Page:Romeo and Juliet (Dowden).djvu/142

For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague.155 O cousin, cousin!

Prince.

Benvolio, who began this bloody[C 1] fray?

Ben.

Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay: Romeo, that spoke him fair, bid[C 2] him bethink How nice[E 1] the quarrel was, and urged withal160 Your high displeasure : all this uttered With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow'd, Could not take truce[E 2] with the unruly spleen Of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts With piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast;165 Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point, And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats Cold death aside, and with the other sends It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity Retorts it:[E 3] Romeo he cries aloud,170 "Hold, friends! friends, part!" and, swifter than his tongue, His agile[C 3] arm beats down their fatal points, And 'twixt them rushes ; underneath whose arm An envious[E 4] thrust from Tybalt hit the life Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled;175 But by and by[E 5] comes back to Romeo, Who had but newly entertain'd revenge, And to 't they go like lightning; for, ere I

1. 157. bloody] Q, omitted F.
2. 159. bid] Q, F; bad Q 5.
3. 172. agile] Q 1, Qq 4, 5; aged Q, F; able Ff 2–4.

1. 160. nice] unduly minute, trivial; as in V. ii. 18.
2. 163. take truce] Capell conjectured make truce; but the words of the text occur in Venus and Adonis, line 82, and King John, III. i. 17.
3. 170. Retorts it] Collier (MS.) adds the word home.
4. 174. envious] malicious, as often in Shakespeare.
5. 176. by and by] immediately, as in II. ii. 151.