the adventure of his wife too ſoon, that the Spaniſh ſcenes are often ſeparated from each other by a conſiderable interval of time, though to conſult only the ear and eye, it ſeems, as if they followed with the ſame rapidity as on the French ſtage.
Juliet drinks the ſleepy potion in the third ſcene: three more ſcenes are hardly elapſed, when her interment is related in Ferrara: this city is, however, no nearer to Verona than a whole day's journey. The French could not fail to find ſuch a circumſtance ridiculous, and would readily aſk whether Anſelmo was in poſſeſſion of Fortunatus's cap or the arrow of Abaris[1], to be capable of performing ſuch a journey in an inſtant. The Caſtillians judge of this matter in a different manner; they ſuppoſe between the ſcenes all the time neceſſary for the duration of the action: they readily comply with the idea of the author, and the thing ſeems to them very natural, whilſt we ſeek in vain ſome ſhadow of probability.
Behold, then, Romeo departed from Ferrara; the decorations of the ſtage lead the ſpectator back to Verona, and repreſent the inſide of duke Maxi-
- ↑ Abarus, according to fabulous hiſtory, was a famous ſoothſayer: he celebrated the glory of Apollo, and this god as a recompence, gave him an arrow, which had the ſame property as Fortunatus's cap: if it was darted towards any place, were it the fartheſt end of the world, it was there in a moment, and the perſon himſelf too.
