Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.
I dreamt, my lady came and found me dead;

(Strange dream! that gives a dead man leave to think,)
And breath'd fuch life with kiffes in my lips,
That I reviv'd, and was an emperor.
Ah me! how sweet is love itself poffeft,
When but love's fhadows are fo rich in joy?
Enter BALTHASAR.

News from Verona!-How now, Balthafar?
Doft thou not bring me letters from the friar?
How doth my lady? Is my father well?
How fares my Juliet *? That I ask again;
For nothing can be ill, if the be well."

Bal. Then fhe is well, and nothing can be ill;

Her body fleeps in Capels' monument',

Again, more appofitely, in K. Henry V.

"As if allegiance in their bofoms fat,

And

"Crowned with faith and conftant loyalty." MALONE. My bofom's lord-] Thefe three lines are very gay and pleafing. But why does Shakspeare give Romeo this involuntary cheerfulness just before the extremity of unhappiness? Perhaps to fhew the vanity of trusting to thofe uncertain and cafual exaltations or depreffions, which many confider as certain foretokens of good and evil. JOHNSON. The poet has explained this paffage himself a little further on: How oft, when men are at the point of death,

"Have they been merry? which their keepers call
"A lightning before death."

Again, in G. Whetstone's Caftle of Delight, 1576:

"a lightning delight against his fouden destruction." STEEV.

I dreamt, my lady came and found me dead ;

And breath'd fuch life with kiffes in my lips,

That I reviv'd,—] Shakspeare seems here to have remember'd Marlowe's Hero and Leander, a poem which he has quoted in As you Like it :

"By this fad Hero

"Viewing Leander's face, fell down and fainted;

"He kifs'd ber, and breath'd life into her lips," &c MALONE. How fares my Juliet ?] So the first quarto. That of 1599, and the folio, read:

How doth my lady Juliet? MALONE.

7-in Capels' monument,] Shakspeare found Capel and Capulet used indifcriminately in the poem which was the ground work of this tragedy. For Capels' monument the modern editors have fubftitutedCapulet's monument. MALONE.

The old copies read in Capels' monument; and thus Gascoigne in his Flowers, P. 51:

"Thys

And her immortal part with angels lives;
I faw her laid low in her kindred's vault,
And prefently took poft to tell it you:
O pardon me for bringing thefe ill news,
Since you did leave it for my office, fir.

Rom. Is it even fo? then I defy my stars !-
Thou know'ft my lodging: get me ink and paper,
And hire poft-horfes; I will hence to-night.

Bal. Pardon me, fir, I will not leave you thus 9:
Your locks 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:
Haft thou no letters to me from the friar?
Bal. No, my good lord.

Rom. No matter: Get thee gone,

And hire those horses; I'll be with thee ftraight.

[Exit Balthafar. Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to night. Let's fee for means:-O, mifchief! thou art fwift To enter in the thoughts of defperate men! I do remember an apothecary',

And

"Thys token whych the Mountacutes did beare alwaies, fo that
"They covet to be knowne from Capels, where they paffe,
"For ancient grutch whych long ago 'tweene these two houses
was." STEEVENS.

8 I defy my ftars!] Thus the original copy in 1597. The quarto of 1599, and the folio, read-I deny you, ftars. MALONE.

Pardon me, fir, I will not leave you thus:] This line is taken from the quarto, 1597. The quarto, 1609, and the folio, read:

"I do befeech you, fir, have patience." STEEVENS.

So alfo the quarto, 1599. MALONE.

I do remember an apothecary, &c.] It is clear, I think, that Shakspeare had here the poem of Romeus and Juliet before him; for he has borrowed more than one expreflion from thence:

"And feeking long, alas, too foon! the thing he fought, he found.

"An apothecary fat unbufied at his door,

"Whom by his beavy countenance he gueffed to be poor;

"And in his fhop he law his boxes were but few,

"And in his window of his wares there was fo fmall a shew:

"Wherefore our Romeus affuredly hath thought,

"What by no friendship could be got, with money should be bought; "For needy lack is like the poor man to compel

To fell that which the city's law forbiddeth him to fell.

"Take

And hereabouts he dwells,-whom late I noted
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of fimples; meager were his looks,
Sharp mifery had worn him to the bones:
And in his needy fhop a tortoife hung,
An alligator ftuff'd, and other skins
Of ill-fhap'd fishes; and about his fhelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes 3,
Green earthen pots, bladders, and mufty feeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of rofes,
Were thinly fcatter'd, to make up a fhew.
Noting this penury, to myself I faid-
An if a man did need a poifon now,
Whofe fale is prefent death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would fell it him.
O, this fame thought did but fore-run my need;
And this fame needy man muft fell it me.
As I remember, this should be the house:
Being holiday, the beggar's fhop is fhut.-
What, ho! apothecary!

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-fpeeding geer
As will difperfe itself through all the veins,
That the life-weary taker may fall dead;

"Take fifty crowns of gold, (quoth he)

Fair fir, (quoth he) be fure this is the fpeeding geer,

"And more there is than you fhall need; for half of that is there "Will ferve, I undertake, in lefs than half an hour "To kill the strongest man alive, fuch is the poifon's power."

MALONE.

An alligator ftuff'd-] It appears from Nafhe's Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596, that a ftuff'd alligator, in Shakspeare's time, made part of the furniture of an apothecary's fhop. "He made (fays Nafhe,) an anatomie of a rat, and after hanged her over his head, intead of an apothecary's crocodile, or dried alligator." MALONE.

3 A beggarly account of empty boxes,] Dr. Warburton would read, a braggartly account; but beggarly is probably right; if the boxes were empty, the account was more beggarly, as it was more pompous.

JOHNSON.

And

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 wretchedness,
And fear'ft to die? famine is in thy cheeks,
Need and oppreffion ftarveth in thy eyes*,
Upon thy back hangs ragged mifery,

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.

• Need and oppreffion starveth in thy eyes,] The first quarto reade: "And itarved famine dwelleth in thy cheeks."

The quartos, 1599, 1609, and the folio:

"Need and oppreffion ftar verb in thy eyes."

Our modern editors, without authority,

"Need and oppreflion flare within thy eyes." STEEVENS. This modern reading was introduced by Mr. Pope, and was founded on that of Otway, in whofe Caius Marius the line is thus exhibited: "Need and oppreffion ftare:b in thy eyes."

The word farved in the first copy thews that farveth in the text is right. In the quarto of 1597, this fpeech ftands thus:

And doft thou fear to violate the law?

The law is not thy friend, nor the lawes friend,
And therefore make no confcience of the law.
Upon thy back hangs ragged miferie,

And starved famine dwelleth in thy cheeks.

The last line is in my opinion preferable to that which has been fubftituted in its place, but it could not be admitted into the text without omitting the words-famine is in thy checks, and leaving an hemiftick. MALONE.

5 Upon thy back bangs ragged mifery,] So, in Kyd's Carnelia, a tragedy, 1594:

"Upon thy back where mifery doth fit,

"Rome, &c. MALONE.

This is the reading of the oldeft copy. I have reftored it in preference to the following line, which is found in all the fubfequent impreffions: "Contempt and beggary hang upon thy back."

In the First Part of Jeronimo, 1605, is a paffage fomewhat resembling this of Shakspeare:

"Whofe famifh'd jaws look like the chaps of death,

"Upon whofe eye-brows hang damnation." STEEVENS. Jeronimo was performed before 1590. MALONE.

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; worfe poison to men's fouls, Doing more murders in this loathfome world, Than thefe poor compounds that thou may'it not fell: I fell thee poifon, thou haft fold me none. Farewel; buy food, and get thyself in flefh.Come, cordial, and not poifon; go with me To Juliet's grave, for there must I use thee.

John. Holy Francifcan friar! brother, ho!
Enter Friar LAWRENCE.

[Exeunt.

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.

John. Going to find a bare-foot brother out, One of our order, to affociate me",

Here

5 One of our order, to affociate me,] Each friar has always a companion affigned him by the fuperior, whenever he asks leave to go out; and thus, ays Baretti, they are a check upon each other. STEEV. Going to find a bare-foot brother out,

One of our order, to affociate me,

Here in this city wifiting the fick,

And finding bim, the fearchers of the town

Sufpecting, &c.] So, in The Tragicall Hyftory of Romeus and .

Juliet, 1562:

"Apace our friar John to Mantua him hies;

"And, for becaufe in Italy it is a wonted guife

"That friars in the town fhould feldom walk alone,

"But of their convent aye fhould be accompanied with one

"Of his profession, ftraight a house he findeth out,

"In mind to take fome friar with him, to walk the town about." Our authour having occafion for friar John, has here departed from the poem, and fuppofed the peftilence to rage at Verona, instead of Mantua.

Friar John fought for a brother merely for the fake of form, to accompany him in his walk, and had no intention of vifiting the fick;

the