Pur. God shield, I should disturb devotion !Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you: Till then, adieu! and keep this holy kiss.

[Exit Paris. Jul. O, shut the door! and when thou hast done

60,

Come weep with me; past hope, past cure, past help!

Fri. Ah, Juliet, I already know thy grief; It strains me past the compass of my wits: I hear thou must, and nothing must prorogue it. On Thursday next be married to this county.

Jul. Tell ine not, friar, that thou hear'st of this,
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it:
If, in thy wisdom, thou canst give no help,
Do thou but call my resolution wise,
And with this knife I'll help it presently.

God join'd my heart and Romeo's, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal'd,
Shall be the label to another deed,

Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
Turn to another, this shall slay them both:
Therefore, out of thy long-experienced time,
Give me some present counsel; or, behold,
Twist my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the umpire; arbitrating that
Which the commission + of thy ears and art
Could to no issue of true honour bring.
Be not so long to speak; I long to die,
If what thou speak'st speak not of remedy.
Fri. Hold, daughter; I do spy a kind of hope,
Which craves as desperate an execution
As that is desperate which we would prevent.
If, rather than to marry county Paris,
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 copest with death himself to scape from it;
nd, if thou darest, I'll give thee remedy.
Jul. O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder tower;
Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk
Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears;
Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house,
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 con

sent

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
Its natural progress, but surcease to beat :
No warmth, no breath, shail testify thon livest;
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, deprived of supple government,
Shall stiff, and stark, and cold, appear like death:
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 comes
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead :
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 mean time, 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;
no unconstant toy, nor womanish tear,

Abate thy valour in the acting it.

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 sin Of disobedient opposition

To you, and your behests +; and am enjoin'd
By holy Laurence to fali prostrate here,
And beg your pardon :-Pardon, I beseech you!
Henceforward I am eyer ruled by you.

Cap. Send for the county; go tell him of this;
I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning.
Jul. I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell;
And gave him what Lecomed love I might,
Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.

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

to-morrow.

Cap. Go, nurse, go with her :-we'll to church [Exeunt Juliet and Nurse. La. Cap. We shall be short in our provision; 'Tis now near night.

Cap. Tush! I will stir about,

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

SCENE III-Juliet's Chamber.

Enter JULIET and NURSE.

[Exeunt.

As are behoveful for our state to-morrow:
So please you, let me now be left alone,
And let the nurse this night sit up with you;

In this so sudden business.

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 call them back again to comfort me;
Nurse!-What should she do here?

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

That it 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,

is 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,

Where, for these many hundred years, the bones
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⚫ ;-
0! if I wake, shall I not be distraught 1,
Environ'd with all these hideous fears?
And madly play with my forefathers' joints?
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud?
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone,
As with a club, dash out my desperate brains ?
0, 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.

Enter CAPULET.

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

Call Peter, he will shew thee where they are. 2 Serv. I have a head, Sir, that will find out logs, And never trouble Peter for the matter. [Exit.

Cap. 'Mass, and well said; a merry whoreson ! ha,

Thou shalt be logger head.-Good faith, 'tis day:
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, I say!
Enter NURSE.

Go, waken Juliet, go, and trim her up;
I'll go and chat with Paris.-Hie, make haste,
Make haste! the bridegroom he is come already:
Make haste, I say!
[Exeunt.

SCENE V.-Juliet's Chamber; Juliet on the Bed.
Enter NURSE.

Nurse. Mistress!-What, mistress!—Juliet !—Fast, I warrant her, she:

Why, lamb-Why, lady!-Fie, you slug-a-bed!Why, love, I say!-Madam! Sweet-heart!-Why,

bride!

What, not a word?-You take your pennyworths

now;

Sleep for a week; for the next night, I warrant,
The county Paris hath set up his rest,

That you shall rest but little.-God forgive me,
(Marry and amen!) how sound is she asleep!
I needs must wake her:- Madam, madam, madam!
Ay, let the county take you in your bed;
He'll fright you up, i' faith.-Will it not be?
What, drest 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.

Enter CAPULET.

Cup. For shame, bring Juliet forth; her lord is

come.

Nurse. She's dead, deceased, she's dead; alack

the day!

La. Cap. 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! La. 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 Musicians. Fri. Come, is the bride ready to go to church! Cup. Ready to go, but never to return:

O son, the night before thy wedding-day
Hath death lain with thy bride :-See, there she
lies,

Flower as she was, deflowered by him.
Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir;
My daughter he hath wedded! I will die,
And leave him all; life leaving, all is death's.
Par. Have I thought long to see this morning's
face,

And doth it give me such a sight as this?
La. Cap. Accursed, unhappy, wretched, hateful
day!

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.
Narse. O woe! 0 woeful, woeful, woeful day!
Most lamentable day! Most woeful day,

et

Enter APOTHECARY Ap. Who calls so loud?

Eam. Come hither, man.-I see, that thou art poor;

Eld, there is forty ducats: let me have id-dram of poison; such soon-speeding geer as will disperse itself through all the veins, hat the life-weary taker may fall dead; Jad that the trunk may be discharged of breath A violently, as hasty powder fired

eth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb.

4p. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law s 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,
pon 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, consents.
Rem. 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 lothsome world,

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 approach,
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:

John. Holy Franciscan friar! Brother, ho!
Enter FRIAR LAURENCE.

Lau. This same should be the voice of friar
John.-

Welcome from Mantua: What says Romeo?
C. if his mind be writ, give me his letter.
Jan. Going to find a barefoot brother out,
One of our order, to associate me,
There in this city visiting the sick,

And finding him, the searchers of the town,
Bospecting that we both were in a house
Where the infectious pestilence did reign,
Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us forth;
So that my speed to Mantua there was staid.
Lau. Who bare my letter then to Romeo?
John. I could not send it,-here it is 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 t, 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.

[Exit.

John. Brother, I'll go and bring it thee. 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, closed 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.

A precious ring; a ring that I must use

In dear employment; therefore hence, be gone :But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry

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 you. Kom. So shalt thou shew me friendship.-Take thou that:

Live, and be prosperous; and farewell, good fellow.
Bal. For all this same, I'll hide me hereabout;
His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. [Retires.
Rom. Thou détestable maw, thou womb of death
Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth,
Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,

[Breaking open the Door of the Monument. And, in despite, I'll cram thee with more food! Par. This is that banish'd haughty Montague, That murder'd my love's cousin ;-with which grief,

It is supposed the fair creature died ;-
And here is come to do some villainous shame
To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him.-
[Advances.

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 hi ther.

Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man, Fly hence and leave me;-Think upon these 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.

Page. O lord! they fight: I will go call the

watch.

[They fight.

[Exit Page.

Par. O, I am slain! [Falls.]-If thou be merciful, Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.

[Dies.

Rom. In faith, I will:-Let me peruse this face ;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,

i. e. Action of importance.

+I do refuse to do as thou conjurest me to do, i. c. depart.

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 inter 'd.
[Laying Paris in the Monument.
How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry? which their keepers call
A lightning before death: 0, how may I
Call this a lightning ?-0, 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 favour can I do to thee,

Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain,
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 will still 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, here
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 kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death !—
Come, bitter conduct 1, come, unsavoury guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
Here's to my love!-[Drinks.] 0, true, apothe-
cary !

Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.

[Dies.

Enter at the other End of the Church-yard, FRIAR LAURENCE, with a Lantern, Crow, and Spade. Fri. Saint Francis be my speed! How oft tonight

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

Who is it that consorts, so late, the dead?

Bal. Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well.

Fri. Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend, What torch is yond', that vainly lends his light To grubs and eyeless sculls? As I discern It burneth in the Capels' monument.

Bal. It doth so, holy Sir; and there's my master, One that you love.

Fri. Who is it?

Bal. Romeo.

Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains
The stony entrance of this sepulchre !-
What mean these masterless and gory swords
To lie discolour'd by this place of peace!
[Enters the Monument.
Romeo! 0, 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 and stirs.
Jul. 0, comfortable friar! Where is my lord?
I do remember well where I should be,
And there I am:-Where is my Romeo?

[Noise within.

The allusion is to a louvre or turret full of windows, by means of which ancient halls, &c. are illuminated. + Presence-chamber. Conductor.

Fri. I hear some noise.-Lady, come from th

nest

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:

L

Stay not to question, for the watch is coming;
Come, go, good Juliet,-[Noise again.] I dare sta
no longer.
[Ex
Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.-
What's here? a cup, closed in my true love
hand?

Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end;-
O churi! Drink all; and leave 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.
Thy lips are warm!

[Kisses hir

I Watch. [Within.] Lead, boy :-Which way? Jul. Yea, noise ?-Then I'll be brief.-O happ [Snatching Romeo's Dagge This is thy sheath; [Stubs herself.] there rust, an

dagger!

let me die.

[Falls on Romeo's Body, and die

Enter WATCH, with the PAGE of PARIS. Page. This is the place; there, where the torc doth burn.

1 Watch. The ground is bloody; search abor the church yard:

Go, some of you, who e'er you find, attach.
[Exeunt some
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 searh ;-
[Exeunt other Watchmen
We see the ground whereon these woes do he;
But the true ground of all these piteous woes,
We cannot without circumstance descry.

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 princ 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?

La. Cap. The people in the street cry-Romeo, Some-Juliet, and some-Paris; and all run, With open outery toward our monument. Prince. What fear is this, which startles in our

ears?

1 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.

1 Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo

man;

With instruments upon them, fit to open
These dead men's tombs.

Cap. O, heavens !~0, wife! Look how our daugh ter bleeds!

This dagger bath mista'en,-for, lo! his house.
Is empty on the back of Montague,-
And is mis-sheated 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.

i. e. The scabbard.