1 Mus. Then will I give you the serving-creature. Pet. Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger on your pate. I will carry no crotchets. I'll re you, I'll fa you; Do you note me? 1 Mus. An you re us, and fa us, you note us. 2 Mus. Pray you, put up your dagger, and put out your wit. Pet. Then have at you with my wit: I will dry-beat you with an iron wit, and put up my iron dagger :swer me like men: When griping grief the heart doth wound, And doleful dumps the mind oppress, :-An Why, silver sound? why, music with her silver sound?- 1 Mus. Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound. 2 Mus. I say-silver sound, because musicians sound for silver. Pet. Pretty too!- -What say you, James Sound-post? 2 Mus. 'Faith, I know not what to say. Pet. O, I cry you mercy! you are the singer: I will say for you. It is music with her silver sound, because such fellows as you have seldom gold for sounding: Then music with her silver sound, With speedy help doth lend redress. 1 [Exit, singing. 1 Mus. What a pestilent knave is this same ? 2 Mus. Hang him, Jack! Come, we'll in here; tarry and stay dinner. [Exeunt, 1 ACT V. A Street. Enter ROMEO. SCENE I.-Mantua. Romeo. IF I may trust the flattering eye of sleep,* My dreams presage some joyful news at hand : 'My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne : [3] The fiddler is so called from an instrument with three strings, which is meu tioned by several of the old writers. STEEVENS. [4] If I may confide in those delightful visions which I have seen while asleep. MALONE. [5] The three following lines are very gay and pleasing. But why does Shakespeare give Romeo this involuntary cheerfulness just before the extremity of un happiness? Perhaps to show the vanity of trusting to those uncertain and casual exaltations or depressions, which many consider as certain foretokens of good and evil. JOHNSON. And, all this day, an unaccustom'd spirit Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts. (Strange dream! that gives a dead man leave to think,) News from Verona !-How now, Balthasar? Bal. Then she is well, and nothing can be ill ; paper, Bal. Pardon me, sir, I will not leave you thus : Rom. Tush, thou art deceiv'd; Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do: Hast thou no leters to me from the friar? Rom. No matter: Get thee gone, And hire those horses; I'll be with thee straight. [Ex. BAL. Let's see for means: O, mischief! thou art swift And hereabouts he dwells,-whom late I noted A beggarly account of empty boxes, Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds, Enter Apothecary. Ap. Who calls so loud? Rom. Come hither, man.—I see, that thou art poor : Hold, there is forty ducats: Let me have A dram of poison; such soon-speeding geer Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb. Ap. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law Rom. Art thou so bare, and full of wretchedness, The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law: Rom. There is thy gold; worse poison to men's souls, Doing more murders in this loathsome world, Than these poor compounds that thou may'st not sell : [Exeunt. SCENE II. Friar LAURENCE's Cell. Enter Friar JoHN. John. Holy Franciscan friar! brother! ho! Enter Friar LAURENCE. Lau. This same should be the voice of friar John.- And finding him, the searchers of the town, Lau. Unhappy fortune! by my brotherhood, John. Brother, I'll go and bring it thee. [Exit. 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 corse, clos'd in a dead man's tomb ! [Exit. SCENE III. A churchyard; in it, a Monument belonging to the CAPULETS. Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground; [6] Each friar has always a companion assigned him by the superior when he asks leave to go out; and thus, says Baretti, they are a check upon each other. [7] Was not written on a trivial or idle subject. STEEVENS. STEEVENS. So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread, Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure. [Retires Par. Sweet flower, with flowers I strew thy bridal bed Swees omb, that in thy circuit dost contain The perfect model of eternity, Fair Juliet, that with angels dost remain," [The Boy whistles What, with a torch!-muffle me, night, awhile. [Retires Enter ROMEO and BALTHASAR, with a torch, mattock, &c. Rom. Give me that mattock, and the wrenching iron. Hold, take this letter; early in the morning See thou deliver it to my lord and father. Give me the light: Upon thy life, I charge thee, But, chiefly, to take thence from her dead finger In dear employment :9 therefore hence, begone :- In what I further shall intend to do, By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint, And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs : More fierce, and more inexorable far [8] These four lines from the old edition. The folio has these lines: POPE. "Sweet flow'r, with flow'rs thy bridal bed I strew, "Which with sweet water nightly I will dew, "Nightly shall be, to strew thy grave and weep." JOHNSON. [9] That is, action of importance. Gems were supposed to have great powers and virtues. JOHNSON. 25 VOL. IX. R |