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Jul. Thou know'st the mask of night is on my face; Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek, For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night. Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny What I have spoke. But farewell compliment!" Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say-Ay; And I will take thy word: yet, if thou swear'st, Thou mayst prove false; at lovers' perjuries, They say, Jove laughs. O, gentle Romeo, If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully: Or, if thou think'st I am too quickly won, I'll frown, and be perverse, and say thee nay, So thou wilt woo; but, else, not for the world. In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond; And therefore thou mayst think my behaviour 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 confess, But that thou overheard'st, ere I was ware, My true love's passion: therefore pardon me; And not impute this yielding to light love, Which the dark night hath so discovered.

Rom. Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear," That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops,

Jul. O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon That monthly changes in her circled orb,

Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

Rom. What shall I swear by?

Jul.

Do not swear at all;

Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,
Which is the god of my idolatry,

And I'll believe thee.

Rom.

If my heart's dear love—

Jul. Well, do not swear: although I joy in thee,

I have no joy of this contract to-night:

It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden;

a Farewell compliment—farewell respect for forms.

b So (4). In folio and (C), coying.
e So (4). In folio and (C), vou.

Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be,
Ere one can say It lightens. Sweet, good night!
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
Good night, good night! as sweet repose and rest
Come to thy heart, as that within my breast!

Rom. O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?

Jul. What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?
Rom. The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine.
Jul. I gave thee mine before thou didst request it:
And yet I would it were to give again.

Rom. Wouldst thou withdraw it? for what
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 sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.
I hear some noise within; Dear love, adieu !
Anon, good nurse!-Sweet Montague, be true.
Stay but a little, I will come again.

purpose, love?

[Nurse calls within.

Rom. O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard, Being in night, all this is but a dream,

Too flattering sweet to be substantial.

Re-enter JULIET, above.

[Exit.

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

Thy purpose marriage, send 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 lord throughout the world.
Nurse. [Within.] Madam.

Jul. I come, anon :-But if thou mean'st not well,
I do beseech thee-

Nurse. [Within.] Madam.

Jul.

By and by, I come :

To cease thy strife and leave me to my grief:

To-morrow will I send.

Rom.

So thrive my soul,

[Exit.

Jul. A thousand times good night! Rom. A thousand times the worse to want thy lightLove goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books; But love from love, toward school with heavy looks. [Retiring slowly.

Re-enter JULIET, above.

Jul. Hist! Romeo, hist!-O, for a falconer's voice, To lure this tassel-gentle back again!✦

Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud;

Else would I tear the cave where Echo lies,

And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine
With repetition of my Romeo."

Rom. It is my soul, that calls upon my name :
How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night,
Like softest music to attending ears!

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Jul. I will not fail; 't is twenty years till then. I have forgot why I did call thee back.

a In (A), my Romeo's name.

b This passage is ordinarily printed thus:

Jul. Romeo.

Rom.
Jul.

My sweet.

At what o'clock to-morrow-My sweet was substituted by the editor of the second folio for My neece, which is the reading of the first folio, and of the second and third quartos. In the first quarto we have Madam, which Malone adopts. But in the first quarto there is no interruption at all by the Nurse; whilst, in the second quarto, she has twice before used the word Madam ;—and, consequently, the poet, in his amended copy, avoided the use by Romeo of a title which had just been used by the Nurse. We believe that the word neece is altogether a mistake-that the word Nurse was written, as denoting a third interruption by her—and that Madam, the use of which was the form of the interruption, was omitted accidentally, or was supposed to be implied by the word Nurse. As we have printed the passage the metre is correct; and it is to be observed that, in the second quarto and the subsequent copies, at before "what o'clock," which was in the first quarto, is omitted, showing that a word of two syllables was wanted after my when at was rejected. Zachary Jackson, instead of niece, would read novice.

Rom. Let me stand here till thou remember it. Jul. I shall forget, to have thee still stand there, Rememb'ring how I love thy company.

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

Jul. 'T is almost morning, I would have thee gone :
And yet no further than a wanton's bird;
Who lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a silk thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.

Rom. I would I were thy bird.

Jul.

Sweet, so would I :

Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.

Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night, till it be morrow.

[Exit. Rom. Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy breast!'Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest! Hence will I to my ghostly friar's close a cell; His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell.b

SCENE III.-Friar Laurence's Cell.

Enter Friar LAURENCE, with a basket.

[Exit.

Fri. The grey-ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night, Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light; And fleckede darkness like a drunkard reels

From forth day's path, and Titan's fiery wheels:

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b The arrangement of the dialogue stands thus in the quarto (A); and such is the disposition of the parts on the stage. But in the folio, and the quarto (C), Romeo, after Juliet's "Good night," exclaims, "Parting is such sweet sorrow," &c., to which Juliet responds, "Sleep dwell upon thine eyes," &c. Romeo then closes the scene with "Would I were sleep," &c.

c Flecked-dappled.

d So (4). It is remarkable that in the folio and (C) these four lines, with a slight alteration, are also introduced before the two last lines of Romeo's previous speech. It appears to us that the poet was making experiments upon the margin of the first copy of the change of a word or so, and, leaving the MS. upon the page, without obliterating the original passage, it came to be inserted twice. The lines, as given to Romeo, stand thus in the quarto of 1609, and in the folio:

"The

Now ere the sun advance his burning eye,
The day to cheer, and night's dank dew to dry,
I must up-fill this osier cage of ours,

With baleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers.
The earth, that 's nature's mother, is her tomb; 5
What is her burying grave, that is her womb:
And from her womb children of divers kind
We sucking on her natural bosom find:
Many for many virtues excellent,

None but for some, and yet all different. a
O, mickle is the powerful grace, that lies
In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities:
For nought so vile that on the earth doth live,
But to the earth some special good doth give;
Nor aught so good, but, strain'd from that fair use,
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;
And vice sometime 's by action dignified.
Within the infant rind of this weak b flower
Poison hath residence, and medicine power:

For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part;
Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart.
Two such opposed kings encamp them still
In man as well as herbs,-grace, and rude will;
And, where the worser is predominant,

Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

Enter ROMEO.

Rom. Good morrow, father!

Fri. Benedicite! What early tongue so sweet saluteth me?— Young son, it argues a distemper'd head, So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed:

"The grey-ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night,
Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light;
And darkness fleckel'd, like a drunkard reels

From forth day's pathway, made by Titan's wheels."

a Six lines, ending with this line, are not in (A).

b In (A), small.

In (A), foes. In the other ancient editions, kings. Opposed foes has not the propriety of opposed kings—a thoroughly Shaksperean phrase.

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