Rom. This day's black fate on more days does depend ; This but begins the woe, others must end. Enter Tybalt, Ben. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again. And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now! Staying for thine to keep him company: Or thou or I, or both, must go with him. Tyb. Thou, wretched boy, that didit 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. Rem. O! I am fortune's fool. Ben. Why doft thou stay ? Enter Citizens. [Exit Romeo. Cit. Which way ran he that kill'd Mercutio? 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? 'La 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, Ben. Tybalt here flain, whom Romeo's hand did flay: With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd, Hold, friends! friends, part! and, fwifter than his tongue, And twixt them rufhes; underneath whofe arm La. Cap. He is a kinfman to the Montague. Prin, Romeo flew him, he flew Mercutio; 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 interest in your hearts' proceeding, I will be deaf to pleading and excufes, Nor tears nor prayers fhall purchase out abuses; [Exeunt. SCENE changes to an Apartment in Capulet's Jul. Houfe. Enter Juliet alone. 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 clofe 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, unfcanning, Verfe in his own Ear: a Verfe, that cannot run off from the Tongue with any Cadence of Mufick, the short and long Syllables ftand fo perverfely. We must read, Elfe, when he's found, that Hour is his last. Every diligent and knowing Reader of our Poet must have obferv'd, that Hour and Fire are almoft perpetually diffyllables in the pronounciation and Scanfion of his Verses. (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: That th' Run-away's eyes may wink; and Romeo Come, night, come, Romeo! come, thou day in night! Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-brow'd night! To an impatient child that hath new robes, And may not wear them. O, here comes my nurfet And she brings news; and every tongue, that speaks 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 Phœbus, 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, nurse, what news? what hast thou there? Nurse. Ay, ay, the cords. Ful. 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. 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. (11) Nurfe. I faw the wound, I faw it with mine eyes, Pale, pale as afhes, all bedawb'd in blood, Jul. O break, my heart!--poor bankrupt, break To prifon, eyes! nc'er look on liberty; Vile earth to earth refign, end motion here, (11) And that bare vowel, ay, shall poison more Than the death-darting Eye of Cockatrice.] I queftion much whe ther the Grammarians will take this new Vowel on Trak from Mr. Pope, without suspecting it rather for a Diphthong si ihɔpc, we must restore the Spelling of the Old Books, of de jule the Poet's Conceit. At his Tim of day, the affirmative Adverb Ay was generally written, and by this means it both becomes a Vowel, and aniwers 3 sound to Eye, up. which the Conceit turns in the Second Line, C 5 |