Ah, sirrah by my fay, it waxes late;

I'll to my rest. [Exeunt all but JULIET and Nurse. Jul. Come hither, nurse: What is yond' gentle

man?

Nurse. The son and heir of old Tiberio.

Jul. What's he, that now is going out of door? Nurse. Marry, that, I think, be young Petruchio. Jul. What's he, that follows there, that would not dance?

Nurse. I know not.

Jul. Go, ask his name. If he be married,

My grave is like to be my wedding bed.

Nurse. His name is Romeo, and a Montague; The only son of your great enemy.

Jul. My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me,

That I must love a loathed enemy.

Nurse. What's this? what's this?
Jul.

A rhyme I learn'd even now

Of one I danc'd withal. [One calls within, JULIET!

Nurse.

Anon, anon:—

Come, let's away; the strangers all are gone.

Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie,

And young affection gapes to be his heir:

That fair, for which love groan'd for,18 and would die,

17 This Chorus is not in the quarto of 1597, but is in all the other old copies.

18 This doubling of a preposition was common with the old writers, and occurs divers times in these plays. See As You Like It, Act ii. sc. 7, note 10.- Fair, in this line, is used as a substan tive, and in the sense of beauty. The usage was common.

H.

With tender Juliet match'd is now not fair.
Now Romeo is belov'd, and loves again,
Alike bewitched by the charm of looks;

But to his foe suppos'd he must complain,

And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks : Being held a foe, he may not have access

To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear;
And she as much in love, her means much less
To meet her new-beloved any where:

But passion lends them power, time means, to meet, Tempering extremities with extreme sweet.

[Exit.

ACT II.

SCENE I. An open Place, adjoining CAPULET'S

Garden.

Enter ROMEO.

Rom. Can I go forward, when my heart is here? Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out. [He climbs the Wall, and leaps down within it.

Enter BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO.

Ben. Romeo! my cousin Romeo! Rɔmeo! Mer. He is wise; And, on my life, hath stolen him home to bed.

Ben. He ran this way, and leap'd this orchard' wall.

Call, good Mercutio.

Orchard, from hort-yard, was formerly used for a garden

See Julius Caesar, Act ii. sc. 1, note 1.

H.

Mer.

Nay, I'll conjure too.

Romeo! huinours! madman! passion! lover!
Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh;

Speak but one hyme, and I am satisfied;
Cry but — Ah me! pronounce2 but — love and dove;
Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,
One nickname for her purblind son and heir,
Young auburn Cupid, he that shot so trim,3
When king Cophetua lov'd the beggar-maid.
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not
The ape is dead, and I must conjure him.
I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,
By her high forehead and her scarlet lip,
By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,

4

2 This is the reading of the quarto of 1597. Those of 1599 and 1609 and the folio read prorant, an evident corruption. The folio of 1632 has couply, meaning couple, which has been the reading of many modern editions.

3 The old copies have "Abraham Cupid," which Upton changed to" Adam Cupid," supposing it to refer to Adam Bell the famous archer of the old ballad. The change is adopted in all modern editions excepting Knight's, who retains Abraham, explaining it to mean "the cheat- -the Abraham man'- of our old statutes." Auburn is proposed by Mr. Dyce, who shows that it was a common epithet of Cupid, and was often misprinted abraham and Abram. Thus, in Soliman and Perseda, we have "abrahamcolour'd Troion" for Trojan with auburn-colour'd hair; and in Coriolanus, Act ii. sc. 3, "not that our heads are some brown, some black, some Abram," where Abram is changed to auburn in modern editions. Trim is from the first quarto, the other old That trim is the right word, is shown by the old ballad of " King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid," which the Poet nad in his mind. One stanza is as follows:

copies having true.

"The blinded boy, that shoots so trim,

From heaven down did hie;

He drew a dart, and shot at him

In place where he did lie."

H.

This phrase in Shakespeare's time was used as an expression

of tenderuess, like poor fool.

And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,

That in thy likeness thou appear to us.

Ben. An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. Mer. This cannot anger him: 'twould anger him To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle

Of some strange nature, letting it there stand
Till she had laid it, and conjur'd it down;
That were some spite: my invocation

Is fair and honest, and, in his mistress' name,

I conjure only but to raise up him.

Ben. Come, he hath hid himself among these trees,

To be consorted with the humorous night :*
Blind is his love, and best befits the dark.

Mer. If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark. Now will he sit under a medlar tree,

And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit,
As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.
O Romeo! that she were, O, that she were
An open et cætera, thou a poprin pear! —
Romeo, good night: - I'll to my truckle-bed;
This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep.
Come, shall we go?

Ben.

Go, then; for 'tis in vain To seek him here, that means not to be found.

[Exeunt.

That is, the humid, the moist dewy night.

The truckle-bed or trundle-bed was a bed for the servant or page, and was so made as to run under the "standing-bed," which was for the master. See The Merry Wives of Windsor Act iv. sc. 5, note 1. We are not to suppose that Mercutio slept in the servant's bed: he merely speaks of his truckle-bed in contrast with the field-bed, that is, the ground.

H.

SCENE II. CAPULET'S Garden.

Enter ROMEO.

Rom. He jests at scars, that never felt a wound. [JULIET appears above, at a Window.

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid,' since she is envious;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.
It is my lady; O! it is my love:

O, that she knew she were!

She speaks, yet she says nothing: What of that?
Her eye discourses, I will answer it.

I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks:
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars,
As daylight doth a lamp: her eyes in heaven2
Would through the airy region stream so bright,
That birds would sing, and think it were not night.
See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O, that I were a glove upon that hand,

That I might touch that cheek!

Jul.
Rom.

Ah me!

She speaks:

1 That is, be not a votary to the moon, to Diana.

eyes.

So the first quarto: the other old copies have eye instead of

H.