burn. Enter Watch, with the Page of PARIS. Page. This is the place; there, where the torch doth [church-yard: 1 Watch. The ground is bloody; Search about the Go, some of you, whoe'er you find, attach. [Exeunt some. Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain ;- [Exeunt other Watchmen. We see the ground whereon these woes do lie; church-yard. Enter some of the Watch, with BALTHAZAR. 2 Watch. Here's Romeo's man, we found him in the [hither. 1 Watch. Hold him in safety, till the prince come Enter another Watchman, with FRIAR LAURENCE. 3 Watch. Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs, and We took this mattock and this spade from him, [weeps: As he was coming from this church-yard side. 1 Watch. A great suspicion; Stay the friar too. Enter the PRINCE and Attendants. Prince. What misadventure is so early up, That calls our person from our morning's rest? Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and others. Cap. What should it be, that they so shriek abroad? Lady C. The people in the street cry-Romeo, Some-Juliet, and some-Paris; and all run, With open outcry, toward our monument. Prince. What fear is this, which startles in our ears? 1 Watch. Sovereign, here lies the county Paris slain; And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before, Warm and new kill'd. ROMEO AND JULIET. 85 Prince. Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes. 1 Watch. Here isa friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's man; With instruments upon them, fit to open These dead men's tombs. Cap. O, heavens!-O, wife! look how our daughter bleeds! This dagger hath mista'en, for, lo! his house Lady C. O me! this sight of death is as a bell, Enter MONTAGUE and others. Prince. Come, Montague; for thou art early up, Mon. O thou untaught! what manners is in this, Prince. Seal up the mouth of outrage for awhile, Till we can clear these ambiguities, And know their spring, their head, their true descent; And then will I be general of your woes, And lead you even to death: Mean time forbear, And let mischance be slave to patience.Bring forth the parties of suspicion. Fri. I am the greatest, able to do least, Is not so long as is a tedious tale. Was Tybalt's doomsday, whose untimely death Prince. We still have known thee for a holy nan.- To this same place, to this same monument. Prince. Give me the letter, I will look on it.- Page. He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave; And bid me stand aloof, and so I did : Anon, comes one with light to ope the tomb; And, by and by, my master drew on him; And then I ran away to call the watch. Prince. This letter doth make good the friar's words, Their course of love, the tidings of her death: And here he writes-that he did buy a poison Of a poor 'pothecary, and therewithal Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet.Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love! And I, for winking at your discords too, Have lost a brace of kinsmen:-all are punish'd. Cap. O, brother Montague, give me thy hand: This is my daughter's jointure, for no more Can I demand. Mon. But I can give thee more: For I will raise her statue in pure gold; Cap. As rich shall Romeo by his lady lie; Poor sacrifices of our enmity! Prince. A glooming peace this morning with it brings; For never was a story of more woe, [Exeunt. dents numerous and This play is one of the most pleasing of our author's performances. The scenes are busy and various, inciimportant, the the catastrophe irresistibly affecting, and the process of the action carried on with such probability, at least with such congruity to popular opinions, as tragedy requires. Here is one of the few attempts of Shakspeare to exhibit the conversation of gentlemen, to represent the airy sprightliness of juvenile elegance. Mr. Dryden mentions a tradition, which might easily reach his time, of a declaration made by Shakspeare, that he was obliged to kill Mercutio in the third act, lest he should have been killed by him. Yet he thinks him no such formidable person, but that he might have lived through the play and died in his bed, without danger to the poet. Dryden well knew, had he been in quest of truth, in a pointed sentence, that more regard is commonly had to the words than the thought, and that it is very seldom to be rigorously understood. Mercutio's wit, gaiety, and courage, will always procure him friends that wish him a longer life; but his death is not precipitated, he has lived out the time allotted him in the construction of the play; nor do I doubt the ability of Shakspeare to have continued his existence, though some of his sallies are perhaps out of the reach of Dryden; whose genius was not very fertile of merriment, nor ductile to humour, but acute, argumentative, comprehensive, and sublime. The Nurse is one of the characters in which the author delighted: he has, with great subtility of distinction, drawn her at once loquacious and secret, obsequious and insolent, trusty and dishonest. His comic scenes are happily wrought, but his pathetic strains are always polluted with some unexpected depravations. His persons, however distressed, have a conceit left them in their misery, a miserable conceit. C. Whittingham, Printer, Chiswick. JOHNSON. |