TYB. Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries

That thou hast done me; therefore turn, and draw.

ROM. I do protest, I never injur'd thee;

But love thee better than thou canst devise,
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love:
And so, good Capulet,-which name I tender
As dearly as mine own,-be satisfied.
MER. O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!
Alla stoccata carries it away.

Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk?
TYB. What wouldst thou have with me?

[Draws.

MER. Good king of cats, nothing, but one of your nine lives; that I mean to make bold withal, and, as you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears? make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it be out.

MER. Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, 't is enough.

Where is my page ?-go, villain, fetch a surgeon.

ROM. Courage, man: the hurt cannot be much.

[Exit Page.

MER. No, 't is not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 't is enough, 't will serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world.-A plague o' both your houses!-What, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetic!-Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.

ROM. I thought all for the best.

MER. Help me into some house, Benvolio,

Or I shall faint.-A plague o' both your houses,

They have made worm's meat of me:

I have it, and soundly too:-Your houses.

Love. So (C); the folio, lov'd.

[Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENV.

Alla stoccata-the Italian term of art for the thrust with a rapier.

• Scabbard.

d

* We have restored the metrical arrangement of the preceding five lines, from (C) and the folio.

ROM. This gentleman, the prince's near ally,
My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt
In my behalf; my reputation stain'd
With Tybalt's slander, Tybalt, that an hour
Hath been my cousin.-O sweet Juliet,
Thy beauty hath made me effeminate,
And in my temper soften'd valour's steel.

Re-enter BENVOLIO.

BEN. O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio 's dead;
That gallant spirit hath aspir'd the clouds,
Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.
ROM. This day's black fate on more days doth depend;
This but begins the woe, others must end.

Re-enter TYBALT.

BEN. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again.
ROM. Alive! in triumph! and Mercutio slain!
Away to heaven, respective lenity,

с

And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!—
Now, Tybalt, take the "villain" back again,
That late thou gav'st me; for Mercutio's soul
Is but a little way above our heads,

Staying for thine to keep him company;
Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him.
TYB. Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here,
Shalt with him hence.

ROM.

This shall determine that. [They fight; TYBALT falls.

BEN. Romeo, away, be gone!

The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain :

Stand not amaz'd:-the prince will doom thee death,
If thou art taken :-hence!-be gone!-away!
Roм. Oh! I am fortune's fool!

[Exit ROMEO.

Enter PRINCE, attended; MONTAGUE, CAPULET, their Wives, and others.

PRIN. Where are the vile beginners of this fray?

BEN. O noble prince, I can discover all

The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl:
There lies the man slain by young Romeo,

That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.

LA. CAP. Tybalt, my cousin! O my brother's child!

O prince, O cousin,-husband,—the blood is spill'd
Of my dear kinsman!-Prince, as thou art true,
For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague.-

O cousin, cousin!

PRIN. Benvolio, who began this fray?

BEN. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay;
Romeo that spoke him fair, bade him bethink

How nice the quarrel was, and urg'd withal

Your high displeasure:-All this uttered

With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd,—
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen

Of Tybalt, deaf to peace, but that he tilts
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast;
Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point,

And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
Cold death aside, and with the other sends

It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity

Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud,

Hold, friends! friends, part! and swifter than his tongue,

His agile arm beats down their fatal points,

And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm

An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled :
But by and by comes back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertain'd revenge,
And to 't they go like lightning; for, ere I
Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain;
And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly;
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

LA. CAP. He is a kinsman to the Montague,

Affection makes him false, he speaks not true :

So (C) and folio; (D), “unhappy sight, ah me,” and in that copy, "O cousin, cousin!" in the third line beyond, is omitted. All the modern editors, in this and in other passages, have adopted the arbitrary course of making up a text out of the first quarto and the quarto of 1599, without regard to the important circumstance that this later edition was "newly corrected, augmented, and amended," and that the folio, in nearly every essential particular, follows it.

Slight.

Some twenty of them fought in this black strife,
And all those twenty could but kill one life:
I beg for justice, which thou, prince, must give ;
Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live.
PRIN. Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio;

Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe?
MON. Not Romeo, prince, he was Mercutio's friend;
His fault concludes but what the law should end,
The life of Tybalt.

PRIN.

And for that offence,
Immediately we do exile him hence:

I have an interest in your hate's a proceeding,
My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a bleeding;
But I'll amerce you with so strong a fine,
That you shall all repent the loss of mine:
I will be deaf to pleading and excuses;
Nor tears, nor prayers, shall purchase out abuses,
Therefore use none: let Romeo hence in haste,
Else, when he 's found, that hour is his last.
Bear hence his body, and attend our will:
Mercy but murthers, pardoning those that kill.

[Exeunt.

This passage has been a perpetual source of contention to the commentators. Their difficulties are well represented by Warburton's question-"What runaways are these, whose eyes Juliet is wishing to have stopped?" Warburton says Phœbus is the runaway. Steevens proves that Night is the runaway. Douce thinks that Juliet is the runaway. It has been suggested to us that in several early poems Cupid is styled Runaway. Monck Mason is confident that the passage ought to be, “That Renomy's eyes may wink," Renomy being a new personage, created out of the French Renommée, and answering, we suppose, to the "Rumour" of Spenser. An unlearned compositor, Zachary Jackson, suggests that runaways is a misprint for unawares. The word unawares, in the old orthography, is unawayres (it is so spelt in 'The Third Part of Henry VI.'), and the r, having been misplaced, produced this word of puzzle, runawayes. Mr. Collier adopts this reading. But

TRAGEDIES.-VOL. I.

D

Lovers can see to do their amorous rites
By their own beauties: or, if love be blind,
It best agrees with night.-Come, civil night,
Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,

And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods:

Hood my unmann'da blood bating in my cheeks,

With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown bold,
Think true love acted, simple modesty.

Come, night!-Come, Romeo! come, thou day in night!
For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night

Whiter than new snow upon a raven's back.—

Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow'd night,
Give me my Romeo: and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine,
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not possess'd it; and, though I am sold,
Not yet enjoy'd so tedious is this day,

:

As is the night before some festival

To an impatient child, that hath new robes.

And may not wear them. O, here comes my nurse,

Enter NURSE, with cords.

And she brings news; and every tongue, that speaks
But Romeo's name, speaks heavenly eloquence.—
Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? the cords
That Romeo bade thee fetch?

JUL. Ah me! what news! why dost thou wring thy hands?
NURSE. Ah well-a-day! he 's dead, he 's dead, he's dead!

[Throws them down.

Mr. Dyce objects: "That ways (the last syllable of run-aways) ought to be Day's, I feel next to certain; but what word originally preceded it I do not pretend to determine.

There is much force in this objection. One more conjecture: change a letter; and put a comma instead of the genitive 8:

▪ Unmann'd—a term of falconry. To man a hawk is to accustom her to the falconer who trains her.