JUL. Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend! Is it more sinto wish me thus forsworn, Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue Which she hath prais'd him with above compare So many thousand times?-Go, counsellor; Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.I'll to the friar, to know his remedy;

If all else fail, myself have power to die. [Exit.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Friar Laurence's Cell.

Enter Friar LAURENCE and PARIS.

FRI. On Thursday, sir? the time is very short. PAR. My father Capulet will have it so; And I am nothing slow, to slack his haste.5

* Ancient damnation!] This term of reproach occurs in The Malcontent, 1604:

66

out, you ancient damnation!" STEEVENS.

And I am nothing slow, &c.] His haste shall not be abated by my slowness. It might be read:

And I am nothing slow to back his haste:

that is, I am diligent to abet and enforce his haste. JOHNSON.

Slack was certainly the author's word, for, in the first edition, the line ran―

And I am nothing slack to slow his haste. Back could not have stood there.

If this kind of phraseology be justifiable, it can be justified only by supposing the meaning to be, there is nothing of slowness in me, to induce me to slacken or abate his haste. The

FRI. You say, you do not know the lady's mind; Uneven is the course, I like it not.

PAR. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death, And therefore have I little talk'd of love; For Venus smiles not in a house of tears. Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous, That she doth give her sorrow so much sway; And, in his wisdom, hastes our marriage, To stop the inundation of her tears; Which, too much minded by herself alone, May be put from her by society:

Now do you know the reason of this haste.

FRI. I would I knew not why it should be

slow'd."

[Aside. Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my cell.

Enter JULIET.

PAR. Happily met, my lady, and my wife!
JUL. That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
PAR. That may be, must be, love, on Thursday

next.

meaning of Paris is very clear; he does not wish to restrain Capulet, or to delay his own marriage; but the words which the poet has given him, import the reverse of this, and seem rather to mean, I am not backward in restraining his haste; I endeavour to retard him as much as I can. Dr. Johnson saw the im propriety of this expression, and that his interpretation extorted a meaning from the words, which they do not at first present; and hence his proposed alteration; but our author must answer for his own peculiarities. See Vol. XVII. p. 240, n. 6.

6

MALONE.

be slow'd.] So, in Sir A. Gorges' translation of the second Book of Lucan:

will you overflow

"The fields, thereby my march to slow" STEEVENS.

That's a certain text.

JUL. What must be shall be.

FRI.

PAR. Come you to make confession to this fa

ther?

JUL. To answer that, were to confess to you. PAR. Do not deny to him, that you love me. JUL. I will confess to you, that I love him. PAR. So will you, I am sure, that you love me. JUL. If I do so, it will be of more price,

Being spoke behind your back, than to your face.

PAR. Poor soul, thy face is much abus'd with

tears.

JUL. The tears have got small victory by that; For it was bad enough, before their spite.

PAR. Thou wrong'st it, more than tears, with that report.

JUL. That is no slander, sir,' that is a truth; And what I spake, I spake it to my face.

PAR. Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander'd it. JUL. It may be so, for it is not mine own... Are you at leisure, holy father, now;

7 That is no slander, sir, &c.] Thus the first and second folio. The quarto, 1597, reads-That is no wrong, &c, and so leaves the measure defective. STEEVENS.

A word was probably omitted at the press. The quarto, 1599, and the subsequent copies, read:

That is no slander, sir, which is a truth.

The context shows that the alteration was not made by Shakspeare. MALONE,

The repetition of the word wrong, is not, in my opinion, necessary besides, the reply of Paris justifies the reading in the text: Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander'd it."

66

STEEVENS.

Or shall I come to you at evening mass?

FRI. My leisure serves me, pensive daughter,

now:

My lord, we must entreat the time alone.

PAR. God shield, I should disturb devotion?— Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you: Till then, adieu! and keep this holy kiss.

[Exit PARIS. JUL. O, shut the door! and when thou hast done

So,

Come weep with me; Past hope, past cure, past help!
FRI. Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief;
It strains me past the compass of my wits:
I hear thou must, and nothing must prorogue it,
On Thursday next be married to this county.

JUL. Tell me not, friar, that thou hear'st of this,
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it:
If, in thy wisdom, thou canst give no help,
Do thou but call my resolution wise,
And with this knife I'll help it presently.
God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal'd,
Shall be the label to another deed,9

2 Or shall I come to you at evening mass?] Juliet means vespers. There is no such thing as evening mass. "Masses (as Fynes Moryson observes) are only sung in the morning, and when the priests are fasting." So, likewise, in The boke of thenseygnemente and techynge that the knyght of the toure made to his doughters: translated and printed by Caxton: "And they of the parysshe told the preest that it was past none, and therfor he durst not synge masse, and so they hadde no masse that daye." RITSON.

9 Shall be the label to another deed,] The seals of deeds in our author's time were not impressed on the parchment itself on which the deed was written, but were appended on distinct slips or labels affixed to the deed. Hence in King Richard II. the

Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
Turn to another, this shall slay them both:
Therefore, out of thy long-experienc'd time,
Give me some present counsel; or, behold,
'Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire;1 arbitrating that
Which the commission of thy years and art2
Could to no issue of true honour bring.
Be not so long to speak; I long to die,
If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.

FRI. Hold, daughter; I do spy a kind of hope, Which craves as desperate an execution As that is desperate which we would prevent. If, rather than to marry county Paris, Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself; Then is it likely, thou wilt undertake

A thing like death to chide away this shame, That cop'st with death himself to scape from it; And, if thou dar'st, I'll give thee remedy.

JUL. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, From off the battlements of yonder tower;3

Duke of York discovers a covenant which his son the Duke of Aumerle had entered into by the depending seal:

"What seal is that, which hangs without thy bosom?" See the fac-simile of Shakspeare's hand writing in Vol. I.

MALONE.

1 Shall play the umpire;] That is, this knife shall decide the struggle between me and my distresses. JOHNSon.

2

-commission of thy years and art—] Commission is for authority or power. JOHNSON.

O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,

From off the battlements of yonder tower;] So, in King Leir, written before 1594:

"Yea, for to do thee good, I would ascend

"The highest turret in all Britanny,

"And from the top leap headlong to the ground."

VOL. XX.

MALONE