For this, being smelt, with that part 1 cheers each part;
Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart.
Two such opposed foes encamp them still

In man as well as herbs, grace, and rude will;
And, where the worser is predominant,

Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

Enter ROMEO.

Rom. Good morrow, father!

Fri.

Benedicite!

What early tongue so sweet saluteth me?
Young son, it argues a distemper'd head,
So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed:
Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye,
And where care lodges, sleep will never lie;
But where unbruised youth with unstuff'd brain
Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign:
Therefore thy earliness doth me assure,

Thou art up-rous'd by some distemp'rature ;
Or if not so, then here I hit it right

Our Romeo hath not been in bed to-night.

Rom. That last is true, the sweeter rest was mine.
Fri. God pardon sin ! wast thou with Rosaline ?
Rom. With Rosaline, my ghostly father? no;

I have forgot that name, and that name's woe.
Fri. That's my good son: But where hast thou been
then?

Rom. I'll tell thee, ere thou ask it me again.

I have been feasting with mine enemy;

Where, on a sudden, one hath wounded me,
That's by me wounded; both our remedies
Within thy help and holy physick lies:
I bear no hatred, blessed man; for, lo,

My intercession likewise steads my foe.

4

with that part - i. e. with the part which smells; with the olfactory nerves.

Fri. Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift; Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.

Rom. Then plainly know, my heart's dear love is set On the fair daughter of rich Capulet:

As mine on her's, so her's is set on mine;
And all combin'd, save what thou must combine
By holy marriage: When, and where, and how,
We met, we woo'd, and made exchange of vow,
I'll tell thee as we pass; but this I
That thou consent to marry us this day.

pray,

Fri. Holy Saint Francis! what a change is here!
Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear,
So soon forsaken? young men's love then lies
Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.
Jesu Maria! what a deal of brine

Hath wash'd thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline!
How much salt water thrown away in waste,
To season love, that of it doth not taste!
The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears,
Thy old groans ring yet in my ancient ears;
Lo, here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit
Of an old tear that is not wash'd off yet:
If e'er thou wast thyself, and these woes thine,
Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline;

And art thou chang'd? pronounce this sentence then-
Women may fall, when there's no strength in men.
Rom. Thou chidd'st me oft for loving Rosaline.
Fri. For doting, not for loving, pupil mine.
Rom. And bad'st me bury love.

Fri.

To lay one in, another out to have.

Not in a grave,

Rom. I pray thee, chide not: she, whom I love now, Doth grace for grace, and love for love allow;

The other did not so.

O, she knew well,

Fri.
Thy love did read by rote, and could not spell.
But come, young waverer, come go with me,
In one respect I'll thy assistant be;

For this alliance may so happy prove,

To turn your households' rancour to pure love.
Rom. O, let us hence; I stand on sudden haste."
Fri. Wisely, and slow; They stumble, that run fast.

[Exeunt,

SCENE IV.

A Street.

Enter BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO.

Mer. Where the devil should this Romeo be ?-
Came he not home to-night?

Ben. Not to his father's; I spoke with his man.
Mer. Ah, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that
Rosaline,

Torments him so, that he will sure run mad.

Ben. Tybalt, the kinsman of old Capulet, Hath sent a letter to his father's house.

Mer. A challenge, on my life.

Ben. Romeo will answer it.

Mer. Any man, that can write, may answer a letter. Ben. Nay, he will answer the letter's master, how he dares, being dared.

Mer. Alas, poor Romeo, he is already dead! stabbed with a white wench's black eye; shot thorough the ear with a love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's butt-shaft ; And is he a man to encounter Tybalt?

5

Ben. Why, what is Tybalt?

· I stand on sudden haste.] i. e. it is of the utmost consequence for me to be hasty.

6—

the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy's buttshaft;] The allusion is to archery. The clout or white mark at which the arrows are directed, was fastened by a black pin placed in the center of it. To hit this was the highest ambition of every marksman.

Mer. More than prince of cats", I can tell you. O, he is the courageous captain of compliments. He fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, distance, and proportion; rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom: the very butcher of a silk button, a duellist, a duellist; a gentleman of the very first house, -of the first and second cause: Ah, the immortal passado! the punto reverso! the hay !9

Ben. The what?

Mer. The pox of such antick, lisping, affecting fantasticoes; these new tuners of accents!- - By Jesu, a

very good blade! a very tall man! — a very good whore!

Why, is not this a lamentable thing, grandsire, that we should be thus afflicted with these strange flies, these fashion-mongers, these pardonnez-moys, who stand so much on the new form, that they cannot sit at ease on the old bench? O, their bons, their bons!

Enter ROMEO.

Now is he for the Laura, to his lady,

Ben. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo. Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring:-0 flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified! numbers that Petrarch flowed in: was but a kitchen-wench; marry, she had a better love to be-rhyme her: Dido, a dowdy; Cleopatra, a gipsy; Helen and Hero, hildings and harlots; Thisbé,

7 More than prince of cats,] Tybert, the name given to the cat, in the story-book of Reynard the Fox.

8 a gentleman of the very first house, of the first and second cause: i. e. a gentleman of the first rank, of the first eminence among these duellists; and one who understands the whole science of quarrelling, and will tell you of the first cause, and the second cause, for which a man is to fight.

9

the hay!] All the terms of the modern fencing-school were originally Italian; the rapier, or small thrusting-sword, being first used in Italy. The hay is the word hai, you have it, used when a thrust reaches the antagonist, from which our fencers, on the same occasion, without knowing, I suppose, any reason for it, cry out ha!

a grey eye or so, but not to the purpose. Signior Romeo, bon jour! there's a French salutation to your French slop. You gave us the counterfeit fairly last

night.

1

Rom. Good morrow to you both. What counterfeit did I give you?

Mer. The slip, sir, the slip2; Can you not conceive? Rom. Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was great; and, in such a case as mine, a man may strain courtesy. Mer. That's as much as to say - such a case as yours

-

constrains a man to bow in the hams.

Rom. Meaning-to court'sy.
Mer. Thou hast most kindly hit it.
Rom. A most courteous exposition.

Mer. Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy.
Rom. Pink for flower.

Mer. Right.

Rom. Why, then is my pump well flowered.3

Mer. Well said: Follow me this jest now, till thou hast worn out thy pump; that, when the single sole of it is worn, the jest may remain, after the wearing, solely singular.

Rom. O single-soled jest*, solely singular for the singleness!

Mer. Come between us, good Benvolio; my wits fail. Rom. Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or I'll cry

a match.

1

Mer. Nay, if thy wits run the wild-goose chace3, I

your French slop.] Slops are large loose breeches or trowsers, worn at present only by sailors.

2 The slip, sir, the slip;] In our author's time there was a counterfeit piece of money distinguished by the name of a slip.

3

then is my pump well flowered.] It was the custom to wear ribbons in the shoes formed into the shape of roses, or of any other flowers.

4 O single-soled jest,] i. e. slight, unsolid, feeble.

5

if thy wits run the wild-goose chace,] One kind of horserace, which resembled the flight of wild-geese, was formerly known