Page:Chronicles of pharmacy (Volume 2).djvu/96

 As will disperse itself through all the veins, That the life-weary taker may fall dead; And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath As violently as hasty powder fired Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb.

Ap. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law Is death to any he that utters them.

Rom. Art thou so bare, and full of wretchedness, And fear'st to die? famine is in thy cheeks. Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes, Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back, The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law; The world affords no law to make thee rich; Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.

Ap. My poverty but not my will consents.

Rom. I pray thy poverty and not thy will.

Ap. Put this in any liquid thing you will And drink it off; and if you had the strength Of twenty men, it would despatch you straight.

Rom. There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls Doing more murders in this loathsome world Than these poor compounds that thou may'st not sell. I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none. Farewell; buy food, and get thyself in flesh. Come cordial, and not poison; go with me To Juliet's grave, for there I must use thee.

Two lines in the accepted version have been the subject of much controversy, sometimes of an acrimonious character among critics. Both sides quote one or other of the early editions in support of their contentions. One of the lines is "Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes." It is fiercely held that "starveth" in this expression should be "stareth." And in the famous line "I pray thy poverty and not thy will" ordinary readers naturally think "pay" should be substituted for "pray." The defenders of the quoted versions contemptuously reply that it is because we are only commonsense people and not poets that we cannot rise to the height of appreciating the meaning of the