Fri. You fay, you do not know the lady's mind;
Uneven is the courfe, I like it not.

Par. Immoderately the weeps for Tybalt's death,
And therefore have I little talk'd of love;
For Venus fmiles not in a house of tears.
Now, fir, her father counts it dangerous,
That she doth give her forrow fo much fway;
And, in his wifdom, haftes our marriage,
To ftop the inundation of her tears;
Which, too much minded by herself alone,
May be put from her by fociety:

Now do you know the reason of this hafte.

Fri. I would I knew not why it should be flow'd3.—

Look, fir, here comes the lady towards my cell.

Enter JULIET.

Par. Happily met, my lady, and my wife!
Jul. That may be, fir, when I may be a wife.

[Afide.

Par. That may be, muft be, love, on thursday next. Jul. What must be fhall be.

Fri. That's a certain text.

Par. Come you to make confeffion to this father?
Jul. To answer that, were to confess to you.
Par. Do not deny to him, that you love me.
Jul. I will confefs to you, that I love him.
Par. So will you, I am fure, that you love me.
Jul. If I do fo, it will be of more price,
Being spoke behind your back, than to your face.
Par. Poor foul, thy face is much abus'd with tears.
Jul. The tears have got small victory by that;

riage; but the words which the poet has given him, import the re-
verfe of this, and feem rather to mean, I am not backward in reftrain-
ing bis bafte; I endeavour to retard him as much as I can. Dr. Johnfon
faw the impropriety of this expreffion, and that his interpretation ex-
torted a meaning from the words, which they do not at first present ;
and hence his propofed alteration; but our authour must answer for
his own peculiarities. See Vol. VII. p. 564, n. 6. MALONE.
5-be flow'd.] So, in Sir A. Gorges' tranflation of the fecond
book of Lucan:

"will you overflow

"The fields, thereby my march to flow?" STEEVENS.

For

For it was bad enough, before their spight.

Par. Thou wrong'ft it, more than tears, with that re

port.

Jul. That is no wrong, fir, that is a truth *;

And what I fpake, I fpake it to my face.

Par. Thy face is mine, and thou haft flander'd it.
Jul. It may be fo, for it is not mine own.-

Are you at leifure, holy father, now;

Or fhall I come to you at evening mafs?

Fri. My leifure ferves me, penfive daughter, now:My lord, we must entreat the time alone.

Par. God fhield, I should disturb devotion !Juliet, on thurfday early will I roufe you:

Till then, adieu! and keep this holy kifs. [Exit PARIS.
Jul. O, fhut the door! and when thou hast done fo,
Come weep with me; Paft hope, paft cure, paft help!
Fri. Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;

It strains me paft the compafs of my wits;
I hear thou muft, and nothing may prorogue it,
On thursday next be married to this county.

Jul. Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'ft of this,
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it:
If, in thy wisdom, thou canft give no help,
Do thou but call my refolution wife,
And with this knife I'll help it presently,

God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo feal'd,
Shall be the label to another deed",

Or my true heart with treacherous revolt

That is no wrong, fir, &c.] So the quarto, 1597. A word was probably omitted at the prefs. The quarto, 1599, and the fubfequent copies, read:

That is no flander, fir, which is a truth.

The context fhews that the alteration was not made by Shakspeare. MALONE.

Shall be the label to another deed,] The feals of deeds in our authour's time were not impreffed on the parchment itself on which the deed was written, but were appended on diftinct flips or labels affixed to the deed. Hence in K. Richard II. the duke of York difcovers a covenant which his fon the duke of Aumerle had entered into by the depending feal:

"What feal is that, which bangs without thy bofom ? ** See the far-famile of Shakspeare's hand writing in Vol. I. MALONE.

Turn to another, this fhall flay them both:
Therefore, out of thy long-experienc'd time,
Give me fome prefent counfel; or, behold,
'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire'; arbitrating that
Which the commiffion of thy years and arts
Could to no iffue of true honour bring.
Be not fo long to fpeak; I long to die,
If what thou speak'ft fpeak not of remedy.
Fri. Hold, daughter; I do fpy a kind of hope,
Which craves as defperate an execution
As that is defperate which we would prevent.
If, rather than to marry county Paris,
Thou haft the strength of will to flay thyself;
Then is it likely, thou wilt undertake

A thing like death to chide away this fhame,
That cop'ft with death himself to fcape from it;
And, if thou dar'ft, I'll give thee remedy.

Jul. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder tower';
Or walk in thievifh ways; or bid me lurk

Where ferpents are; chain me' with roaring bears;

Or

7 Shall play the umpire;-] That is, this knife fhall decide the Aruggle between me and my diftrefles. JOHNSON.

8

-comm. mission of thy years and art-] Commillion is for authority or porver. JOHNSON.

9 0, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,

From off the battlements of yonder tower ;] So in King Leir, written before 1594:

"Yea, for to do thee good, I would afcend

"The higheft turret in all Britanny,

"And from the top leap headlong to the ground." MALONE.

-of yonder tower;] Thus the quarto 1597.

pies of any tower.

Chain,me, &c.]

STEEVENS.

Or walk in thievifh ways, or bid me lurk

All other ancient co

Where ferpents are; chain me with roaring bears,

Or hide me nightly, &c.

It is thus the editions vary. POPE.

My edition has the words which Mr. Pope has omitted; but the old copy feems in this place preferable; only perhaps we might better read, Where favage bears and rearing lions roam. JOHNSON.

Or fhut me nightly in a charnel-house,

O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,
With reeky thanks, and yellow chaplefs fculls;

Or bid me go into a new-made grave,

And hide me with a dead man in his fhroud";

Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble; And I will do it without fear or doubt,

To live an unftain'd wife to my sweet love.

Fri. Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent
To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow;
To-morrow night look that thou lie alone,
Let not thy nurfe lie with thee in thy chamber:
Take thou this phial 3, being then in bed,

And

I have inferted the lines which Pope omitted; for which I must offer this fhort apology: in the lines rejected by him we meet with three distinct ideas, fuch as may be fuppofed to excite terror in a woman, for one that is to be found in the others. The lines now omitted are thefe:

Or chain me to fome steepy mountain's top,

Where roaring bears and savage lions are ;

Or fhut me-, STEEVENS.

The lines laft quoted, which Mr. Pope and Dr. Johnfon preferred, are found in the copy of 1597; in the text the quarto of 1599 is followed, except that it has-Or bide me nightly, &c. MALONE.

2 And bide me with a dead man in bis fhroud;] In the quarto 1599, and 1609, this line ftands thus:

And hide me with a dead man in his,

The editor of the folio fupplied the defect by reading-in his grave, without adverting to the difgufting repetition of that word.

The original copy leads me to believe that Shakspeare wrote-in his tomb; for there the line ftands thus:

Or lay me in a tombe with one new dead.

I have, however, with the other modern editors, followed the undated quarto, in which the printer filled up the line with the word froud. MALONE.

3 Take thou this phial, &c.] So, in the Tragical Hiflory of Romeus

and Juliet:

"Receive this phial fmall, and keep it in thine eye,

"And on the marriage day, before the fun doth clear the sky, "Fill it with water full up to the very brim,

"Then drink it off, and thou shalt feel throughout each vein and

limb

"A pleafant lumber fide, and quite difpread at length

"On all thy parts; from every part reve all thy kindly strength: "Withouten moving then thy idle parts fhall reft,

K 3

And this diftilledliquor drink thou off:

When, presently, through all thy veins fhall run
A cold and drowsy humour, which shall seize
Each vital fpirit; for no pulfe fhall keep
His natural progress, but furcease to beat:
No warmth, no breath, fhall teftify thou liv'ft;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks fhall fade
To paly afhes; thy eyes' windows fall *,

"No pulfe fball go, no heart once heave within thy hollow breast; "But thou shalt lie as the that dieth in a trance;

"Thy kinsmen and thy trufty friends fhall wail the fudden chance: "Thy corps then will they bring to grave in this church-yard, "Where thy forefathers long ago a coftly tomb prepar'd ;

-where thou shalt reft, my daughter,

Till I to Mantua fend for Romeus, thy knight,

"Out of the tomb both he and I will take thee forth that night." MALONE.

Thus Painter's Palace of Pleafure, tom. ii. p. 237. "Beholde heere I give thee a viole, &c. drink fo much as is contained therein. And then you fhall feele a certaine kind of pleasant sleepe, which incroaching by litle and litle all the parts of your body, wil conftrain them in fuch wife, as unmoveable they fhal remaine: and by not doing their accustomed duties, fhall loofe their natural feelings, and you abide in fuch extafe the space of xl houres at the leaft, without any beating of poulfe or other perceptible motion, which fhall fo aftonne them that come to fee you, as they will judge you to be dead, and according to the custome of our citie, you fhall be caried to the churchyard hard by our church, when you shall be intombed in the common monument of the Capellets your ancestors," &c. STEEVENS.

-through all tby veins fall run

A cold and drowly bumour, &c.] The first edition in 1597 has in general been here followed, except only, that instead of a cold and drowfy bumour, we there find-" a dull and beavy flumber,” and a little lower, "no fign of breath," &c. The fpeech, however, was greatly enlarged; for in the first copy it confifts of only thirteen lines; in the fubfequent edition, of thirty three. MALONE.

5 To paly ashes ;] These words are not in the original copy. The quarto, 1599, and the folio, readTo many afhes, for which the editor of the fecond folio fubftituted-mealy afhes. The true reading is found in the undated quarto. This uncommon adjective occurs again in K. Henry V.

-and through their paly flames,

"Each battle fees the other's umber'd face."

We have had too already in a former fcene-" Pale, pale as afbes."

MALONE.

thy eyes' windows fall,] See Vol. VII. p. 598, n.3. MALONE.