Rom. This day's black fate on more days does de

pend ;

This but begins the woe, others must end.

Enter Tybalt,

Ben. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again. Rom. Alive? in Triumph? and Mercutio flain ? Away to heav'n, refpective lenity, And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now! Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again, That late thou gav'ft me; for Mercutio's foul Is but a little way above our heads, Staying for thine to keep him company: Or thou or I, or both, must go with him. Tyb. Thou, wretched boy, that didst confort him here,

Shalt with him hence.

Rom. This fhall determine that.

[They fight, Tybalt falls.

Ben. Romeo, away, begone:
The cizizens are up, and Tybalt flain
Stand not amaz'd; the Prince will doom thee death,
If thou art taken: hence, be gone, away.
Rom. O! I am fortune's fool.

Ben. Why dost thou stay ?

[Exit Romeo.

Enter Citizens.

Cit. Which way ran he that kill'd Mercutio?
Tybalt, that murtherer, which way ran he?
Ben. There lyes that Tybalt.

Cit. Up, Sir, go with me:

I charge thee in the Prince's name, obey.

Enter Prince, Montague, Capulet, their Wives, &c.

Prin. Where are the vile beginners of this fray?
Ben. O noble Prince, I can discover all
Th' unlucky manage of this fatal brawl:
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 Of my dear kinfman- Prince, as thou art true, For blood of ours, fhed blood of Montague. Prin. Benvolio, who began this fray?

Ben. Tybalt here flain, whom Romeo's hand did flay:
Romeo, that fpoke him fair, bid him bethink
How nice the quarrel was, and urg'd withal
Your high difpleasure: 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, fwifter than his tongue, His agil arm beats down their fatal points,

.

And twixt them rufhes; underneath whofe arm
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of tout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled;
But by and by comes 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. Cap. He is a kinfman to the Montague:
Affection makes him falfe, 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 juftice, 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. Mont. Not Romeo, Prince, he was Mercutio's
friend;

His fault concludes but what the law fhould end,

The

The life of Tybalt.

Prin. And for that offence,
Immediately we do exile him hence:

I have an intereft in your hearts' proceeding,
My blood for your rude brawls doth lye a bleeding;
But I'll amerce you with fo ftrong a fine,
That you shall all repent the lofs 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,
Elfe, when he's found, that hour is his laft. (9)
Bear hence this body, and attend our will:
"Mercy but murthers, pardoning those that kill."

[Exeunt.

SCENE changes to an Apartment in Capulet's Houfe.

Enter Juliet alone.

Jul. G

ALLOP apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Tow'rds Phoebus' manfion; fuch a waggoner, As Phaeton, would whip you to the west, And bring in cloudy night immediately. Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night, (10)

That

(9) Elfe, when he is found, that hour is his laft.] It is wonderful that Mr. Pope fhould retort the Want of Ear upon any body, and pafs fuch an inharmonious, unscanning, Verse in his own Ear: a Verfe, that cannot run off from the Tongue with any Cadence of Musick, the short and long Syllables ftand fo perverfely. We must read,

Elfe, when he's found, that Hour is his laft.

Every diligent and knowing Reader of our Poet must have obferv'd, that Hour and Fire are almoft perpetually dissyllables in the pronounciation and Scanfion of his Verfes.

(10) Spread thy close Curtain, love-performing Night,

That runaways Eyes may wink;] What Runaways are these, whofe Eyes Juliet is wishing to have ftopt? Macbeth, we may remember, makes an Invocation to Night, much in the fame Strain:

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-Come,

That th' Run-away's eyes may wink; and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalkt of and unfeen.
Lovers can fee to do their am'rous rites
By their own beauties: or, if love be blind,
It beft agrees with night. Come, civil night,
Thou fober-fuited matron, all in black,
And learn me how to lofe a winning match,
Plaid for a pair of stainless maidenheads.
Hood my unmann'd blood baiting in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle; 'till ftrange love, grown bold,
Thinks true love acted, fimple modefty.

Come, night, come, Romeo! come, thou day in night!
For thou wilt lye upon the wings of night,
Whiter than fnow upon 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 stars,
And he will make the face of heav'n fo fine,
That all the world fhall be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garifh fun.
O, I have bought the manfion of a love,
But not poffefs'd it; and though I am fold,
Not yet enjoy'd; fo tedious is this day,
As is the night before fome festival,
To an impatient child that hath new robes,
And may not wear them. O, here comes my nurfet
Enter Nurfe with cords.

And fhe brings news; and every tongue, that speaks
But Romeo's name, speaks heav'nly eloquence;

Come, feeling Night,

Scarf up the tender Eye of pitiful day, &c.

So Juliet here would have Night's Darkness obfcure the great Eye of the Day, the Sun; whom confidering in a poetical Light as Phabus, drawn in his Carr with fiery-footed Steeds, and pofting thro' the Heav'ns, She very properly calls him, with regard to the Swiftnefs of his Courfe, the Runaway. In the like Manner our Poet speaks of the Night, in the Merchant of Venice.

For the clofe Night doth play the Runaway,,

Mr. Warburton.

Now,

Now, nurse, what news? what haft thou there?
The cords that Romeo bid thee fetch ?
Nurfe. Ay, ay, the cords.
Jul. Ay me, what news?

Why doft thou wring thy hands?

Nurfe. 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 fo envious?
Nurfe. Romeo can,

Though heav'n cannot. O Romeo! Romeo!
Who ever would have thought it, Romeo?

ful. What devil art thou, that doft torment me
thus?

This torture fhould be roar'd in dismal hell.
Hath Romeo flain himself? fay thou but, I;
And that bear vowel, I, fhall poifon more (11)
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice.

Nurfe. I faw the wound, I faw it with mine eyes,
(God fave the mark,) here on his manly breast.,
A piteous coarse, a bloody piteous coarse;
Pale, pale as afhes, all bedawb'd in blood,
All in gore blood; I fwooned at the fight.

Jul. O break, my heart!-poor bankrupt, break

at once!

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

(11) And that bare vowel, ay, shall poison more

Than the death-darting Eye of Cockatrice.] I question much whe ther the Grammarians will take this new Vowel on Truft fron Mr. Pope, without fufpecting it rather for a Diphthong sa tabic, we must restore the Spelling of the Old Books, of Weiule, the Poet's Conceit. At his Tir of day, the affirmative Adverb Ay was generally written, and by this means it both becomes a Vowel, and aniwers sound to Eye, up. which the Conceit turns in the Second L.ge,

Jul

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