Title page ROMEO and JULIET, A TRAGEDY, by SHAKESPEARE, AS PERFORMED AT THE THEATRE-ROYAL, DRURY-LANE. Regulated from the PROMPT-BOOK, With PERMISSION of the MANAGERS, By Mr. HOPKINS, Prompter. An INTRODUCTION, and NOTES Critical and Illustrative, ARE ADDED BY THE AUTHORS of the DRAMATIC CENSOR. LONDON: Printed for JOHN BELL, near Exeter-Exchange, in the Strand; and C. ETHERINGTON, at York. MDCCLXXIII.

INTRODUCTION.

ROMEO and JULIET. There cannot be a better subject for general entertainment, than that passion which, at some time of life, every one feels; some more enthusiastically than others: on this irresistible conquest of the human heart, has Shakespeare founded the piece before us, and indeed he has painted it warmly. However, in his original play there are many superfluities, and breaches of regularity, which Mr. Garrick has, with a masterly and friendly hand, corrected. As to the catastrophe, it is so much improved, that to it we impute great part of the success which has attended this tragedy, of late years. The characters, especially Romeo, Mercutio, the Friar, Juliet and Nurse, are not only well designed, but happily executed. The language is suitable, and the incidents exceedingly affecting. It is but justice to give Mr. Garrick's introductory advertisement, relative to the alteration. “The chief design,” says that gentleman, “of the alterations in the following play, was to clear the original, as much as possible, from the jingle and quibble which were always objections to the reviving it. The sudden change of Romeo's love, from Rosaline to Juliet, was thought by many, at the first revival of the play, to be a blemish in his character; an alteration in that particular has been made, more in compliance to that opinion, than from a conviction that Shakespeare, the best judge of human nature, was faulty. Bandello, the Italian novelist, from whom Shakespeare has borrowed the subject of this play, has made Juliet to wake in the tomb, before Romeo dies: this circumstance Shakespeare has omitted; not, perhaps, from judgment, but from reading the story in the French

or English translation, both which have injudiciously left out this addition to the catastrophe. Otway, in his Caius Marius, a tragedy taken from Romeo and Juliet, has made use of this affecting circumstance; but it is matter of wonder, that so great a dramatic genius did not work up a scene from it of more nature, terror, and distress.—Such a scene was attempted, at the revival of this play, and it is hoped, that an endeavour to supply the failure of so great a master, will not be deemed arrogant, or the making use of two or three of his introductory lines, be accounted a plagiarism. The persons who from their great good-nature, and love of justice, have endeavoured to take away from the present editor, the little merit of this scene, by ascribing it to Otway, have unwittingly, from the nature of the accusation, paid him a compliment, which he believes they never intended him.”

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

Citizens of Verona, several Men and Women Relations to Capulet, Masquers, Guards, and other Attendants.

[Chorus], [Page], [Watchman]

Drury-Lane.	Covent-Garden.
Romeo,	Mr. Cautherley.	Mr. Smith.
Escalus,	Mr. Bransby.	Mr. Morris.
Paris,	Mr. Fawcett.	Mr. Perry.
Montague.	Mr. Wright.	Mr. Redman.
Capulet,	Mr. Hurst.	Mr. Kniveton.
Mercutio,	Mr. Dodd.	Mr. Woodward.
Benvolio,	Mr. Packer.	Mr. Davis.
Tibalt [Tybalt],	Mr. J. Aickin.	Mr. Gardner.
Old Capulet [Old Man],	Mr. Johnson.
Friar Lawrence.	Mr. Love.	Mr. Hull.
Friar John,	Mr. Keen.	Mr. Wignell.
Balthasar,	Mr. Wheeler.	Mr. R. Smith.
Apothecary,	Mr. Castle.	Mr. Holtom.
Gregory,	Mr. Wrighten.
Sampson,	Mr. Griffith.
Abram [Abraham],	Mr. Marr.
Peter,	Mr. Burton.	Mr. Quick.
Juliet,	Mrs. Barry.	Miss Miller.
Lady Capulet,	Mrs. Johnson.	Mrs. Barrington.
Nurse,	Mrs. Cross.	Mrs. Pitt.

The SCENE, in the Beginning of the Fifth Act, is in Mantua; during all the rest of the Play, in and near Verona.

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