Thou know'st my lodging; get me ink and paper, Bal. Pardon me, sir, I will not leave you thus. Rom. Tush, thou art deceived; Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do. [Exit BALTHASAR. Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night. And hereabouts he dwells,-whom late I noted Green, earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds, Ap. Enter Apothecary. Who calls so loud? Rom. Come hither, man.-I see that thou art poor; Hold, there is forty ducats; let me have 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. 1 Rom. Art thou so bare, and full of wretchedness, And fear'st to die? Famine is in thy cheeks; Need and oppression stareth in thy eyes;1 Upon thy back hangs ragged misery; 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, consents. 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 despatch you straight. Rom. There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls, Doing more murders in this loathsome world, Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell. I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none. Farewell; buy food, and get thyself in flesh. Come, cordial, and not poison; go with me To Juliet's grave, for there must I use thee. SCENE II. Friar Laurence's Cell. Enter FRIAR JOHN. John. Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho! 1 The quarto of 1597 reads: "Upon thy back hangs ragged miserie, And starved famine dwelleth in thy cheeks." The quartos of 1599 and 1609 : "Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes.” VOL. VII. 30 [Exeunt. Enter FRIAR Laurence. 1 Lau. This same should be the voice of friar John.Welcome from Mantua; what says Romeo? Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter. John. Going to find a barefoot brother out, One of our order to associate me,1 Here in this city visiting the sick, And finding him, the searchers of the town, Suspecting that we both were in a house Where the infectious pestilence did reign, Sealed up the doors, and would not let us forth; So that my speed to Mantua there was stayed. Lau. Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo? John. I could not send it,-here it is again,Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, So fearful were they of infection. 2 Lau. Unhappy fortune! by my brotherhood, May do much danger. Friar John, go hence; John. Brother, I'll go and bring it thee. And keep her at my cell till Romeo come; [Exit. Poor living corse, closed in a dead man's tomb! [Exit. 1 Each friar had always a companion assigned him by the superior, when he asked leave to go out. 2 i. e. was not wantonly written on a trivial or idle matter. 3 Instead of this line, and the concluding part of the speech, the first quarto reads only: "Lest that the lady should before I come Be wak'd from sleepe, I will hye To free her from that tomb of miserie." SCENE III. A Church-yard; in it a Monument belonging to the Capulets. Enter PARIS, and his Page, bearing flowers and a torch. Par. Give me my torch, boy. Hence, and stand aloof; Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. Here in the church-yard; yet I will adventure. [Retires. Par. Sweet flower, with flowers I strew thy bridal bed. Sweet tomb, that in thy circuit dost contain The perfect model of eternity; Fair Juliet, that with angels dost remain,1 [The boy whistles. 1 The folio has these lines : "Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew; Which with sweet water nightly I will dew; Nightly shall be, to strew thy grave and weep.” [Retires In the text, the seven lines are printed as they appear in the quarto of 1597. Enter ROMEO and BALTHASAR, with a torch, mat tock, &c. Rom. Give me that mattock, and the wrenching-iron. But, chiefly, to take thence from her dead finger In dear1 employment; therefore hence, be gone; In what I further shall intend to do, By Heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint, And strew this hungry church-yard with thy limbs. More fierce, and more inexorable far, Than empty tigers, or the roaring sea. Bal. I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you. Live, and be prosperous; and farewell, good fellow. Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open, [Breaking open the door of the monument. And here is come to do some villanous shame To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him. [Advances. 1 That is, in action of importance. The sense of the word dear has been explained. |