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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'?
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.

ROM. Would'st thou withdraw it? for what 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. ROM. O blessed blessed night! I am afeard,

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lightning ceaselessly 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, several years after A Midsummer-Night's Dream, and Romeo and Juliet. MALONE.

4

Sweet, good night!] All the intermediate lines from Sweet, good night! [for which the quarto 1597 reads-I hear some coming] to Stay but a little, &c. were added after the first copy. STEEVENS.

5 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.

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 6,

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.

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

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,

6 If that thy BENT of love be honourable, &c.] In The Tragical Hystory already quoted Juliet uses nearly the same expres

sions:

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,

66

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.

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

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.

Re-enter JULIET, above.

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

To lure this tassel-gentle back again!

Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud;

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: "then, for an evening flight,

"A tiercel-gentle."

Taylor the water poet uses the same expression: "-By casting out the lure, she makes the tassel-gentle come to her fist." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. iii. c. iv. :

"Having far off espyde a tassel-gent,

"Which after her his nimble wings doth straine."

Again, in Decker's Match Me in London, 1631 :

"Your tassel-gentle, she's lur'd off and gone."

This species of hawk had the epithet of gentle annexed to it, from the ease with which it was tamed, and its attachment to man. STEEVENS.

It appears from the old books on this subject that certain hawks were considered as appropriated to certain ranks. The tercel-gentle was appropriated to the prince; and thence, we may suppose, was chosen by Juliet as an appellation for her beloved Romeo. In an ancient treatise entitled Hawking, Hunting, and Fishing, with the true Measures of Blowing, is the following passage: "The names of all manner of hawkes, and to whom they belong:

"For a Prince.

"There is a falcon gentle, and a tercel gentle; and these are for a prince." MALONE.

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 musick to attending ears! ()
JUL. Romeo !

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JUL. I will not fail; 'tis twenty years till then. I have forgot why I did call thee back.

ROM. Let me stand here till thou remem

ber it.

JUL. I shall forget to have thee still stand there, Rememb'ring how I love thy company.

ROM. And I'll still stay, to have thee still forget, Forgetting any other home but this.

* Quartos C, D, love.

9 -TEAR the CAVE-] This strong expression is more suitably employed by Milton :

STEEVENS.
In the two sub-
What word was
second folio sub-

"A shout that tore hell's concave." Madam.] Thus the original copy of 1597. sequent copies and the folio we have-My niece. intended it is difficult to say. The editor of the stituted-My sweet. I have already shown, that all the alterations in that copy were made at random; and have therefore preserved the original word, though less tender than that which was arbitrarily substituted in its place. MALONE.

As I shall always suppose the second folio to have been corrected, in many places, by the aid of better copies than fell into the hands of the editors of the preceding volume, I have in the present instance, as well as many others, followed the authority rejected by Mr. Malone.

I must add, that the cold, distant, and formal appellationMadam, which has been already put into the mouth of the Nurse, would but ill accord with the more familiar feelings of the ardent Romeo, to whom Juliet has just promised every gratification that youth and beauty could bestow. STEEVENS.

JUL. "Tis almost morning, I would have thee

gone :

And yet no further than a wanton's bird;

Who 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,

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

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

breast!

'Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest†! Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell;

His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell. [Exit.

SCENE III.

Friar LAURENCE'S Cell.

Enter Friar LAWRENCE, with a basket.

FRI. The grey-ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night,

* Quarto A, Too loving.

† Quarto A, I would that I were sleep and peace of sweet to

rest.

2 Hence will I to my GHOSTLY FATHER'S cell;

His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell.] Thus the quarto 1597, except that it has good instead of dear. That of 1599, and the folio, read:

"Hence will I to my ghostly frier's close cell,

"His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell." MALONE. 3 The grey-ey'd morn, &c.] These four lines are here replaced, conformable to the first edition, where such a description is much

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