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Thou hadst the strength of will to slay thyself; |
Then is it likely, thou wilt undertake
A thing like death to chide away this shame,
That cop'st with death himself to scape from it;
And, if thou dar'st, I'll give thee remedy.

Jul. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, 24 From off the battlements of yonder tower; Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk Where serpents are; chain me with roaring Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house, [bears; O'er-cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,

With reeky shanks, and yellow chapless sculls;
Or bid me go into a new-made grave,
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;
Things that, to hear them told, have made me
tremble;

And I will do it without fear or doubt,
To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.

Fri. Hold, then; go home, be merry, give

consent

To marry Paris: Wednesday is to-morrow;
To-morrow night look that thou lie alone,
Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber:
Take thou this phial, being then in bed,
And this distilled liquor drink thou off:
When, presently, through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour, which shall seize
Each vital spirit; for no pulse shall keep
His natural progress, but surcease to beat:
No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou liv'st;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes; thy eyes' windows fall,
Like death, when he shuts up the day of life;
Each part, depriv'd of supple government,
Shall stiff, and stark, and cold, appear like

death:

comes

And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt remain full two and forty hours,
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.
Now when the bridegroom in the morning
[dead:
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou
Then (as the manner of our country is,)
In thy best robes uncover'd on the bier,
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault,
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift;
And hither shall he come; and he and I
Will watch thy waking, and that very night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this shall free thee from this present shame;
If no unconstant toy, nor womanish fear,
Abate thy valour in the acting it.

Jul. Give me, O give me! tell me not of fear. Fri. Hold; get you gone, be strong and prosperous

In this resolve: I'll send a friar with speed
To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.
Jul. Love, give me strength! and strength
shall help afford,

Farewell, dear father.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-A Room in CAPULET'S House. Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, NURSE, and SERVANTS.

Cap. So many guests invite as here are writ.[Exit SERVANT. Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks. 2 Serv. You shall have none ill, Sir; for I'll try if they can lick their fingers.

Cap. How canst thou try them so?

2 Serv. Marry, Sir, 'tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers: therefore he, that cannot lick his fingers, goes not with me.

Cup. Go, begone.[Exit SERVANT. We shall be much unfurnish'd for this time.What, is my daughter gone to friar Laurence? Nurse. Ay, forsooth.

Cap. Well, he may chance to do some good on her:

A peevish self-will'd harlotry it is.
Enter JULIET.

Nurse. See, where she comes from shrift* with merry look.

Cap. How now, my headstrong? where have you been gadding?

Jul. Where I have learn'd me to repent the Of disobedient opposition

[sin To you, and your behests ;† and am enjoin'd By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here, And beg your pardon :-Pardon, I beseech Henceforward I'am ever rul'd by you. [you! Cap. Send for the county; go tell him of this;

[ing. I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow mornJul. I met the youthful lord at Laurence'

cell;

And gave him what becomed‡ love I might, Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.

Cap. Why, I am glad on't; this is well,stand up:

[ty; This is as't should be.-Let me see the counAy, marry, go, I say, and fetch him hither.-Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar, All our whole city is much bound to him. Jul. Nurse, will you go with me into my closet,

To help me sort such needful ornaments
As you think fit to furnish me to-morrow?
La. Cap. No, not till Thursday; there is
time enough.

Cap. Go, nurse, go with her:-we'll to church

to-morrow.

[Exeunt JULIET and NURSE. La. Cap. We shall be short in our provision; 'Tis now near night.

Cap. Tush! I will stir about, [wife: And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her; I'll not to bed to-night;-let me alone; [ho!I'll play the housewife for this once.--What, They are all forth: Well, I will walk myself To county Paris, to prepare him up [light, Against to-morrow: my heart is wondrous Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim'd. [Exeunt.

SCENE III-JULIET'S Chamber.

Enter JULIET and NURSE.

Jul. Ay, those attires are best:-But, gentle nurse,

I pray thee, leave me to myself to-night;
For I have need of many orisons

To move the heavens to smile upon my state, Which, well thou know'st, is cross and full of sin.

Enter LADY CAPULET.

La. Cap. What, are you busy? do you need my help?

Jul. No, madam; we have cull'd such necessaries

As are behoveful for our state to-morrow:
And let the nurse this night sit up with you;
So please you, let me now be left alone,
For, I am sure, you have your hands full all,
In this so sudden business.

* Confession. ↑ Becoming.

↑ Commands J Prayers.

898

La. Cap. Good night!
Get thee to bed, and rest; for thou hast need.
[Exeunt Lady CAPULET and NURSE.
Jul. Farewell!-God knows, when we shall
meet again.

I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins,
That almost freezes up the heat of life:
I'll call them back again to comfort me ;-
Nurse!-What should she do here?

My dismal scene I needs must act alone.-
Come, phial.-

What if this mixture do not work at all?
Must I of force be married to the county?-
No, no;-this shall forbid it :-lie thou there.-
[Laying down a Dagger.

What if it be a poison, which the friar
Subtly hath minister'd to have me dead;
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour'd,
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear, it is: and yet, methinks, it should not,
For he hath still been tried a holy man :
I will not entertain so bad a thought.-
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point!
Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,

To whose foul mouth no healthsome air
breathes in,

And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
Or, if I live, is it not very like,
The horrible conceit of death and night,
Together with the terror of the place,-
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle, [bones
Where, for these many hundred years, the
Of all my buried ancestors are pack'd;
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies fest'ring in his shroud; where, as they

say,

At some hours in the night spirits resort;-
Alack, alack! is it not like, that I,

So early waking,-what with loathsome smells;
And shrieks like mandrakes' torn out of the
earth,

That living mortals, hearing them, run mad ;*—
O! if I wake, shall I not be distraught,+
Environed with all these hideous fears?
And madly play with my forefathers' joints?
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his
shroud?
[bone,
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's
As with a club, dash out my desperate brains?
O, look! methinks, I see my cousin's ghost
Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body
Upon a rapier's point:-Stay, Tybalt, stay!-
Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.

[She throws herself on the Bed.
SCENE IV.-CAPULET'S Hall.
Enter Lady CAPULET and Nurse.
La. Cap. Hold, take these keys, and fetch
more spices, nurse.

Nurse. They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.t

Enter CAPUlet.

Cap. Come, stir, stir, stir! the second cock

hath crow'd,

The curfeu bell hath wrung, 'tis three o'clock:-
Look to the bak'd meats, good Angelica:
Spare not for cost.

Nurse. Go, go, you cot-quean, go,
Get you to bed; 'faith, you'll be sick to-morrow
For this night's watching.

The fabulous accounts of the plant called a mandrake
give it a degree of animal life, and when it is torn from the
ground it groans, which is fatal to him that pulls it up.
+ Distracted.
The room where pies were made.

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Enter SERVANTS, with Spits, Logs, and Baskets.

1 Serv. Things for the cook, Sir; but I know
not what.

Cap. Make haste, make haste. [Exit 1 SERV.]
Sirrah, fetch drier logs;

Call Peter, he will show thee where they are.
2 Serv. I have a head, Sir, that will find out
logs,

And never trouble Peter for the matter. [Erit.
Cap. 'Mass, and well said; A merry whore-
son! ha,
[day:
Thou shalt be logger-head.-Good faith, 'tis
The county will be here with music straight,
[Music within.
For so he said he would. I hear him near:-
Nurse!-Wife!-what, ho!-what, nurse, [
say!

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madam!

Ay, let the county take you in your bed;
He'll fright you up, i'faith.-Will it not be?
What, dress'd! and in your clothes! and down
again!

I must needs wake you: Lady! lady! lady!
Alas! alas!--Help! help! my lady's dead!-
O, well-a-day, that ever I was born!-
Some aqua-vitæ, ho!-my lord! my lady!
Enter Lady Capulet.

La. Cap. What noise is here?
Nurse. O lamentable day!
La. Cap. What is the matter?
Nurse. Look, look! O heavy day!
La. Cap. O me, O me!-my child, my only

life,

Revive, look up, or I will die with thee!-
Help, help!-call help.

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Nurse. She's dead, deceas'd, she's dead; alack the day!

La. Cup. Alack the day! she's dead, she's dead, she's dead."

Cap. Ha! let me see her:-Out, alas! she's cold;

Her blood is settled; and her joints are stiff;
Life and these lips have long been separated:
Death lies on her, like an untimely frost
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
Accursed time! unfortunate old man!
Nurse. O lamentable day!
Lu. Cap. O woeful time!

Cap. Death, that hath ta'en her hence to make me wail,

Ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak. Enter Friar LAURENCE and PARIS, with MUSI

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On this fair corse; and, as the custom is,
In all her best array bear her to church:
For though fond nature bids us all lament,
Yet nature's tears are reason's merriment.

Cap. All things, that we ordained festival,
Turn from their office to black funeral:
Our instruments, to melancholy bells;
Our wedding cheer, to a sad burial feast;
Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;
Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse,
And all things change them to the contrary.
Fri. Sir, go you in,-and, madam, go with
him;-

And go, Sir Paris;-every one prepare To follow this fair corse unto her grave: The heavens do low'r upon you, for some ill; Move them no more, by crossing their high will. [Exeunt CAPULET, Lady CAPULET, PARIS, and FRIAR. 1 Mus. 'Faith, we may put up our pipes, and be gone. Nurse. Honest good fellows, ah, put up; put up;

For, well you know, this is a pitiful case.

[Exit NURSE. 1 Mus. Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.

Enter PETER.

Pet. Musicians, O, musicians, Heart's ease, heart's ease; O, an you will have me live, play hate-heart's ease.

Most miserable hour, that e'er time saw
In lasting labour of his pilgrimage!
But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,
But one thing to rejoice and solace in,"
And cruel death hath catch'd it from my sight.
Nurse. O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful
day!

Most lamentable day! most woeful day,
That ever, ever, I did yet behold!

O day! O day! O day! O hateful day!
Never was seen so black a day as this:
O woeful day, O woeful day!

Par. Beguil'd, divorced, wronged, spited, slain!

Most détestable death, by thee beguil❜d,
By cruel cruel thee quite overthrown!--
O love! O life!-not life, but love in death'
Cap. Despis'd, distressed, hated, martyr'd,
kill'd!-

Uncomfortable time! why cam'st thou now,
To murder murder our solemnity?

O child! O child!-my soul, and not my

child!-

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In these confusions. Heaven and yourself
Had part in this fair maid; now heaven hath
And all the better is it for the maid: [all,
Your part in her you could not keep from
death;

But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.
The most you sought was-her promotion;*
For'twas your heaven, she should be advanc'd:
And weep ye now, seeing she is advanc'd,
Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
O, in this love, you love your child so ill,
That you run mad, seeing that she is well:
She's not well married, that lives married long;
But she's best married, that dies married

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1 Mus. Why heart's ease?

Pet. O, musicians, because my heart itself plays-My heart is full of woe: O, play me some merry dump, to comfort me.

*

2 Mus. Not a dump we; 'tis no time to play now.

Pet. You will not then?

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Pet. Then will I lay the serving-creature's dagger on your pate. I will carry no crotchets: I'll re you, I'll fa you; Do you note me?

1 Mus. An you re us, and fa us, you note us. 2 Mus. Pray you, put up your dagger, and put out your wit.

Pet. Then have at you with my wit; I will dry-beat you with an iron wit, and put up my iron dagger :-Answer me like men:

When griping grief the heart doth wound, And doleful dumps the mind oppress, Then music, with her silver sound; Why, silver sound? why, music with her silver sound?

What say you, Simon Catling?

1 Mus. Marry, Sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.

Pet. Pretty! What say you, Hugh Rebeck ? 2 Mus. I say-silver sound, because musicians sound for silver.

Pet. Pretty too!-What say you, James Soundpost?

I

3 Mus. 'Faith, I know not what to say. Pet. O, I cry you mercy! you are the singer: will say for you. It is music with her silver

• Dumps were heavy mournful tunes.

To gleek is to scoff, and a gleekman signified a minstrel "And the jocund rebecks sound."-Milton.

sound, because such fellows as you have sel | Noting this penury, to myself I said— dom gold for sounding:

Then music, with her silver sound, With speedy help doth lend redress. [Exit, singing. 1 Mus. What a pestilent knave is this same? 2 Mus. Hang him, Jack! Come, we'll in here; tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner. [Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE 1.-Mantua.-A Street.

Enter ROMEO.

Rom. If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep,

My dreams presage some joyful news at hand:
My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne;
And, all this day, an unaccustom'd spirit
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful
thoughts.

I dreamt, my lady came and found me dead;
(Strange dream! that gives a dead man leave
to think,)

And breath'd such life with kisses in my lips,
That I reviv'd, and was an emperor.
Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess'd,
When but love's shadows are so rich in joy?

Enter BALTHASAR.

News from Verona !-How now, Balthasar?
Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar?
How doth my lady? Is my father well?
How fares my Juliet? That I ask again;
For nothing can be ill, if she be well.

Bal. Then she is well, and nothing can be ill;
Her body sleeps in Capel's monument,
And her immortal part with angels lives;
I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault,
And presently took post to tell it you:
O pardon me for bringing these ill news,
Since you did leave it for my office, Sir.

Rom. Is it even so? then I defy you, stars!Thou know'st my lodging: get me ink and

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Your looks are pale and wild, and do import
Some misadventure.

Rom. Tush, thou art deceiv'd;
Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do:
Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?

Bal. No, my good lord.

straight.

Rom. No matter: get thee gone, And hire those horses; I'll be with thec [Exit BALTHASAR. Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night. Let's see for means:-0, mischief, thou art swift

To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!
I do remember an apothecary,—
And hereabouts he dwells,-whom late I noted
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of simples;+ meager were his looks,
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones:
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff'd, and other skins
Of ill-shap'd fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,
Remnants of pack thread, and old cakes of roses.
Were thinly scatter'd, to make up a show.

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And if a man did need a poison now,
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.
O, this same thought did but forerun my
need;
And this same needy man must sell it me.
As I remember, this should be the house:
Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut.—
What, ho! apothecary!

Enter APOTHECARY.

Ap. Who calls so loud?

Rom. Come hither, man.-I see, that thou
Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have
art poor;
As will disperse itself through all the veins,
A dram of poison; such soon-speeding geer'
That the life-weary taker may fall dead;
And that the trunk may be discharg'd of
breath

As violently, as hasty powder fir'd
Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb.

Ap. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law

Is death, to any he that utters them.

Rom. Art thou so bare, and full of wretchedness,

And fear'st to die? famine is in thy cheeks,
Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes,
Upon thy back hangs, ragged misery,

The world is not thy friend, nor the world's law:

The world affords no law to make thee rich; Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.

Ap. My poverty, but not my will, con

sents.

Rom. I pay thy poverty, and not thy will. Ap. Put this in any liquid thing you will, And drink it off; and, if you had the strength Of twenty men, it would despatch you straight.

Rom. There is thy gold; worse poison to

men's souls,

Doing more murders in this loathsome world, Than these poor compounds that thou may'st not sell:

I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none.
Farewell; buy food, and get thyself in flesh.-
Come, cordial, and not poison; go with me
To Juliet's grave, for there must I use thee.
[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Friar LAURENCE's Cell.

Enter Friar JOHN. John. Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho! Enter Friar LAURENCE.

Lau. This same should be the voice of friar

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John. I could not send it,-here it is But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry

again,

Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,
So fearful were they of infection.

Lau. Unhappy fortune! by my brotherhood,
The letter was not nice, but full of charge,
Of dear import; and the neglecting it
May do much danger: Friar John, go hence;
Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight
Unto my cell.

John. Brother, I'll go and bring't thee.

[Exit.

Lau. Now must I to the monument alone; Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake; She will beshrew me much, that Romeo Hath had no notice of these accidents: But I will write again to Mantua, And keep her at my cell till Romeo come; Poor living corse, clos'd in a dead man's tomb!

[Exit. SCENE III-A Church-Yard; in it, a Monument belonging to the CAPULETS. Enter PARIS, and his PAGE, bearing Flowers and a Torch.

Par. Give me thy torch, boy: Hence, and stand aloof;

Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. Under yon yew-trees lay thee all along, Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground; So shall no foot upon the church-yard tread, (Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,)

But thou shalt hear it: whistle then to me, As signal that thou hear'st something approach.

Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go. Page. I am almost afraid to stand alone Here in the church-yard; yet I will adventure. [Retires. Par. Sweet flower, with flowers I strew thy bridal bed:

Sweet tomb, that in thy circuit dost contain
The perfect model of eternity;
Fair Juliet, that with angels dost remain,
Accept this latest favour at my hands;
That living honour'd thee, and, being dead,
With funeral praises do adorn thy tomb!
[The Boy whistles.
The boy gives warning, something doth ap-
proach.

What cursed foot wanders this way to-night,
To cross my obsequies, and true-love's rites?
What, with a torch!-muffle me, night, a
while.
[Retires.
Enter ROMEO and BALTHASAR with a Torch,
Mattock, &c.

Rom. 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.
Give me the light: Upon thy life I charge
thee,

Whate'er thou hear'st 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:
But, chiefly, to take hence from her dead fin-
A precious ring; a ring that I must use
In dear employment: therefore hence, be-

gone:

* I. e. On a trivial or idle subject.

+I. e. Action of importance.

[ger

In what I further shall intend to do,
By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,
And strew this hungry church-yard with thy
limbs :

The time and my intents are savage-wild;
More fierce, and more inexorable far,
Than empty tigers, or the roaring sea.

Bal. I will be gone, Sir, and not trouble

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gone;

Let them affright thee.-I beseech thee, youth,
Heap not another sin upon my head,
By urging me to fury:-0, be gone!
By heaven, I love thee better than myself:
For I come hither arm'd against myself:
Stay not, begone;-live, and hereafter say-
A madman's mercy bade thee run away.
Par. I do defy thy conjurations,*

And do attach thee as a felon here.
Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? then have at
thee, boy.
[They fight.
Page. O lord! they fight: I will go call the
[Exit PAGE.
Par. O, I am slain! [Falls.]-If thou be
merciful,

watch.

Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. [Dies. Rom. In faith, I will:-Let me peruse this

face;

What said my man, when my betossed soul
Mercutio's kinsman, noble county Paris:-
Did not attend him as we rode? I think,
He told me, Paris should have married Ju-
Said he not so? or did I dream it so? [liet:
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,-
A grave? O, no; a lantern,+ slaughter'd
youth,

For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
This vault a feasting presence; full of light.

* I refuse to do as thou conjurest me to do, ie. depart. + The allusion is to a louvre or turret full of windows by means of which ancient halls, &c. are illuminated. Presence chamber.

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