They are all forth :-Well, I will walk myself Against to-morrow: my heart is wondrous light, SCENE III. JULIET's Chamber. Enter JULIET and Nurse. Jul. Ay, those attires are best :-But, gentle nurse, I pray thee, leave me to myself to-night; For I have need of many orisons + To move the heavens to smile upon my state, La. Cap. What, are you busy? do you need my help Jul. No, madam; we have cull'd such necessaries As are behoveful for our state to-morrow : So please you, let me now be left alone, And let the nurse this night sit up with you; La. Cap. Good night! Get thee to bed, and rest; for thou hast need. [Exeunt Lady CAP. and Nurse. Jul.Farewell!-God knows, when we shall meet again. I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins, That almost freezes up the heat of life : My dismal scene I needs must act alone.- What if this mixture do not work at all? [Laying down a dagger. What if it be a poison, which the friar I fear, it is and yet, methinks, it should not, 7 Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point! To whose foul mouth no health some air breathes in, The horrible conceit of death and night, Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth, So early waking,-what with loathsome smells; [She throws herself on the bed. SCENE IV. CAPULET'S Hall. Enter Lady CAPULET and Nurse. La. Cap. Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, nurse. Nurse. They call for dates and quinces in the pastry. Enter CAPULET. Cap.Come,stir, stir, stir! the second cock hath crow'd, [4] This idea was probably suggested to our poet by his native place. The charnel at Stratford-upon-Avon is a very large one, and perhaps contains a greater number of bones than are to be found in any other repository of the same kind in England. I was furnished with this observation by Mr. Murphy, whose very elegant and spirited defence of Shakspeare against the criticisms of Voltaire, is not one of the least considerable out of many favours which he has conferred on the literary world. STEEVENS. [5] This speech is confused, and inconséquential, according to the disorder of Juliet's mind. JOHNSON. [6] Distracted. STEEVENS. The curfeu bell hath rung,7 'tis three o'clock :- Spare not for cost. Nurse. Go, go, you cot-quean, go, Get you to bed; 'faith, you'll be sick to-morrow Cap. No, not a whit; What! I have watch'd ere now All night for lesser cause, and ne'er been sick. 8 La. Cap. Ay,you have been a mouse-hunt in your time, & But I will watch you from such watching now. [Exeunt Lady CAPULET and Nurse. Cap. A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood!-Now, fellow, What's there? Enter Servants, with spits, logs, and baskets. 1 Serv. Things for the cook, sir; but I know not what. Cap. Make haste, make haste. [Ex.1 Serv.] Sirrah, fetch drier logs; Call Peter, he will show thee where they are. 2 Serv. I have a head, sir, that will find out logs, And never trouble Peter for the matter. [Exit. Cap. 'Mass, and well said; a merry whoreson ha, Thou shalt be logger-head.-Good faith, 'tis day : The county will be here with music straight, [Music within. For so he said he would. I hear him near :- Enter Nurse. Go, waken Juliet, go, and trim her up ; I'll go [Exeunt. [7] The curfeu bell is universally rung at eight or nine o'clock at night; generally according to the season. The term is here used with peculiar impropriety, as it is not believed that any bell was ever rung so early as three in the morning. The derivation of curfeu is well known, but it is a mere vulgar error that the institution was a badge of slavery imposed by the Norman conqueror To put out the fire became necessary only because it was time to go to bed: And if the curfeu commanded all fires to be extinguished, the morning bell ordered them to be lighted again. In short, the ringing of those two bells was a manifest and essential service to people who had scarcely any other means of measuring their time. RITSON. [8] In Norfolk, and many other parts of England, the cant term for a weasle is a mouse-hunt. The intrigues of this animal, like those of the cat kind, are usually carried on during the night. This circumstance will ac count for the appellation which Lady Capulet allows her husband to have' formerly deserved STEEVENS. SCENE V. JULIET's Chamber; JULIET on the Bed. Enter Nurse. Nurse. Mistress !-what, mistress !-Juliet !—fast, I warrant her, she :— Why, lamb !—why, lady !-fye, you slug-a-bed !— Why, love, I say!-madam! sweet-heart !—why, bride! What, not a word?-you take your pennyworths now; That you shall rest but little.-God forgive me, I needs must wake her :-Madam, madam, madam ! He'll fright you up, i'faith.-Will it not be ? Some aqua-vitæ, ho!-my lord! my lady! Enter Lady CAPULET. La. Cap. What noise is here? Nurse. O lamentable day! La. Cap. What is the matter? Nurse. Look, look! O heavy day! La. Cap. O me, O me !-my child, my only life, Revive, look up, or I will die with thee!— Help, help!-call help. Enter CAPULET. Cap. For shame, bring Juliet forth; her lord is come. Nur. She's dead, deceas'd, she's dead; alack the day! La. Cap. Alack the day! she's dead, she's dead, she's dead. Cap. Ha! let me see her :-Out, alas! she's cold; Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff; Life and these lips have long been separated: Death lies on her, like an untimely frost Upon the sweetest flower of all the field. Accursed time! unfortunate old man ! La. Cap. O woful time! Cap. Death,that hath ta’en herhence to make me wail, Ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak. Enter Friar LAURENCE and PARIS, with Musicians. Fri. Come, is the bride ready to go to church? Cap. Ready to go, but never to return : O son, the night before thy wedding-day Hath death lain with thy bride.-See, there she lies, Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir; Par. Have I thought long to see this morning's face, And doth it give me such a sight as this? La. Cap. Accurs'd, unhappy, wretched, hateful day! Most miserable hour, that e'er time saw In lasting labour of his pilgrimage ! But one, poor one, one poor and loving child, And cruel death hath catch'd it from my sight. O day! O day! O day! O hateful day! Par. Beguil'd, divorced, wronged, spited, slain ! By cruel cruel thee quite overthrown !— Cap. Despis'd, distressed, hated, martyr'd, kill'd! Uncomfortable time! why cam'st thou now To murder murder our solemnity ? O child! O child !—my soul, and not my child !— Fri. Peace, ho, for shame! confusion's cure lives not In these confusions. Heaven and yourself Had part in this fair maid; now heaven hath all, And all the better is it for the maid : Your part in her you could not keep from death; |