To paly ashes; thy eyes' windows fall,

Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
Each part depriv'd of supple government,

10

Shall, stiff, and stark, and cold, appear like death:
And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt remain full two and forty hours,
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Now when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead:
Then (as the manner of our country is)
In thy best robes uncover❜d on the bier 1o,
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault,
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the mean time, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift;
And hither shall he come; and he and I
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this shall free thee from this present shame;
If no unconstant toy11, nor womanish fear,

11

Abate thy valour in the acting it.

Jul. Give me, give me! O tell me not of fear.

9 Instead of the remainder of this scene the 4to 1597 has only these four lines :

'And when thou art laid in thy kindred's vault,

I'll send in haste to Mantua to thy lord;

And he shall come and take thee from thy grave.

Jul. Friar, I go; be sure thou send for my dear Romeo.' 10 The Italian custom here alluded to, of carrying the dead body to the grave richly dressed, and with the face uncovered (which is not mentioned by Painter), Shakspeare found particularly described in the The Tragicall Hystory of Romeus and Juliet:

'Another use there is, that whosoever dies,

Borne to the church, with open face upon the bier he lies,

In wonted weed attir'd, not wrapt in winding sheet.'

Thus also Ophelia's song in Hamlet:

They bore him bare-faced on the bier.'

11 If no fickle freak, no light caprice, no change of fancy, hinder the performance. The expressions are from the poem.

VOL. X.

M

Fri. Hold; get you gone, be strong and pros

perous

In this resolve: I'll send a friar with speed

To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.

Jul. Love, give me strength! and strength shall help afford.

Farewell, dear father!

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. A Room in Capulet's House.

Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, Nurse, and Servant.

Cap. So many guests invite as here are writ.

[Exit Servant. Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks1.

2 Serv. You shall have none ill, sir; for I'll try if they can lick their fingers 2.

Cap. How canst thou try them so?

2 Serv. Marry, sir, 'tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers: therefore he, that cannot lick his fingers, goes not with me.

Cap. Go, begone.—

[Exit Servant.

We shall be much unfurnish'd for this time.—

What, is my daughter gone to friar Laurence?

Nurse. Ay, forsooth.

Cap. Well, he may chance to do some good on her: A peevish self-will'd harlotry it is.

1 Capulet has in a former scene said :—

We'll keep no great ado:

we'll have some half a dozen friends."

The poet has made him alter his mind strangely, or had forgotten what he had made him say before. (See Act iii. Sc. iv.) Malone observes that the former scene was of the poet's own invention, and that he here recollected the poem :

he myndes to make for him a costly feast.' 2 This adage is found in Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, 1589:

'As the olde cocke crowes so doeth the chicke:
A bad cooke that cannot his owne fingers lick.'

Enter JULIET.

Nurse. See, where she comes from shrift with merry look.

Cap. How now, my headstrong? where have you been gadding?

Jul. Where I have learn'd me to repent the sin Of disobedient opposition

To you, and your behests; and am enjoin'd
By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here,
And beg your pardon :-Pardon, I beseech you!
Henceforward I am ever rul'd by you.

Cap. Send for the county: go tell him of this;
I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning.
Jul. I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell;
And gave him what becomed love I might,
Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.

4

Cap. Why, I am glad on't; this is well,-stand up: This is as't should be.-Let me see the county; Ay, marry, go, I say, and fetch him hither.Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar, All our whole city is much bound to him 5. Jul. Nurse, will you go with me into my closet, To help me sort such needful ornaments

As

you think fit to furnish me to-morrow?

La. Cap. No, not till Thursday; there is time enough.

morrow.

Cap. Go, nurse, go with her :-we'll to church to[Exeunt JULIET and Nurse. La. Cap. We shall be short in our provision; 'Tis now near night.

3 i. e. confession.

4 Becomed for becoming: one participle for another, a frequent practice with Shakspeare.

5 Thus the folio and the quartos 1599 and 1609: The oldest quarto reads perhaps more grammatically :

'All our whole city is much bound unto.'

Cap.

Tush! I will stir about,

And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife:
Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her;
I'll not to bed to-night; let me alone;
I'll play the housewife for this once.-What, ho!
They are all forth: Well, I will walk myself
To county Paris, to prepare him up

Against to-morrow: my heart is wondrous light,
Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim'd.

SCENE III. Juliet's Chamber.

Enter JULIET and Nurse.

[Exeunt.

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. Which, well thou know'st, is cross and full of sin.

Enter LADY CAPULET.

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;
For, I am sure, you have your hands full all,
In this so sudden business.

La. Cap.

Good night!

Get thee to bed, and rest; for thou hast need. [Exeunt LADY CAPULET and Nurse. Jul. Farewell1!-God knows, when we shall

meet again.

1 This speech received considerable additions after the first copy was published.

I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins,
That almost freezes up the heat of life:
I'll call them back again to comfort me:-
Nurse! What should she do here?

My dismal scene I needs must act alone.-
Come, phial.-

What if this mixture do not work at all?
Must I of force be married to the county ?-
No, no;-this shall forbid it :-lie thou there.-
[Laying down a Dagger2.
What if it be a poison, which the friar

Subtly hath minister'd to have me dead;
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour'd,
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear, it is: and yet, methinks, it should not,
For he hath still been tried a holy man:
I will not entertain so bad a thought.-
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo

Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point!
Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,

To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
Or, if I live, is it not very like,

The horrible conceit of death and night,
Together with the terror of the place,-
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle,

Where, for these many hundred years, the bones
Of all my buried ancestors are pack'd3;

2 This stage direction has been supplied by the modern ediThe quarto of 1597 reads:- Knife, lie thou there.'

tors.

I Daggers, or, as they were more commonly called, knives (says Mr. Gifford), were worn at all times by every woman in England; whether they were so worn in Italy, Shakspeare, I believe, never inquired, and I cannot tell.'-Works of Ben Jonson, vol. v. p. 221.

3 This idea was probably suggested to the poet by his native