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-shaped fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders and musty
seeds,
[roses,
Remnants of packthread and old cakes of
Were thinly scatter'd, to make up a show.
Noting this penury, to myself I said
'An 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!

50

Rom. Come hither, man. I see that thou

art poor:

Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have
A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear 60
As will disperse itself through all the veins
That the life-weary taker may fall dead
And that the trunk may be discharged of
breath

As violently as hasty powder fired
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.

[ness, Rom. Art thou so bare and full of wretchedAnd fear'st to die? famine is in thy cheeks, Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes, 70 Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back; The world is not thy friend nor the world's

Welcome from Mantua: what says Romeo? Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter. Fri. J. Going to find a bare-foot brother

out,

One of our order, to associate me,
Here in this city visiting the sick,

And finding him, the searchers of the town,
Suspecting that we both were in a house
Where the infectious pestilence did reign, 10
Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us forth;
So that my speed to Mantua there was stay'd.
Fri. L. Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo?
Fri. J. I could not send it,-here it is again,-
Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,
So fearful were they of infection.

Fri. L. 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 21
Unto my cell.

Fri. J. Brother, I'll go and bring it thee.
[Exit.
Fri. L. 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, closed in a dead man's tomb!

[Exit.

SCENE III. A churchyard; in it a tomb 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 yond yew-trees lay thee all along,
Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground;
So shall no foot upon the churchyard 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. [Aside] I am almost afraid to stand
alone

10

It is supposed, the fair creature died;
And here is come to do some villanous shame
To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him.
[Comes forward.
Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague!
Can vengeance be pursued further than death?
Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee:
Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.

Rom. I must indeed; and therefore came I hither.

Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man; Fly hence, and leave me: think upon these gone;

60

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

Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? then have at
thee, boy!
[They fight. 70
Page. O Lord, they fight! I will go call the
watch.
[Exit.

80

Mercutio's kinsman, noble County Paris!
What said my man, when my betossed 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 ?
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.
Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd.
[Laying Paris in the tomb.
How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry! which their keepers
call

90

A lightning before death: O, how may I
Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife!
Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy
breath,

Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet.
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced 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
twain

100

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 abhorred monster keeps
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 chamber-maids; 0,
here

110

Will I set up my everlasting rest, And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last! [you Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death! Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavory guide! Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark! Here's to my love! [Drinks.] O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. [Dies.

119

Enter, at the other end of the churchyard, FRIAR LAURENCE, with a lantern, crow, and spade. Fri. L. Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night

Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who's there ?

Fri. L. How long hath he been there? Bal. Full half an hour. 130 Fri. L. Go with me to the vault. Bal. 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.

Fri. L. Stay, then; I'll go alone. Fear comes upon me :

O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing.

Bal. As I did, sleep under this yew-tree here,

I dreamt my master and another fought,
And that my master slew him.

Fri. L.

Romeo!

Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep :
A greater power than we can contradict
Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.
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 [Noise again], I dare
no longer stay.

Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away. [Exit Fri. L. 160 What's here ? a cup, closed in my true love's hand?

Paison, I see hath been his timeless end:

charl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop To help me after? I will kiss thy lips; Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, To make me die with a restorative.

[Kisses him. Thy lips are warm. [way? First Watch. [Within] Lead, boy: which

[Falls on Romeo's body, and dies. Enter Watch, with the Page of PARIS. 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.
Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain;
And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead,
Who here hath lain these two days buried.
Go, tell the prince; run to the Capulets :
Raise up the Montagues: some others search:
We see the ground whereon these woes do lie;
But the true ground of all these piteous woes
We cannot without circumstance descry.
Re-enter some of the Watch, with BALTHASAR.
Sec. Watch. Here's Romeo's man; we
found him in the churchyard.

181

First Watch. Hold him in safety, till the prince come hither.

Re-enter others of the Watch, with FRIAR

LAURENCE.

Third Watch. Here is a friar, that trem.

bles, sighs and weeps:

We took this mattock and this spade from him, As he was coming from this churchyard side. First 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 shrick abroad?

190

La. Cap. The people in the street cy 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?

First Watch. Sovereign, here lies the
County Paris slain;

And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before,
Warm and new kill'd.

Prince. Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.

First Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's man; With instruments upon them, fit to open 200 These dead men's tombs.

Cap. 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-sheathed in my daughter's bosom !
La. Cap. 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 tonight;

210

Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath: What further woe conspires against mine age? Prince. Look, and thou shalt see.

Mon. O thou untaught! what manners is in this ?

To press before thy father to a grave?

Prince. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while,

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 for-
bear,

And let mischance be slave to patience.
Bring forth the parties of suspicion.

220

Fri. L. I am the greatest, able to do least, Yet most suspected, as the time and place Doth make against me of this direful mur

der;

And here I stand, both to impeach and purge Myself condemned and myself excused.

Prince. Then say at once what thou dost know in this.

Fri. L. I will be brief, for my short date of breath

230

Is not so long as is a tedious tale.
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 dooms-day, whose untimely

death

[city, Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from the For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined. You, to remove that siege of grief from her, Betroth'd and would have married her perforce

241

To County Paris: then comes she to me,
And, with wild looks, bid me devise some mean
To rid her from this second marriage,
Or in my cell there would she kill herself.
Then gave I her, so tutor'd by my art,
A sleeping potion; which so took effect
As I intended, for it wrought on her

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 borrow'd grave,
Being the time the potion's force should cease.
But he which bore my letter, Friar John, 250
Was stay'd by accident, and yesternight
Return'd my letter back. Then all alone
At the prefixed hour of her waking,
Came I to take her from her kindred's vault;
Meaning to keep her closely at my cell,
Till I conveniently could send to Romeo :
But when I came, some minute ere the time
Of her awaking, here untimely lay

The noble Paris and true Romeo dead.
She wakes; and I entreated her come forth,
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 marriage
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.

man.

Prince. We still have known thee for a holy 270 Where's Romeo's man? what can he say in this? [death; Bal. I brought my master news of Juliet's And then in post he came from Mantua To this same place, to this same monument. This letter he early bid me give his father, 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

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;
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 therewithal Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet. Where be these enemies? Capulet! Monta291 gue!

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

Have lost a brace of kinsmen : all are punish'd. Cap. O brother Montague, give me thy hand :

This is my daughter's jointure, for no more Can I demand.

Mon. But I can give thee more: For I will raise her statue in pure gold; That while Verona by that name is known,300 There shall no figure at such rate be set As that of true and faithful Juliet.

Cap. As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's lie;

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;

309

Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished: For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. [Exeunt.