Imatges de pàgina
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Ben. O noble prince, I can discover all The unlucky manage of this fatal braul: There lies the man flain by young Romeo, That flew thy kinfman brave Mercutio.

La. Cap. Tybalt my coufin! O my brother's child, Unhappy fight! alas the blood is fpill'd

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Of my dear kinsman Prince as thou art true,
For blood of ours, fhed blood of Mountague.
Prin. Benvolio, who began this fray?

Ben. Tybalt here flain, whom Romeo's hand did slay :
Romeo that spoke him fair, bid him bethink
How nice the quarrel was, and urg'd withal
Your high displeasure: all this uttered

With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd,
Could not take truce with the unruly spleen
Of Tybalt, deaf to peace, but that he tilts
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast;
Who all as hot, turns deadly point to point,
And with a martial fcorn, with one hand beats
Cold death afide, and with the other fends
It back to Tybalt, whofe dexterity

Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud,

Hold friends, friends part! and swifter than his tongue,

His agil arm beats down their fatal points,

And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm
An envious thruft from Tybalt hit the life
Of tout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled.
But by and by come back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertain'd revenge,
And to't they go like lightning: for ere I
Could draw to part them, was ftout Tybalt flain;
And as he fell, did Romeo turn to fly:

This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

La.

La. Cap. He is a kinfman to the Mountague,
Affection makes him false, he speaks not true.
Some twenty of them fought in this black ftrife,
And all those twenty could but kill one life.
I beg for justice, which thou prince must give;
Romeo flew Tybalt, Romeo must not live.

Prin. Romeo flew him, he flew Mercutio,
Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe.

La. Cap. Not Romeo, prince, he was Mercutio's friend,
His fault concludes but what the law fhould end,
The life of Tybalt.

Prin. And for that offence,

Immediately we do exile him hence:

I have an interest in your hearts proceeding,
My blood for your rude brawls doth lye a bleeding,
But I'll amerce you with so strong a fine,

That you shall all repent the loss of mine.
I will be deaf to pleading and excuses,

Nor tears nor prayers fhall purchase out abuses,
Therefore use none; let Romeo hence in hafte,
Else when he is found, that hour is his last.
Bear hence this body, and attend our will:
Mercy but murthers, pardoning those that kill.

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Jul.

GA

SCENE IV.

An Apartment in Capulet's House.

Enter Juliet alone.

ALLOP apace, you fiery-footed steeds, To Phabus' manfion; fuch a waggoner As Phaeton, would whip you to the west,

[Exeunt.

And

And bring in cloudy night immediately.
Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
That run-aways eyes may wink; and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalkt of and unseen.
Lovers can fee to do their am'rous rites
By their own beauties: or if love be blind,
It best agrees with night. Come civil night,
Thou fober-fuited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lose a winning match,
Plaid for a pair of stainless maidenheads.

Hood my unmann'd blood baiting in my cheeks,
With thy balck mantle; 'till strange love, grown bold,
Thinks true love acted, fimple modesty.

Come night, come Romeo, come thou day in night,
For thou wilt lye upon the wings of night,

Whiter than new snow on a raven's back:

Come gentle night, come loving black-brow'd night,
Give me my Romeo, and when he shall die
Take him and cut him out in little ftars,
And he will make the face of heav'n so fine,
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
O, I have bought the mansion of a love,
But not poffefs'd it; and though I am sold,
Not yet enjoy'd; so tedious is this day,
As is the night before some festival,

To an impatient child that hath new robes,

And may not wear them. O here comes my nurse!

Enter Nurfe with cords.

And she brings news, and every tongue that speaks
But Romeo's name, fpeaks heav'nly eloquence;
Now nurse, what news? what haft thou there?

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The cords that Romeo bid thee fetch?

Nurse. Ay, ay, the cords.

Jul. Ay me, what news?

Why dost thou wring thy hands?

Nurse. Ah welladay he's dead, he's dead, he's dead!
We are undone, lady, we are undone ------

Alack the day! he's gone, he's kill'd, he's dead.
Jul. Can heaven be so envious?

Nurfe. Romeo can,

Though heav'n cannot. O Romeo! Romeo!

Who ever would have thought it, Romeo?

Jul. What devil art thou, that doft torment me thus?
This torture should be roar'd in dismal hell.
Hath Romeo flain himself? say thou but ay;
And that bare vowel ay, fhall poison more
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice.

Nurse. I faw the wound, I faw it with mine eyes,
God fave the mark, here on his manly breast.

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A piteous coarse, a bloody piteous coarse;
Pale, pale as afhes, all bedawb'd in blood,
All in gore blood, I swooned at the fight.
Jul. O break, my heart--

poor bankrupt break at once!

To prifon, eyes! ne'er look on liberty;
Vile earth to earth refign, end motion here,
And thou and Romeo press one heavy bier!
Nurfe. O Tybalt, Tybalt, the best friend I had:
O courteous Tybalt, honest gentleman,
That ever I fhould live to see thee dead.

Jul. What ftorm is this that blows so contrary?

Is Romeo flaughter'd? and is Tybalt dead?

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My dear-lov'd coufin, and my dearer lord?

Then let the trumpet found the general doom,

*The ftrange lines that follow here in the common books are not in the old edition.

C deareft.

VO L. VI.

PP

For

For who is living, if those two are gone?

Nurfe. Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banished,

Romeo that kill'd him, he is banished.

Jul. O God! did Romeo's hand fhed Tybalt's blood?
Nurfe. It did, it did, alas the day! it did.

Jul. O ferpent heart, hid with a flowring face,
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?

Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical! *

O nature! what hadft thou to do in hell,
When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend
In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh?
Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell
In fuch a gorgeous palace!

Nurfe. There's no truft,

No faith, no honefty in men; all perjur'd;
All, all forfworn; all naught; and all diffemblers.

Ah, where's my man? give me fome Aqua vitæ

These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old!
Shame come to Romeo!

Jul. Blister'd be thy tongue

For fuch a wish, he was not born to shame,

Upon his brow shame is afham'd to fit:

For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd,.

Sole monarch of the universal earth.

O what a beaft was I to chide him fo?

Nurfe. Will you speak well of him that kill'd your coufin ? Jul. Shall I fpeak ill of him that is my husband?

Ah poor my lord, what tongue fhall fmooth thy name,

* fiend angelical,

+ Ravenous dove, feather'd raven,

Wolvifh-ravening lamb,

Defpifed fubftance of divineft show:

Juft oppofite to what thou justly feem'ft.

A damned faint, an honourable villain:

O. nature! &c..

† Thefe lines not in the first edition, as well as fome others which I have omitted.

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