Mon. Oh, thou untaught! what manners is in this, To prefs, before thy father to a Grave? Prince. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while, 'Till we can clear thefe ambiguities, And know their fpring, their head, their true defcent; Fri. I am the greateft, able to do least, Prince. Then fay at once what thou doft know in this. 'Fri. I will be brief, for my fhort date of breath Is not fo long as is a tedious tale. Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet, 1 Friar.] It is much to be la mented that the Poet did not conclude the dialogue with the action, and avoid a narrative of events which the audience already knew. Το To help to take her from her borrowed Grave, Prince. We still have known thee for an holy man. Where's Romeo's man? what can he fay to this? Balth. I brought my mafter news of Juliet's death, And then in poft he came from Mantua To this fame place, to this fame Monument. Prince. Give me the letter, I will look on it. And bid me stand aloof, and fo I did : Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb, 2 And And then I ran away to call the Watch. Prince. This letter doth make good the Friar's words, Their course of love, the tidings of her death: Have loft a brace of kinfmen. All are punish'd! Mon. But I can give thee more, For I will raise her Statue in pure gold; Cap. As rich shall Romeo's by his lady lye; Poor facrifices of our enmity! Prince. A gloomy Peace this morning with it brings, The Sun for Sorrow will not fhew his head; Go hence to have more talk of these fad things; Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished. For never was a story of more woe, Than this of Juliet, and her Romeo. This play is one of the most pleafing of our Author's performances. The fcenes are bufy and various, the incidents numerous and important, the catastrophe irrefillably affecting, and the procefs of the action carried on with fuch probability, at least with [Exeunt omnes. fuch congruity to popular opinions, as tragedy requires. Here is one of the few attempts of Shakespeare to exhibit the converfation of gentlemen, to reprefent the airy sprightliness of juvenile elegance. Mr. Dry den mentions a tradition, which might eafily reach his time, of a declaration made by ShakeSpeare, that he was obliged to kill Mercutio in the third act, left be fhould have been killed by him. Yet he thinks him no fuch formidable perfon, but that he might have lived through the play, and died in bis bed, without danger to a poet. Dryden well knew, had he been in queft of truth, that, in a pointed fentence, more regard is commonly had to the words than the thought, and that it is very feldom to be rigorously understood. Mercutio's wit, gaiety and courage, will always procure him friends that with him a longer life; but his death is no: precipitated, he has lived out the time allotted him in the conftruction of the play; nor do I doubt the ability of Shake Speare to have continued his ex- The Nurfe is one of the cha- His comick fcenes are happily wrought, but his pathetick trains are always polluted with fome unexpected depravations. His perfons, however distressed, bave a conceit left them in their misery, a miserable conceit, HAMLET, |