SCENE III.

Changes to a Monaftery.

Enter Friar Lawrence, with a basket.

8

Fri. HE grey-ey'd morn fmiles on the frowning night,

THE

Check'ring the eaftern clouds with ftreaks of light:
And darkness flecker'd, like a drunkard, reels
From forth day's path, and Titan's burning wheels.
Now ere the Sun advance his burning eye,
The day to chear, and night's dank dew to dry,
I must fill up this ofier-cage of ours

With baleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers.
The earth, that's Nature's mother, is her tomb;
What is her burying Grave, that is her womb;
And from her womb children of divers kind
We fucking on her natural bofom find:
Many for many virtues excellent,

9

None but for fome, and yet all different.
O, mickle is the powerful grace, that lies
In plants, herbs, ftones, and their true qualities.
Nor nought fo vile, that on the earth doth live,
But to the earth fome fpecial good doth give,
Nor aught fo good, but, ftrain'd from that fair ufe,
Revolts from true Birth, ftumbling on abuse.

8 The grey-ey'd morn, &c.]
Thefe four firft lines are here re-
placed, conformable to the first
edition, where fuch a defcription
is much more proper than in the
mouth of Romeo just before, when
he was full of nothing but the_cious virtue.

6

thoughts of his miftrefs. POPE.

In the folio thefe lines are printed twice over, ard given once to Romeo, and once to the Frier.

9-powerful grace,] Effica

Virtue

Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;
And vice fometime by action's dignify'd.
Within the infant rind of this small flower

Poifon hath refidence, and med'cine power,-
For this being smelt, with that fenfe chears each
Being tafted, flays all fenfes with the heart.
2 Two fuch oppofed foes encamp them still
In man, as well as herbs, Grace and rude Willi
And where the worfer is predominant,
Full-foon the canker death eats up that plant.

Enter Romeo.

Rom. Good morrow, father!
Fri. Benedicite!

part,

What early tongue fo fweet faluteth me?
Young fon, it argues a diftemper'd head.
So foon to bid good-morrow to thy bed:
Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
And, where care lodgeth, fleep will never lie;
But where unbruised youth with unftuft brain
Doth couch his limbs, there golden fleep doth reign;
Therefore thy earlinefs doth me affure,
Thou art up-rouz'd by fome diftemp'rature;

1 Poifon bath refidence, and medicine power:] I believe Shakespear wrote, more accurately, thus,

Poifin bath refidence, and medic'nal power:

i. e. both the poison and the antidote are lodged within the rind of this flower. WARBURTON. There is no need of alteration. 2 Two fuch oppofed FOES. -] This is a modern Sophiftication. The old books have it oppofed KINGS. So that it appears, Shakespear wrote, Two juch op

pofed KIN. Why he calls them Kin was, because they were qualities refiding in one and the fame fubftance. And as the enmity of oppofed Kin generally rifes higher than that between ftrangers, this circumstance adds a beauty to the expreffion. WARB. Foes is certainly wrong, and kin is not right. Two kings are two oppofite powers, two contending potentates, in both the natural and moral world. The word encamp is proper to commanders.

Or if not fo, then here I hit it right,
Our Romeo hath not been in bed to-night.

Rom. That laft is true, the fweeter Reft was mine.
Fri. God pardon fin! waft thou with Rofaline?
Rom. With Rofaline, my ghoftly father? no.
I have forgot that name, and that name's woe.
Fri. That's my good fon: but where haft thou
been then?

Rom. I'll tell thee, ere thou afk it me again;
I have been feafting with mine enemy,
Where, on a fudden, one hath wounded me,
That's by me wounded; both our remedies
Within thy help and holy phyfick lies;
I bear no hatred, bleffed man, for, lo,
My interceffion likewife fteads my foe.

Fri. Be plain, good fon, reft homely in thy drift; Riddling confeffion finds but riddling fhrift.

Rom. Then plainly know, my heart's dear love is fet

On the fair daughter of rich Capulet;
As mine on hers, fo hers is fet on mine;

And all combin'd; fave what thou must combine
By holy marriage: When, and where, and how,
We met, we woo'd, and made exchange of vow,
I'll tell thee as we pafs; but this I pray,
That thou confent to marry us this day.

Fri. Holy faint Francis, what a change is here!
Is Rofaline, whom thou didst love fo dear,
So foon forfaken? young mens' love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
Holy faint Francis! what a deal of brine
Hath washt thy fallow cheeks for Rofaline?
How much falt-water thrown away in waste,
To feafon love, that of it doth not taste?
The Sun not yet thy fighs from heaven cleats,
Thy old groans ring yet in my antient ears,
Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth fit
Of an old tear that is not wash'd off yet.

If

M

If e'er thou waft thyfelf, and these woes thine,
Thou and these woes were all for Rofaline.
And art thou chang'd? pronounce this fentence then,
Women may fall, when there's no ftrength in men.

Rom. Thou chidd'ft me oft for loving Rofaline.
Fri. For doating, not for loving, Pupil mine.
Rom. And bad'ft me bury love.
Fri., Not in a Grave,

To lay one in, another out to have.

Rom. I pray thee, chide not: fhe, whom I love

now,

Doth grace for grace, and love for love allow:
The other did not fo.

Fri. Oh, fhe knew well,

Thy love did read by rote, and could not fpell.
But come, young waverer, come and go with me,
In one refpect I'll thy affiftant be:

·

For this alliance may so happy prove,

To turn your houfhold-rancour to pure love.
Rom. O let us hence, I ftand on fudden hafte.
Fri. Wifely and flow; they ftumble, that run faft.

[Exeunt.

Changes to the STREET.

Enter Benvolio and Mercutio.

Mer.

W

HERE the devil fhould this Romeo be? came he not home to-night?

Ben. Not to his father's, I fpoke with his man. Mer. Why, that fame pale, hard-hearted, wench, that Rofaline,

Torments him fo, that he will, fure, run mad.

Ben.

Ben. Tybalt, the kinfman to old Capulet,

Hath fent a letter to his father's houfe.

Mer. A challenge, on my life.

Ben. Romeo will anfwer it.

Mer. Any man, that can write, may answer à letter.

Ben. Nay, he will answer the letter's mafter how he dares, being dar'd.

Mer. Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead! ftabb'd with a white wench's black eye, run through the ear with a love-fong; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's but-fhaft; and is he a man to encounter Tybalt!

Ben. Why, what is Tybalt?

3

4

Mer. More than prince of cats?-Oh, he's the courageous captain of compliments; he fights as you fing prick'd fongs, keeps time, distance, and proportion; refts his minum, one, two, and the third in your bofom; the very butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellift; a gentleman of the very first house, of the first and fecond cause; ah, the immortal paffado, the punto reverfo, the, hay!

5

Ben. The what?

3 More than prince of cats?—] Tybalt, the name given to the Cut, in the ftory-book of Reynold the Fox. WARBURTON. 4 courageous captain of compliments:] A complete mafter of all the laws of ceremony, the principal man in the doctrine of jun&ilio.

i. e. one who pretends to be ât the head of his family, and quarrels by the book. See Note on As you like it, Act V: Scene 6. WARBURTON. 6 The, hay] All the terms of the modern fencing-school were originally Italian; che rapier, or fmall thrusting fword, being first ufed in Itay. The bay is the word hai, y u have it, used when a thrust reaches the antagonist, from which our fencers, on the fame occafion, without knowing, If ppose, any reason for it, cry out, ha!

A man of compliments, whom ri ht and wrong Have chofe as umpire; Says our authour of Don Armado, the Spaniard, in Love's labour loft.

5 A gentleman of the very first hof, of the first and fcn caufe ;] Vol. VIII.

E

Mer