Juliet's Soliloquy, on drinking the Potion. Farewel-God knows when we shall meet again! My difinal scene I needs must act alone : Come vial-what if this mixture do not work at all? Shall I of force be married to the count? No, no, this shall forbid it; lie thou there— [Pointing to a dagger. What if it be a poison, which the friar I fear, it is; and, yet, methinks, it should not, I wake before the time that Romeo Comes to redeem me? there's a fearful point! To whofe foul mouth no healthfome air breathes in, The horrible conceit of death and night, Where for these many hundred years, the bones Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth, So early waking, what with loathfome fmells, VOL. III. (Inviron'd (Inviron'd with all these hideous fears,) [She throws herself on the bed. SCENE XIII. Joy and Mirth turn'd to their Contraries. All things that we ordained feftival, ACT V. SCENE I. Romeo's Defcription of, and Difcourfe with, the Apothecary. Well, Juliet, I will lye with thee to-night; Let's fee for means-O mifchief! thou art swift To enter in the thought of defperate men! (12) I do remember an apothecary, And (12) I do, &c.] Garth, in his difpenfary, hath endeavoured to imitate this excellent defcription of Shakespear's: the lines themselves will be the best proof of his fuccefs: His fhop the gazing vulgar's eyes employs, Here And hereabouts he dwells, whom late I noted Enter Apothecary. Ap. Who calls fo loud? Rom. Come hither, man; I fee that thou art poor; Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have A dram of poifon, fuch foon-fpeeding geer, Here mummies lay, most reverently ftale, In this place drugs, in mufty heaps decay'd: In that, dry'd bladders, and drawn teeth are laid. That Longinus recommends a judicious choice of the most suitable circumstances, as elegantly productive of the fublime; I much queftion whether Dr. Garth's defcription will ftand the tett, thus confidered, particularly in the last circumstance. That the life-weary taker may fall dead; Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb. Ap. Such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua's law Is death to any he that utters them. Rom. Art thou fo bare and full of wretchedness, Rom. There is thy gold; worfe poifon to mens' fouls, Doing more murders in this loathfome world, Than these poor compounds that thou mayft not fell : SCENE IV. Romeo and Paris. Par. Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Mountague: Rom. I must indeed, and therefore came I hither. -Good gentle youth, tempt not a desp❜rate man. Fly hence and leave me-think upon those gone; (13) Let (13) Think upon, &c.] Meaning Mercutio and Tybalt. This fhort fcene between Romeo and Paris, I have always thought extremely affecting. Nothing can raise the character of the former, more than his unwillingness to fight, notwithstanding the highest provocation; and when at last he is obliged to kill Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth. Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy. Rom. In faith I will: let me perufe this face. Romeo's laft Speech over Juliet in the Vault. Death that has fuck'd the honey of thy breath, Hath his adversary in his own defence, his tenderness on discovery that he is his rival is increased, and in the most pathetic manner he takes the dying Paris by the hand. -Give me thy hand, One writ with me in four misfortune's book: Some paffages in this fcene, are not unlike Encas's behaviour to Laujus, who, in defence of his father, provokes his fate from the hand of that hero. Quo moriture ruis, majoraque viribus audes? At vero ut vultum vidit morientis, et ora, Ora modis Anchifiades pallentia miris, Ingemuit miferans graviter, dextramque tetendit. Anonym. (14) O my, &c.] I have given the Reader this last speech of Romce, rather to let him into the plot, and convince him of the |