Mer. Good King of cats, nothing but one of your nine lives, that I mean to make bold withal; and as you shall ufe me hereafter, dry-beat the reft of the eight. Will you pluck your fword out of his pilcher by the ears? Make hafte, left mine be about your ears ere it be out. Tyb. I am for you. [Drawing. Rom. Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up. Mer. Come, Sir, your paffado. [Mercutio and Tybalt fight. Rom. Draw, Benvolio,-beat down their weapons--Gentlemen-for fhame, forbear this outrage Tybalt-Mercutio the Prince exprefly hath [Exit Tybalt. Forbidden bandying in Verona ftreets. Hold, Tybalt-good Mercutio. Mer. I am hurt A plague of both the houses! I am sped : Is he gone, and hath nothing? Ben. What, art thou hurt ? Mer. Ay, ay, a feratch, a feratch; marry, 'tis enough. Where is my page go, villain, fetch a furgeon. Rom. Courage, man, the hurt cannot be much. Mer. No, 'tis not fo deep as a well, nor fo wide as a church door, but 'tis enough, 'twill ferve: afk for me to morrow, and you fhall find me a grave man. I am pepper'd, I warrant, for this world: a plague of both your houses! What a dog, a rat, a moule, a cat, to fcratch a man to death a braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetick? why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm. Rom. I thought all for the best. Mer. Help me into fome houfe, Benvolio. Or I fhall faint; a plague o both your houfes! They have made worms-meat of me, I have it, and foundly too. Plague o' your houses! [Exeunt Mer and Ben. Rom. This gentleman, the Prince's near ally, My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt In my behalf; my reputation ftain'd With Tybalt's flander; Tybalt, that an hour C 3 Hath Hath been my coufin: O fweet Juliet, Enter Benvolio. Ben. O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead. That gallant fpirit hath afpir'd the clouds, Which too untimely here did fcorn the earth. Rom. This day's black fate on more days does depend; This but begins the woe, others must end. Enter Tybalt. Ben. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again. Rom. Alive in triumph? and Mercutio flain? Away to heav'n, refpective lenity, And fire-ey'd fury be my conduct now! Now, Tybalt, take the villain back again, That late thou gav'it me; for Mercutio's foul Staying for thine to keep him company: Or thou or I, or both, muft go with him. Tyb. Thou, wretched boy, that did ft confort him here, Shalt with him hence. Rom. This fhall determine that. [They fight, Tybalt falls. Ben Romeo, away, be gone: The citizens are up, and Tybalt flain Stand not amaz d; the Prince will doom thee death, If thou art taken: hence, be gone, away. Rom O! I am fortune's fool. Ben. Why doft thou stay? Enter Citizens. [Exit Romeo. Cit. Which way ran he that kill'd Mercutio? Cit. Up, Sir, go with me: I charge thee in the Prince's name, obey. Enter Enter Prince, Montague, Capulet, their Wives, &c. Prin. Where are the vile beginners of this fray? Ben. O noble Prince, I can discover all Th' unlucky manage of this fatal brawl: There lies the man, flain by young Romeo, That flew thy kinfman, brave Mercutio. La. Cap. Tybalt, my coufin ! O my brother's child!Unhappy fight! alas, the blood is spill'd Of my. dear kinfman-Prince, as thou art true, For blood of ours, fhed blood of Montague. Prin. Benvolio, who began this fray? Ben. Tybalt, here flain, whom Romeo's hand did flay: With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd, Retorts it: Romeo he cries aloud, Hold, friends! friends, part! and, fwifter than his tongue, His agile arm beats down their fatal points, And 'twixt them rufhes; underneath whofe arm An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life La. Cap. He is a kinfman to the Montague. C4 I beg I beg for juftice, which thou, Prince, muft give; Prin. Romeo flew him, he flew Mercutio; Prin. And for that offence, Immediately we do exile him hence: I have an intereft in your hearts' proceeding, Nor tears nor prayers fhall purchase out abuses; [Exeunt SCENE changes to an Apartment in Capulet's Houfe. Enter Juliet alone. Jul. G Tow'rds Phabus' manfion; fuch a waggoner, ALLOP apace, you fiery-footed steeds, As Phaeton, would whip you to the west, (21) Elfe, when he is found, that hour is bis laft.] It is wonderful that Mr. Pope fhould retort the want of ear upon any body, and pass fuch an inharmonious unfcanning verfe in his own ear: a verfe, that cannot run off from the tongue with any cadence of mufick, the short and long fyllables ftand fo perverfely. We must read, Elfe, ben he's found, that hour is bis laft. Every diligent and knowing reader of our Poet muft have obferv'd, that bour and fire are almoft perpetually diffyllables in the pronounci. ation and fcanfion of his verses. Spread Spread thy clofe curtain, love-performing Night, (22) Come night, come, Romeo! come, thou day in night! Come, gentle night; come loving, black-brow'd night! (22) Spread thy clofe curtain O, here dool raba ? comes my nurfe! love-performing Night, das V That runaways eyes may wink] What runaways are thefe, whole eyes Juliet is willing to have ftopt? Macbeth, we may remember, makes an invocation to Night, much in the fame strain: Come, feeling Night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, &c. So Juliet here would have night's darkness obfcure the great eye of the day, the Sun; whom confidering in a poetical light as Phoebus, drawn in hiscar with fiery footed freeds, and prfing thro' the Heav'ns, the very properly calls him, with regard to the fwiftnefs of his courfe the Runaway. In the like manner our Poet fpeaks of the night, in the Merchant of Venice, cevis svitnan 05 For the clofe Night doth play the runaway. Mr. Warburtan. |