Imatges de pàgina
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Enter PETER.

Pet. Musicians, O, musicians, Heart's ease, heart's

ease;

O, an you will have me live, play-heart's ease.

Mus. Why heart's ease?

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Pet. O, musicians, because my heart itself playsMy heart is full of woe: O, play me some merry dump, to comfort me.

Mus. Not a dump we; 'tis no time to play now. Pet. You will not then?

Mus. No.

Pet. I will then give it you soundly.

Mus. What will you give us?

Pet. No money, on my faith; but the gleek: I will give you the minstrel.

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Mus. Then will I give you the serving-creature. Pet. Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger on your pate. I will carry no crotchets: I'll re you, I'll fa you; Do you note me?

Mus. An you re us, and fa us, you note us.

2 Mus. Pray you, put up your dagger, and put out your wit.

Pet. Then have at you with my wit; I will drybeat you with an iron wit, and put up my iron dagger: -Answer me like men:

When griping grief the heart doth wound,

And doleful dumps the mind oppress,

Then musick with her silver sound,

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Why, silver sound? why, musick with her silver sound?

What

What say you, Simon Catling?

1 Mus. Marry, sir, because silver, hath a sweet sound,

Pet. Pretty! What say you, Hugh Rebeck?

2 Mus. I say—silver sound, because musicians sound for silver,

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Pet. Pretty too!-What say you, James Soundpost?

3 Mus. 'Faith, I know not what to say.

Pet. O, I cry you mercy! you are the singer: I will say for you, It is musick with her silver sound, because such fellows as you have no gold for sounding :

Then musick with her silver sound,

With speedy help doth lend redress. [Exit, singing. 1 Mus. What a pestilent knave is this same ? 410 2 Mus. Hang him, Jack! Come, we'll in here; tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner.

[Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE 1.

Mantua. A Street. Enter ROMEO.

Romeo.

IF I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand:
My bosom's lord sits lightly on his throne;
And, all this day an unaccustom'd spirit

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 such life with kisses in my lips,
That I reviv'd, and was an emperor.

Ah me! how sweet is love itself possest,
When but love's shadows are so rich in joy?

Enter BALTHASAR.

News from Verona! -How now, Balthasar?
Dost 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 she be well.

Balth. Then she is well, and nothing can be ill;
Her body sleeps in Capulet's monument,
And her immortal part with angels lives ;
I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault,
And presently took post to tell it you:

O pardon me for bringing these ill news,
Since you did leave it for my office, sir.

Rom. Is it even so? then I defy you, stars!Thou know'st my lodging: get me ink and paper, And hire post horses; I will hence to-night,

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Balth. 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;

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Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do :

Hast

Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?

Balth. No, my good lord.

Rom. No matter: Get thee gone,

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

[Exit BALTHASAR.

Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to night.

Let's see for means :-O, mischief! thou art swift To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!

I do remember an apothecary,

And hereabouts he dwells,-whom late I noted 40
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of simples; meager were his looks,
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones:
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff'd, and other skins
Of ill-shap'd fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses,
Were thinly scatter'd, to make up a shew.
Noting this penury, to myself I said-
An if a man did need a poison now,
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.
O, this same 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 holiday, the beggar's shop is shut.-
What, ho! apothecary!

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Enter

Enter Apothecary.

Ap. Who calls so loud?

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Rom. Come hither, man.-I see, that thou art

poor;

Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have

A dram of poison; such soon-speeding geer
As will disperse itself through all the veins,
That the life-weary taker may fall dead;
And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath
As violently, as hasty 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 so bare, and full of wretchedness,
And fear'st to die? famine is in thy cheeks,
Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes,
Upon thy back hangs ragged misery ;

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

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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

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