Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied;
Cry but-Ah me! pronounce" but love and dove;
Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word,
One nick-name for her purblind son and heir,*
Young Abraham Cupid, he that shot so trim,
When king Cophetua lov'd the beggar-maid.-
He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not;
The ape is dead, and + I must conjure him.-
I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes,
By her high forehead, and her scarlet lip,
By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh,
And the demesnes that there adjacent lie,
That in thy likeness thou appear to us!

BEN. An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. MER. This cannot anger him: 'twould anger him To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle

Of some strange nature, letting it there stand

(*) First folio, her. (+) First folio omits and.

e So the quarto, 1597; later editions, true.

Till she had laid it, and conjur'd it down;
That were some spite: my invocation
Is fair and honest, and, in his mistress' name,
I conjure only but to raise up him.

BEN. Come, he hath hid himself among those*

trees,

To be consorted with the humorous night:
Blind is his love, and best befits the dark.

MER. If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark. Now will he sit under a medlar tree,

And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit,
As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.-
Oh Romeo that she were, oh that she were,
An open et cætera, thou, a poprin pear!
Romeo, good night;-I'll to my truckle-bed;
This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep:
Come, shall we go?

BEN.
Go, then; for 'tis in vain
To seek him here, that means not to be found.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Capulet's Garden.

Enter ROMEO.

ROм. He jests at scars, that never felt a

wound.-a

[JULIET appears above, at a window.
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks!
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!—
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,

That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious ;
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.-
It is my lady; O, it is my love:

O, that she knew she were!—

She speaks, yet she says nothing; what of that?
Her eye discourses, I will answer it.

I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks:
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do intreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those
stars,

As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright,
That birds would sing, and think it were not night.

(*) First folio, these.

a He jests at scars, &c.] It has been disputed whether Romeo, overhearing Mercutio's banter, refers to that, or to his having believed himself, before he saw Juliet, so invincible in his love for Rosaline, that no other beauty could move him. We feel no doubt that the allusion is to Mercutio; indeed, the rhyme in found and wound seems purposely intended to carry on the connexion of the speeches; and at this moment Rosaline is wholly

She speaks :

O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art
As glorious to this night, being o'er my head,
As is a winged messenger of heaven
Unto the white-upturned wond'ring eyes
Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him,
When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds,
And sails upon the bosom of the air.

JUL. O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou
Romeo?

Deny thy father, and refuse thy name:

Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

ROM. Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at

this?

[Aside. JUL. 'Tis but thy name, that is my enemy ;— Thou art thyself though, not a Montague. (1) What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What's in a name?* that which we call a rose, By any other word would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd, Retain that dear perfection which he owes, Without that title:-Romeo, doff thy name; And for that name, which is no part of thee, Take all myself.

ROM.

I take thee at thy word:

Call me but love, and I'll be new baptiz'd;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

JUL. What man art thou, that, thus bescreen'd in night,

So stumblest on my counsel ?

ROM.

By a name

I know not how to tell thee who I am:
My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself,
Because it is an enemy to thee;

Had I it written, I would tear the word.

JUL. My ears have not yet drunk a hundred

words

It any of my kinsmen find thee here.

ROM. With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls,

For stony limits cannot hold love out:
And what love can do, that dares love attempt;
Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.

JUL. If they do see thee, they will murder thee. ROM. Alack! there lies more peril in thine eye, Than twenty of their swords; look thou but sweet, And I am proof against their enmity.

JUL. I would not for the world they saw thee here. ROM. I have night's cloak to hide me from their

eyes,

And, but a thou love me, let them find me here:
My life were better ended by their hate,
Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.

JUL. By whose direction found'st thou out this
place?

ROM. By love, that first did prompt me to in-
quire;

He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes.
I am no pilot, yet, wert thou as far

As that vast shore wash'd with the farthest sea,
I would adventure for such merchandise.

JUL. Thou know'st the mask of night is on my face,

Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek,
For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night.
Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny
What I have spoke; but farewell complement !"
Dost thou love me?+ I know, thou wilt say-Ay;
And I will take thy word: yet, if thou swear'st,
Thou may'st prove false; at lovers' perjuries,
They say, Jove laughs. O, gentle Romeo,
If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully:
Or if thou think'st I am too quickly won,
I'll frown, and be perverse, and say thee nay,
So thou wilt woo; but, else, not for the world.
In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond,
And therefore thou may'st think my 'haviour§
light:

с

But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true
Than those that have more cunning to be strange.d
I should have been more strange, I must confess,
But that thou over-heard'st, ere I was 'ware,
My true love's passion: therefore pardon me,
And not impute this yielding to light love,
Which the dark night hath so discovered.
Roм. Lady, by yonder blessed || moon I vow,

a And, but thou love me,-] That is, unless thou love me. b But farewell complement!] Away with formality and punctilio!

e Cunning-] So the quarto, 1597; later editions, including the first folio, coying.

d To be strange.] To be strange is to be coy, reserved. Thus in Act III. Sc. 2, of the present Play :

That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops,JUL. O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,

That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.
ROM. What shall I swear by?

JUL.
Do not swear at all;
Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self,
Which is the god of my idolatry,
And I'll believe thee.

ROM.
If my heart's dear love-
JUL. Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee,
I have no joy of this contract to-night:
It is too rash, too unadvis'd, too sudden,
Too like the lightning, which doth ccase to be,
Ere one can say-it lightens. Sweet, good night!
This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath,
May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet.
Good night, good night! as sweet repose and rest
Come to thy heart, as that within my breast!

ROM. O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?
JUL. What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?
ROм. The exchange of thy love's faithful vow
for mine.

purpose, love?

JUL. But to be frank, and give it thee again. And yet I wish but for the thing I have: My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.

[Nurse calls within. I hear some noise within; dear love, adieu! Anon, good nurse.-Sweet Montague, be true. Stay but a little, I will come again. [Exit.

Roм. O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard, Being in night, all this is but a dream, Too flattering-sweet to be substantial.

Re-enter JULIET, above.

JUL. Three words, dear Romeo, and good night, indeed.

If that thy bent of love be honourable, (2)
Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow,
By one that I'll procure to come to thee,

'till strange love, grown bold, Think true love acted, simple modesty."

So, too, in Greene's "Mamilia," 1593:

"Is it the fashion in Padua to be so strange with your friends?"

e Sweet, good night!] This, and the intermediate lines down to "Stay but a little," &c., were added after the printing of the 1597 quarto.

Re-enter JULIET, above.

JUL. Hist! Romeo, hist!-O, for a falconer's voice,

To lure this tassel-gentle (3) back again!
Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud;
Else would I tear the cave where echo lies,
And make her airy tongue more hoarse than mine,*
With repetition of my Romeo's name.”

ROM. It is my soul, that calls upon my name: How silver-sweet sound lovers' tongues by night, Like softest music to attending ears!

JUL. Romeo!

a So the undated quarto; the first folio reads strife.

b My Romeo's name.] So the quarto, 1597; that of 1599, and first folio, read only, "of my Romeo."

e My dear!] The quarto, 1597, has madam; that of 1599, and folio, 1623, have My neece, which, in the second folio, was altered to My sweet. Our reading is that of the undated quarto.

d Parting is such sweet sorrow,-] In the folio, 1623, and some of the quartos, this speech is allotted to Romeo, and the first line of the next to Juliet.

e My ghostly father's cell;] My ghostly father is, my spiritual father.

f And flecked darkness-] Flecked, or, as the folio, 1623, spells it, fleckled, means spotted, dappled, flaked. We meet with the same image in "Much Ado About Nothing," Act V. Sc. 3:

"and look, the gentle day,

Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about,
Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey."

From forth day's path, and Titan's fiery wheels:] This is the reading of the first quarto, 1597: in the other editions, these

Forgetting any other home but this.

JUL. 'Tis almost morning; I would have thee gone:

And yet, no farther than a wanton's bird;
That lets it hop a little from her* hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a silk thread plucks it back again,
So loving-jealous of his liberty.

ROM. I would, I were thy bird.
JUL.

Sweet, so would I :
Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
Good night, good night! parting is such sweet
sorrow,d

That I shall say-good night, till it be morrow.

[Exit. ROM. Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy

breast!

h

Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light;
And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels
From forth day's path, and Titan's fiery § wheels: 5
Now ere the sun advance his burning eye,
The day to cheer, and night's dank dew to dry,
I must up-fill this osier cage of ours,
With baleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers.(4)
The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb;'
What is her burying grave, that is her womb
And from her womb children of divers kind,
We sucking on her natural bosom find;
Many for many virtues excellent,
None but for some, and yet all different.
O, mickle is the powerful grace, that lies
In plants, herbs, stones, and their true qualities :

(*) Quarto, 1599, and first folio, his.

(t) Quarto, 1599, and first folio, silken.
(1) First folio, friar's close cell.
(§) First folio, burning.

four lines, slightly varied in the concluding couplet, which runs thus,

And darknesse fleckeld like a drunkard reeles,

From forth dayes pathway, made by Titans wheeles,— are also printed in the middle of Romeo's speech above. The editor, or printer, of the folio, 1632, thought he was correcting the blunder by crossing the lines out of the friar's speech, and assigning them to Romeo.

h The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb;] So Lucretius:

"Omniparens, eadem rerum commune sepulchrum." And our author, in "Pericles," has a parallel idea:

Time's the king of men,

For he's their parent, and he is their grave."