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'it 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, muft go with him. Tyb. Thou, wretched boy, that didft confort him here,

Shalt with him hence.

Rom. This fhall determine that.

[They fight, Tybalt falls.

Ben. Romeo, away. Begone:
The citizens are up, and Tybalt flain-

Stand not amaz'd. The Prince will doom thee death,
If thou art taken. Hence. Begone.
Rom. Oh! I am fortune's fool.

Away.

2

Ben. Why doft thou stay?

[Exit Romeo:

SCENE III.

Enter Citizens.

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

2 Oh! I am fortune's fool.] I am always running in the way of evil fortune, like the fool in a

VOL. VIII.

F

play. Thou art death's fool: in Meafure for Meafure. See Dr. Warburton's Note.

Cit.

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!

Prince,

O-coufin-hufband-O-the blood is fpill'd Of my dear kinfman. Prince, 3 as thou art true, For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague. O coufin, coufin.

हे

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 difpleafure; 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 fteel 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,

Y

3

a:

thou art true,] As thou art juft and upright.

4 How nice the quarrel-] How flight, how unimportant, how

ઉ

petty. So in the laft A&.
The letter was not nice, but

Hold,

full of charge Of dear import.

Hold, friends! friends, part! and, swifter than his tongue,

His agile arm beats down their fatal points,
And 'twixt them rufhes; underneath whofe arm
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of ftout 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 Romco turn to fly.
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

La. Cap. He is a kinfman to the Montagues,
5 Affection makes him false, 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 muft 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 should end,
The life of Tybalt.

Prin. And for that offence,

Immediately we do exile him hence:

6

"I have an intereft in your hearts' proceeding, My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a bleeding;

5 Affection makes him falle. ] The charge of falfhood on Bentivolio, though produced at hazard, is very juft. The authour, who feems to intend the character of Bentivolio as good, meant perhaps to fhew, how the best minds, in a fate of faction and difcord, are detorted to criminal partiality.

F 2

But 6 I have an intereft in your hearts' proceeding,] Sir Th. Hanmer faw that this line gave no fenfe, and therefore put, by a very eafy change,

I have an intereft in your heat's proceeding,

Which is undoubtedly better than the old reading which Dr. Warburton has followed; but the fenfe

But I'll amerce you with so strong a fine,
That you fhall all repent the lofs of mine.
I will be deaf to pleading and excufes,
Nor tears nor prayers fhall purchase out abuses;
Therefore use none; let Romeo hence in haste,
Elfe, when he's found, that hour is his laft.
Bear hence his body, and attend our will:
Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.

SCENE

Changes to an Apartment in Capulet's House.

Enter Juliet alone.

Jul. G fuch a wag

ALLOP apace, you fiery-footed steeds,

;

¿

fenfe yet feems to be weak, and perhaps a more licentious correction is neceflary. I read therefore,

IV.

goner,

As Phaeton, would whip you to the west,
And bring in cloudy night immediately.
7 Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,
That Run-aways eyes may wink; and Romeo

I had no intereft in your heat's preceding.

[Exeunt.

This, fays the Prince, is no quarrel of mine, I had no intereft in your former difcord; I fuffer merely by your private animofity.

7 Spread thy clefe curtain, loveperforming Night, That runaways eyes may wink ;] What runaways are thefe, whole

Leap

eyes Juliet is wishing to have
ftopt? Macbeth, we may remem-
ber, makes an invocation to
Night much in the fame ftrain,
-Come, feeling Night,
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful
day, &'c.

So Juliet would have Night's
of
darkness obfure the great eye
the day, the Sun; whom confi-
dering in a poetical light as Pho-
bus, drawn in his carr with fiery-
footed steeds, and posting thro' the
heavens, the very probably calls

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 lose a winning match,
Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenheads.
Hood my unmann'd blood baiting in my cheeks,
With thy black mantle; 'till ftrange love, grown
bold,

9

Thinks true love acted, fimple modesty.

Come, night; come, Romeo! come, thou day in night,

For thou wilt lie 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 ftars,
And he will make the face of heaven fo fine,
That all the world fhall be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the gairish 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,

I

him, with regard to the fwiftnefs of his course, the Runaway. In the like manner our Poet fpeaks of the Night in the Merchant of Venice;

For the clofe Night doth play the Runaway. WARB. I am not fatisfied with this emendation, yet have nothing better to propose.

8 Come, civil night,] Civil is grave, decently folemn.

9

unmann'd blood-] Blood

F 3

yet unacquainted with man.

The gairifh fun.] Milton had this fpeech in his thoughts when he wrote Il Penferofo. Civil night,

Thou fuber-fuited matron.

Shakespeare.
Till civil-fuited morn appear.
Milton.

Pay no worship to the gairish
Jun.
Shakespeare.
Hide me from Day's gairish eye.

Milton.

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