Jul. By whose direction found'st thou out this

place?
Rom. By love, who first did prompt me to inquire :
He lent me cour

ounsel, and I lent him eyes.
I am no pilot; yet, wert thou as far
As that vast shore wash'd with the furthest sea,
I would adventure for such merchandise.

Jul. Thou know'st, the mask of night is on my face;
Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek,
For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night.
Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny
What I have spoke; But farewell compliment!!
Dost thou love me? I know, thou wilt say-Ay;
And I will take thy word : yet, if thou swear’st,
Thou mayst prove false; at lovers' perjuries,
They say, Jove laughs 10. O, gentle Romeo,
If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully :-
Or if thou think'st I am too quickly won,
I'll frown, and be

say
So thou wilt woo: but, else, not for the world.
In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond;
And therefore thou may’st think my haviour light:
But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true
Than those that have more cunning to be strange 11.
I should have been more strange, I must confess,
But that thou over-heard'st, ere I was ware,

peryerse, and

thee nay,

9 i.e. farewell attention to forms.

10 This Shakspeare found in Ovid's Art of Love; perhaps in Marlowe's translation:

• For Jove himself sits in the azare skies,

And laughs below at lovers' perjuries.'
With the following beautiful antithesis to the above lines (says
Mr. Douce) every reader of taste will be gratified. It is given
memoriter from some old play, the name of which is forgotten :-

• When lovers swear true faith, the list’ning angels
Stand on the golden battlements of heaven,

And waft their vows to the eternal throne.' 11 To be distant, or shy.

My true love's passion: therefore pardon me;
And not impute this yielding to light love,
Which the dark night hath so discovered.

Rom. Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, That tips with silver 12 all these fruit-tree tops, –

Jul. O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.

Rom. What shall I swear by?
Jul.

Do not swear at all;
Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,
Which is the god of my idolatry,
And I'll believe thee.
Rom.

If my heart's dear love-
Jul. Well, do not swear: although I joy in thee,
I have no joy of this contract to-night:
It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden;
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be,
Ere one can say-It lightens 13. Sweet, good night!
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
Good night, good night! as sweet repose and rest
Come to thy heart, as that within my breast !

Rom. 0, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied ?
Jul. What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?

12 This image struck Pope :

• The moonbeam trembling falls,

And tips with silver all the walls.' And in the celebrated simile at the end of the eighth Iliad:

* And tips with silver every mountain's head.' 13 So in The Miracles of Moses, by Drayton, 1604 :

lightning ceaselessly to burn,
Swifter than thought from place to place to pass,
And being gone, doth suddenly return

Ere you could say precisely what it was.”
The same thought occurs in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

All the intermediate lines from Sweet, good night! to Stay but a little,' &c. were added after the first impression in 1597.

Rom. The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for

mine.
Jul. I gave thee mine before thou didst request it:
And yet I would it were to give again.
Rom. Would'st thou.withdraw it? for what

pur

pose, love?

Jul. But to be frank, and give it thee again.
And yet I wish but for the thing I have:
My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep; the more I give to thee,
The more I have, for both are infinite.

[Nurse calls within.
I hear some noise within; Dear love, adieu!
Anon, good nurse!-Sweet Montague, be true.
Stay, but a little, I will come again. [Exit.

Rom. O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard,
Being in night, all this is but a dream,
Too flattering-sweet to be substantial.

Re-enter JULIET, above.
Jul. Three words, dear Romeo, and good night,

indeed.
If that thy bent of love be honourable 14,
Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow,
By one that I'll procure to come to thee,

14 In Brooke's Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet she uses nearly the same expressions :

· If your thought be chaste, and have on virtue ground, If wedlook be the end and mark, which your desire hath

found,
Obedience set aside, unto my parents due,
The quarrel eke that long ago between our housholds grew,
Both me and mine I will all whole to you betake,
And following you whereso you go, my father's house forsake :
But if by wanton love and by unlawful suit
You think in ripest years to pluck my maidenhood's dainty

fruit
You are begail'd, and now your

Juliet

you

beseeks To cease your suit, and suffer her to live among her likes.'

Where, and what time, thou wilt perform the rite;
And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay,
And follow thee my lord throughout the world :

Nurse. [Within.] Madam.

Jul. I come anon :—But if thou mean’st not well, I do beseech thee,

Nurse. [Within.] Madam.
Jul.

By and by, I come:-
To cease thy suit, and leave me to my grief:
To-morrow will I send.
Rom.

So thrive my soul, Jul. A thousand times good night! [Erit. Rom. A thousand times the worse, to want thy

light.Love goes toward love, as school-boys from their

books; But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.

[Retiring slowly Re-enter JULIET, above. Jul. Hist! Romeo, hist!-0, for a falconer's voice, To lure this tassel-gentle 15 back again! Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud; Else would I tear the cave where echo lies, And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine With repetition of my Romeo's name.

Rom. It is my soul, that calls upon my name; 15 The tassel, or tiercel (for so it should be spelt), is the male of the gosshawk, and is said to be so called because it is a tierce or third less than the female. This is equally true of all birds“ of prey. This species of hawk had the epithet of gentle annexed to it, from the ease with which it was tamed, and its attachment to man. Tardif, in his book of Falconry, says that the tiercel has its name from being one of three birds usually found in the 'aerie of a falcon, two of which are females, and the third a male ; hence called tiercelet, or the third. According to the old books of sport the falcon gentle and tiercel gentle are birds for a prince.

16 This strong expression is more suitably employed by Mil

16

ton:

• A shout that tore hell's concave---i'

How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night,
Like softest musick to attending ears !

Jul. Romeo !
Rom.

My sweet 17!
Jul.

At what o'clock to-morrow
Shall I send to thee?
Rom.

At the hour of nine.
Jul. I will not fail; 'tis twenty years till then.
I have forgot why I did call thee back.

Rom. Let me stand here till thou remember it.

Jul. I shall forget, to have thee still stand there, Rememb’ring how I love thy company.

Rom. And I'll still stay, to have thee still forget,
Forgetting any other home but this.

Jul. 'Tis almost morning, I would have thee gone;
And yet no further than a wanton's bird ;
Who lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a silk thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.

Rom. I would, I were thy bird.
Jul.

Sweet, so would I:
Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
Good night, good night! parting is such sweet

sorrow,
That I shall say-good night, till it be morrow.

[Exit. Rom. Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy

breast! 'Would, I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest! Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell; His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell. [Exit.

17 The quarto of 1597 puts the cold, distant, and formal appellation Madam into the mouth of Romeo. The two subsequent quartos and the folio have my niece, which is a palpable corruption; but it is difficult to say what word was intended. My sweeť is the reading of the second folio.