Displant a town, reverse a prince's doom, It helps not, it prevails not: talk no more. Fri. O then I see that madmen have no ears. Rom. How should they, when that wise men have no eyes? Fri. Let me dispute with thee of thy estate. Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, Then might'st thou speak, then might'st thou tear thy hair, And fall upon the ground, as I do now, Taking the measure of an unmade grave. Fri. Arise; one knocks: good Romeo, hide thy self. [Knocking within. Rom. Not I; unless the breath of heart-sick groans, Mist-like, infold me from the search of eyes. [Knocking. Fri. Hark, how they knock!- Who's there?Romeo, arise; Thou wilt be taken. Run to my study. By and by: - God's will ! [Knocking. Who knocks so hard? whence come you? what's your will? Nurse. [Within.] Let me come in, and you shall know my errand : I come from Lady Juliet. Fri. Welcome, then. Enter the Nurse. Nurse. O, holy friar! O, tell me! holy friar, Where is my lady's lord, where's Romeo? Fri. There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk. Nurse. O, he is even in my mistress' case; Just in her case! Fri. O, woful sympathy! Piteous predicament! 5 Nurse. Even so lies she, Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering.- Rom. Nurse! Nurse. Ah sir! ah sir! - Death is the end of all. Rom. Spak'st thou of Juliet? how is it with her? Doth she not think me an old murderer, Now I have stain'd the childhood of our joy Where is she? and how doth she? and what says 6 My conceal'd lady to our cancell'd love? Nurse. O she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps; And now falls on her bed; and then starts up, Rom. As if that name, Shot from the deadly level of a gun, The old copies make these words a part of the Nurse s speech. They were assigned to the Friar, at Farmer's sugges tion. u. The epithet concealed is to be understood, not of the person but of the condition of the lady. Did murder her; as that name's cursed hand Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sack Fri. [Drawing his Sword. Hold thy desperate hand! Art thou a man? thy form cries out, thou art; I thought thy disposition better temper'd. By doing damned hate upon thyself? Why rail'st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth? Since birth and heaven and earth all three do meet In thee at once; which thou at once would'st lose. Fie, fie! thou sham'st thy shape, thy love, thy wit; Which, like an usurer, abound'st in all, And usest none in that true use indeed Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit. 'Shakespeare has here followed Brooke's poem: "Art thou, quoth he, a man? thy shape saith, so thou art, So that I stoode in doute this howre at the least, Misshapen in the conduct of them both, 8 And thou dismember'd with thine own defence. 8 To understand the force of this allusion, it should be remem. bered that the ancient English soldiers, using match locks, instead of locks with flints, as at present, were obliged to carry a lighted match hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden flask in which they carried their powder. The same allusion occurs in Humor's Ordinary, an old collection of English Epigrams: "When she his flask and touch-box set on fire, And till this hour the burning is not out." And thou torn to pieces with thine own weapons. Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto: Romeo is coming. Nurse. O Lord! I could have stay'd here all the night, To hear good counsel: O, what learning is! Rom. Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide. Nurse. Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir. Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late. [Exit. Rom. How well my comfort is reviv'd by this! Fri. Go hence: Good night; and here stands all your state: 10 Either be gone before the watch be set, Or by the break of day disguis'd from hence. It were a grief, so brief to part with thee: [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Room in CAPULET'S House. Enter CAPULET, Lady CAPULET, and PARIS. Cap. Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily, That we have had no time to move our daughter: Look you, she lov'd her kinsman Tybalt dearly, And so did I:- Well, we were born to die. 'Tis very late, she'll not come down to-night: I promise you, but for your company, I would have been a-bed an hour ago. 10 The whole of your fortune depends on this. |