Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit. Thy noble shape is but a form of wax, Digressing from the valour of a man: Thy dear love, sworn, but hollow perjury, Killing that love which thou hast vow'd to cherish: Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love, Mis-shapen in the conduct of them both, Like powder in a skill-less soldier's flask,* Is set on fire by thine own ignorance,
And thou dismember'd with thine own defence. 5 What, rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive, For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead; There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee, But thou slew'st Tybalt; there art thou happy too: The law, that threaten'd death, becomes thy friend, And turns it to exíle; there art thou happy: A pack of blessings lights upon thy back; Happiness courts thee in her best array; But, like a mis-behav'd and sullen wench, Thou pout'st upon thy fortune and thy love: Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable. Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed, Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her; But, look, thou stay not till the watch be set, For then thou canst not pass to Mantua; Where thou shalt live, till we can find a time To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends, Beg pardon of the prince, and call thee back With twenty hundred thousand times more joy Than thou went'st forth in lamentation.- Go before, nurse: commend me to thy lady; And bid her hasten all the house to bed,
4 Like powder in a skill-less soldier's flask, &c.] To understand the force of this allusion, it should be remembered that the ancient English soldiers, using match-locks, instead of locks with flints as at present, were obliged to carry a lighted match hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden flask in which they kept their powder.
› And thou dismember'd with thine own defence.] And thou torn to pieces with thine own weapons.
Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto: Romeo is coming.
Nurse. O Lord, I could have staid here all the night, To hear good counsel: O, what learning is !—
My lord, I'll tell my lady you will come.
Rom. Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide. Nurse. Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir:
Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.
[Exit Nurse. Rom. How well my comfort is reviv'd by this! Fri. Go hence: Good night; and here stands all your state; 6
Either be gone before the watch be set,
Or by the break of day disguis'd from hence: Sojourn in Mantua; I'll find out your man, And he shall signify from time to time Every good hap to you, that chances here: Give me thy hand; 'tis late: farewell; good night. Rom. But that a joy past joy calls out on me, It were a grief, so brief to part with thee: Farewell.
A Room in Capulet's House.
Enter CAPULET, Lady CAPULET, and Paris. Cap. Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily, That we have had no time to move our daughter: Look you, she lov'd her kinsman Tybalt dearly, And so did I; Well; we were born to die. 'Tis very late, she'll not come down to-night:
I promise you, but for your company,
I would have been a-bed an hour ago.
Par. These times of woe afford no time to woo : Madam, good night: commend me to your daughter.
here stands all your state ;] The whole of your fortune depends on this.
La. Cap. I will, and know her mind early to-morrow; To-night she's mew'd up to her heaviness.
Cap. Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender® Of my child's love: I think, she will be rul'd In all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not. Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed;
Acquaint her here of my son Paris' love;
And bid her, mark you me, on Wednesday next- But, soft; What day is this?
Cap. Monday? ha! ha! Well, Wednesday is too
O' Thursday let it be :-o' Thursday, tell her, She shall be married to this noble earl:-
Will you be ready? do you like this haste? We'll keep no great ado:-a friend, or two:- For hark you, Tybalt being slain so late, It may be thought we held him carelessly, Being our kinsman, if we revel much :
Therefore we'll have some half-a-dozen friends, And there an end. But what say you to Thursday? Par. My lord, I would that Thursday were to-mor-
Cap. Well, get you gone:- O' Thursday be it then:
Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed,
Prepare her, wife, against this wedding-day.— Farewell, my lord.-Light to my chamber, ho! Afore me, it is so very late, that we
May call it early by and by :-Good night.
7 mew'd up-] This is a phrase from falconry. A mew was a place of confinement for hawks.
8 Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender -] Desperate means only bold, adventurous, as if he had said in the vulgar phrase, I will speak a bold word, and venture to promise you my daughter.
Enter ROMEO and JULIET.
Jul. Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day: It was the nightingale, and not the lark, That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear; Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree: Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.
Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the morn, No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east: Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops; I must be gone and live, or stay and die. Jul. Yon light is not day-light, I know it, I : It is some meteor that the sun exhales, To be to thee this night a torch-bearer, And light thee on thy way to Mantua: Therefore stay yet, thou need'st not to be gone. Rom. Let me be ta'en, let me be put to death; I am content, so thou wilt have it so. I'll say, yon grey is not the morning's eye, 'Tis but the pale reflex1 of Cynthia's brow; Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat The vaulty heaven so high above our heads : I have more care to stay" than will to go; Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so.- How is't, my soul? let's talk, it is not day.
9 Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree :] This is not merely a poetical supposition. It is observed of the nightingale, that, if undisturbed, she sits and sings upon the same tree for many weeks together.
the pale reflex-] The appearance of a cloud opposed to the moon.
2 I have more care to stay-] Care for inclination.
London. Published, by P. C&J. Rivington. and Partners. Feb 1823.
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