William Shakespeare

“ Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie, [394]
And young affection gapes to be his heir;
That fair for which love groan'd for and would die, [395]
With tender Juliet match'd, is now not fair. [396]
Now Romeo is beloved and loves again, 5
Alike bewitched by the charm of looks,
But to his foe supposed he must complain,
And she steal love's sweet bait from fearful hooks:
Being held a foe, he may not have access
To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear; 10
And she as much in love, her means much less
To meet her new beloved any where:
But passion lends them power, time means, to meet, ”

“ Two households, both alike in dignity, [3]
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, [3]
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, [3]
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. [3]
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes [3] 5
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; [3]
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows [3]
Do with their death bury their parents' strife. [3] [4]
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, [3]
And the continuance of their parents' rage, [3] 10
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, [3]
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; ”

“ Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be [3835]
What thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature; [3836] 15
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness [3837]
To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it: what thou wouldst highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, 20
And yet wouldst wrongly win: thou'ldst have, great Glamis, [3838] [3839]
That which cries 'Thus thou must do, if thou have it; [3838] [3839]
And that which rather thou dost fear to do [3839]
Than wishest should be undone.' Hie thee hither, ”

“ If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep, [1394]
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand:
My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne, [1395]
And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit [1396]
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts. 5
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead—
Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave to think!— [1397]
And breathed such life with kisses in my lips
That I revived and was an emperor.
Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess'd, 10
When but love's shadows are so rich in joy! ”

“ Amen, amen! but come what sorrow can,
It cannot countervail the exchange of joy
That one short minute gives me in her sight: 5
Do thou but close our hands with holy words,
Then love-devouring death do what he dare, [718]
It is enough I may but call her mine. ”

“ Why, such is love's transgression.
Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast; [93]
[Pg 12] Which thou wilt propagate, to have it prest [94] 185
With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown
Doth add more grief to too much of mine own. [95]
Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs; [96]
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes; [97]
Being vex'd, a sea nourish'd with lovers' tears: [98] 190
What is it else? a madness most discreet,
A choking gall and a preserving sweet.
Farewell, my coz. ”

“ Wilt thou be gone? it is not yet near day: [1027]
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate-tree: [1028]
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale. 5
Rom. It was the lark, the herald of the morn, [1029]
No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east:
Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day [1030]
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops: [1031] 10
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
Jul. Yond light is not day-light, I know it, I: [1032]
It is some meteor that the sun exhales, ”

“ Steevens, in the edition of 1773, followed Johnson's arrangement, but adopted in the first lines a transposition proposed by Upton:
'Why, this is the world's sport;
And just of the same piece is every flatterer's soul.'
In his edition of 1793 he read as follows:
'Why this
Is the world's soul; and just of the same piece
Is every flatterer's spirit. Who can call him
His friend, &c.'
Following, in the rest, Capell's arrangement. ”

“ 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. ”

“ he was not born to shame:
Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit; ”

“ There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls, [1422] 80
Doing more murder in this loathsome world, [1423]
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell: [1424]
I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none. ”

“ That book in many's eyes doth share the glory, [229] [234]
That in gold clasps locks in the golden story: [229]
So shall you share all that he doth possess, [229]
By having him making yourself no less. ”

“ Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O any thing, of nothing first create! [90] 175
O heavy lightness! serious vanity!
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms! [91]
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this. ”

“ If thou read this, O Cæsar, thou mayst live; [3152]
If not, the Fates with traitors do contrive. ”

“ For I will raise her statue in pure gold;
That whiles Verona by that name is known, [1587]
[Pg 135] There shall no figure at such rate be set [1588] 300
As that of true and faithful Juliet. ”

“ A careful study of the text of Romeo and Juliet will show how little we can rely upon having the true text, as Shakespeare wrote it, in those plays for which the Folio is our earliest authority.
M. Tycho Mommsen published in 1859 a reprint of the first and second Quartos on opposite pages, and in the footnotes a collation of the remaining Quartos (not quite complete in the case of the fourth and fifth) , the four Folios, Rowe's first edition, and the new readings of Mr Collier's MS. corrector. ”

“ Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! [3979] 35
Macbeth does murder sleep'—the innocent sleep, [3979] [3980]
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care, [3981]
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, [3982]
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, [3983]
Chief nourisher in life's feast,—
Lady M. ”

“ In the list given in the Folio Phrynia, Timandra, and others are omitted. 'Timon's creditors' are termed 'usurers.' Ventidius is called Ventigius, Philotus, Philo, and Hortensius, Hortensis. Varro and Lucius occur among the names of the servants, and the latter has been retained by all editors except Mr Dyce in his second edition. In the play the servants address each other by the names of their respective masters: hence the confusion. Perhaps all the names assigned to the servants should be considered as names of their masters. 'Hortensius,' for instance, has not a servile sound. ”

“ It is but change, Titinius; for Octavius [3602]
Is overthrown by noble Brutus' power,
As Cassius' legions are by Antony.
Tit. These tidings will well comfort Cassius.
Mes. Where did you leave him?
Tit. All disconsolate, 55
With Pindarus his bondman, on this hill.
Mes. Is not that he that lies upon the ground?
Tit. He lies not like the living. O my heart!
Mes. Is not that he?
Tit. No, this was he, Messala,
But Cassius is no more. O setting sun, 60
As in thy red rays thou dost sink to night, [3603]
So in his red blood Cassius' day is set, [3604]
The sun of Rome is set! ”

“ Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague? 60
Rom. Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike. [460]
[Pg 41]
Jul. How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore? [461]
The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,
And the place death, considering who thou art,
If any of my kinsmen find thee here. [462] 65
Rom. With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls, [463]
For stony limits cannot hold love out:
And what love can do, that dares love attempt;
Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me. [464]
Jul. If they do see thee, they will murder thee. 70
Rom. ”

“ By love, that first did prompt me to inquire; [467] 80
He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes.
I am no pilot; yet, wert thou as far [468]
As that vast shore wash'd with the farthest sea, [469]
I would adventure for such merchandise. ”

“ Instead of this passage Pope, printing, as he says, 'more agreeably to the first edition,' gave as follows:
'La. Cap. Content thee girl. If I could find a man, I soon would send to Mantua where he is, And give him such an unaccustom'd dram That he should soon keep Tybalt company.
Jul. Find you the means, and I'll find such a man, For while he lives, my heart shall ne'er be light 'Till I behold him—dead—is my poor heart, Thus for a kinsman vext? ”

“ Still it cried 'Sleep no more!' to all the house:
'Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor [3985] [3986]
Shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more.' [3985]
[Pg 450]
Lady M. Who was it that thus cried? ”

“ Their blood is caked, 'tis cold, it seldom flows; 215
'Tis lack of kindly warmth they are not kind;
And nature, as it grows again toward earth,
Is fashion'd for the journey, dull and heavy.
[To a Serv.] Go to Ventidius. [To Flav.] Prithee, be not sad; [2047]
Thou art true and honest; ingeniously I speak, [2048] 220
No blame belongs to thee. [To Serv.] Ventidius lately [2049]
Buried his father, by whose death he's stepp'd
Into a great estate: when he was poor,
Imprison'd, and in scarcity of friends,
I clear'd him with five talents: greet him from me ”

“ Enter Benuolio and Romeo.
Ben: Tut man one fire burnes out anothers burning,
One paine is lessned with anothers anguish:
Turne backward, and be holp with backward turning.
One desperate griefe cures with anothers languish. 40
Take thou some new infection to thy eye,
And the ranke poyson of the old will die.
Romeo: Your Planton leafe is excellent for that.
Ben: For what?
Romeo: For your broken shin. 45
Ben: Why Romeo art thou mad?
Rom: Not mad, but bound more than a mad man is. ”

“ He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious; ”

“ And steal immortal blessing from her lips; [924]
Who, even in pure and vestal modesty, [925] [926]
Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin; ”

“ I. 2. 53-58. The Folios print Apemantus's speech as prose down to 'Timon'; then as four lines of verse:
'Heere's that which is too weake to be a sinner,
Honest water, which nere left man i' th' mire:
This &c.'
The second has 'mird' for 'mire.' The third and fourth follow the first. Pope, whose arrangement we follow, prints as prose down to 'mire.' Capell prints the whole as verse thus:
'Flow this way!
A most brave fellow! he keeps his tides well. Timon,
Those healths will make thee, and thy state, look ill,'
following the Folios in the next four lines. ”

“ O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you. [274]
She is the fairies' midwife, and she comes [275]
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone [274] [276] 55
[Pg 26] On the fore-finger of an alderman, [274]
Drawn with a team of little atomies [274] [277]
Athwart men's noses as they lie asleep: [274] [278]
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners' legs; ”

“ Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear; 35
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come. ”

“ The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law:
The world affords no law to make thee rich; ”

“ Youths loue is quicke, swifter than swiftest speed. 10
Enter Iuliet somewhat fast, and embraceth Romeo.
See where she comes.
So light of foote nere hurts the troden flower:
Of loue and ioy, see see the soueraigne power.
Iul: Romeo.
Rom: My Iuliet welcome. As doo waking eyes 15
(Cloasd in Nights mysts) attend the frolicke Day,
So Romeo hath expected Iuliet,
And thou art come.
Jul: I am (if I be Day)
Come to my Sunne: shine foorth, and make me faire. 20
Rom: All beauteous fairnes dwelleth in thine eyes.
Iul: Romeo from thine all brightnes doth arise. ”

“ Let but the commons hear this testament—
Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read— 130
And they would go and kiss dead Cæsar's wounds
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,
Yea, beg a hair of him for memory, [3315]
And, dying, mention it within their wills,
Bequeathing it as a rich legacy 135
Unto their issue. ”

“ Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books,
But love from love, toward school with heavy looks. ”

“ Cry you mercy, you never did wrong, but with just cause.' Vol. V. p. 162. Gifford in his note supposes that Metellus Cimber's speech and Cæsar's reply, as they are found in the Folio of 1623, are due to the 'botchery of the players,' and that they originally stood thus:
'Met. Cæsar, thou dost me wrong.
Cæs. Cæsar did never wrong, but with just cause.'
But surely the first twelve lines of Cæsar's reply, to which Gifford makes no allusion, cannot have been written by any other hand than Shakespeare's. ”