We cannot without circumstance descry.

Enter some of the Watch, with Balthafar.

Watch. Here's Romeo's man, we found him in

the churchyard.

Watch. Hold him in safety, till the prince come hither.

Enter another Watchman, with Friar LAURENCE. 3 Watch. Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs,

and weeps : We took this mattock and this spade from him, As he was coming from this churchyard side. I Watch. A great fufpicion; Stay the friar too. Enter the Prince and Attendants. Prince. What misadventure is so early up, That calls our perfon from our morning's rest? Enter CAPULET, Lady CAPULET, and Others. Cap. What should it be, that they so shriek abroad?

La. Cap. The people in the street cry-Romeo, Some-Juliet, and fome-Paris; and all run, With open outcry, toward our monument.

Prince. What fear is this, which startles in our

ears?

I Watch. Sovereign, here lies the county Paris flain; And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before, Warm and new kill'd.

Prince. Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.

1 Watch. Here is a friar, and flaughter'd Ro

meo'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
Is empty on the back of Montague, -
And it mif-sheathed in my daughter's bosom.
La. Cap. O me! this fight of death is as a bell,
That warns my old age to a sepulchre.

Enter MONTAGUE and Others.

Prince. Come, Montague; for thou art early up, To fee thy fon and heir more early down.

Mon. Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night; Grief of my fon's exile hath stopp'd her breath: What further woe conspires againft mine age? Prince. Look, and thou shalt fee.

Mon. O thou untaught? what manners is in

this,

To press before thy father to a grave?

Prince. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while, 'Till we can clear these ambiguities,

And know their spring, their head, their true de

scent;

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 fufpicion.

Fri. I am the greatest, able to do least,
Yet most suspected, as the time and place
Doth make against me, of this direful murder;
And here I stand, both to impeach and purge
Myself condemned and myself excus'd.

Prince. Then say at once what doft thou know

in this.

Fri. I will be brief, for my short date of breath Is not so long as is a tedious tale. Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet; And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife:

ROMEO AND JULIET.

this city;

Warried them; and their ftolen marriage-day Ty balt's dooms-day, whose untimely death from the new-made bridegroom hom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin'd.

Banith'd

For

You and noge from her Tooth, and would then comes the to me; Betrothto remove that fiege of grid fro perforce,

And,

with wild looks, bid me devise some means d her from this second marriage,

hen

my cell there would she kill herself. gave I her, so tutor'd by my art,

Aneeping potion; which so took effect

I intended, for it wrought on her he form of death: meantime I writ to Romeo, That he should hither come as this dire night, help to take her from her borrow'd grave, Being the time the potion's force should cease. But he which bore my letter, friar John, Was staid by accident; and yesternight Return'd my letter back: Then all alone,

At the prefixed hour of her waking,

Came I to take her from her kindred's vault;
Meaning to keep her closely at my cell,
Till I conveniently could fend to Romeo :
But, when I came, (some minute ere the time
Of her awakening,) here untimely lay
The noble Paris, and true Romeo, dead.
She wakes; and I entreated her come forth,
And bear this work of heaven with patience :
But then a noise did scare me from the tomb;
And the, too defperate, would not go with me,
But (as it feems) did violence on herself.
All this I know; and to the marriage
Her nurfe is privy: And, if aught in this
Mifcarried by my fault, let my old life
Be facrific'd, fome hour before his time,
Goto the rigour of feverest law.

Prince. We still have known thee for a holy

man.

Where's Romeo's man? what can he say in this?
Bal. I brought my master news of Juliet's death;
And then in poft he came from Mantua,
To this fame place, to this same monument.
This letter he early bid me give his father;
And threaten'd me with death, going in the vault,
FI departed not, and left him there.

Prince. Give me the letter, I will look on it.Where is the county's page, that rais'd the watch?Sirrah, what made your master in this place?

Page. He came with flowers to strew his lady's

grave;
And bid me ftand 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 poifon
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 fcourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!
And I, for winking at your difcords 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;
That, while Verona by that name is known,
There shall no figure at fuch rate be set,
As that of true and faithful Juliet.

106

ROMEO AND JULIET.

Poor facrifices of our enmity!

Cap. As rich shall Romeo by his lady lie; Prince. A glooming peace this morning with it The fun, for forrow, will not show his head : Go hencere more talk of these sad things;

brings;

Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:

For never was a story of more woe,
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

[Exeunt.

pleasing of our author's This Perform play is one of the most busy and various, the incicemances. The scenes are the catastrophe irresistibints numerous and important, the the action carried

with such probability, at least with such congruity Here is one of the few attempts of Shakspeare to exhibitre is one of attentlemen, to reprefent the sprightliness of juvenile elegance.

to popular opinions, as tragedy requires.

airy

mentions

of

Mr. Dryden

a tradition, which might easily reach his time,

he

bligedeclaration made by Shakespeare,thest he should

thinks him "

no

have been killed by him.
uch formidabie pershim but that he might have lived
through the players died in his bed, without danger
the poet. Dryden well knew, had he been in quest
of truth, in a pointed sentence, that more regard is com-
monly 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 preci-
Pitated, he has lived out the time allotted him in the
Construction of the play.

The nurse is one of the characters in which the author delighted: he has, with great subtlety of distinction, drawn her at once loquacious and secret, obsequious and happily wrought, but his painsolent, trusty and dishonest. JOHNSON thetic strains are always polluted with some unexpected depravations. His persons, however distressed, have a conceit left them in their misery; a miserable conceit.