Fri. [Advancing.] Romeo! Alack, alack! what blood is this, which stains [Entering the Monument. Romeo! O, pale! - Who else? what! Paris too? And steep'd in blood? - Ah! what an unkind hour Is guilty of this lamentable chance! The lady stirs. [JULIET wakes. Jul. O, comfortable friar! where is my lord? I do remember well where I should be, And there I am. -Where is my Romeo? [Noise within. Fri. 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: Stay not to question, for the watch is coming; longer stay. [Exit. Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away. What's here? a cup, clos'd in my true love's hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end. · O churl! drink all, and leave no friendly drop, 13 Shakespeare has been arraigned for making Romeo die be 1 Watch. [Within.] Lead, boy:- Which way? Jul. Yea, noise?—then I'll be brief. — O, happy dagger! [Snatching ROMEO's Dagger. This is thy sheath; [Stabs herself.] there rest, and let me die.14 [Falls on ROMEO, and dies. Enter Watch, with the Page of PARIS. Page. This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn. 1 Watch. The ground is bloody: Search about the church-yard. Go, some of you, whoe'er you find, attach. [Exeunt some. fore Juliet awakes from her trance, and thus losing a happy opportunity of introducing an affecting scene between these unfortunate lovers. Schlegel remarks, that "the Poet seems to have hit upon what was best. There is a measure of agitation, beyond which all that is superadded becomes torture, or glides off ineffectually from the already-saturated mind. In case of the cruel reunion of the lovers for an instant, Romeo's remorse for his overhasty self-murder, Juliet's despair over her deceitful hope, at first cherished, then annihilated, that she was at the goal of her wishes, must have deviated into caricatures. Nobody surely doubts that Shakespeare was able to represent these with suitable force; but here every thing soothing was welcome, in order that we may not be frightened out of the melancholy, to which we willingly resign ourselves, by too painful discords. Why should we heap still more upon accident, that is already so guilty? Wherefore shall not the tortured Romeo quietly 'Shake the yoke of inauspicious stars He holds his beloved in his arms, and, dying, cheers himself with a vision of everlasting marriage. She also seeks death, in a kiss, upon his lips. These last moments must belong unparticipated to tenderness, that we may hold fast to the thought, that love lives, although the lovers perish." 14 All the old copies except the first quarto have rust instead of rest. Mr. Dyce surely is right in saying that, "at such a moment, the thoughts of Juliet were not likely to wander away to the future rusting of the dagger; she only wishes it, by resting in her bosom as in its sheath, to give her instant death." H. Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain; Enter some of the Watch, with BALTHASAR. 2 Watch. Here's Romeo's man; we found him in the church-yard. 1 Watch. Hold him in safety, till the prince come hither. Enter another Watchman, with Friar LAURENCE. 3 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 church-yard side. 1 Watch. A great suspicion: stay the friar too. Enter the Prince and Attendants. Prince. What misadventure is so early up, That calls our person from our morning's rest? Enter CAPULET, Lady CAPULET, and Others. Cap. What should it be, that they so shriek abroad? - Lady C. The people in the street cry Romeo, Some-Juliet, and some-Paris; and all run With open outcry toward our monument. Prince. What fear is this, which startles in our ears ? 15 1 Watch. Sovereign, here lies the county Paris slain; And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before, Prince. Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes. 1 Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's man, With instruments upon them, fit to open These dead men's tombs. Cap. O, Heaven!-O, wife! look how our daughter bleeds! This dagger hath mista'en, - for lo! his house Is empty on the back of Montague, 16 And is mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom." Lady C. O me! this sight of death is as a bell, That warns my old age to a sepulchre. Enter MONTAGUE and Others. Prince. Come, Montague; for thou art early up, To see thy son and heir more early down. Mon. Alas, my liege! my wife is dead to-night; 17 15 The old copies have your instead of our. Johnson made the change, which, though perhaps not necessary to the sense, helps it a good deal. H. 16 The words "for lo! his house is empty on the back of Montague," are parenthetical. It appears that the dagger was anciently worn behind the back. So in Humor's Ordinarie: "See And in The Longer you yon huge bum dagger at his back?" Thou Livest the More Fool Thou Art, 1570: "Thou must wear thy sword by thy side, And thy dagger handsumly at thy backe." 17 After this line the quarto of 1597 adds: “And young Benvolio is deceased too." Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath : Το Mon. O, thou untaught! what manners is in this, press before thy father to a grave? Prince. Seal up the mouth of outcry for a while," "Till we can clear these ambiguities, And know their spring, their head, their true descent; Fri. I am the greatest, able to do least, Prince. Then say at once what thou dost know in this. Fri. I will be brief, for my short date of breath Is not so long as is a tedious tale. Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet ; 18 The old copies have outrage instead of outcry. It is not easy to see what business outrage can have in such a place. The change is taken from Mr. Collier's second folio. It is supported by the preceding passage, -"All run with open outcry toward our monument.' н. |