Baltha. Pardon me, Sir, I dare not leave you thus.
Your looks are pale and wild, and do import
Some misadventure.

Rom. Tush, thou art deceiv'd;
Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do:
Haít thou no letters to me from the Friar?

Baltha. No, my good Lord.

Rom. No matter : get thee gone,
And hire those horses ; l'll be with thee straight.

Exit Balthafar,
Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night;
Let's fee for means--O mischief! thou art swift
To enter in the thought of desperate men!
I do remember an apothecary,
And hereabouts he dwells, whom late I noted
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of fimples; meager were his looks ;
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones :.
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator ftuft, and other kins
Of ill-thap'd fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes ;
Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty feeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses-
Were thinly scatter'd to make up a fhow.
Noting this penury, to myself, I said,
An if a man did need a poison now,
Whose fale is present death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would fell it him.
Oh, this fame thought did but fore-run my need,
And this same needy man must sell it me.
As I remember, this should be the house.'
Being holy-day, the beggar's shop is shut:
What, ho! Apothecary!

Enter Apothecary. Ap. 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 foon-speeding geer,

As

As will difperse itself thro' all the veins,
That the life-weary taker may fall dead;
And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath,
As violently, as hafty 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 fo bare and full of wretchednefs,
And fear'it to die? famine is in thy cheeks ;
Need and oppreffion ftare within thine eyes,
Contempt and beggary hang upon thy back :
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 pay 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 dispatch you straight.

Rom. There is thy gold; worse poison to men's souls, Doing more murders in this loathsome world, Than these poor compounds that thou may'it not sell: I fell thee poison, thou hast sold me none. Farewel, buy food, and get thee into Aesh. Come, cordial, and not poison; go To Juliet's grave, for there must I use thee. [Exeunt.

with me

SCENE changes to the Monastery at Verona.

Enter Friar Jahn.
John. ITOly Franciscan Friar ! brother! ho!

Enter Friar Lawrence to him.
Law. This same should be the voice of Friar John.
Welcome from Mantua ; what fays Romeo?
Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.

John. Going to find a bare-foot brother out,
One of our order, to associate me,
Here in this city visiting the fick;

And

And finding him, the searchers of the town,
Suspecting that we both were in a house
Where the infectious peftilence did reign,
Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us forth;
So that my speed to Mantua there was staid.

Law. Who bore my letter then to Romeo ?

Johr. I could not fend it; here it is again ;
Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,
So fearful were they of infection.

Law. Unhappy fortune ! by my brotherhood,
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. [Exit.

Law. Now muft I to the monument alone;
Within these three hours will fair Juliet wake;
She will befhrew me much, that Romeo
Hath had no notice of these accidents :
But I will write again to Mantua,
And keep her at my cell 'till Romeo come.
Poor living coarse, clos'd in a dead man's tomb! [Exit.

SCENE changes to a Church-yard : In it, e

Monument belonging to the Capulets.

Enter Paris, and his Page, with a light.
Par.

G
Ive me thy torch, boy; hence, and stand aloof.
Yet
put

it out, for I would not be seen:
Under yond yew-trees lay thee all along,
Laying thy ear close to the hollow ground;
So Thail no foot upon the church-yard tread,
(Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves)
But thou shalt hear it: whiftle then to me,
As fignal that thou hear'ft fomething approach.
Give me those flow'rs.' Do as I bid thee ; go.

Page.

Page. I am almost afraid to stand alone Here in the church-yard, yet I will adventure. [Exit. Par. Sweet flow'r! with flow'rs thy bridal bed I strew:

[Strewing flowers. Fair Juliet, that with angels doft remain, Accept this latest favour at my hand ; That living honour'd thee, and, being dead, With fun’ral obsequies adorn thy tomb. [The boy whistles. - The bay gives warning, fomething 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.

Enter Romeo and Balthafar with a light, (15) 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'it or feeft, 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, doft return to pry

(15) Enter Romeo and Peter with a Light. )

But Peter was a Servant of the Capulets: besides, he brings the Mattock and Crow to wrench open Juliet's Grave, an Office hardly to be intrusted with a Servant of that Family. We find a little above, at the Viry Beginning of this Act, Balthafar is the Person who brings Romeo the News of his Bride's Death: and yet, at the Close of the Play, Peter takes upon him to depose that he brought those Tidings. Utri creditis, Quirites ? --In short, We heard Balthasar deliver the Mersage; and therefore Peter is a lying Evidence, suborned by the blun. dering Editors. We must therefore cashier him, and put Palthasar on his proper Duty. The Source of this Error seems easy to be accounted for; Peter's Character ending in the fourth Act, it is very probable the same Person might play Baltbafar, and so be quoted on in the Prompter's Book as Peter.

that ;

In what. I further shall intend to do,
By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,
And strew this hungry church-yard with thy limbs ;
The time and my intents are savage, wild,
More fierce and more inexorable far
Than empty tygers, or the roaring sea.
Balth. I will be gone, Sir, and not trouble you.

Rom. So shalt thou shew me friendship.---Take thoa Live and be prosp'rous, and farewel, good fellow.

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

Rom Thou deteftable maw, thou womb of death,
Gorg'd with the deareft morsel of the earth,
Thus I inforce thy rotten jaws to open,

[Breaking open the Monuments And in despight I'll cram thee with more food.

Par. This is that banisht haughty Montagule, That murder'd my love's cousin; (with which grief, It is supposed, the fair creature dy'd,) And here is come to do some villanous shame To the dead bodies : I will apprehend him. Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague : Can vengeance be pursu'd further than death? Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee; Obey, and go with me, for thou muit die..

Rom. I must, indeed, and therefore came I hither.Good gentle youth, tempt not a defp'rate man ; Fly hence and leave me: think upon these gone, Let them àffright thee. I beseech thee, youth, Pull not another fin upon my head, By urging me to fury. Oh be gone! By heav'n, I love thee better than myself; For I come hither arm’d against myself. Stay not, be gone ; live, and hereafter saya A madman's mercy bade thee run away.

Par. I do defy thy commiseration, And apprehend thee for a felon here..

Rom.