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Juliet's Soliloquy, on drinking the Potion.

Farewel-God knows when we shall meet again!
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,
Nurfe- -what fhould fhe do here?

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
Subtly hath minift'red, to have me dead,
Left in this marriage he fhould 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.
How, if, when I am laid into the tomb,

I wake before the time that Romeo

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

To whofe foul mouth no healthfome air breathes in,
And there be 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 packt;

Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies feft'ring in his fhroud: where, as they fay,
At fome hours in the night, fpirits refort-)
Alas, alas! is it not like, that I

So early waking, what with loathfome fmells,
And fhrieks, like mandrakes torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad.-
Or, if I wake, fhall I not be distraught,
N

VOL. III.

(Inviron'd

(Inviron'd with all these hideous fears,)
And madly play with my forefather's joints,
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his fhroud?
And in this rage, with fome great kinfman's bone,
As with a club, dafh out my defp'rate brains?
O look, methinks, I fee my coufin's ghost
Seeking out Romeo, that did fpit his body.
Upon a rapier's point!-Stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.

[She throws herself on the bed.

SCENE XIII. Joy and Mirth turn'd to their Contraries.

All things that we ordained feftival,
Turn from their office to black funeral;
Our inftruments to melancholy bells;
Our wedding cheer to a fad funeral feast ;
Our folemn hymns to fullen dirges change;
Our bridal flowers ferve for a buried coarse,
And all things change into their contraries.

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,
With foreign trinkets, and domeftic toys,

Here

And hereabouts he dwells, whom late I noted
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of fimples; meager were his looks;
Sharp mifery had worn him to the bones;
And in his needy fhop a tortoife hung,
An alligator ftuft, and other fkins
Of ill-fhap'd fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes;
Green earthen pots, bladders, and mufty feeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of rofes
Were thinly scattered to make up a fhow.
Noting this penury; to myfelf I faid,
An if a man did need a poifon now,
Whofe fale is prefent death, in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would fell it him.
Oh, this fame thought did but fore-run my need,
And this fame needy man muft fell it me.
As I remember, this fhould be the house.
Being holy-day, the beggar's fhop is fhut:
What, ho! apothecary!

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,
As will difperfe itself through all the veins,

Here mummies lay, most reverently ftale,
And there the tortoise hung her coat of mail:
Not far from fome huge fhark's devouring head,
The flying fith, their finny pinions spread :
Aloft, in rows, large poppy-heads were ftrung,
And near, a fcaly alligator hung:

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;
And that the trunk may be difcharg'd of breath,
As violently as hasty powder fir'd

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,
And fear'ft to die? famine is in thy cheeks;
Need and oppreffion ftare within thine eyes,
Contempt and beggary hang upon thy back;
The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law;
The world affords no law to make thee rich,
Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.
Ap. My poverty, but not my will, confents,
Rom. I pay thy poverty, and not thy will.
Ap. Put this in any liquid thing you will,
And drink it off, and if you had the strength
Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight.

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 :
I fell thee poison, thou hast sold me none-
Farewel, buy food, and get thee into flesh.

SCENE IV. Romeo and Paris.

Par. Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Mountague:
Can vengeance be purfued farther than death?
Condemn'd villain! I do apprehend thee,
Obey and go with me, for thou must die.

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.
Pull not another fin upon my head,
By urging me to fury-Oh, be gone!
By heav'n I love thee better than myself;
For I come hither arm'd against myself.
Par. I do defy thy commiferation,
And apprehend thee for a felon here.

Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy.
[They fight. Paris falls.
Par. Oh, I am flain: if thou be merciful
Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.

Rom. In faith I will: let me perufe this face.
Mercutio's kinfman! noble county Paris!
What faid my man, when my betoiled foul
Did not attend him as we rode ?—I think
He told me Paris fhould have married Juliet,
Said he not fo?-Or did I dream it fo?
Or I am mad, hearing him talk of Juliet,
To think it was fo? Oh, give me thy hand,
One writ with me in four misfortune's book.

Romeo's laft Speech over Juliet in the Vault.
(14) O, my love, my wife!

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

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