Baltha. Pardon me, Sir, I dare not leave you thus. Your looks are pale and wild, and do import Some mifadventure. Rom. Tufh, thou art deceiv'd; Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do: Rom. No matter: get thee gone, And hire thofe horfes; I'll be with thee ftraight. And hereabouts he dwells, whom late I noted Of ill-fhap'd fifhes; and about his shelves Green earthen pots, bladders, and mufty feeds, Enter Apothecary. Ap. Who calls fo loud? Rom. Come hither, man; I fee, that thou art poor; Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have A dram of poifon, fuch foon-speeding geer, As As will difperfe itself thro' all the veins, 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'ft 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, confents. 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 ftrength Of twenty men, it would difpatch you ftraight. Rom. There is thy gold; worfe poifon to men's fouls, Doing more murders in this loathfome world, Than these poor compounds that thou may'ft not fell: I fell thee poison, thou haft fold me none.Farewel, buy food, and get thee into flesh. Come, cordial, and not poifon; go with me To Juliet's grave, for there must I use thee. [Exeunt. SCENE changes to the Monastery at Verona. Enter Friar John. John.TOly Francifcan Friar! brother! ho! Holy Enter Friar Lawrence to him. Law. This fame should be the voice of Friar John.Welcome from Mantua; what fays Romeo? Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter. One of our order, to affociate me, Here in this city visiting the fick; And And finding him, the fearchers of the town, Law. Unhappy fortune! by my brotherhood, John. Brother, I'll go and bring it thee. But I will write again to Mantua, And keep her at my cell 'till Romeo come. [Exit, Poor living coarfe, clos'd in a dead man's tomb! [Exit. SCENE changes to a Church-yard: In it, a Monument belonging to the Capulets. Par. Enter Paris, and his Page, with a light. G Ive me thy torch, boy; hence, and ftand aloof. Yet put it out, for I would not be feen: Under yond yew-trees lay thee all along, Laying thy ear close to the hollow ground; So fhall no foot upon the church-yard tread, (Being loofe, 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 thofe flow'rs. Do as I bid thee; go. Page. Page. I am almost afraid to ftand 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 obfequies adorn thy tomb. [The boy whiftles. To cross my obfequies, and true-love's rite ? Enter Romeo and Balthafar with a light, (15) But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger In dear employment; therefore, hence, be gone: But Peter was a (15) Enter Romeo and Peter with a Light.] Servant of the Capulets: befides, he brings the Mattock and Crow to wrench open Juliet's Grave, an Office hardly to be intrufted with a Servant of that Family. We find a little above, at the very Beginning of this Act, Balthafar is the Perfon who brings Romeo the News of his Bride's Death: and yet, at the Clofe of the Play, Peter takes upon him to depofe that he brought thofe Tidings. Utri creditis, Quirites?-In fhort, We heard Balthafar deliver the Meffage; and therefore Peter is a lying Evidence, fuborned by the blundering Editors. We must therefore cafhier him, and put Balthafar on his proper Duty. The Source of this Error feems easy to be accounted for; Peter's Character ending in the fourth Act, it is very probable the fame Perfon might play Balthafar, and fo be quoted on in the Prompter's Book as Peter. In what I further fhall intend to do, By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint, And ftrew this hungry church-yard with thy limbs ; The time and my intents are favage, wild, More fierce and more inexorable far Than empty tygers, or the roaring fea. Balth. I will be gone, Sir, and not trouble you. Live and be profp'rous, and farewel, good fellow. Thus I inforce thy rotten jaws to open, [Breaking open the Monument. And in defpight I'll cram thee with more food. Par. This is that banisht haughty Montague, That murder'd my love's coufin; (with which grief, It is fuppofed, the fair creature dy'd,) And here is come to do fome villanous fhame Rom. I must, indeed, and therefore came I hither.- By urging me to fury. Oh be gone! |