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Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee:
Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.

Rom. I must, indeed; and therefore came I hither.-
Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man;
Fly hence and leave me :-think upon these gone;
Let them affright thee.-I beseech thee, youth,
Put not another sin upon my head,

By urging me to fury:-Oh, be gone!
By heaven, I love thee better than myself,
For I come hither arm'd against myself:
Stay not, be gone; live, and hereafter say----
A madman's mercy bade thee run away.
Par. I do defy commiseration",

And apprehend thee for a felon here.

Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? then, have at thee, boy.

[They fight.

Page. Oh Lord! they fight: I will go call the watch.

[Exit Page.

Par. Oh! I am slain. [Falls.]-If thou be merciful,
Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.

Rom. In faith, I will.-Let me peruse this face:
Mercutio's kinsman, noble county Paris!-
What said my man, when my betossed soul
Did not attend him as we rode ? I think,

He told me, Paris should have married Juliet:

[Dies.

2 I do defy COMMISEBATION,] The corr. fo. 1632 has "thy" erased in this line, as redundant for the metre. The oldest 4to, has conjurations, and the 4to, 1599, commiration: all the other ancient authorities have "thy commiseration." The Rev. Mr. Dyce has declared commiration to be "a stark misprint:" nobody doubts, or has doubted it; the matter is self-evident. The question is, for what it is a misprint? All the other copies, 4to. and folio, tell us that commiration was a blunder for "commiseration" and not for conjurations. Mr. Dyce is of a contrary opinion ("Remarks," p. 175), and we are sorry to differ from him taking commiration for "commiseration," we have the 4tos, 1599 and 1609, as well as the folios, 1623, 1632, 1664 and 1685, in our favour; and moreover, when the old annotator on the folio, 1632, was amending the line, by erasing "thy," he did not think of altering "commiseration" to conjurations. Mr. Dyce does not advert to the important fact that Romeo had commiserated Paris, and had entreated him to fly, rather than remain to be killed. A man of Mr. Dyce's experience need not be told to look to the context before he adopts so decided an opinion: the error was that of the old printer of the 4to, 1597, who committed so many other, and such gross mistakes, and who, not being well acquainted with the word "commiseration" (written no doubt in his day with one m-comiseration), composed coniurations instead of it. All the probabilities are in favour of "commiseration," and although conjurations would answer the purpose, "commiseration " fills the place better: we can have no other ground of preference for one word over the other.

Said he not so ? or did I dream it so ?
Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet,
To think it was so ?-Oh! give me thy hand,
One writ with me in sour misfortune's book!
I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave,-
A grave? Oh, no! a lantern, slaughter'd youth,
For here lies Juliet; and her beauty makes
This vault a feasting presence, full of light.
Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd.

[He takes it.

[Laying Paris in the monument.

How oft, when men are at the point of death,
Have they been merry, which their keepers call
I
A lightning before death: Oh! how may
Call this a lightning?-Oh, my love! my wife!
Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips, and in thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced there.-—
Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
Oh! what more favour can I do to thee,
Than with that hand, that cut thy youth in twain,
To sunder his that was thine enemy?
Forgive me, cousin!-Ah! dear Juliet,
Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe
That unsubstantial death is amorous *;
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
For fear of that I still will stay with thee,
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again': here, here will I remain

3 And death's pale flag is not advanced there.] For the last five lines the 4to, 1597, has only,

4

"Ah! dear Juliet,

How well thy beauty doth become this grave!"

Shall I believe

That unsubstantial death is amorous;] In the old copies (not including the 4to, 1597, where the words are, "Oh! I believe," &c.) I will believe is inserted before "Shall I believe." In our former edition we preserved both, being anxious not to desert the ancient authorities; but on reconsideration we are disposed to think Malone right: he excluded I will believe.

5 Depart again:] After these words the 4tos, 1599 and 1609, and all the folios, add the following passage:

"Come, lie thou in my arms.

Here's to thy health, where'er thou tumblest in.

With worms that are thy chamber-maids; oh! here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,

And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars

From this world-wearied flesh.-Eyes, look your last:
Arms, take your last embrace; and lips, oh! you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death !—
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide;
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
Here's to my love.-[Drinks.] Oh, true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. -Thus with a kiss I die.

[Dies.

Enter, at the other end of the church-yard, Friar LAURENCE, with a lantern, crow, and spade.

Fri. Saint Francis be my speed, how oft to-night Have my old feet stumbled at graves!-Who's there? Bal. Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well. Fri. Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend, What torch is yond', that vainly lends his light To grubs and eyeless sculls? as I discern,

It burneth in the Capels' monument.

Bal. It doth so, holy sir; and there's my master,

[blocks in formation]

Depart again."

Here we see that "Depart again" is twice repeated; and farther on we meet once more with the words, "Oh, true apothecary! thy drugs are quick." There was, no doubt, some strange confusion in this place in the MS. from which the 4to, 1599, was printed. The 4to, 1597, has no trace of any such lines as those above quoted; and it is to be remarked that the 4to, 1637 (which, in other respects, can be of little authority) omits,

Come, lie thou in my arms.

Here's to thy health, where'er thou tumblest in." • Who's there?] After this line Malone and others added, "Who is it that consorts so late the dead?"

from the 4to, 1597; but if inserted at all, it ought to come in after Balthasar's speech, as in the authority from which it was quoted. It is not in any other ancient edition.

Bal.

I dare not, sir.

My master knows not, but I am gone hence;

And fearfully did menace me with death,

If I did stay to look on his intents.

Fri. Stay, then, I'll go alone.-Fear comes upon me;
Oh! much I fear some ill unthrifty thing'.
Bal. As I did sleep under this yew-tree here,
I dreamt my master and another fought,
And that my master slew him.

Fri.

Romeo!

Alack, alack! what blood is this, which stains
The stony entrance of this sepulchre ?—
What mean these masterless and gory swords
To lie discolour'd by this place of peace?

[Advancing.

[Entering the monument.

Romeo! Oh, pale! - Who else? what! Paris too?
And steep'd in blood ?-Ah! what an unkind hour
Is guilty of this lamentable chance!-
The lady stirs.

[JULIET wakes.

Jul. Oh, comfortable friar! where is my lord? I do remember well where I should be,

And there I am.-Where is my Romeo?

[Noise within.

Fri. I hear some noise.-Lady, come from that nest Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep.

A greater Power than we can contradict

Hath thwarted our intents: come, come away.
Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead;

And Paris too: come, I'll dispose of thee

Among a sisterhood of holy nuns.

Stay not to question, for the watch is coming;

Come, go, good Juliet.-[Noise again.] I dare no longer stay.

Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.

What's here? a cup, clos'd in my true love's hand?
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.-
Oh churl! drink all, and left no friendly drop,
To help me after ?-I will kiss thy lips;

Haply, some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make me die with a restorative.
Thy lips are warm!

[Exit.

[Kisses him.

7 - some ill UNTHRIFTY thing.] So the 4to, 1599: the 4to, 1609, and the folio, unlucky. Balthasar's next speech is not in the 4to, 1597. It is needless to dwell upon minor variations.

1 Watch. [Within.] Lead, boy:-which way?

Jul. Yea, noise ?-then I'll be brief.-Oh happy dagger! [Snatching ROMEO's dagger. This is thy sheath; [Stabs herself;] there rest, and let me die'.

Enter Watch, with the Page of PARIS.

[Dies.

Page. This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn. 1 Watch. The ground is bloody: search about the churchyard.—

Go, some of you; whoe'er you find, attach.
Pitiful sight! here lies the County slain ;-
And Juliet bleeding; warm, and newly dead,
Who here hath lain these two days buried.-
Go, tell the Prince,-run to the Capulets,-
Raise up the Montagues, -some others search:

[Exeunt some.

[Exeunt other Watchmen.

We see the ground whereon these woes do lie;
But the true ground of all these piteous woes,
We cannot without circumstance descry.

Enter some of the Watch, with BALTHASAR".

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

1 Watch. Hold him in safety, till the Prince come hither.

Enter another Watchman, with Friar LAURENCE.

3 Watch. Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs, and weeps: We took this mattock and this spade from him,

As he was coming from this church-yard side.

8

1 Watch. A great suspicion: stay the friar too.

there REST, and let me die.] It is "there rust" in the later impressions, and "there rest" in the 4to, 1597: rust is altered to "rest" in the corr. fo. 1632, which word we on all accounts prefer. As the Rev. Mr. Dyce remarks (p. 177), "the thoughts of Juliet were not likely to wander away to the future rusting of the dagger: she only wishes it, by resting in her bosom as its sheath, to give her instant death." It may be added that if short-hand were employed in the original publication of this play, the words "rest" and rust would be spelt with the same letters. Modern editors have not remarked upon the fact, that in all the folios, "This is thy sheath," is misprinted, "Tis in thy sheath:" even Capell here misrepresents the state of the old text.

9 Enter some of the Watch, with Balthasar.] where the business is shortened, Friar Laurence is stage before Balthasar.

According to the 4to, 1597, taken and brought upon the

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