And the place death, confidering who thou art,

If any of my kinfmen find thee here.

Rom. With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls,

For ftony limits cannot hold love out;

And what love can do, that dares love attempt:
Therefore thy kinfmen are no stop to me.

Jul. If they do fee thee, they will murder thee. Rom. Alack! there lies more peril in thine eye, Than twenty of their fwords; look thou but fweet, And I am proof against their enmity.

Jul. I would not for the world, they faw thee here.. Rom. I have night's cloak to hide me from their eyes, And but thou love me, let them find me here; My life were better ended by their hate,

Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.

Jul. By whofe direction found'ft thou out this place? Rom. By love, that firft did prompt me to enquire, He lent me counfel, and I lent him eyes:

I am no Pilot, yet wert thou as far

As that vaft shore, wash'd with the fartheft fea,
I would adventure for fuch merchandise.

Jul. Thou know'ft, the mask of night is on my face,
Elfe would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek
For that which thou haft heard me speak to night.
Fain would I dwell on form; fain, fain, deny
What I have spoke but farewel compliment!
Doft thou love me? I know, thou wilt fay, ay;
And I will take thy word yet if thou fwear'ft,
Thou may'st prove false; at lovers' perjuries, (15)
They fay, Jove laughs. Oh, gentle Romeo,
If thou doft love, pronounce it faithfully:

At Lovers' Perjuries,

Or

They Jay, Jove laughs.] This Remark our Poet, probably, borrow'd from Ovid;

De Art. Amandi, lib. i. 635.

Jupiter ex alto Perjuria ridet Amantum.
Or elfe from Tibullus, who has the fame Sentiment;
-Perjuria ridet Amantum

Jupiter, & ventos irrita ferre jubet.

Lib.iii. El. 7.

Το

སྐ

Or if you think, I am too quickly won,
I'll frown and be perverfe, and fay thee nay,
So thou wilt wooe: bút, elfe, not for the world.
In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond;

And therefore thou may't think my 'haviour light:
But trust me, Gentleman, I'll prove more true,
Than those that have more cunning to be strange.
I should have been more strange, I must confefs,
But that thou over-heard'ft, ere I was ware,
My true love's paffion; therefore pardon me,
And not impute this yielding to light love,
Which the dark night hath fo difcovered.

Rom. Lady, by yonder bleffed moon I vow,
That tips with filver all these fruit-tree-tops-

Jul. O fwear not by the moon, th' inconftant moon, That monthly changes in her circled orb; Left that thy love prove likewife variable. Rom. What fhall I swear by?

Jul. Do not fwear at all;

Or, if thou wilt, fwear by thy gracious felf,
Which is the God of my idolatry,

And I'll believe thee.

Rom. If my true heart's love

Jul. Well, do not fwear-although I joy in thee, I have no joy of this Contract to night;

It is too rafh, too unadvis'd, too fudden,
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be,
Ere one can fay, it lightens Sweet, good night.
This bud of love by fummer's ripening breath
May prove a beauteous flower, when next we ineet:
Good night, good night as sweet Repose and Rest
Come to thy heart, as that within my breast!

To this likewise the Greeks alluded in their Proverb, 'Aegioios apos in Euroivu. Hefychius, I remember, in quoting this Proverb, takes Notice of a Circumstance that I can neither recollect, nor trace, in Heftod; viz. that He firft feign'd that Jupiter and lo fwore to each other. πρῶτο δὲ Ἡσίοδος έπλασε, τὰς περὶ ἢ Δία καὶ τίω Ιω ομόσαι. Jupiter, we know, from Fables, often broke his Love-Oaths: fo could not reasonably condemn the Practice in others.

Rom.

Rom. O, wilt thou leave me fo unfatisfied?

Jul. What fatisfaction canft thou have to night? Rom. Th' exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine. Jul. I gave thee mine, before thou didst requeft it: And yet I would, it were to give again..

Rom. Wouldst thou withdraw it? for what purpose, love?

Jul. But to be frank, and give it thee again.
And yet
I wish but for the thing I have:

My bounty is as boundless as the fea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.

I hear fome noise within; dear love, adieu!

Anon, good nurse :

[Nurfe calls within.

[Exit.

Sweet Montague, be true:

Stay but a little, I will come again.

Rom. O bleffed, bleffed night! I am afraid,

Being in night, all this is but a dream;

Too flattering-fweet to be fubftantial,

Re-enter Juliet above.

Jul. Three words, dear Romeo, and good night, indeed: If that thy bent of love be honourable,

Thy purpose marriage, fend me word to morrow,
By one that I'll procure to come to thee,
Where and what time thou wilt perform the rite;
And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay,

And follow thee, my love, throughout the world.
[Within: Madam.
I come, anon-but if thou mean'ft not well,

I do befeech thee- [Within: Madam.] By and by, I

come

To cease thy fuit, and leave me to my grief.
To morrow will I fend.

Rom. So thrive my foul,

ful. A thousand times good night.

[Exit.

Rom. A thoufand times the worse, to want thy light. Love goes tow'rd love, as fchool-boys from their books; But love from love, towards fchool with heavy looks.

Enter

Enter Juliet again.

Jul. Hift! Romeo, hist! O for a falkner's voice,
To lure this Taffel gentle back again-

Bondage is hoarfe, and may not fpeak aloud;
Elfe would I tear the cave where Echo lyes,

And make her airy tongue more hoarfe than mine,
With repetition of my Romeo.

Rom. It is my love that calls upon my name,
How filver-fweet found lovers tongues by night,
Like fofteft mufick to attending ears!

Jul. Romeo!

Rom. My Sweet!

Jul. At what o' clock to morrow Shall I fend to thee?

Rom. By the hour of nine.

Jul. I will not fail, 'tis twenty years 'till then,I have forgot why I did call thee back.

Rom. Let me ftand here 'till thou remember it. Jul. I fhall forget, to have thee ftill stand there; Remembring how I love thy company.

Rom. And I'll ftill stay to have thee ftill forget, Forgetting any other home but this...

Jul. 'Tis almoft morning. I would have thee gone, And yet no further than a Wanton's bird,

That lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor prifoner in his twifted gyves,
And with a filk thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.

Rom. I would, I were thy bird.

Jul. Sweet, fo would I;

Yet I fhould kill thee with much cherishing.

[Exit.

Good night, good night. Parting is fuch fweet forrow,
That I fhall fay good night, 'till it be morrow.
Rom. Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast!
Would I were fleep and peace, so sweet to reft!
Hence will I to my ghoftly Friar's clofe Cell,
His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell,

[Exit.

SCENE

SCENE changes to a Monaftery.

Enter Friar Lawrence, with a basket.

Fri.HE grey-ey'd morn fmiles on the frowning night,

TH

Check'ring the eastern clouds with ftreaks of light:
And darkness flecker'd, like a drunkard, reels
From forth day's path, and Titan's burning wheels.
Now ere the Sun advance his burning eye,
The day to chear, and night's dank dew to dry,
I must fill up this ofier cage of ours

With baleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers.
The earth, that's Nature's mother, is her tomb;
What is her burying Grave, that is her womb;
And from her womb children of divers kind
We fucking on her natural bofom find:
Many for many virtues excellent,

None but for fome, and yet all different.
O, mickle is the powerful grace, that lies
In plants, herbs, ftones, and their true qualities.
Nor nought fo vile, that on the earth doth live,
But to the earth fome special good doth give:
Nor ought fo good, but strain'd from that fair use,
Revolts from true Birth, ftumbling on abuse.
Virtue it felf turns vice, being mifapplied;
And vice fometime by action's dignified.
Within the infant rind of this fmall flower
Poifon hath refidence, and medicine power:
For this being fimelt, with that fenfe chears each part;
Being tafted, flays all fenfes with the heart.
Two fuch oppofed foes encamp them still
In man, as well as herbs, Grace and rude Will:
And where the worfer is predominant,

Full-foon the canker death eats up that plant.

Enter Romeo.

Rom. Good morrow, father.