Rom. Is it even so? then I defy you, stars!— Thou know'st my lodging: get me ink and paper, And hire post-horses; I will hence to-night.

Bal. I do beseech you, sir, have patience. Your looks are pale and wild, and do import Some misadventure.

Rom.

a

Tush, thou art deceiv'd;

Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do:
Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?
Bal. No, my good lord.
Rom.
No matter: get thee gone
And hire those horses; I'll be with thee straight.

[Exit BALTHASAR.

Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night.
Let's see for means :-0, mischief! thou art swift
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!

I do remember an apothecary,—3

2

:

And hereabouts he dwells,-which late I noted
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of simples; meagre were his looks,
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff'd, and other skins
Of ill-shap'd fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,

Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses,
Were thinly scatter'd to make up a show.
Noting this penury, to myself I said-
An if a man did need a poison now,
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,3
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.

a The first quarto has

"Pardon me, sir, I will not leave you thus."

But then all the remaining dialogue in the early play differs from the amended text of the author, and the changes show his accurate judgment. For example"Hast thou no letters to me from the friar ?"

that most important repetition-is omitted in the original play.

Are we not to trust

to this judgment? Are his editors to deal with his corrections according to their own caprice?

O, this same thought did but forerun my need;
And this same needy man must sell it me.
As I remember, this should be the house:

Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut.-
What, ho! apothecary!

Ap.

Enter Apothecary.

Who calls so loud?

Rom. Come hither, man.-I see that thou art poor;
Hold, there is forty ducats; let me have
A dram of poison; such soon-speeding gear
As will disperse itself through all the veins,
That the life-weary taker may fall dead;
And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath
As violently as hasty powder fir'd

Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb.

Ap. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law
Is death to any he that utters them.

Rom. Art thou so bare, and full of wretchedness,
And fear'st to die? famine is in thy cheeks,
Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes,
Contempt and beggary hang upon thy back,b

a We are tempted once more to trespass upon our limited space by giving the speech descriptive of the Apothecary, from the first edition. The studies in poetical art, which Shakspere's corrections of himself supply, are amongst the most instructive in the whole compass of literature :

"Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night.
Let's see for means. As I do remember,
Here dwells a pothecary whom oft I noted
As I pass'd by, whose needy shop is stuff'd
With beggarly accounts of empty boxes:
And in the same an alligator hangs,
Old ends of packthread, and cakes of roses,
Are thinly strewed to make up a show.
Him as I noted, thus with myself I thought:
An if a man should need a poison now
(Whose present sale is death in Mantua),

Here he might buy it. This thought of mine

Did but forerun my need: and hereabout he dwells.

Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut.

What, ho! apothecary! come forth I say."

b Steevens again! who has "recovered" from the first quarto the line in our

common texts,

"Upon thy back hangs ragged misery."

The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law;
The world affords no law to make thee rich;
Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.
Ap. My poverty, but not my will, consents.
Rom. I pray thy poverty, and not thy will.
Ap. Put this in any liquid thing you will,
And drink it off; and, if you had the strength
Of twenty men, it would despatch you straight.
Rom. There is thy gold; worse poison to men's souls,
Doing more murther in this loathsome world,
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell :
I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none.
Farewell: buy food, and get thyself in flesh.-
Come, cordial, and not poison; go with me
To Juliet's grave, for there must I use thee.

SCENE II.-Friar Laurence's Cell.

Enter Friar JOHN.

John. Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho!

Enter Friar LAURENCE.

[Exeunt.

Lau. This same should be the voice of friar John.—

Welcome from Mantua: What says Romeo?

Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.

John. Going to find a barefoot brother out,* One of our order, to associate me,

Here in this city visiting the sick,

And finding him,—the searchers of the town,
Suspecting that we both were in a house
Where the infectious pestilence did reign,
Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us forth;
So that my speed to Mantua there was stay'd.
Lau. Who bare my letter then to Romeo?
John. I could not send it,-here it is again,—

Nor get a messenger to bring it thee;

So fearful were they of infection.

Lau. Unhappy fortune! by my brotherhood,

a

The letter was not nice, but full of charge
Of dear import; and the neglecting it

May do much danger: Friar John, go hence;
Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight

Unto my cell.

John. Brother, I'll go and bring it thee.
Lau. Now must I to the monument alone;
Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake.

She will beshrew me much, that Romeo
Hath had no notice of these accidents;
But I will write again to Mantua,

[Exit.

And keep her at my cell till Romeo come.

Poor living corse, clos'd in a dead man's tomb!

[Exit.

SCENE III-A Churchyard; in it, a Monument belonging to the Capulets.

Enter PARIS, and his Page, bearing flowers and a torch.

Par. Give me thy torch, boy: Hence, and stand aloof;—
it out, for I would not be seen.

Yet put
Under yon yew-trees lay thee all along,

Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground;
So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread
(Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves),
But thou shalt hear it: whistle then to me,
As signal that thou hear'st something approach.
Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go.
Page. I am almost afraid to stand alone

Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure.

[Retires.

Par. Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal-bed I strew:
O woe, thy canopy is dust and stones,

Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,

Or wanting that, with tears distill'd by moans;

The obsequies that I for thee will keep,

Nightly shall be, to strew thy grave and weep.

с

[The Boy whistles.

a Nice-trivial.

This passage is different in (4); but an 66

ew tree is mentioned. In (C) we

have young-trees-perhaps a typographical error; but it occurs again. The six lines which Paris here speaks are those of the quarto of 1599, and of the

The boy gives warning, something doth approach.
What cursed foot wanders this way to-night,
To cross my obsequies, and true-love's rite?
What, with a torch!-muffle me, night, a while.

[Retires.

Enter ROMEO and BALTHASAR with a torch, mattock, &c.

Rom. Give me that mattock, and the wrenching iron.
Hold, take this letter; early in the morning
See thou deliver it to my lord and father.
Give me the light; Upon thy life I charge thee,
Whate'er thou hear'st or seest, stand all aloof,
And do not interrupt me in my course.
Why I descend into this bed of death,
Is, partly, to behold my lady's face:

But, chiefly, to take thence 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,

And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs:
The time and my intents are savage-wild;

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.

Bal. For all this same, I'll hide me hereabout; His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.

Rom. Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,

[Retires.

folio. Pope manufactured a passage from both quarto editions, and Steevens and Malone restored that of the elder quarto. The first copy is thus :—

"Sweet flower, with flowers I strew thy bridal bed:

Sweet tomb, that in thy circuit dost contain

The perfect model of eternity;

Fair Juliet, that with angels dost remain,

Accept this latest favour at my hands;
That living honour'd thee, and, being dead,
With funeral praises do adorn thy tomb."