"Too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, Too like the lightning, which does cease to be Ere one can say, It lightens." When he urges his marriage on the friar, "_Rom._ O let us home: I stand on sudden haste. _Friar._ Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast." The metaphors put into his mouth are remarkable for their allusions to abrupt and violent haste. He wishes that he may die "As violently as hasty powder fired Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb." When he thinks that Juliet mentions his name in anger, it is "as if that name, Shot from the deadly level of a gun, Did murder her." When Lawrence remonstrates with him on his violence, he compares the use to which he puts his wit to "Powder in a skilless soldier's flask;" and tells him that "Violent delights have violent ends, And in their triumph die; like fire and powder, Which, as they kiss, consume." Lightning, flame, shot, explosion, are the favourite parallels to the conduct and career of Romeo. Swift are his loves; as swift to enter his thought, the mischief which ends them for ever. Rapid have been all the pulsations of his life; as rapid, the determination which decides that they shall beat no more. A gentleman he was in heart and soul. All his habitual companions love him: Benvolio and Mercutio, who represent the young gentlemen of his house, are ready to peril their lives, and to strain all their energies, serious or gay, in his service. His father is filled with an anxiety on his account so delicate, that he will not venture to interfere with his son's private sorrows, while he desires to discover their source, and if possible to relieve them. The heart of his mother bursts in his calamity; the head of the rival house bestows upon him the warmest panegyrics; the tutor of his youth sacrifices everything to gratify his wishes; his servant, though no man is a hero to his _valet de chambre_, dares not remonstrate with him on his intentions, even when they are avowed to be savage-wild, "More fierce, and more inexorable far, Than empty tigers or the roaring sea,"-- but with an eager solicitude he breaks his commands by remaining as close as he can venture, to watch over his safety. Kind is he to all. He wins the heart of the romantic Juliet by his tender gallantry: the worldly-minded nurse praises him for being as gentle as a lamb. When it is necessary or natural that the Prince or Lady Montague should speak harshly of him, it is done in his absence. No words of anger or reproach are addressed to his ears save by Tybalt; and from him they are in some sort a compliment, as signifying that the self-chosen prize-fighter of the opposing party deems Romeo the worthiest antagonist of his blade. We find that he fights two blood-stained duels, but both are forced upon him; the first under circumstances impossible of avoidance, the last after the humblest supplications to be excused.