Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/182

Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears;80 Or shut[C 1] me nightly in a charnel-house, O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones, With reeky[E 1] shanks, and yellow chapless[C 2] skulls; Or bid me go into a new-made grave And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;[C 3]85 Things that, to hear them told,[C 4] have made me tremble; And I will do it without fear or doubt, To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.

Fri.

Hold, then; go home, be merry, give consent To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow:90 To-morrow night look that thou lie alone, Let not thy nurse[C 5] lie with thee in thy chamber: Take thou[E 2] this vial, being then in bed,[E 3] And this distilled[C 6] liquor drink thou off; When presently through all thy veins shall run95 A cold and drowsy humour; for no pulse Shall keep his native progress, but surcease;[E 4] No warmth, no breath,[C 7] shall testify thou livest;

1. 81. shut] Q 1; hide Q, F, and many editors.
2. 83. chapless] Q 4, chapels Q, chappels F.
3. 85. shroud] Qq. 4, 5; omitted Q; grave F.
4. 86. told] Q, F; namde Q 1.
5. 92. thy nurse] F, the Nurse Q.
6. 94. distilled] Q 1; distilling Q, F.
7. 98. breath] F, breast Q.

1. 83. reeky] reeking with malodorous vapours; strictly smoky, and hence foul; see note on Hamlet (ed. Dowden), III. iv. 184.
2. 93. Take thou] Shakespeare in what follows derives much from Brooke's poem.
3. 89–93. Hold … bed] Q 1 reads:

   "Hold Iuliet, hie thee home, get thee to bed,
   Let not thy Nurse lye with thee in thy Chamber:
   And when thou art alone, take thou this Violl."

4. 96, 97. A cold … surcease] Q 1 reads:

   "A dull and heavie slumber, which shall seaze
   Each vitall spirit: for no Pulse shall keepe
   His naturall progresse, but surcease to beate:"