es with itself for
its decision _in toto_.

_Ib._ sc. 3. Romeo's speech:--

"'Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven's here,
Where Juliet lives," &c.

All deep passions are a sort of atheists, that believe no future.

_Ib._ sc. 5.--

"_Cap._ Soft! take me with you, take me with you, wife--How!
will she none?" &c.

A noble scene! Don't I see it with my own eyes?--Yes! but not with
Juliet's. And observe in Capulet's last speech in this scene his mistake,
as if love's causes were capable of being generalised.

Act iv. sc. 3. Juliet's speech.:--

"O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
Upon a rapier's point:--Stay, Tybalt, stay!--
Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee."

Shakespeare provides for the finest decencies. It would have been too bold
a thing for a girl of fifteen;--but she swallows the draught in a fit of
fright.

_Ib._ sc. 5.--

As the audience know that Juliet is not dead, this scene is, perhaps,
excusable. But it is a strong warning to minor dramatists not to introduce
at one time many separate characters agitated by one and the same
circumstance. It is difficult to understand what effect, whether that of
pity or of laughter, Shakespeare meant to produce;--the occasion and the
characteristic speeches are so little in harmony! For example, what the
Nurse says is excellently suited to the Nurse's character, but grotesquely
unsuited to the occasion.

Act v. sc. 1. Romeo's speech:--

... "O mischief! thou art swift
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!
I do remember an apothecary," &c.

This famous passage is so beautiful as to be self-justified; yet, in
addition, what a fine preparation it is for the tomb scene!

_Ib._ sc. 3. Romeo's speech:--

"Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man,
Fly hence and leave me."

The gentleness of Romeo was shown before, as softened by love; and now it
is doubled by love and sorrow and awe of the place where he is.

_Ib._ Romeo's speech:----

"How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry! which their keepers call
A lightning before death. O, how may I
Call this a lightning?----O, my love, my wife!" &c.

Here, here, is the master example how beauty can at once increase and
modify passion!

_Ib._ Last scene.

How beautiful is the close! The spring and the winter meet;--winter assumes
the character of spring, and spring the sadness of winter.

Shakespeare's Englis