Scene III. ROMEO AND JULIET. With funeral praises do adorn thy tomb! Enter Romeo and Balthasar, with a torch, mat- Rom. Give me that mattock, and the wrenching Hold, take this letter; early in the morning Rom. In faith, I will:-Let me peruse this What said my man, when my betossed soul But, chiefly, to take hence from her dead finger A precious ring; a ring that I must use In dear employment: therefore hence, be gone : But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry In what I further shall intend to do, By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint, How oft when men are at the point of death 1 And strew this hungry church-yard with thy limbs: Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet? The time and my intents are savage-wild; O, what more favour can I do to thee, More fierce, and more inexorable far, Than empty tigers, or the roaring sea. Bal. I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you. Rom. So shalt thou show me friendship. -Take thou that: Live, and be prosperous; and farewell, good fellow. [Breaking open the door of the monument. [Advances. Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague; Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man, Par. I do desy thy conjurations,2 Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, watch. [They fight. [Dies. Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain, Fri. Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend, Bal. It doth so, holy sir; and there's my master, Fri. Bal. Who is it? Romeo. Fri. How long hath he been there? (3) The allusion is to a louvre or turret full of windows, by means of which ancient balls, &c. are (1) i. e. Action of importance. (4) Presence-chamber. (5) Conductor. Bal. Full half an hour. 1 Watch. Hold him in safety, till the prince come Fri. Go with me to the vault. Bal. hither. 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. Enter another Watchman, with Friar Laurence. 3 Watch. Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs, and weeps: Fri. Stay then, I'll go alone: -Fear comes upon We took this mattock and this spade from him, me: Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep; stay no longer. 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 ;O churl! drink all? and leave no friendly drop To help me after?-1 will kiss thy lips; Haply, some poison yet doth hang on them, To make me die with a restorative. [Kisses him. Thy lips are warm! 1 Watch. [Within.] Lead, boy:-Which way? Jul. Yea, noise?-then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! [Snatching Romeo's dagger This is thy sheath; [Stabs herself.] there rust, and [Falls on Romeo's body, and dies. let me die. Enter Watch, with the Page of Paris. Page. This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn. 1 Watch. The ground is bloody; Search about the church-yard: Go, some of you, whoe'er you find, attach. We see the ground whereon these woes do lie; Enter some of the Watch, with Balthasar. As he was coming from this church-yard side. 1 Watch. A great suspicion; Stay the friar too. Enter the Prince and Attendants. Prince. What misadventure is so early up, That calls our person from our morning's rest? Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, and others. Cap. What should it be, that they so shriek abroad? La. Cap. The people in the street cry-Romeo, Some-Juliet, and some-Paris; and all run, With open outcry toward our monument. Prince. What fear is this, which startles in our ears? 1 Watch. Sovereign, here lies the county Paris slain; And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before, Warm and new kill'd. Prince Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes. 1 Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's man; With instruments upon them, fit to open Cap. O, heavens!-O, wife! look how our daugh ter bleeds! This dagger hath mista'en. -for lo! his housel La. Cap. O me! this sight of death is as a bell, That warns my old age to a sepulchre. Enter Montague and others. Prince. Come, Montague; for thou art early up, To see thy son and heir more early down. Mon. Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night; Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath: What further wo conspires against mine age? Prince. Look, and thou shalt see. Mon. O thou untaught! what manners is in this, To press before thy father to a grave? Prince. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while, Till we can clear these ambiguities, And know their spring, their head, their true descent; And then will I be general of your woes, Fri. I am the greatest, able to do least, Prince. Then say at once what thou dost know in this. Fri. I will be brief, for my short date of breath 2 Watch. Here's Romeo's man, we found him Was Tybalt's doomsday, whose untimely death in the church-yard. (1) i. e. The scabbard. (2) Seat. Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city; Can I demand. Mon. But I can give thee more: Cap. As rich shall Romeo by his lady lie; Prince. A glooming peace this morning with it brings; The sun for sorrow will not show his head: [Exeunt. Betroth'd, and would have married her perforce, || This is my daughter's jointure, for no more Prince. We still have known thee for a holy man. And then in post he came from Mantua, Prince. Give me the letter, I will look on it.- Page. He came with flowers to strew his lady's And bid me stand aloof, and so I did: Prince. This letter doth make good the friar's words, Their course of love, the tidings of her death: Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet.- Have lost a brace of kinsmen:-all are punish'd. This play is one of the most pleasing of our author's performances. The scenes are busy and various, incidents numerous and important, the catastrophe irresistibly affecting, and the process of the action carried on with such probability, at least with such congruity to popular opinions, as tragedy requires. Here is one of the few attempts of Shakspeare to exhibit the conversation of gentlemen, to represent the airy sprightliness of juvenile elegance. Mr. Dryden mentions a tradition, which might easily reach his time, of a declaration made by Shakspeare, that he was obliged to kill Mercutio in the third Act, lest he should have been killed by him. Yet he thinks him no such formidable person, but that he might have lived through the play, and died in his bed, without danger to the poet. Dryden well knew, had he been in quest of truth, in a pointed sentence, that more regard is commonly had to the words than the thought, and that it is very seldom to be rigorously understood. Mercutio's wit, gaiety, and courage, will always procure him friends that wish him a longer life; but his death is not precipitated, he has lived out the time allotted him in the construction of the play; nor do I doubt the ability of Shakspeare to have continued his existence, though some of his sallies are perhaps out of the reach of Dryden; whose genius was not very fertile of merriment, nor ductile to humour, but acute, argumentative, comprehensive, and sublime. The Nurse is one of the characters in which the author delighted: he has, with great subtilty of distinction, drawn her at once loquacious and secret, obsequious and insolent, trusty and dishonest. His comic scenes are happily wrought, but his pathetic strains are always polluted with some unexpected depravations. His persons, however distressed, have a conceit left them in their misery, a miserable conceit. JOHNSON. HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. Claudius, king of Denmark. PERSONS REPRESENTED. Francisco, a soldier. Hamlet, son to the former king, and nephew to Reynaldo, servant to Polonius. the present king. Polonius, lord chamberlain. Horatio, friend to Hamlet. Laertes, son to Polonius. Voltimand, Cornelius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, courtiers. Osric, a courtier. A Priest. Marcellus, Bernardo, officers. A Captain. An Ambassador. Gertrude, queen of Denmark, and mother of Hamlet. Ophelia, daughter of Polonius. Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Grave diggers, Sailors, Messengers, and other At tendants. Scene, Elsinore. ACT I. SCENE 1.-Elsinore. A platform before the castle. Francisco on his post. Enter to him Bernardo. WHO'S there? Bernardo. Hor. What, has this thing appear'd ag in to night? Ber. I have seen nothing. Mar. Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy; Fran. Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold That, if again this apparition come, Yourself. Ber. Have you had quiet guard? Ber. Well, good night. Not a mouse stirring. Had made his course to illume that part of heaven If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. Enter Horatio and Marcellus. Fran. I think, I hear them. Stand, ho! Who is there? Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself, Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again! Enter Ghost. Ber. In the same figure like the king that's dead. wonder. Ber. It would be spoke to. Speak to it, Horatio. Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night, Say, Together with that fair and warlike form Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus. In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak. Mar. It is offended. |