O! if I wake, shall I not be distraught," And madly play with my forefathers' joints? [She throws herself on the Bed. SCENE IV. Capulet's Hall. Enter Lady CAPULET and Nurse. La. Cap. Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, nurse. Nurse. They call for dates and quinces in the pastry. Enter CAPULet. Cap. Come, stir, stir, stir! the second cock hath crow'd, The curfeu bell' hath rung, 'tis three o'clock: 7-be distraught,] Distraught is distracted. They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.] i. e. in the room where paste was made. So laundry, spicery, &c. • The curfeu bell-] The curfew bell is universally rung at eight or nine o'clock at night; generally according to the season. The term is here used with peculiar impropriety, as it is not believed that any bell was ever rung so early as three in the morning. The derivation of curfeu is well known, but it is a mere vulgar error that the institution was a badge of slavery imposed by the Norman Conqueror. To put out the fire became necessary only because it was time to go to bed: And if the curfeu commanded all fires to Look to the bak'd meats, good Angelica: Spare not for cost. Nurse. Go, go, you cot-quean, go, Get you to bed; 'faith, you'll be sick to-morrow For this night's watching. Cap. No, not a whit; What! I have watch'd ere now All night for lesser cause, and ne'er been sick. La. Cap. Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time;1 But I will watch you from such watching now. [Exeunt Lady CAPULET and Nurse. Cap. A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood !—Now, fellow, What's there? Enter Servants, with Spits, Logs, and Baskets. 1 Serv. Things for the cook, sir; but I know not what. Cap. Make haste, make haste. [Exit 1 Serv.]— Sirrah, fetch drier logs; Call Peter, he will show thee where they are. 2 Serv. I have a head, sir, that will find out logs, And never trouble Peter for the matter. [Exit. Cap. 'Mass, and well said; A merry whoreson! ha, Thou shalt be logger-head.-Good faith, 'tis day: be extinguished, the morning bell ordered them to be lighted again. In short, the ringing of those two bells was a manifest and essential service to people who had scarcely any other means of measuring their time. RITSON. 1 a mouse-hunt in your time;] In Norfolk, and many other parts of England, the cant term for a weasel is-a mousehunt. The intrigues of this animal, like those of the cat kind, are usually carried on during the night. This circumstance will account for the appellation which Lady Capulet allows her husband to have formerly deserved. The county will be here with musick straight, [Musick within. For so he said he would. I hear him near: Enter Nurse. Go, waken Juliet, go, and trim her up; SCENE V. Juliet's Chamber; JULIET on the Bed. Enter Nurse. Nurse. Mistress!-what, mistress!-Juliet!-fast, I warrant her, she: Why, lamb!—why, lady!-fye, you slug-a-bed!— Why, love, I say!-madam! sweet-heart!—why, bride! What, not a word?-you take your pennyworths now; Sleep for a week; for the next night, I warrant, That you shall rest but little.-God forgive me, He'll fright you up, i'faith.-Will it not be? Enter Lady CAPULET. La. Cap. What noise is here? O lamentable day! Look, look! O heavy day! La. Cap. What is the matter? La. Cap. O me, O me!-my child, my only life, Enter CAPULet. Cap. For shame, bring Juliet forth; her lord is come. Nurse. She's dead, deceas'd, she's dead; alack the day! La. Cap. Alack the day! she's dead, she's dead, she's dead. Cap. Ha! let me see her:-Out, alas! she's cold; Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff; Life and these lips have long been separated: Death lies on her, like an untimely frost Upon the sweetest flower of all the field. Accursed time! unfortunate old man! Nurse. O lamentable day! La. Cap. O woful time! Cap. Death, that hath ta'en her hence to make me wail, Ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak. Enter Friar LAURENCE and PARIS, with Musicians. Fri. Come, is the bride ready to go to church? O son, the night before thy wedding day Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir; My daughter he hath wedded! I will die, And leave him all; life leaving, all is death's. Par. Have I thought long to see this morning's face, And doth it give me such a sight as this? La. Cap. Accurs'd, unhappy, wretched, hateful day! Most miserable hour, that e'er time saw But one, poor one, one poor and loving child, And cruel death hath catch'd it from my sight. That ever, ever, I did yet behold! Par. Beguil'd, divorced, wronged, spited, slain! Most détestable death, by thee beguil'd, By cruel cruel thee quite overthrown! O love! O life!-not life, but love in death! Cap. Despis'd, distressed, hated, martyr'd, kill'd!— Uncomfortable time! why cam'st thou now To murder murder our solemnity? O child! O child!-my soul, and not my child!Dead art thou, dead!-alack! my child is dead; And, with my child, my joys are buried! Fri. Peace, ho, for shame! confusion's cure lives not In these confusions. Heaven and yourself Your part in her you could not keep from death; The most you sought was-her promotion; |