Mon. Oh, thou uncaught! 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 spring, their head, their true defcent; Fri. I am the greateft, able to do leaft, Prince. Then fay at once what thou dost know in Fri. I will be brief, for my fhort date of breath Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet, ba The form of death. Mean time I writ to Romeo, That he fhould hither come, as this dire nomeo 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. To help to take her from her borrowed Grave, Be facrific'd, fome hour before the time, Prince. We ftill have known thee for an holy mart. 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. Where is the County's page, that rais'd the Watch? Sirrah, what made your master in this place? ·Page. He came with flowers to ftrew his lady's g", Grave; And bid me ftand aloof, and fo I did: Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb, 2 And then I ran away to call the Watch. Prince. This letter doth make good the Friar's 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 raife her Statue in pure gold; That, while Verona by that name is known, và There fhall no figure at that rate be fet, As that of true and faithful Juliet. Cap. As rich' fhall 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; For never was a ftory of more woe, IT [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. Dryden mentions a tradition, which Speare to have continued his exiftence, though fome of his fallies are perhaps out of the reach of Dryden; whole genius was not very fertile of merriment, nor ductile to humour, but acute, argumentative, comprehenfive, and fublime. The Nurfe is one of the characters in which the Authour delighted: he has, with great fubtility of diftinction, drawn her at once loquacious and fecret, obfequious and infolent, trufty and dishoneft. might eafily reach his time, of Fa declaration made by ShakeSpeare, that he was obliged to kill Mercutio in the third act, left he 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 his bed, without danger to a poet. Dryden well knew, had he been in queft of truth, tary 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 not precipitated, he has lived out the time allotted him in the conftruction of the play; nor do I doubt the ability of Shake His comick fcenes are happily wrought, but his pathetick ftrains are always polluted with fome unexpected depravations. His perfons, however diftreffed, have a conceit left them in their misery, a miserable conceit, |