Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

3 Dove-feather'd raven! wolvifh rav'ning Lamb!
Defpifed fubftance, of divineft fhow!
Juft oppofite to what thou justly feem'ft,
A damned Saint, an honourable villain!
O nature! what hadft thou to do in hell,
When thou didst bower the Spirit of a fiend
In mortal Paradife of fuch fweet flesh?
Was ever book, containing fuch vile matter,
So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwelle sit
In fuch a gorgeous palace!

Nurfe. There's no truft,

No faith, no honefty, in men; all perjur'd;
All, all forfworn, all naught; and all diffemblers.
Ah, where's my man? Give me fome Aqua vita-
These griefs, thefe woes, thefe forrows make me old!
Shame come to Romeo!"

Jul. Blifter'd be thy tongue,

r

For fuch a wifh! he was not born to fhame;
Upon his brow fhame is afham'd to fit:

For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd
Sole monarch of the univerfal earth.

O, what a beast was I to chide him so ?

[ocr errors]

Nurfe. Will you speak well of him, that kill'a your coufin?

Jul. Shall I fpeak ill of him, that is my husband?

3 In old editions.

1

as a crutch for a labouring, haltRavenous Dove, feather'd Raing verfe? I'll venture to restore ven, &c.] The four folto the Poet a line that is in his lowing lines not in the first edi- own mode of thinking, and trution, as well as fome others ly worthy of him. Ravenous was which I have omitted. FOPE. blunderingly coin'd out of raven Ravenous Dove, feather'd Ra- and ravening; and, if we only throw it out, we gain at once an harmonious verfe, and a proper contraft of epithets and images. Dove feather'd Raven! wolvifb-rav'ning Lamb!

ven,

Wolvifh ravening Lamb!] This paffage Mr. Pope has thrown out of the text, because thefe two noble hemiftichs are inharmonious: But is there no fuch thing

THEOBALD.

Ah,

Ah, poor my Lord, what tongue shall smooth thy

name,

When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it!i
But, wherefore, villain, didft thou kill my coufin?
That villain coufin would have kill'd my husband.
Back, foolish tears, back to your native fpring;
Your tributary drops belong to woe,

Which you, miftaking, offer up to joy.

My husband lives, that Tybalt would have flain ;
And Tybalt's dead, that would have kill'd my huf-
band;

All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?
Some word there was, woffer than Tybalt's death,!.
That murder'd me; I would forget it, fain ;
But, oh! it preffes to my memory,
Like damned guilty deeds to finners' minds.
Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banished!

That banished, that one word banished,

+ Hath flain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt's death
Was woe enough, if it had ended there;
Or if fqu'r woe delights in fellowship,

And needly will be rank'd with other griefs,
Why follow'd not, when fhe faid Tybalt's dead,
Thy Father or thy Mother, nay, or both?
Which modern lamentation might have mov'd;
But with a rear-ward following Tybalt's death,
Romeo is banished-to fpeak that word,
Is, father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,
All flain, all dead!- -Romeo is banished!
There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,
In that word's death; no words can that woe found.

4

--

Hath fain ten thousand Tybalts:] Hath put Tybalt out of my mind as if out of being.

5 Which modern lamentation, &c] This line is left out of the later editions, I fuppofe because

[blocks in formation]

Where is my father, and my mother, nurse?
Nurfe. Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's coarfe,
Will you go to them? I will bring you thither
Jul. Wash they his wounds with tears? mine fhall
be spent,

When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment.
Take up thofe Cords;poor Ropes, you are be-
guil'd;

Both you and I; for Romeo is exil'd.

He made you for a high-way to my bed:
But I, a maid, die Maiden widowed.

[ocr errors]

Come, Cord; come, nurfe; I'll to my wedding-Bed:
And Death, not Romea, take my Maidenhead !
Nurfe. Hie to your chamber, I'll find Romeo
To comfort you. I wot well, where he is.
Hark ye. Your Romeo will be here at night,
I'll to him, he is hid at Lawrence' cell.

'

Jul. Oh find him, give this ring to my true

knight.

And bid him come, to take his last farewel.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

Changes to the Monaftery.

Enter Friar Lawrence and Romeo.

Fri. ROMEO, come forth; come forth, thou

fearful man.

Affliction is enamour'd of thy parts,

And thou art wedded to calamity.

Rom. Father, what news? what is the Prince's doom?

What forrow craves acquaintance at my hand,

That I yet know not?

Fri. Too familiar

Is my dear fon with fuch fou'r company.

I bring the tidings of the Prince's doom?

Rom. What lefs than dooms-day is the Prince's """doom?

Fri. A gentler judgment vanish'd from his lips, Not body's death, but body's banishment.

Rom. Ha, banishment! be merciful, fay, death; For exile hath more terror in his look,

Much more than death. Do not fay, banishment.
Fri. Here from Verona art thou banished.
Be patient, for the world is broad and wide.

Rom. There is no world without Verona's walls,
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.

Hence banished, is banith'd from the world;
And world-exil'd, is death. That banishment
Is death mil-term'd calling death banishment,
Thou cut'ft my head off with a golden ax,
And smil❜st upon the stroke that murders me.

Fri. O deadly fin! O rude unthankfulness!
Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind Prince,
Taking thy part, hath rufht afide the law,
And turn'd that black word death to banishment.
This is dear mercy, and thou feeft it not.

Rom. Tis torture, and not mercy. Heav'n is
there,

Where Juliet lives; and every cat and dog
And little moufe, every unworthy thing,
Lives here in heaven, and may look on her;
But Romeo may not. "More validity,
More honourable state, more courtship lives
In carrion flies, than Romeo; they may feize

6 More validity,
'More honourable fate, more
courtship lives

In carrion flies, than Ro-
meo.-] Validity feems here

to mean, worth, or dignity; and courtship the state of a courtier permitted to approach the higheft préfence.

On

On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand, r
And steal immortal blessings from her lips;
Which ev'n in pure and vestal modesty
Still blush, as thinking her own kiffes fin.
This may flies do, when I from this must fly;
And fay't thou yet, that exile is not death?
But Romeo may not he is banished. ead
Hadft thou no Poifon mixt, no fharp-ground knife,
No fudden mean of death, tho' ne'er fo mean,
But banished to kill me? banished?
O Friar, the Damned use that word in hell, i
Howlings attend it: how haft thou the heart,
Being a Divine, a ghostly Confeffor,
A fin-abfolver, and my friend profeft,
To mangle me with that word, banishment?
Fri. Fond mad-man, hear me speak.

[ocr errors]

Rom. O, thou wilt fpeak again of banishment. Fri. I'll give thee armour to keep off that word, Adverfity's fweet milk, philofophy,

A.

To comfort thee, tho' thou art banished.
Rom: Yet, banished? hang up philosophy;
Unless philofophy can make a Juliet,
Difplant a town, reverfe a Prince's doom,
It helps not, it prevails not, talk no more
Fri. O, then I fee that mad men have no ears.
Rom. How fhould they, when that wife men have
no eyes?

Fri. Let me difpute with thee of thy estate.

[ocr errors]

Rom. Thou canst not speak of what thou dost not

feel:

Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love,..
An hour but married, Tybalt murdered,

Doating like me, and like me banished;

Then might'ft thou fpeak, then might'ft thou tear thy

hair,

And fall upon the ground as I do now,

Taking the measure of an unmade grave. [Throwing bimfelf on the ground.

« AnteriorContinuar »