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178
ROMEO AND JULIET
[ACT V.
| Fri. | I will be brief,[E 1] for my short date of breath Is not so long as is a tedious tale. Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet;230 And she, there dead, that[C 1] Romeo's faithful wife: I married them; and their stol'n marriage-day Was Tybalt's doomsday, whose untimely death Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city; For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.235 You, to remove that siege of grief from her, Betroth'd, and would have married her perforce, To County Paris: then comes she to me, And with wild looks bid me devise some mean[C 2] To rid her from this second marriage,240 Or in my cell there would she kill herself. Then gave I her, so tutor'd by my art, A sleeping potion; which so took effect As I intended, for it wrought on her The form of death: meantime I writ to Romeo245 That he should hither come as[E 2] this dire night, To help to take her from her borrow'd grave, Being the time the potion's force should cease. But he which bore my letter, Friar John, Was stay'd by accident, and yesternight250 |
- ↑ 228. brief] Malone: "Shakespeare was led into this uninteresting narrative by following Romeus and Juliet too closely." Ulrici argues that it is needed for the reconciliation of the houses, which follows.
- ↑ 246. as] This as used with adverbs and adverbial phrases of time is still common dialectically, but literary English retains only as yet (New Eng. Dict.). I have noticed it frequently in Richardson's novels, used as in the following from Mrs. Delany's Autobiog. iii. 608 (quoted in New Eng. Dict.): "To carry us off to Longleat as next Thursday." Its force was restrictive; now we regard it as redundant. Compare Measure for Measure, V. i. 74: "As then the messenger."
