And presently took poft to tell it you:
O, pardon me for bringing these ill news,
Since you did leave it for my Office, Sir
Rom. Is it even fo? then I defy you, Stars!
Thou know'ft my lodging, get me ink and paper,
And hire poft-horses. I will hence to night.
Balth. Pardon me, Sir, I dare not leave you thus.
Your looks are pale and wild, and do import
Some misadventure.
Rom. Tufh, thou art deceiv'd;
Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do:
Haft thou no letters to me from the Friar?
Balth. No, good my lord.
Rom. No matter: Get thee gone,
And hire thofe horfes; I'll be with thee ftraight.
Well, Juliet, I will lye with thee to night;
Let's fee for means mischief! thou art swift
To enter in the thought of defperate men!
I do remember an Apothecary,
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 skins
Of ill-fhap'd fishes; and about his fhelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes;
Green earthen pots, bladders, and mufty Seeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of rofes
Were thinly scattered, to make up a fhew.
Noting this penury, to my felf 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 houfe.
Being holy-day, the beggar's fhop is thut:
What, ho! apothecary!
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 it self thro' all the veins, That the life-weary Taker may fall dead; And that the trunk may be difcharg'd of breath,. As violently, as hafty 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 wretchednefs,
And fear'st 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 ftrength
Of twenty men, it would difpatch you ftraight.
Rom. There is thy gold; worfe poifon to mens fouls,
Doing more murthers in this loathfome world,
Than thefe poor compounds that thou may'st not fell;
I fell thee poison, thou haft fold me none.
Farewell, buy food, and get thee into flesh.
Come, cordial, and not poifon, go with me
To Juliet's Grave, for there must I use thee.
SCENE changes to the Monaftery at Verona.
OLY Francifcan Friar! brother! ho &
Enter Fryar Lawrence to him.
Law. This fame fhould be the voice of Friar John.
Welcome from Mantua; what fays Romeo?
Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.
John. Going to find a bare-foot brother out,
One of our Order, to affociate me,
Here in this city vifiting the fick;
And finding him, the Searchers of the town,
Sufpecting that we Both were in a house
Where the infectious peftilence did reign,
Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us forth;
So that my speed to Mantua there was ftaid."
Law. Who bore my letter then to Romeo?
John. I could not fend it; here it is again,
Nor get a Meffenger to bring it thee,
So fearful were they of infection.
Law. Unhappy fortune! by my Brotherhood,
The letter was not nice, but full of charge,
Of dear import; and the neglecting it
May do much danger. Friar John, go hence,
Get me an iron Crow, and bring it ftraight
Unto my cell.
Jobn. Brother, I'll go and bring it thee..
Law. Now muft I to the Monument alone:
Within these three hours will fair Juliet wake;
She will befhrew me much, that Romeo
Hath had no notice of these accidents:
But I will write again to Mantua,
And keep her at my cell 'till Romeo come.
Poor living coarse, clos'd in a dead man's tomb !—
SCENE changes to a Church-yard: In it, a Monument belonging to the Capulets.
Enter Paris, and his Page, with a light.
IVE me thy torch, boy; hence and stand
aloof.
Yet put it out, for I would not be seen:
Under yond yew-trees lay thee all along,
Laying thy ear close to the hollow ground;
So fhall no foot upon the church-yard tread,
(Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of Graves)
But thou fhalt hear it: whiftle then to me,
As fignal that thou hear'ft fomething approach.
Give me those flow'rs. Do as I bid thee; go.
Page. I am almoft afraid to ftand alone
Here in the church-yard, yet I will adventure.
Par. Sweet flow'r!, with flow'rs thy bridal bed I ftrew:
Fair Juliet, that with angels doft remain,
Accept this latest favour at my hand;
That living honour'd thee, and, being dead,
With fun'ral obfequies adorn thy tomb.
[The boy whistles.
-The boy gives warning, fomething doth approach;-
What curfed foot wanders this way to night,
To cross my obfequies, and true love's rite?
What! with a torch? muffle me, night, a while.
Enter Romeo and Balthazar with a light. (29) Rom. Give me that mattock, and the wrenching iron. Hold, take this letter, early in the morning
(29) Enter Romeo, and Peter with a Light.] But Peter was a Servant of the Capulets: befides, he brings the Mattock and Crow to wrench open Juliet's Grave, an Office hardly to be intrufted with a Servant of that Family. We find a little above, at the very Beginning of this A&t, Balthazar is the Person who brings Romeo the News of his Bride's Death: and yet, at the Clofe of the Play, Peter takes upon him to depose
See thou deliver it to my lord and father.
Give me the light; upon thy life, I charge thee,
Whate'er thou hear it or feest, stand all aloof,
And do not interrupt me in my courfe.
Why I defcend into this bed of death,
Is partly to behold my lady's face:
But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger.
A precious ring, a ring that I must use
In dear employment; therefore, hence, be gone:
But if thou, jealous, doft return to pry
In what I further fhall intend to do,
By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,
And ftrew this hungry church-yard with thy limbs ;
The time and my intents are favage, wild,
More fierce and more inexorable far
Than empty tygers, or the roaring fea.
Balth. I will be gone, Sir, and not trouble you.
Rom. So fhalt thou fhew me Friendship.
Live and be profp'rous, and farewel, good fellow.
Balth. For all this fame, I'll hide me hereabout;
His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. [Exit Balthazar.
Rom. Thou deteftable maw, thou womb of death,
Gorg'd with the deareft morfel of the earth,
Thus Lenforce thy rotten jaws to open,
[Breaking open the Monument,
And in defpight I'll cram thee with more food.
Par. This is that banifht haughty Montague,
That murther'd my love's coufin; (with which grief,
It is fuppofed, the fair Creature dy'd,)
And here is come to do fome villanous, fhame
To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him.
Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague;
that He brought thofe Tidings. Utri creditis, Quirites? In fhort, We heard Balthazar deliver the Meffage; and therefore Peter is a lying Evidence, fuborn'd by the blundering Editors: We must therefore cafhier him, and put Balthazar on his proper Duty. The Sourfe of this Error feems eafy to be accounted for; Peter's Character ending in the 4th Adt, 'tis very probable the fame Perfon might play Balthazar, and fo be quoted on in the Prompter's Book as Peter.
|