1

letter; and she hath the prettiest sententious of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it. Rom. Commend me to thy lady.

[Exit. Nurse. Ay, a thousand times.- Peter! Pet. Anon! Nurse. Peter, take my fan, and go before.

[Exeunt. SCENE V. Capulet's Garden.

Enter JULIET.
Jul. The clock struck nine, when I did send the

nurse ;
In half an hour she promised to return.
Perchance, she cannot meet him : that's not so.-
0, she is lame! Love's heralds should be thoughts,
Which ten times faster glide than the sun's beams,
Driving back shadows over lowering hills;
Therefore do nimble-pinioned doves draw love,
And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings.
Now is the sun upon the highmost hill
Of this day's journey; and from nine till twelve
Is three long hours,—yet she is not come.
Had she affections, and warm, youthful blood,
She'd be as swift in motion as a ball ;
My words would bandy her to my sweet love,
And his to me.
But old folks, many feign as they were dead;
Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead.

i The speech is thus continued in the quarto, 1597 :

should be thoughts,
And run more swift than hasty powder fired
Doth hurry from the fearful cannon's mouth.
Oh, now she comes! Tell me, gentle nurse,

What says my love ?" The greatest part of this scene is likewise added since that edition. Shakspeare, however, seems to have thought one of the ideas comprised in the foregoing quotation, from the earliest quarto, too valuable to be lost. He has, therefore, inserted it in Romeo's first speech to the apothecary, in Act v.:

“ As violently as hasty powder fired

Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb."
VOL. VII. 24

Enter Nurse and PETER.

( God, she comes !-O honey nurse, what news? Hast thou met with him ? Send thy man away.

Nurse. Peter, stay at the gate. [Exit PETER.
Jul. Now, good sweet nurse,-0 Lord! why

look'st thou sad?.
Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily;
If good, thou sham'st the music of sweet news
By playing it to me with so sour a face.

Nurse. I am weary; give me leave awhile ;-
Fie, how my bones ache! What a jaunt have I had !

Jul. I would thou had'st my bones, and I thy news. Nay,come, I pray thee, speak ;-good, good nurse, speak. Nurse. Jesu, what haste? Can you not stay

awbile ? Do you not see that I am out of breath? Jul. How art thou out of breath, when thou hast

breath
To say to me--that thou art out of breath?
The excuse, that thou dost make in this delay,
Is lɔnger than the tale thou dost excuse.
Is thy news good, or bad ? answer to that;
Say either, and I'll stay the circumstance.
Let me be satisfied. Is't good or bad ?

Nurse. Well, you have made a simple choice ; you know not how to choose a man. Romeo! no, not he; though his face be better than any man's, yet his leg excels all men's ; and for a hand, and a foot, and a body,—though they be not to be talked on, yet they are past compare.

He is not the flower of courtesy, — but, I'll warrant him, as gentle as a lamb.—Go thy ways, wench ; serve God.-What, have you dined at home?

Jul. No, no. But all this I did know before ; What says he of our marriage? what of that? Nurse. Lord, how my head aches ! what a head

have 1! It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces. My back o’t’ other side, –0, my back, my back !

Beshrew

your heart for sending me about, To catch my death with jaunting up and down!

Jul. I' faith, I am sorry that thou art not well. Sweet, sweet,' sweet nurse, tell me, what says my

love ? Nurse. Your love says like an honest gentleman, And a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, And, I warrant, a virtuous,—where is your mother ?

Jul. Where is my mother ?-Why, she is within ;
Where should she be ? How oddly thou repliest ?
Your love says like an honest gentleman,
Where is your mother?
Nurse.

0, God's lady dear!
Are you so hot? Marry, come up, I trow;
Is this the poultice for my aching bones ?
Henceforward do your messages yourself.

Jul. Here's such a coil,-come, what says Romeo ?
Nurse. Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day?
Jul. I have.

Nurse. Then hie you hence to friar Laurence' cell ; There stays a husband to make you a wife. Now comes the wanton blood

up your cheeks ; They'll be in scarlet straight at any news. Hie you to church ; I must another way, To fetch a ladder, by the which your love Must climb a bird's nest soon, when it is dark. I am the drudge, and toil in your delight; But you shall bear the burden soon at night. Go, I'll to dinner; hie you to the cell. Jul. Hie to high fortune !-Honest nurse, farewell.

[Exeuri.

in

SCENE VI. Friar Laurence's Cell.

Enter FRIAR LAURENCE and ROMEO. Fri. So smile the Heavens upon this holy act, That after-hours with sorrow chide, us not !

1 This scene is exhibited in quite another form in the first quarto, 1597. The reader may see it in the variorum Shakspeare.

Rom. Amen, amen! But come what sorrow can, It cannot countervail the exchange of joy That one short minute gives me in her sight. Do thou but close our hands with holy words, Then love-devouring death do what he dare. It is enough I may but call her mine.

Fri. These violent delights have violent ends, And in their triumph die! like fire and powder, Which, as, they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey Is loathsome in his own deliciousness, And in the taste confounds the appetite. Therefore love moderately: long love doth so; Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.?

Enter JULIET.

Here comes the lady ;-0, so light a foot
Will ne'er wear out the everlasting flint.”
A lover

may

bestride the gossarners That idle in the wanton summer air, And yet not fall; so light is vanity.

Jul. Good even to my ghostly confessor.
Fri. Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.
Jul. As much to him, else are his thanks too much.

Rom. Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy
Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more

To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath
This neighbor air, and let rich music's tongue
Unfold the imagined happiness that both
Receive in either by this dear encounter.

Jul. Conceit, more rich in matter than in words,
Brags of his substance, not of ornament.
They are but beggars that can count their worth;

1 “Precipitation produces mishap."
2 This passage originally stood thus :-

“ Yout love is quick, swifter than swiftest speed,

See where she comes !
So light a foot ne'er hurts the trodden flower;

Of love and joy, see, see, the sovereign power!”
3 Conceit here means imagination. Vide Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 4.

But my true love is grown to such excess,
I cannot sum up half my sum of wealth.

Fri. Come, come with me, and we will make short

work ;

For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone,
Till holy church incorporate two in one.

[Exeunt

ACT JII.

SCENE I. A public Place.

Enter MERCUTIO, BENVOLIO, Page, and Servants. Ben. I pray thee, good Mercutio, let's retire; The day is hot,' the Capulets abroad, And, if we meet, we shall not 'scape a brawl ; For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.

Mer. Thou art like one of those fellows, that when he enters the confines of a tavern, claps me his sword upon the table, and says, God send me no need of thee! and, by the operation of the second cup, draws it on the drawer, when, indeed, there is no need.

Ben. Am I like such a fellow?

Mer. Come, come, thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy; and as soon moved to be moody, and as soon moody to be moved.

Ben. And what to ?

Mer. Nay, an there were two such, we should have none shortly, for one would kill the other. Thou ! why thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or a hair less, in his beard, than thou hast. Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes. What cye,

1 It is observed, that, in Italy, almost all assassinations are committed during the heat of summer.