Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/210

Enter^{[C 1]} Romeo and Balthasar,^{[E 1]} with a torch, mattock, etc.

Rom.

Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron. Hold, take this letter; early in the morning See thou deliver it to my lord and father. Give me the light: upon thy life I charge thee,25 Whate'er thou hear'st or seest, stand all aloof, And do not interrupt me in my course. Why I descend into this bed of death Is partly to behold my lady's face, But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger30 A precious ring, a ring that I must use In dear[E 2] employment: therefore hence, be gone: But if thou, jealous,[E 3] dost return to pry In what I farther[C 2] shall intend to do, By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,35 And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs: The time and my intents are savage-wild,[C 3] More fierce and more inexorable far Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.

Bal.[C 4]

I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.[C 5]40

Rom.	So shalt thou show me friendship.[C 6] Take thou that:

1. Enter …] Malone, from Theobald and Capell; Enter Romeo and Peter Qq 2, 3, Ff; Enter Romeo and Balthazar his man, Qq 4, 5; Enter Romeo and Balthasar, with a torch, a mattocke, and a crow of yron Q 1.
2. 34. farther] Q, further F.
3. 37. savage-wild] hyphen, Steevens.
4. 40, 43. Bal.] Qq 4, 5; Pet. Q, F.
5. 40. you] F, ye Q.
6. 41. show me friendship] Q, F; win my favour Q 1.

1. 21. Balthasar] Peter in Q, F. Collier suggests that Kemp doubled his part, acting both Peter and Balthasar, whence the confusion.
2. 32. dear] precious in import, important, as in 1 Henry IV. IV. i. 34: "so … dear a trust."
3. 33. jealous] suspicious, as often in Shakespeare.