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Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
Here's to my love!-[Drinks.] O, true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.

[Dies.

Enter, at the other End of the Churchyard, Friar LAURENCE, with a Lantern, Crow, and Spade *. FRI. Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to

night

"A dateless bargain to engrossing death!] Engrossing seems to be used here in its clerical sense.

MALONE.

3 Come, bitter CONDUCT,] Marston also in his Satires, 1599, uses conduct for conductor:

"Be thou my conduct and my genius."

So, in a former scene in this play:

"And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now." MALONE.

* This scene, to the death of Juliet, is thus given in the quarto 1597:

"Enter Friar, with a lantern.

"How oft to-night have these my aged feet "Stumbled at graves as I did pass along!

"Who's there?

"Man. A friend, and one that knows you well.

"Fri. Who is it that consorts so late the dead?

"What light is yon? If I be not deceiv'd,
"Methinks it burns in Capels' monument?

"Man. It doth so, holy sir; and there is one

"That loves you dearly.

"Fri. Who is it?

"Man. Romeo.

"Fr. How long hath he been there?

"Man. Full half an hour and more.

"Fri. Go with me thither.

"Man. I dare not, sir; he knows not I am here: "On pain of death, he charg'd me to be gone; "And not for to disturb him in his enterprise. "Fri. Then must I go: my mind presageth ill.

"Friar stoops, and looks on the blood and weapons. "What blood is this that stains the entrance

"Of this marble stony monument?

Have my old feet stumbled at graves?-Who's

there?

Who is it that consórts, so late, the dead?

BAL. Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well.

"What means these masterless and gory weapons?
"Ah me! I doubt: Who's here? What, Romeo dead?
"Who, and Paris too? what unlucky hour

"Is accessary to so foul a sin?

"The lady stirs.

"Juliet rises.

"Jul. Ah comfortable friar!

"I do remember well where I should be,

"And what we talk'd of? but yet I cannot see

"Him for whose sake I undertook this hazard.

"Fri. Lady, come forth: I hear some noise at hand; "We shall be taken; Paris, he is slain,

"And Romeo dead: and, if we be here ta'en,

"We shall be thought to be as accessary.

"I will provide for you in some close nunnery.

"Jul. Ah! leave me, leave me, I will not from hence.
"Fri. I hear some noise; I dare not stay; come, come.
"Jul. Go, get thee gone.

"What's here, a cup clos'd in my lover's hands?
"Ah! churl! drink all, and leave no drop for me

"Enter Watch.

"Watch. This way, this way.

"Jul. Ay, noise? then must I be resolute. "O happy dagger, thou shalt end my fear,

"Rest in my bosom, thus I come to thee.

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[She stabs herself and falls."

how oft to-night

BOSWELL.

Have my old feet STUMBLED at graves?] This accident was reckoned ominous. So, in King Henry VI. P. III.:

"For many men that stumble at the threshold,

"Are well foretold, that danger lurks within."

Again, in King Richard III. Hastings, going to execution, says: "Three times to-day my foot-cloth horse did stumble.” Who is it, &c.] This very appropriate question I have restored from the quarto 1597.

To consort, is to keep company with. So, in Chapman's version of the 23d Iliad :

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'Tis the last of all care I shall take, "While I consort the careful." STEEVENS.

FRI. Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend, What torch is yond', that vainly lends his light To grubs and eyeless sculls? as I discern, It burneth in the Capels' monument.

BAL. It doth so, holy sir; and there's my master, One that you love.

FRI.

BAL.

Who is it?

Romeo.

Full half an hour.

FRI. How long hath he been there?
BAL.

FRI. Go with me to the vault.
BAL.

I dare not, sir:

My master knows not, but I am gone hence;
And fearfully did menace me with death,

If I did stay to look on his intents.

FRI. Stay then, I'll go alone :-Fear comes upon

me;

O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing.

BAL. As I did sleep under this yew-tree here, I dreamt my master and another fought", And that my master slew him.

FRI. Romeo?-[Advances. Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains The stony entrance of this sepulchre ?— What mean these masterless and gory swords

↑ I dreamt my master and another fought,] This is one of the touches of nature that would have escaped the hand of any painter . less attentive to it than Shakspeare. What happens to a person while he is under the manifest influence of fear, will seem to him, when he is recovered from it, like a dream. Homer, book 8th, represents Rhesus dying fast asleep, and as it were beholding his enemy in a dream plunging a sword into his bosom. Eustathius and Dacier both applaud this image as very natural; for a man in such a condition, says Mr. Pope, awakes no further than to see confusedly what environs him, and to think it not a reality, but a vision.

Let me add, that this passage appears to have been imitated by Quintus Calaber, xiii. 125:

Πότμον ὅμως ὁρόωντες ὀνειρασιν. STEEVENS.

To lie discolour'd by this place of peace?

[Enters the Monument. Romeo! O, pale !-Who else? what, Paris too? And steep'd in blood?-Ah, what an unkind hour Is guilty of this lamentable chance!— The lady stirs ". JULIET wakes and stirs. JUL. O, comfortable friar! where is my lord? I do remember well where I should be, And there I am:-Where is my Romeo?

8

[Noise within. FRI. I hear some noise.-Lady, come from that

nest

Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep';
A greater Power than we can contradict
Hath thwarted our intents; come, come away:
Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead';

8 The lady stirs.] In the alteration of this play now exhibited on the stage, Mr. Garrick appears to have been indebted to Otway, who, perhaps without any knowledge of the story as told by Da Porto and Bandello, does not permit his hero to die before his wife awakes:

"Mar. Jun. She breathes, and stirs,

"Lav. [in the tomb.] Where am I? bless me! Heaven! "Tis very cold, and yet here's something warm.

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9

'Mar. Jun. She lives, and we shall both be made immortal.

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Speak, my Lavinia, speak some heavenly news,

"And tell me how the gods design to treat us.

"Lav. O, I have slept a long ten thousand years.-
"What have they done with me? I'll not be us'd thus :
"I'll not wed Sylla; Marius is

my

husband." MALONE.

and unnatural sleep ;] Shakspeare alludes to the sleep of Juliet, which was unnatural, being brought on by drugs.

STEEVENS.

1 Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead ;] Shakspeare has been arraigned for departing from the Italian novel, in making Romeo die before Juliet awakes from her trance; and thus losing a happy opportunity of introducing an affecting scene between these unfortunate lovers. But he undoubtedly had never read the Italian novel, or any literal translation of it, and was misled by the poem of Romeus and Juliet, the author of which departed from the Italian story, making the poison take effect on Romeo before Juliet awakes. See a translation of the original pathetick

And Paris too; come, I'll dispose of thee
Among a sisterhood of holy nuns :
Stay not to question, for the watch is coming 2;
Come, go, good Juliet,-[Noise again,] I dare stay
no longer.

[Exit.
JUL. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.-
What's here? a cup, clos'd in my true love's hand?
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end :—
O churl! drink all; and leave no friendly drop3,
To help me after ?—I will kiss thy lips;
Haply, some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make me die with a restorative.
[Kisses him.
Thy lips are warm!

I WATCH. [Within.] Lead, boy:-Which way? JUL. Yea, noise ?-then I'll be brief.-O happy dagger! [Snatching RoMEO's Dagger*.

narrative at the conclusion of the play, in a note on the poem near the end. MALONE.

2 Stay not to question, for the WATCH is coming;] It has been objected that there is no such establishment in any of the cities of Italy. Shakspeare seldom scrupled to give the manners and usages of his own country to others. In this particular instance the old poem was his guide:

"The weary watch discharg'd did hie them home to sleep." Again :

"The watchmen of the town the whilst are passed by,
"And through the gates the candlelight within the tomb
they spy." MALONE.

In Much Ado About Nothing, where the scene lies at Messina, our author has also introduced watchmen; though without suggestion from any dull poem like that referred to on the present occasion.

See, however, Othello, Act I. Sc. II., in which Mr. Malone appears to contradict, on the strongest evidence, the present assertion relating to there being no watch in Italy. STEEVENS.

3 O churl! DRINK all; and LEAVE no friendly drop,] The text is here made out from the quarto of 1597 and that of 1599. The first has

"Ah churl! drink all, and leave no drop for me!" The other:

4

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"O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop,

"To help me after?" MALONE.

Snatching Romeo's dagger.] So, in Painter's translation of

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