Enter Paris and his Page.PARIS Give me thy torch, boy. Hence and stand aloof. Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. Under yond ⌜yew⌝ trees lay thee all along, Holding thy ear close to the hollow ground.5 So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread (Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves)
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But thou shalt hear it. Whistle then to me As signal that thou hearest something approach. Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee. Go.PAGE, ⌜aside⌝ 10 I am almost afraid to stand alone Here in the churchyard. Yet I will adventure.⌜He moves away from Paris.⌝PARIS, ⌜scattering flowers⌝ Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew (O woe, thy canopy is dust and stones!) Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,15 Or, wanting that, with tears distilled by moans. The obsequies that I for thee will keep Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.⌜Page⌝ whistles. The boy gives warning something doth approach. What cursèd foot wanders this way tonight,20 To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite? What, with a torch? Muffle me, night, awhile.⌜He steps aside.⌝Enter Romeo and ⌜Balthasar.⌝ROMEO Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron. Hold, take this letter. Early in the morning See thou deliver it to my lord and father.25 Give me the light. Upon thy life I charge thee, Whate’er thou hearest or seest, stand all aloof And do not interrupt me in my course. Why I descend into this bed of death Is partly to behold my lady’s face,30 But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger A precious ring, a ring that I must use In dear employment. Therefore hence, begone. But, if thou, jealous, dost return to pry In what I farther shall intend to do,
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35 By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs. The time and my intents are savage-wild, More fierce and more inexorable far Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.⌜BALTHASAR⌝ 40 I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.ROMEO So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that.⌜Giving money.⌝ Live and be prosperous, and farewell, good fellow.⌜BALTHASAR, aside⌝ For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout. His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.⌜He steps aside.⌝ROMEO, ⌜beginning to force open the tomb⌝ 45 Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death, Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth, Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open, And in despite I’ll cram thee with more food.PARIS This is that banished haughty Montague50 That murdered my love’s cousin, with which grief It is supposèd the fair creature died, And here is come to do some villainous shame To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him.⌜Stepping forward.⌝ Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague.55 Can vengeance be pursued further than death? Condemnèd villain, I do apprehend thee. Obey and go with me, for thou must die.ROMEO I must indeed, and therefore came I hither. Good gentle youth, tempt not a desp’rate man.60 Fly hence and leave me. Think upon these gone. Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,
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Put not another sin upon my head By urging me to fury. O, begone! By heaven, I love thee better than myself,65 For I come hither armed against myself. Stay not, begone, live, and hereafter say A madman’s mercy bid thee run away.PARIS I do defy thy ⌜commination⌝ And apprehend thee for a felon here.ROMEO 70 Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!⌜They draw and fight.⌝⌜PAGE⌝ O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch.⌜He exits.⌝PARIS O, I am slain! If thou be merciful, Open the tomb; lay me with Juliet.⌜He dies.⌝ROMEO In faith, I will.—Let me peruse this face.75 Mercutio’s kinsman, noble County Paris! What said my man when my betossèd soul Did not attend him as we rode? I think He told me Paris should have married Juliet. Said he not so? Or did I dream it so?80 Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet, To think it was so?—O, give me thy hand, One writ with me in sour misfortune’s book! I’ll bury thee in a triumphant grave.—⌜He opens the tomb.⌝ A grave? O, no. A lantern, slaughtered youth,85 For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes This vault a feasting presence full of light.— Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interred.⌜Laying Paris in the tomb.⌝ How oft when men are at the point of death
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Have they been merry, which their keepers call90 A light’ning before death! O, how may I Call this a light’ning?—O my love, my wife, Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty. Thou art not conquered. Beauty’s ensign yet95 Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And death’s pale flag is not advancèd there.— Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet? O, what more favor can I do to thee Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain100 To sunder his that was thine enemy? Forgive me, cousin.—Ah, dear Juliet, Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe That unsubstantial death is amorous, And that the lean abhorrèd monster keeps105 Thee here in dark to be his paramour? For fear of that I still will stay with thee And never from this ⌜palace⌝ of dim night Depart again. Here, here will I remain With worms that are thy chambermaids. O, here110 Will I set up my everlasting rest And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this world-wearied flesh! Eyes, look your last. Arms, take your last embrace. And, lips, O, you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss115 A dateless bargain to engrossing death.⌜Kissing Juliet.⌝ Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavory guide! Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on The dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark! Here’s to my love. ⌜Drinking.⌝ O true apothecary,120 Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.⌜He dies.⌝Enter Friar ⌜Lawrence⌝ with lantern, crow, and spade.
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FRIAR LAWRENCE Saint Francis be my speed! How oft tonight Have my old feet stumbled at graves!—Who’s there?⌜BALTHASAR⌝ Here’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well.FRIAR LAWRENCE Bliss be upon you. Tell me, good my friend,125 What torch is yond that vainly lends his light To grubs and eyeless skulls? As I discern, It burneth in the Capels’ monument.⌜BALTHASAR⌝ It doth so, holy sir, and there’s my master, One that you love.FRIAR LAWRENCE 130 Who is it?⌜BALTHASAR⌝ Romeo.FRIAR LAWRENCE How long hath he been there?⌜BALTHASAR⌝ Full half an hour.FRIAR LAWRENCE Go with me to the vault.⌜BALTHASAR⌝ 135 I dare not, sir. My master knows not but I am gone hence, And fearfully did menace me with death If I did stay to look on his intents.FRIAR LAWRENCE Stay, then. I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me.140 O, much I fear some ill unthrifty thing.⌜BALTHASAR⌝ As I did sleep under this ⌜yew⌝ tree here, I dreamt my master and another fought, And that my master slew him.FRIAR LAWRENCE, ⌜moving toward the tomb⌝ Romeo!—145 Alack, alack, what blood is this which stains The stony entrance of this sepulcher? What mean these masterless and gory swords
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To lie discolored by this place of peace? Romeo! O, pale! Who else? What, Paris too?150 And steeped in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour Is guilty of this lamentable chance! The lady stirs.JULIET O comfortable friar, where is my lord? I do remember well where I should be,155 And there I am. Where is my Romeo?FRIAR LAWRENCE I hear some noise.—Lady, come from that nest Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep. A greater power than we can contradict Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.160 Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead, And Paris, too. Come, I’ll dispose of thee Among a sisterhood of holy nuns. Stay not to question, for the watch is coming. Come, go, good Juliet. I dare no longer stay.JULIET 165 Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.He exits. What’s here? A cup closed in my true love’s hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.— O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop To help me after! I will kiss thy lips.170 Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, To make me die with a restorative.⌜She kisses him.⌝ Thy lips are warm!Enter ⌜Paris’s Page⌝ and Watch.⌜FIRST⌝ WATCH Lead, boy. Which way?JULIET Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O, happy dagger,175 This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die.⌜She takes Romeo’s dagger, stabs herself, and dies.⌝
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⌜PAGE⌝ This is the place, there where the torch doth burn.⌜FIRST⌝ WATCH The ground is bloody.—Search about the churchyard. Go, some of you; whoe’er you find, attach.⌜Some watchmen exit.⌝180 Pitiful sight! Here lies the County slain, And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead, Who here hath lain this two days burièd.— Go, tell the Prince. Run to the Capulets. Raise up the Montagues. Some others search.⌜Others exit.⌝185 We see the ground whereon these woes do lie, But the true ground of all these piteous woes We cannot without circumstance descry.Enter ⌜Watchmen with⌝ Romeo’s man ⌜Balthasar.⌝⌜SECOND⌝ WATCH Here’s Romeo’s man. We found him in the churchyard.⌜FIRST⌝ WATCH 190 Hold him in safety till the Prince come hither.Enter Friar ⌜Lawrence⌝ and another Watchman.THIRD WATCH Here is a friar that trembles, sighs, and weeps. We took this mattock and this spade from him As he was coming from this churchyard’s side.⌜FIRST⌝ WATCH A great suspicion. Stay the Friar too.Enter the Prince ⌜with Attendants.⌝PRINCE 195 What misadventure is so early up That calls our person from our morning rest?
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Enter ⌜Capulet and Lady Capulet.⌝CAPULET What should it be that is so ⌜shrieked⌝ abroad?LADY CAPULET O, the people in the street cry “Romeo,” Some “Juliet,” and some “Paris,” and all run200 With open outcry toward our monument.PRINCE What fear is this which startles in ⌜our⌝ ears?⌜FIRST⌝ WATCH Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain, And Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before, Warm and new killed.PRINCE 205 Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.⌜FIRST⌝ WATCH Here is a friar, and ⌜slaughtered⌝ Romeo’s man, With instruments upon them fit to open These dead men’s tombs.CAPULET 210 O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds! This dagger hath mista’en, for, lo, his house Is empty on the back of Montague, And it mis-sheathèd in my daughter’s bosom.LADY CAPULET O me, this sight of death is as a bell215 That warns my old age to a sepulcher.Enter Montague.PRINCE Come, Montague, for thou art early up To see thy son and heir now ⌜early⌝ down.MONTAGUE Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight.
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Grief of my son’s exile hath stopped her breath.220 What further woe conspires against mine age?PRINCE Look, and thou shalt see.MONTAGUE, ⌜seeing Romeo dead⌝ O thou untaught! What manners is in this, To press before thy father to a grave?PRINCE Seal up the mouth of outrage for awhile,225 Till we can clear these ambiguities And know their spring, their head, their true descent, And then will I be general of your woes And lead you even to death. Meantime forbear,230 And let mischance be slave to patience.— Bring forth the parties of suspicion.FRIAR LAWRENCE I am the greatest, able to do least, Yet most suspected, as the time and place Doth make against me, of this direful murder.235 And here I stand, both to impeach and purge Myself condemnèd and myself excused.PRINCE Then say at once what thou dost know in this.FRIAR LAWRENCE I will be brief, for my short date of breath Is not so long as is a tedious tale.240 Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet, And she, there dead, ⌜that⌝ Romeo’s faithful wife. I married them, and their stol’n marriage day Was Tybalt’s doomsday, whose untimely death Banished the new-made bridegroom from this city,245 For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined. You, to remove that siege of grief from her, Betrothed and would have married her perforce To County Paris. Then comes she to me, And with wild looks bid me devise some mean
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250 To rid her from this second marriage, Or in my cell there would she kill herself. Then gave I her (so tutored by my art) A sleeping potion, which so took effect As I intended, for it wrought on her255 The form of death. Meantime I writ to Romeo That he should hither come as this dire night To help to take her from her borrowed grave, Being the time the potion’s force should cease. But he which bore my letter, Friar John,260 Was stayed by accident, and yesternight Returned my letter back. Then all alone At the prefixèd hour of her waking Came I to take her from her kindred’s vault, Meaning to keep her closely at my cell265 Till I conveniently could send to Romeo. But when I came, some minute ere the time Of her awakening, here untimely lay The noble Paris and true Romeo dead. She wakes, and I entreated her come forth270 And bear this work of heaven with patience. But then a noise did scare me from the tomb, And she, too desperate, would not go with me But, as it seems, did violence on herself. All this I know, and to the marriage275 Her nurse is privy. And if aught in this Miscarried by my fault, let my old life Be sacrificed some hour before his time Unto the rigor of severest law.PRINCE We still have known thee for a holy man.—280 Where’s Romeo’s man? What can he say to this?BALTHASAR I brought my master news of Juliet’s death, And then in post he came from Mantua To this same place, to this same monument.
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This letter he early bid me give his father285 And threatened me with death, going in the vault, If I departed not and left him there.PRINCE Give me the letter. I will look on it.—⌜He takes Romeo’s letter.⌝ Where is the County’s page, that raised the watch?—290 Sirrah, what made your master in this place?PAGE He came with flowers to strew his lady’s grave And bid me stand aloof, and so I did. Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb, And by and by my master drew on him,295 And then I ran away to call the watch.PRINCE This letter doth make good the Friar’s words, Their course of love, the tidings of her death; And here he writes that he did buy a poison Of a poor ’pothecary, and therewithal300 Came to this vault to die and lie with Juliet. Where be these enemies?—Capulet, Montague, See what a scourge is laid upon your hate, That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love, And I, for winking at your discords too,305 Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punished.CAPULET O brother Montague, give me thy hand. This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more Can I demand.MONTAGUE But I can give thee more,310 For I will ray her statue in pure gold, That whiles Verona by that name is known, There shall no figure at such rate be set As that of true and faithful Juliet.
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CAPULET As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie,315 Poor sacrifices of our enmity.PRINCE A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun for sorrow will not show his head. Go hence to have more talk of these sad things. Some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd.320 For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.⌜All exit.⌝
