_Rom._ My Juliet, welcome. As do waking eyes Closed in Night's mists attend the frolick Day, So Romeo hath expected Juliet, And thou art come.
_Jul._ I am, if I be Day, Come to my Sun: shine forth and make me fair.
_Rom._ All beauteous fairness dwelleth in thine eyes.
_Jul._ Romeo, from thine all brightness doth arise.
_Fri._ Come, wantons, come, the stealing hours do pass, Defer embracements till some fitter time. Part for a while, you shall not be alone Till holy Church have joined ye both in one.
_Rom._ Lead, holy Father, all delay seems long.
_Jul._ Make haste, make haste, this lingering doth us wrong.
For convenient comparison I quote the later text here:--
_Juliet._ Good even to my ghostly confessor.
_Friar Laurence._ Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both.
_Juliet._ As much to him, else is his thanks too much.
_Romeo._ Ah, Juliet, if the measure of thy joy Be heap'd like mine and that thy skill be more To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath This neighbour air, and let rich music's tongue Unfold the imagin'd happiness that both Receive in either by this dear encounter.
_Juliet._ Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, Brags of his substance, not of ornament. They are but beggars that can count their worth; But my true love is grown to such excess I cannot sum up half my sum of wealth.
_Friar Laurence._ Come, come with me, and we will make short work; For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone Till holy church incorporate two in one.
The "omission, mutilation, or botching" by which some German editors would explain all differences between the earlier and later texts will not suffice to account for such divergence as this. "The two dialogues do not differ merely in expressiveness and effect; they embody different conceptions of the characters;" and yet we cannot doubt that both were written by Shakespeare.
But while the second quarto is "unquestionably our best authority" for the text of the play, it is certain that it "was not printed from the author's manuscript, but from a transcript, the writer of which was not only careless, but thought fit to take unwarrantable liberties with the text." The first quarto, with all its faults and imperfections, is often useful in the detection and correction of these errors and corruptions, and all the modern editors have made more or less use of its readings.