The Tragedy Of Romeo And Juliet

1 Enter Paris, and his Page bearing flowers and a torch.
2 PARIS.
3 Give me thy torch, boy. Hence and stand aloof.
4 Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.
5 Under yond yew tree lay thee all along,
6 Holding thy ear close to the hollow ground;
7 So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread,
8 Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,
9 But thou shalt hear it. Whistle then to me,
10 As signal that thou hear’st something approach.
11 Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go.
12 PAGE.
13 [_Aside._] I am almost afraid to stand alone
14 Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure.
15 [_Retires._]
16 PARIS.
17 Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew.
18 O woe, thy canopy is dust and stones,
19 Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,
20 Or wanting that, with tears distill’d by moans.
21 The obsequies that I for thee will keep,
22 Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.
23 [_The Page whistles._]
24 The boy gives warning something doth approach.
25 What cursed foot wanders this way tonight,
26 To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite?
27 What, with a torch! Muffle me, night, awhile.
28 [_Retires._]
29 Enter Romeo and Balthasar with a torch, mattock, &c.
30 ROMEO.
31 Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron.
32 Hold, take this letter; early in the morning
33 See thou deliver it to my lord and father.
34 Give me the light; upon thy life I charge thee,
35 Whate’er thou hear’st or seest, stand all aloof
36 And do not interrupt me in my course.
37 Why I descend into this bed of death
38 Is partly to behold my lady’s face,
39 But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger
40 A precious ring, a ring that I must use
41 In dear employment. Therefore hence, be gone.
42 But if thou jealous dost return to pry
43 In what I further shall intend to do,
44 By heaven I will tear thee joint by joint,
45 And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs.
46 The time and my intents are savage-wild;
47 More fierce and more inexorable far
48 Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.
49 BALTHASAR.
50 I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.
51 ROMEO.
52 So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that.
53 Live, and be prosperous, and farewell, good fellow.
54 BALTHASAR.
55 For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout.
56 His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.
57 [_Retires_]
58 ROMEO.
59 Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
60 Gorg’d with the dearest morsel of the earth,
61 Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
62 [_Breaking open the door of the monument._]
63 And in despite, I’ll cram thee with more food.
64 PARIS.
65 This is that banish’d haughty Montague
66 That murder’d my love’s cousin,—with which grief,
67 It is supposed, the fair creature died,—
68 And here is come to do some villainous shame
69 To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him.
70 [_Advances._]
71 Stop thy unhallow’d toil, vile Montague.
72 Can vengeance be pursu’d further than death?
73 Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee.
74 Obey, and go with me, for thou must die.
75 ROMEO.
76 I must indeed; and therefore came I hither.
77 Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man.
78 Fly hence and leave me. Think upon these gone;
79 Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,
80 Put not another sin upon my head
81 By urging me to fury. O be gone.
82 By heaven I love thee better than myself;
83 For I come hither arm’d against myself.
84 Stay not, be gone, live, and hereafter say,
85 A madman’s mercy bid thee run away.
86 PARIS.
87 I do defy thy conjuration,
88 And apprehend thee for a felon here.
89 ROMEO.
90 Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!
91 [_They fight._]
92 PAGE.
93 O lord, they fight! I will go call the watch.
94 [_Exit._]
95 PARIS.
96 O, I am slain! [_Falls._] If thou be merciful,
97 Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.
98 [_Dies._]
99 ROMEO.
100 In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face.
101 Mercutio’s kinsman, noble County Paris!
102 What said my man, when my betossed soul
103 Did not attend him as we rode? I think
104 He told me Paris should have married Juliet.
105 Said he not so? Or did I dream it so?
106 Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet,
107 To think it was so? O, give me thy hand,
108 One writ with me in sour misfortune’s book.
109 I’ll bury thee in a triumphant grave.
110 A grave? O no, a lantern, slaught’red youth,
111 For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
112 This vault a feasting presence full of light.
113 Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr’d.
114 [_Laying Paris in the monument._]
115 How oft when men are at the point of death
116 Have they been merry! Which their keepers call
117 A lightning before death. O, how may I
118 Call this a lightning? O my love, my wife,
119 Death that hath suck’d the honey of thy breath,
120 Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.
121 Thou art not conquer’d. Beauty’s ensign yet
122 Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
123 And death’s pale flag is not advanced there.
124 Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
125 O, what more favour can I do to thee
126 Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
127 To sunder his that was thine enemy?
128 Forgive me, cousin. Ah, dear Juliet,
129 Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe
130 That unsubstantial death is amorous;
131 And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
132 Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
133 For fear of that I still will stay with thee,
134 And never from this palace of dim night
135 Depart again. Here, here will I remain
136 With worms that are thy chambermaids. O, here
137 Will I set up my everlasting rest;
138 And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
139 From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last.
140 Arms, take your last embrace! And, lips, O you
141 The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
142 A dateless bargain to engrossing death.
143 Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide.
144 Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
145 The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark.
146 Here’s to my love! [_Drinks._] O true apothecary!
147 Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
148 [_Dies._]
149 Enter, at the other end of the Churchyard, Friar Lawrence, with a
150 lantern, crow, and spade.
151 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
152 Saint Francis be my speed. How oft tonight
153 Have my old feet stumbled at graves? Who’s there?
154 Who is it that consorts, so late, the dead?
155 BALTHASAR.
156 Here’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well.
157 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
158 Bliss be upon you. Tell me, good my friend,
159 What torch is yond that vainly lends his light
160 To grubs and eyeless skulls? As I discern,
161 It burneth in the Capels’ monument.
162 BALTHASAR.
163 It doth so, holy sir, and there’s my master,
164 One that you love.
165 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
166 Who is it?
167 BALTHASAR.
168 Romeo.
169 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
170 How long hath he been there?
171 BALTHASAR.
172 Full half an hour.
173 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
174 Go with me to the vault.
175 BALTHASAR.
176 I dare not, sir;
177 My master knows not but I am gone hence,
178 And fearfully did menace me with death
179 If I did stay to look on his intents.
180 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
181 Stay then, I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me.
182 O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing.
183 BALTHASAR.
184 As I did sleep under this yew tree here,
185 I dreamt my master and another fought,
186 And that my master slew him.
187 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
188 Romeo! [_Advances._]
189 Alack, alack, what blood is this which stains
190 The stony entrance of this sepulchre?
191 What mean these masterless and gory swords
192 To lie discolour’d by this place of peace?
193 [_Enters the monument._]
194 Romeo! O, pale! Who else? What, Paris too?
195 And steep’d in blood? Ah what an unkind hour
196 Is guilty of this lamentable chance?
197 The lady stirs.
198 [_Juliet wakes and stirs._]
199 JULIET.
200 O comfortable Friar, where is my lord?
201 I do remember well where I should be,
202 And there I am. Where is my Romeo?
203 [_Noise within._]
204 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
205 I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest
206 Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep.
207 A greater power than we can contradict
208 Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.
209 Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead;
210 And Paris too. Come, I’ll dispose of thee
211 Among a sisterhood of holy nuns.
212 Stay not to question, for the watch is coming.
213 Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay.
214 JULIET.
215 Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.
216 [_Exit Friar Lawrence._]
217 What’s here? A cup clos’d in my true love’s hand?
218 Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.
219 O churl. Drink all, and left no friendly drop
220 To help me after? I will kiss thy lips.
221 Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
222 To make me die with a restorative.
223 [_Kisses him._]
224 Thy lips are warm!
225 FIRST WATCH.
226 [_Within._] Lead, boy. Which way?
227 JULIET.
228 Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger.
229 [_Snatching Romeo’s dagger._]
230 This is thy sheath. [_stabs herself_] There rest, and let me die.
231 [_Falls on Romeo’s body and dies._]
232 Enter Watch with the Page of Paris.
233 PAGE.
234 This is the place. There, where the torch doth burn.
235 FIRST WATCH.
236 The ground is bloody. Search about the churchyard.
237 Go, some of you, whoe’er you find attach.
238 [_Exeunt some of the Watch._]
239 Pitiful sight! Here lies the County slain,
240 And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead,
241 Who here hath lain this two days buried.
242 Go tell the Prince; run to the Capulets.
243 Raise up the Montagues, some others search.
244 [_Exeunt others of the Watch._]
245 We see the ground whereon these woes do lie,
246 But the true ground of all these piteous woes
247 We cannot without circumstance descry.
248 Re-enter some of the Watch with Balthasar.
249 SECOND WATCH.
250 Here’s Romeo’s man. We found him in the churchyard.
251 FIRST WATCH.
252 Hold him in safety till the Prince come hither.
253 Re-enter others of the Watch with Friar Lawrence.
254 THIRD WATCH. Here is a Friar that trembles, sighs, and weeps.
255 We took this mattock and this spade from him
256 As he was coming from this churchyard side.
257 FIRST WATCH.
258 A great suspicion. Stay the Friar too.
259 Enter the Prince and Attendants.
260 PRINCE.
261 What misadventure is so early up,
262 That calls our person from our morning’s rest?
263 Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet and others.
264 CAPULET.
265 What should it be that they so shriek abroad?
266 LADY CAPULET.
267 O the people in the street cry Romeo,
268 Some Juliet, and some Paris, and all run
269 With open outcry toward our monument.
270 PRINCE.
271 What fear is this which startles in our ears?
272 FIRST WATCH.
273 Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain,
274 And Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before,
275 Warm and new kill’d.
276 PRINCE.
277 Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.
278 FIRST WATCH.
279 Here is a Friar, and slaughter’d Romeo’s man,
280 With instruments upon them fit to open
281 These dead men’s tombs.
282 CAPULET.
283 O heaven! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!
284 This dagger hath mista’en, for lo, his house
285 Is empty on the back of Montague,
286 And it mis-sheathed in my daughter’s bosom.
287 LADY CAPULET.
288 O me! This sight of death is as a bell
289 That warns my old age to a sepulchre.
290 Enter Montague and others.
291 PRINCE.
292 Come, Montague, for thou art early up,
293 To see thy son and heir more early down.
294 MONTAGUE.
295 Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight.
296 Grief of my son’s exile hath stopp’d her breath.
297 What further woe conspires against mine age?
298 PRINCE.
299 Look, and thou shalt see.
300 MONTAGUE.
301 O thou untaught! What manners is in this,
302 To press before thy father to a grave?
303 PRINCE.
304 Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while,
305 Till we can clear these ambiguities,
306 And know their spring, their head, their true descent,
307 And then will I be general of your woes,
308 And lead you even to death. Meantime forbear,
309 And let mischance be slave to patience.
310 Bring forth the parties of suspicion.
311 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
312 I am the greatest, able to do least,
313 Yet most suspected, as the time and place
314 Doth make against me, of this direful murder.
315 And here I stand, both to impeach and purge
316 Myself condemned and myself excus’d.
317 PRINCE.
318 Then say at once what thou dost know in this.
319 FRIAR LAWRENCE.
320 I will be brief, for my short date of breath
321 Is not so long as is a tedious tale.
322 Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet,
323 And she, there dead, that Romeo’s faithful wife.
324 I married them; and their stol’n marriage day
325 Was Tybalt’s doomsday, whose untimely death
326 Banish’d the new-made bridegroom from this city;
327 For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin’d.
328 You, to remove that siege of grief from her,
329 Betroth’d, and would have married her perforce
330 To County Paris. Then comes she to me,
331 And with wild looks, bid me devise some means
332 To rid her from this second marriage,
333 Or in my cell there would she kill herself.
334 Then gave I her, so tutored by my art,
335 A sleeping potion, which so took effect
336 As I intended, for it wrought on her
337 The form of death. Meantime I writ to Romeo
338 That he should hither come as this dire night
339 To help to take her from her borrow’d grave,
340 Being the time the potion’s force should cease.
341 But he which bore my letter, Friar John,
342 Was stay’d by accident; and yesternight
343 Return’d my letter back. Then all alone
344 At the prefixed hour of her waking
345 Came I to take her from her kindred’s vault,
346 Meaning to keep her closely at my cell
347 Till I conveniently could send to Romeo.
348 But when I came, some minute ere the time
349 Of her awaking, here untimely lay
350 The noble Paris and true Romeo dead.
351 She wakes; and I entreated her come forth
352 And bear this work of heaven with patience.
353 But then a noise did scare me from the tomb;
354 And she, too desperate, would not go with me,
355 But, as it seems, did violence on herself.
356 All this I know; and to the marriage
357 Her Nurse is privy. And if ought in this
358 Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
359 Be sacrific’d, some hour before his time,
360 Unto the rigour of severest law.
361 PRINCE.
362 We still have known thee for a holy man.
363 Where’s Romeo’s man? What can he say to this?
364 BALTHASAR.
365 I brought my master news of Juliet’s death,
366 And then in post he came from Mantua
367 To this same place, to this same monument.
368 This letter he early bid me give his father,
369 And threaten’d me with death, going in the vault,
370 If I departed not, and left him there.
371 PRINCE.
372 Give me the letter, I will look on it.
373 Where is the County’s Page that rais’d the watch?
374 Sirrah, what made your master in this place?
375 PAGE.
376 He came with flowers to strew his lady’s grave,
377 And bid me stand aloof, and so I did.
378 Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb,
379 And by and by my master drew on him,
380 And then I ran away to call the watch.
381 PRINCE.
382 This letter doth make good the Friar’s words,
383 Their course of love, the tidings of her death.
384 And here he writes that he did buy a poison
385 Of a poor ’pothecary, and therewithal
386 Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet.
387 Where be these enemies? Capulet, Montague,
388 See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
389 That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love!
390 And I, for winking at your discords too,
391 Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punish’d.
392 CAPULET.
393 O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
394 This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more
395 Can I demand.
396 MONTAGUE.
397 But I can give thee more,
398 For I will raise her statue in pure gold,
399 That whiles Verona by that name is known,
400 There shall no figure at such rate be set
401 As that of true and faithful Juliet.
402 CAPULET.
403 As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie,
404 Poor sacrifices of our enmity.
405 PRINCE.
406 A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
407 The sun for sorrow will not show his head.
408 Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.
409 Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished,
410 For never was a story of more woe
411 Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
412 [_Exeunt._]