What if it be a poison, which the friar Come to redeem me? There's a fearful point! To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, The horrible conceit of death and night, Where, for these many hundred years, the bones 1 Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth, So early waking,-what with loathsome smells, Gifford), were worn at all times by every woman in England; whether they were so worn in Italy, Shakspeare, I believe, never inquired, and I cannot tell."-Works of Ben Jonson, vol. v. p. 221. 1 To fester is to corrupt. 2 The mandrake (says Thomas Newton in his Herbal) has been idly represented as a creature having life." 66 Upon a rapier's point.-Stay, Tybalt, stay!— [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.1 [Exit Nurse. Enter CAPULet. Cap. Come, stir, stir, stir! the second cock hath crowed, The curfew bell hath rung, 'tis three o'clock.— Look to the baked meats, good Angelica: Spare not for cost. La. Cap. Go, go, you cot-quean, go, Get you to bed; 'faith, you'll be sick to-morrow For this night's watching.3 Cap. No, not a whit; what! I have watched ere now All night for lesser cause, and ne'er been sick. La. Cap. Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time; But I will watch you from such watching now. [Exit LADY CAPULET. Cap. A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood!—Now, fellow, What's there? 1 The room where the pastry was made. 2 A man that troubles himself with women's affairs-probably cookquean. 3 This speech, which in the old copies is attributed to the nurse, should surely be given to lady Capulet. 4 The animal called the mouse-hunt is the weasel. The intrigues of this animal, like those of the cat kind, are usually carried on in the night. Enter Servants, with spits, logs, and baskets. Serv. Things for the cook, sir; but I know not what. Sirrah, fetch drier logs; [Exit 1 Serv.] 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 loggerhead.-Good faith, 'tis day; The county will be here with music straight. [Music within. For so he said he would. I hear him near. Enter Nurse. Go, waken Juliet, go, and trim her up; [Exeunt. SCENE V. Juliet's Chamber; JULIET on the bed. Enter Nurse. Nurse. Mistress !-what, mistress !-Juliet !-fast, I Why, lamb why, lady;-fie, you slug-a-bed!-- bride! What, not a word ?-You take your pennyworths now; 1 Nashe, in his Terrors of the Night, quibbles in the same manner on this expression:-"You that are married and have wives of your owne, and yet hold too nere friendship with your neighbors, set up your rests, that the night will be an ill neighbor to your rest, and that you shall have as little peace of minde as the rest." That you shall rest but little.-God forgive me, He'll fright you up, in 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, Revive, look up, or I will die with thee! Help, help!-call help. Enter CAPULet. Cap. For shame, bring Juliet forth; her lord is come. Nurse. She's dead, deceased, 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. 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. 1 This line is taken from the first quarto, 1597. 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 Hath death lain, with thy bride.-See, there she lies, Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir; Par. Have I thought long to see this morning's face,' And doth it give me such a sight as this? La. Cap. Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful day! Most miserable hour, that e'er time saw In lasting labor of his pilgrimage! But one, poor one, one poor and loving child, But one thing to rejoice and solace in, And cruel death hath catched it from my sight. O day! O day! O day! O hateful day! Par. Beguiled, divorced, wronged, spited, slain! By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown!— O love! O life!-not life, but love in death! Cap. Despised, distressed, hated, martyred, killed ' Uncomfortable time! why cam'st thou now To murder, murder our solemnity?— 1 The quarto of 1597 continues the speech of Paris thus: "And doth it now present such prodigies? Accurst, unhappy, miserable man, Forlorn, forsaken, destitute I am, Born to the world to be a slave in it: Distrest, remediless, unfortunate. Oh, heavens! Oh, nature! wherefore did you make me To live so vile, so wretched as I shall?" In the text, the edition of 1599 is here followed. The nurse's exclama tory speech is not in the first quarto. |