ful. How cam'ft thou hither? tell me; and wherefore?

The orchard-walls are high, and hard to climb
And the place death, confidering who thou art,
If any of my kinfmen find thee here.

Rom. With loves light wings did I o'er-perch these walls,

For ftony limits cannot hold love out:

And what love can do, that dares love attempt;
Therefore thy kinfmen are no stop to me.

Jul. If they do fee thee, they will murder thee.
Rom. Alack! there lies more peril in thine eye,
Than twenty
of their fwords; look thou but sweet,
And I am proof against their enmity.

ful. I would not for the world, they faw thee here. Rom. I have night's cloak to hide me from their fight;

And, but thou love me, let them find me here;
My life were better ended by their hate,

Than death prorogu venting of thy love.

Jul. By whofe direct thou out this place? Rom. By love, that f'did prompt me to enquire; He lent me counfel, and I tent him eyes.

I am no pilot; yet wert thou as far

As that vaft fhore, wash'd with the farthest sea,
I would adventure for fuch merchandise.

Jul. Thou know'ft the mafk of night is on my face;

Elfe would a maiden-blufh bepaint my cheek
For that which thou haft heard me fpeak to-night.
Fain would I dwell on form; fain, fain, deny
What I have spoke :-but farewell compliment!
Doft thou love me? I know, thou wilt fay, ay;
And I will take thy word:-yet if thou fwear'ft,
Thou may'st prove false; at lovers' perjuries
They fay Jove laughs. Oh, gentle Romeo,
If thou doft love, pronounce it faithfully;
Or if thou think'ft I am too quickly won,

I'll frown, and be perverfe, and fay thee nay,
So thou wilt woo; but elfe, not for the world.
In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond;

And therefore thou may'ft think my 'haviour light;
But truft me, gentleman, I'll prove more true,
Than those that have more 9 cunning to be strange.
I fhould have been more strange I muft confefs,
But that thou over-heardft, ere I was 'ware,
My true love's paffion: therefore pardon me,
And not impute this yielding to light love,
Which the dark night hath fo discovered.

Rom. Lady, by yonder bleffed moon I vow,
That tips with filver all these fruit-tree tops-
Jul. O fwear not by the moon, the inconftant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb;
Left that thy love prove likewife variable,
Rom. What fhall I swear by?

Jul. Do not fwear at all;

Or, if thou wilt, fwear by thy gracious felf,
Which is the god of my idolatry,

And I'll believe thee.

Rom. If my true heart's love

Jul. Well, do not fwear. Although I joy in thee, I have no joy of this contract to-night:

It is too rafh, too unadvis'd, too fudden;
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be,
Ere one can fay,-it lightens. 1 Sweet, good night.
This bud of love by fummer's ripening breath
May prove a beauteous flower, when next we meet.
Good night, good night!-as fweet repofe and reft
Come to thy heart, as that within my breaft!

Rom. O, wilt thou leave me fo unfatisfied?

9-ceying to be frange.] For coying, the modern editions have cunning. JOHNSON.

Cunning is the reading of the elder quarto, and I have restored it. STEEVENS.

All the intermediate lines from Saweet, good night, to Stay but a little, &c. were added after the firft copy. STEVENS. VOL. X.

D

Jul.

Jul. What fatisfaction canft thou have to-night? 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. Wouldft thou withdraw it? for what purpofe, 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.

I hear fome noise within. Dear love, adieu!

[Nurfe calls within. Anon, good nurfe !-Sweet Montague, be true. Stay but a little, I will come again.

Rom. O bleffed, bleffed night! I am afraid, Being in night, all this is but a dream,

Too flattering-fweet to be fubftantial.

Re-enter Juliet above.

[Exit.

Jul. Three words, dear Romeo, and good-night,

indeed.

If that thy bent of love be honourable,

Thy purpose marriage, fend me word to-morrow,
By one that I'll procure to come to thee,
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.
[Within: Madam.
I come, anon-but if thou mean'ft not well,
I do befeech thee-[Within: Madam.] By and by,

I come:

To cease thy fuit, and leave me to my grief.
To-morrow will I fend.

Rom. So thrive my foul,

Jul. A thousand times, good night!

[Exit.

Rom.

Rom. A thousand times the worfe, to want thy

light.

Love goes toward love, as fchool-boys from their books;

But love from love, towards school with heavy looks.

Re-enter Juliet above.

Jul. Hift! Romeo, hift! O for a faulconer's voice, 2 To lure this taffel gentle back again!

Bondage is hoarfe, and may not speak aloud;
Elfe would I tear the cave where echo lies,
And make her airy tongue more hoarfe than mine,
With repetition of my Romeo's name.

Rom. It is my foul that calls upon my name:
How filver-fweet found lovers' tongues by night,
Like fofteft mufick to attending ears!

Jul. Romeo!

Rom. My fweet!

ful. At what o'clock to-morrow Shall I fend to thee?

Rom. By 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 ftand here 'till thou remember it. Jul. I fhall forget, to have thee ftill ftand there, Remembring how I love thy company.

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

To lure this taffel gentle back again!] The taffel or tiercel (for fo it fhould be fpelt) is the gofe-hawk. In the Booke of Falconrye, by George Turbervile, gent. printed in 1575, I find a whole chapter on the falcon gentle, &c. So in The Guardian, by Maflinger,

66

then for an evening flight

"A tiercel gentle."

Taylor the water poet ufes the fame expreffion,

- By

cafting out the lure, the makes the tafel gentle come to her

"fit." STEEVENS.

ful. 'Tis almoft morning. I would have thee gone; And yet no further than a wanton's bird,

That lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a filk thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.

Rom. I would, I were thy bird.

Jul. Sweet, fo would I;

Yet I fhould kill thee with much cherishing. -Good night, good night! Parting is fuch fweet forrow,

That I fhall fay good night, 'till it be morrow. [Exit. Rom. Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy

breaft!

'Would I were fleep and peace, fo fweet to reft!
Hence will I to my ghoftly father's cell,
His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell.

[Exit.

Enter friar Lawrence, with a basket.

Fri. The grey-cy'd morn fmiles on the frowning night,

Checkering the eastern clouds with ftreaks of light; And flecker'd darkness 4, like a drunkard, reels From forth day's path-way made by Titan's wheels. Now

3 The grey-ey'd morn, &c.] Thefe four first lines are here replaced, conformable to the firft 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 thoughts of his miftrefs. POPE.

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

The fame mistake has likewife happened in the quartos 1599, 1609, and 1637. STEEVENS.

4 And flecker'd darkness,] Flecker'd is fpotted, dappled, freak'd, or variegated. In this fenfe it is ufed by Churchyard,

in