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My life were better ended by their hate,
Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.

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JUL. By whose direction found'st thou out this

place?

ROM. By love, who 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 furthest 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 compliment!
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,

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Than death prorogued, wanting of thy love.] The common acceptation of prorogue, is to postpone to a distant time, which is in fact to delay. But I believe in this place prorogued means continued; and that Romeo means, in the language of lovers, to represent life without her as a continual death:

"Death's life with thee, without thee death to live."

M. MASON.

Than death prorogued,] i. e. delayed, deferred to a more

distant period. So, in Act IV. sc. i:

" I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
"On Thursday next be married to this county."

MALONE.

9 - farewell compliment!] That is, farewell attention to forms. M. MASON.

A

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:
But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true
Than those that have more cunning to be strange.1
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.

ROM. Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, 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,

cunning to be strange.] Cunning is the reading of the

quarto, 1597, and I have restored it.

To be strange, is to put on affected coldness, to appear shy. So, in Greene's Mamillia, 1593: "Is it the fashion in Padua to be so strange with your friends?"

Again, in one of the Paston Letters, Vol. III. p. 327 : “І pray ye that ye be not strange of writing of letters to me."

STEEVENS.

In the subsequent ancient copies cunning was changed tocoying. MALONE.

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That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops,] This image struck Pope:

"The moon-beam trembling falls,

" And tips with silver all the walls." Imit. of Horace. Again, in the celebrated simile on the moon at the conclusion of the eighth Book of the Iliad:

" And tips with silver ev'ry mountain's head."

HOLT WHITE.

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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 cease to be, Ere one can say It lightens. Sweet, good night!4 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?5 Rom. The exchange of thy love's faithful vow

for mine.

JUL. I gave thee mine before thou didst request

it:

And yet I would it were to give again.

3 Ere one can say It lightens.] So, in The Miracles of Moses, by Drayton:

"-lightning ceaslessly to burn,

"Swifter than thought from place to place to pass,

" And being gone, doth suddenly return

"Ere you could say precisely what it was."

The same thought occurs in A Midsummer-Night's Dream.

STEEVENS.

Drayton's Miracles of Moses was first printed in quarto, in 1604. MALONE.

-Sweet, good night!] All the intermediate lines from Sweet, good night! to Stay but a little, &c. were added after the first copy. STEEVENS.

* What satisfaction canst thou have to-night? Here Juliet seemeth as if she meant to promise (i. e. as much as in her lieth) / to afford Romeo, in some future instance, that satisfaction which he cannot receive while they remain at their present distance from each other. AMNER.

ROM. Would'st thou withdraw it? for what pur

pose, love?

JUL. But to be frank, and give it thee again. And yet I wish but for the thing I have: DILA 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.

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[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.

ROM. 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,

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If that thy bent of love be honourable, &c.] In The Tragical Hystory already quoted Juliet uses nearly the same expressions :

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66

-if your thought be chaste, and have on virtue ground, "If wedlock be the end and mark which your desire hath found,

"Obedience set aside, unto my parents due,

" The quarrel eke that long ago between our housholds

grew,

"Both me and mine I will all whole to you betake,

"And following you whereso you go, my father's house

forsake:

"But if by wanton love and by unlawful suit

" You think in ripest years to pluck my maidenhood's

dainty fruit,

" You are beguil'd, and now your Juliet you beseeks,
"To cease your suit, and suffer her to live among her

likes." MALONE.

t

Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow,
By one that I'll procure to come to thee,

Where, and what time, thou wilt perform the rite;
And all my fortunes at thy foot I'll lay,
And follow thee my lord throughout the world:

NURSE. [Within.] Madam.

IA

JUL. I come, anon :-But if thou mean'st not

erder Nowell,

I do beseech thee,

NURSE. [Within.] Madam.

JUL.

By and by, I come

To cease thy suit, and leave me to my grief:

To-morrow will I send.

Rom.

So thrive my soul,

JUL. A thousand times good night!

[Exit.

Rom. A thousand times the worse, to want thy

light.

Love goes toward love, as school-boys from their

books;

But love from love, toward school with heavy looks. [Retiring slowly.

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Re-enter JULIET, above.

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

voice,

To lure this tassel-gentle back again!

To cease thy suit,] So the quarto, 1597. The two subsequent quartos and the folio have-thy strife. MALONE.

* To lure this tassel-gentle back again!] The tassel or tiercel (for so it should be spelt) is the male of the gosshawk; so called, because it is a tierce or third less than the female. This is equally true of all birds of prey. In The Booke of Falconrye, by George Turberville, Gent. printed in 1575, I find a whole chapter on the falcon-gentle, &c. So, in The Guardian, by Massinger:

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