Nurse! What should she do here? My dismal scene I needs must act alone.— What if this mixture do not work at all? [Laying down a Dagger. What if it be a poison, which the friar Subtly hath minister'd to have me dead; Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point! To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, The horrible conceit of death and night, Where, for these many hundred years, the bones Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,* Lies fest'ring in his shroud; where, as they say, At some hours in the night spirits resort;— Alack, alack! is it not like, that I,o So early waking,-what with loathsome smells; And shrieks like mandrakes' torn out of the earth, That living mortals, hearing them, run mad ; green in earth,] i. e. fresh in earth, newly buried. Lies fest'ring-] To fester is to corrupt. is it not like, that I,] This speech is confused, and inconsequential, according to the disorder of Juliet's mind. O! if I wake, shall I not be distraught,7 And madly play with my forefathers' joints? [She throws herself on the Bed. SCENE IV. Capulet's Hall. Enter Lady CAPULET and Nurse. La. Cap. Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, nurse. Nurse. They call for dates and quinces in the pastry. Enter CAPULET. Cap. Come, stir, stir, stir! the second cock hath crow'd, The curfeu bell' hath rung, 'tis three o'clock: 7-be distraught,] Distraught is distracted. 8 They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.] i. e. in the room where paste was made. So laundry, spicery, &c. The • The curfeu bell —] The curfew bell is universally rung at eight or nine o'clock at night; generally according to the season. term is here used with peculiar impropriety, as it is not believed that any bell was ever rung so early as three in the morning. The derivation of curfeu is well known, but it is a mere vulgar error that the institution was a badge of slavery imposed by the Norman Conqueror. To put out the fire became necessary only because it was time to go to bed: And if the curfeu commanded all fires to Look to the bak'd meats, good Angelica: Nurse. Cap. No, not a whit; What! I have watch'd ere now All night for lesser cause, and ne'er been sick. La. Cap. Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time;1 But I will watch you from such watching now. [Exeunt Lady CAPULET and Nurse. Cap. A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood!-Now, fellow, What's there? Enter Servants, with Spits, Logs, and Baskets. 1 Serv. Things for the cook, sir; but I know not what. Cap. Make haste, make haste. [Exit 1 Serv.]— Sirrah, fetch drier logs ; Call Peter, he will show thee where they are. 2 Ser. I have a head, sir, that will find out logs, And never trouble Peter for the matter. [Exit. Cap. 'Mass, and well said; A merry whoreson ! ha, Thou shalt be logger-head.—Good faith, 'tis day : be extinguished, the morning bell ordered them to be lighted again. In short, the ringing of those two bells was a manifest and essential service to people who had scarcely any other means of measuring their time. RITSON. I - a mouse-hunt in your time;] In Norfolk, and many other parts of England, the cant term for a weasel is a mousehunt. The intrigues of this animal, like those of the cat kind, are usually carried on during the night. This circumstance will account for the appellation which Lady Capulet allows her hus band to have formerly deserved. The county will be here with musick straight, [Musick within. For so he said he would. I hear him near:Nurse!-Wife-what, ho!-what, nurse, I say! Enter Nurse. Go, waken Juliet, go, and trim her up; SCENE V. Juliet's Chamber; JULIET on the Bed. Enter Nurse. Nurse. Mistress! what, mistress!-Juliet!-fast, I warrant her, she: Why, lamb!-why, lady!-fye, you slug-a-bed!— Why, love, I say!-madam! sweet-heart!-why, bride! What, not a word?-you take your pennyworths now; Sleep for a week; for the next night, I warrant, That you shall rest but little.-God forgive me, Enter Lady CAPULET. La. Cap. What noise is here? La. Cap. What is the matter? Nurse. O lamentable day! Look, look! O heavy day! La. Cap. O me, O me!-my child, my only life, Revive, look up, or I will die with thee! Help, help!-call help. Enter CAPUlet. Cap. For shame, bring Juliet forth; her lord is come. Nurse. She's dead, deceas'd, she's dead; alack the day! La. Cap. Alack the day! she's dead, she's dead, she's dead. Cap. Ha! let me see her:-Out, alas! she's cold; Her blood is settled, and her joints are stiff; Life and these lips have long been separated: Death lies on her, like an untimely frost Upon the sweetest flower of all the field. Accursed time! unfortunate old man! Nurse. O lamentable day! La. Cap. O woful time! Cap. Death, that hath ta'en her hence to make me wail, Ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak. Enter Friar LAURENCE and PARIS, with Musicians. Fri. Come, is the bride ready to go to church? O son, the night before thy wedding day |
