Ben. Have you impórtun'd him by any means?
Mon. Both by myself, and many other friends:
But he, his own affections' counsellor,

Is to himself-I will not say, how true-
But to himself so secret and so close,
So far from sounding and discovery,
As is the bud bit with an envious worm,

Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.

Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow,
We would as willingly give curè, as know.

Enter ROMEO, at a distance.

Ben. See, where he comes: So please you, step aside; I'll know his grievance, or be much denied.

Mon. I would, thou wert so happy by thy stay, To hear true shrift.-Come, madam, let's away.

Ben. Good morrow, cousin.
Rom. Is the day so young?

Ben. But new struck nine.

[Exe. MONT. and Lady.

Rom. Ah me! sad hours seem long.

Was that my father that went hence so fast?

Ben. It was: What sadness lengthens Romeo's hours? Rom. Not having that, which, having, makes them

short.

Ben. In love?

Rom. Out

Ben. Of love?

Rom. Out of her favour, where I am in love.
Ben. Alas, that love, so gentle in his view,

Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof!

Rom. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will'

Where shall we dine?-O me !-What fray was here ?

Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all.

Here's much to do with hate, but more with love :Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!

O any thing, of nothing first create 2

O heavy lightness! serious vanity

Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is

This love feel I, that feel no love in this.

Dost thou not laugh?

Ben. No, coz, I rather weep.

Rom. Good heart, at what?

Ben. At thy good heart's oppression.
Rom. Why, such is love's transgression. 5
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast;
Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest

With more of thine: this love, that thou hast shown,
Doth add more grief to too much of mine own.
Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs;
Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes;
Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears:
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall, and a preserving sweet.
Farewell, my coz,

Ben. Soft, I will go along;

And if you leave me so, you do me wrong.
Rom. Tut, I am lost myself; I am not here;
This is not Romeo, he's some other where.

[Going.

Ben. Tell me in sadness, who she is you love?
Rom. What, shall I groan, and tell thee?
Ben. Groan? why, no;

But sadly tell me, who.

Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will;Ah, word ill urg'd to one that is so ill !—

In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.

Ben. I aim'd so near, when I suppos'd you lov'd.
Rom. A right good marksman!-and she's fair I love.
Ben. A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit.
Rom. Well, in that hit, you miss she'll not be hit
With Cupid's arrow, she hath Dian's wit ;8
And, in strong proof of chastity well arm'd,9

From love's weak childish bow she lives unharm'd,
She will not stay the siege of loving terms,
Nor bide the encounter of assailing eyes,
Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold:
O, she is rich in beauty; only poor,

That, when she dies, with beauty dies her store.
Ben.Then she hath sworn,that she will still live chaste?

[5] Such is the consequence of unskilful and mistaken kindness. JOHNS. [6] The author may mean being purged of smoke, but it is perhaps a meaning never given to the word in any other place. I would rather read, being urg'd: being excited and inforced. To urge the fire is the technical term. [7] That is, tell me gravely, tell me in seriousness. JOHNSON.

[8] As this play was written in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, I cannot help regarding these speeches of Romeo as an oblique compliment to her majesty STEEV [In chastity of proof, as we say in armour of proof. JOHNS

Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste; For beauty, starv'd with her severity,

Cuts beauty off from all posterity.

She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair,
To merit bliss by making me despair :

She hath forsworn to love; and, in that vow,

Do I live dead, that live to tell it now.

Ben. Be rul'd by me; forget to think of her. Rom. O, teach me how I should forget to think. Ben. By giving liberty unto thine eyes; Examine other beauties.

Rom. 'Tis the way

To call hers, exquisite, in question more:
Those happy masks, that kiss fair ladies' brows,
Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair;
He, that is strucken blind, cannot forget
The precious treasure of his eyesight lost :
Show me a mistress that is passing fair,
What doth her beauty serve, but as a note
Where I may read, who pass'd that passing fair ?
(Farewell; thou canst not teach me to forget.)

Ben. I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt. [Exe.

SCENE II.

A Street. Enter CAPULET, PARIS, and Servant.

Cap. And Montague is bound as well as I,
In penalty alike; and 'tis not hard, I think,
For men so old as we to keep the peace.

Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both;
And pity 'tis, you liv'd at odds so long.
But now, my lord, what say you to my suit?
Cap. But saying o'er what I have said before":
My child is yet a stranger in the world,
She hath not seen the change of fourteen years;
Let two more summers wither in their pride,
Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride.

Par. Younger than she are happy mothers made. Cap. And too soon marr'd are those so early made. The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she,

She is the hopeful lady of my earth:

But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart,
My will to her consent is but a part;

This is a Gallicism: Fille de terre is the French phrase for an heiress.

STEEVENS.

An she agree, within her scope of choice
Lies my consent and fair according voice.
This night I hold an old accustom'd feast,
Whereto I have invited many a guest,

Such as I love; and you, among the store,
Once more, most welcome, makes my number more.
At my poor house, look to behold this night
Earth-treading stars, that make dark heaven light:
Such comfort, as do lusty young men feel?
When well-apparell'd April on the heel

Of limping Winter treads, even with such delight
Among fresh female buds shall you this night
Inherit at my house; hear all, all see,

And like her most, whose merit most shall be:
Such, amongst view of many, mine, being one,
May stand in number, though in reckoning none.
Come, go with me.-Go, sirrah, trudge about
Through fair Verona; find those persons out,
Whose names are written there ; [Gives a paper.]

and to them say,

My house and welcome on their pleasures stay.

[Exeunt CAPULET and PARIS.

Serv. Find them out, whose names are written here? It is written-that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last, the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets; but I am sent to find those persons, whose names are here writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned :-In good time.

Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO.

Ben. Tut, man! one fire burns out another's burning.
One pain is lessen'd by another's anguish;

Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning;
One desperate grief cures with another's languish :
Take thou some new infection to thy eye,

And the rank poison of the old will die.

Rom. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that

[2] I read, Such comfort as do lusty yeomen feel.-You shall feel from the sight and conversation of these ladies, such hopes of happiness and such pleasure, as the farmer receives from the spring, when the plenty of the year begins, and the prospect of the harvest fills him with delight. JOHNSON. Young men are certainly yeomen. RITSON.

[3] Tackius tells us, that a toad, before she engages with a spider, will fortify herself with some of this plant; and that, if she comes off wounded, she cures herself afterwards with it. DR. GREY. The plantain leaf is a blood-stauncher, and was formerly applied to green wounds. STEEV.

Ben. For what, I pray thee?

Rom. For your broken shin.

Ben. Why, Romeo, art thou mad?

Rom. Not mad, but bound more than a madman is : Shut up in prison, kept without my food,

Whipp'd, and tormented, and-Good-e'en, good fellow.
Serv. Good gi' good e'en.-I pray, sir, can you read?
Rom. Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.

Serv. Perhaps you have learn'd it without book:
But I pray, can you read any thing you see?
Rom. Ay, if I know the letters, and the language.
Serv. Ye say honestly; Rest you merry.
Rom. Stay, fellow; I can read.

[Reads.

Signior Martino, and his wife, and daughters; County Anselme, and his beauteous sisters; The lady widow of Vitruvio; Signior Placentio, and his lovely nieces ; Mercutio, and his brother Valentine; Mine uncle Capulet, his wife, and daughters; My fair niece Rosaline; Livia; Signior Valentio, and his cousin Tybalt; Lucio, and the lively Helena.

A fair assembly; [Gives back the note.] Whither should they come ?

Serv. Up.

Rom. Whither?

Serv. To supper; to our house.

Rom. Whose house?

Serv. My master's.

Rom. Indeed, I should have asked you that before. Serv. Now I'll tell you without asking: My master is the great rich Capulet; and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine. Rest you merry.

Ben. At this same ancient feast of Capulet's
Sups the fair Rosaline, whom thou so lov'st;
With all the admired beauties of Verona :

Go thither; and, with unattainted eye,
Compare her face with some that I shall show,
And I will make thee think thy swan a crow.

[Exit.

Rom. When the devout religion of mine eye Maintains such falsehoood, then turn tears to fires! And these, who, often drown'd, could never die,Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars !

One fairer than my love! the all-seeing sun
Ne'er saw her match, since first the world begun.
Ben. Tut! you saw her fair, none else being by,