depe, that through the town doth

flow;

The ftore of fpringes that ferve for use, and eke for ease,
And other moc commodities, which profit may and please ;
Eke many certayne fignes of thinges betyde of olde,
To fyll the houngry eyes of thofe that curiously beholde;
Doe make this towne to be preferde above the reft

Of Lombard townes, or at the leaft, compared with the best.
In which whyle Efcalus as prince alone did raygne,

To reache rewarde unto the good, to paye the lewde with payne,
Alas! I rewe to thinke, an heavy happe befell,

Which Boccace fkant, not my rude tonge, were able foorth to tell.

Within my trembling hande my penne doth shake for feare,
And, on my colde amazed head, upright doth ftand my heare.
But fith fhee doeth commaunde, whofe heft I must obeye,
In moorning verse a woful chaunce to tell I will affaye.
Helpe, learned Pallas, helpe, ye Mufes with your art,
Help, all ye damned feends, to tell of joyes retournd to smart:*
Help eke, ye fifters three, my fkilleffe pen tindyte,
For you it caufd, which I alas! unable am to wryte.

grace and with better arrangement than any I have ever heard. It therefore chanced that, departing from Gradisca, where I was quartered, and, with this archer and two other of my fervants, travelling, perhaps impelled by love, towards Udino, which route was then extremely folitary, and entirely ruined and burned up by the war,-wholly abforbed in thought, and riding at a distance from the others, this Peregrino drawing near me, as one who gueffed my thoughts, thus addreffed me: Will you then for ever live this melancholy life, because a cruel and difdainful fair one does not love you? though I now fpeak against myself, yet, fince advice is easier to give than to follow, I muft tell you, mafter of mine, that, befides its being difgraceful in a man of your profeffion to remain long in the chains of love, almoft all the ends to which he conducts us are fo replete with mifery, that it is dangerous to follow him. And in teftimony of what I fay, if it fo please you, I could relate a transaction that happened in my native city, the recounting of which will render the way lefs folitary and less disagreeable to us; and in this relation you would perceive how two noble lovers were conducted to a miferable and piteous death. And now, upon my making him a fign of my willingness to liften, he thus began."

The phrafe, in the beginning of this paffage, when heaven had not as yet levelled against me its whole wrath, will be beft explained by fome account of the author, extracted from Crefcimbeni, Istoria della Volgar Poesia, T. V. p. 91: "Luigi da Porto, a Vicentine, was, in his youth, on account of his valour, made a leader in the Venetian army; but, fighting against the Ger mans in Friuli, was fo wounded, that he remained for a time wholly disabled, and afterwards lame and weak during his life; on which account, quitting the profeffion of arms, he betook himself to letters," &c. MALONE.

There were two auncient ftocks, which Fortune hygh did place Above the reft, indewd with welth, and nobler of their race; Lovd of the common forte, lovd of the prince alike,

And lyke unhappy were they both, when Fortune lift to ftryke;
Whofe prayfe with equal blaft Fame in her trumpet blew ;
The one was clyped Capelet, and thother Mountague.

A wonted ufe it is, that men of likely forte,

(I wot not by what furye forsd) envye each others porte. So thefe, whofe egall state bred envye pale of hew,

And then of grudging envies roote blacke hate and rancor grew; As of a littel fparke oft ryfeth mighty fyre,

So, of a kyndled fparke of grudge, in flames flash oute their

eyre :

And then theyr deadly foode, firft hatchd of trifling ftryfe,
Did bathe in bloud of fmarting woundes,-it reved breth and lyfe.
No legend lye I tell; fcarce yet theyr eyes be drye,

That did behold the grifly fight with wet and weeping eye.
But when the prudent prince who there the fcepter helde,
So great a new diforder in his commonweale behelde,
By jentyl meane he fought their choler to affwage,
And by perfwafion to appease their blameful furious rage;
But both his woords and tyme the prince hath spent in vayne,
So rooted was the inward hate, he loft his buyfy payne.
When frendly fage advise ne gentyll woords avayle,

By thondring threats and princely powre their courage gan he quayle ;

In hope that when he had the wafting flame fuppreft,

In time he fhould quyte quench the sparke that boornd within their breft.

Now whylft these kyndreds do remayne in this estate,

And eche with outward frendly fhew doth hyde his inward hate,
One Romeus, who was of race a Mountague,

Upon whose tender chyn as yet no manlyke beard there grewe,
Whofe beauty and whofe fhape fo farre the reft dyd stayne,
That from the cheef of Veron youth he greatest fame dyd gayne,
Hath found a mayde so fayre (he founde fo foul his happe)
Whose beauty, shape, and comely grace, did fo his heart entrappe,
That from his owne affayres his thought the did remove;
Onely he fought to honor her, to serve her and to love.

To her he writeth oft, oft meifengers are fent,

At length, in hope of better fpede, himfelfe the lover went;
Prefent to pleade for grace, which abfent was not founde,
And to discover to her eye his new receaved wounde.
But the that from her youth was foftred evermore

With vertues foode, and taught in fchole of wifdomes skilfull lore,.