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Rom. Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urg'd! Give me my sin again.

Jul.

You kiss by the book.

Nurse. Madam, your mother craves a word with

you.

Rom. What is her mother?

Nurse.

Marry, bachelor,

Her mother is the lady of the house,
And a good lady, and a wise, and virtuous:
I nurs'd her daughter, that you talk'd withal;
I tell you, he, that can lay hold of her,
Shall have the chinks.

Rom.

8

Is she a Capulet? O dear account! my life is my foe's debt. Ben. Away, begone; the sport is at the best. Rom. Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest. 1 Cap. Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone; We have a trifling foolish banquet towards. Is it e'en so? Why, then I thank you all; I thank you, honest gentlemen; good night:More torches here!-Come on, then let's to bed. Ah, sirrah, [To 2 Cap.] by my fay, it waxes late; I'll to my rest. [Exeunt all but JULIET and Nurse. Jul. Čome hither, nurse: What is yon 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.

towards.] Towards is ready, at hand.

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.

Of one I danc'd withal

Nurse.

A rhyme I learn'd even now
One calls within, JULIET.

Anon, anon:

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

Enter CHORUS.

[Exeunt.

Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie,
And young affection gapes to be his heir;
That fair, which love groan'd for, and would die,
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, Temp'ring extremities with extreme sweet.

ACT II.

[Exit.

SCENE I. An open Place, adjoining Capulet's Garden.

Enter ROMEO.

Rom. Can I go forward, when my heart is here?

9 That fair,] Fair, it has been already observed, was formerly used as a substantive, and was synonymous to beauty.

Turn back, dull earth, and find thy center out. [He climbs the Wall, and leaps down within it.

Enter BENVOLIO, and MERCUTIO.

Ben. Romeo! my cousin Romeo!
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.

Mer.

Nay, I'll conjure too. Romeo! humours! madman! passion! lover! Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh, Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied; Cry but-Ah me! couple but-love and dove; Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word, One nick-name for her purblind son and heir, Young Adam Cupid, he that shot to trim, When king Cophetua lov'd the beggar-maid.'— He heareth not, stirreth not, he moveth not; The ape is dead,2 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, And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,

3

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

When king Cophetua, &c.] Alluding to an old ballad preserved in the first Volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of ancient English Poetry.

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The ape is dead,] This phrase appears to have been frequently applied to young men, in our author's time, without any reference to the mimickry of that animal. It was an expression of tenderness, like poor fool.

By her high forehead,] A high forehead was in Shakspeare's time thought eminently beautiful.

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 those trees,

To be consorted with the humorous night:3
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.—
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.

SCENE II.

Capulet's Garden.

Enter ROMEO.

4

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!

night.

the humorous night:] Means humid, the moist dewy

He jests at scars,] Mercutio, whose jests he overheard; or perhaps it is an allusion to his having conceived himself so armed with the love of Rosalind, that no other beauty could make any impression on him.

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 eye in heaven
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:-
O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art
As glorious to this night, being o'er my head,
As is a winged messenger of heaven

Unto the white-upturned wond'ring eyes
Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him,
When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds,
And sails upon the bosom of the air.

Jul. O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou
Romeo?

Deny thy father, and refuse thy name:
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,

5 Be not her maid,] Be not a votary to the moon, to Diana. VOL. IX.

E

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