Enter ROMEO.

Tyb. Well, peace be with you, sir! here comes my man.

Mer. But I'll be hang'd, sir, if he wear your

livery:

Marry, go before to field, he'll be your follower;
Your worship, in that sense, may call him —man.
Tyb. Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford
No better term than this, -Thou art a villain.
Rom. Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee
Doth much excuse the appertaining rage
To such a greeting:- Villain am I none;
Therefore farewell; I see thou know'st me not.
Tyb. Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries
That thou hast done me; therefore, turn and draw.
Rom. I do protest, I never injur'd thee;

But love thee better than thou canst devise,
Till thou shalt know the reason of my love :

And so, good Capulet,

which name I tender

As dearly as mine own, -be satisfied.

Mer. O calm, dishonourable, vile submission!

A la stoccata2 carries it away.

Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk ?

Tyb. What would'st thou have with me?

3

[Draws.

Mer. Good king of cats, nothing, but one of your nine lives; that I mean to make bold withal, and, as you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears? make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it be out.

4

2 The Italian term for a thrust or stab with a rapier.

3 Alluding to his name. See Act ii. sc. 4, note 2.

4 Warburton says that we should read pilche, which signifies a coat or covering of skin or leather; meaning the scabbard. The first quarto has scabbard.

Tyb. I am for you.

[Drawing.

Rom. Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up.

Mer. Come, sir, your passado. [They fight.

Rom. Draw, Benvolio:

Forbear this outrage! - Tybalt, — Mercutio,
The prince expressly hath forbid this bandying
In Verona streets. Hold, Tybalt! - good Mer-
cutio! [Exeunt TYBALT and his Partizans.
Mer. I am hurt;

A plague o' both the houses!-I am sped:
Is he gone, and hath nothing?

Ben.

What! art thou hurt? Mer. Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, 'tis

enough.

Where is my page

5

?

go, villain, fetch a surgeon.
[Exit Page.

Rom. Courage, man! the hurt cannot be much. Mer. No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man." I am pepper'd, I warrant, for this world: A plague o' both your houses!— 'Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetic!- Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm.

5 After this the quarto of 1597 continues Mercutio's speech as follows: "A pox of your houses! I shall be fairly mounted upon four men's shoulders, for your house of the Montagues and the Capulets; and then some peasantly rogue, some sexton, some base slave, shall write my epitaph, that Tybalt came and broke the prince's laws, and Mercutio was slain for the first and second cause. Where's the surgeon?

"Mer. Now will he keep a mumbling in my guts on the other side. Come, Benvolio; lend me thy hand. A pox of your houses!"

Rom. I thought all for the best.

Mer. Help me into some house, Benvolio,

Or I shall faint. - A plague o' both your houses! They have made worms' meat of me:

I have it, and soundly too :- Your houses!

[Exeunt MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO.

Rom. This gentleman, the prince's near ally,
My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt
In my behalf; my reputation stain'd
With Tybalt's slander, Tybalt, that an hour
Hath been my cousin ; -O, sweet Juliet !
Thy beauty hath made me effeminate,
And in my temper soften'd valour's steel.

в

Re-enter BENVOLIO.

Ben. O Romeo, Romeo! brave Mercutio's dead; That gallant spirit hath aspir'd the clouds,

Which too untimely here did scorn the earth.

Rom. This day's black fate on more days doth depend;"

7

This but begins the woe, others must end.

Re-enter TYBALT.

Ben. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again. Rom. Alive! in triumph! and Mercutio slain ! Away to heaven, respective lenity,

And fire-cy'd fury be my conduct now!—
Now, Tybalt, take the "villain" back again,
That late thou gav'st me; for Mercutio's soul

6 We have already had cousin in the sense of kinsman. The first quarto has kinsman here.

H.

This day's unhappy destiny hangs over the days yet to come. There will yet be more mischief.

8 So the first quarto; the later copies, " He gone in triumph." -The later copies also have "fire and fury" instead of " fury."- Respective is considerative.

'fire-ey'd

Conduct for conductor.

Is but a little way above our heads,
Staying for thine to keep him company:

Either thou, or I, or both, must go with him. Tyb. Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here,

Shalt with him hence.

Rom.

This shall determine that.

[They fight; TYBALT falls.

Ben. Romeo, away! be gone!

The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain :

Stand not amaz'd:- the prince will doom thee

1 Cit. Which way ran he, that kill'd Mercutio? Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?

Ben. There lies that Tybalt.

1 Cit.

Up, sir; go with me:

I charge thee in the prince's name, obey.

Enter the Prince, attended; MONTAGUE, CAPULET, their Wives, and Others.

Prin. Where are the vile beginners of this fray?
Ben. O, noble prince! I can discover all

The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl:
There lies the man, slain by young Romeo,
That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.

Lady C. Tybalt, my cousin!-O, my brother's child!

O prince! O cousin! husband! O, the blood is

spill'd

VOL. X.

9

7

Of my dear kinsman ! -Prince, as thou art true,
For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague.
O cousin, cousin!

Prin. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray? Ben. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay;

Romeo, that spoke him fair, bade him bethink

9

How nice the quarrel was, and urg'd withal

Your high displeasure:- all this, uttered

With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd, Could not take truce with the unruly spleen

10

Of Tybalt, deaf to peace, but that he tilts
With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast;
Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point,
And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats
Cold death aside, and with the other sends
It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity

Retorts it. Romeo he cries aloud,

"Hold, friends! friends, part!" and, swifter than

his tongue,

His agile arm beats down their fatal points,'

11

And 'twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm,
An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life
Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled;
But by and by comes back to Romeo,
Who had but newly entertain'd revenge,
And to't they go like lightning; for, ere I
Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain;
And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly:
This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

9 Nice here means silly, trifling.

10 This small portion of untruth in Benvolio's narrative is finely conceived. COLERIDGE.

H.

11 So the first quarto; the other old copies having aged instead of agile.

H.