Bal. Here's one, a friend, and one that Jul. Yea, noise ? then I'll be brief. O knows you well. happy dagger! Pri. L. Bliss be upon you ! Tell me, good [Snatching Romeo's dagyer. my friend, This is thy sheath (Stabs herself] ; there rust, That torch is yond, that vainly lends his light and let me die. 170 To grabs and eyeless skulls ? as I discern, [Falls on Romeo's body, and dies. It bareth in the Capels' monument. Enter Watch, with the Page of PARIS. Bal. It doth so, holy sir ; and there's my master, Page. This is the place ; there, where the One that you love. torch doth burn. Fri. L. Who is it? First Watch. The ground is bloody ; search Bal. Romeo. about the churchyard : Fri. L. How long hath he been there ? Go, some of you, whoe'er you find attach. Bal. Full half an hour. 130 Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain ; Fri. L. Go with me to the vault. And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead, Pal. I dare not, sir : Who here hath lain these two days buried. My master knows not but I am gone hence ; Go, tell the prince ; run to the Capulets : And fearfully did menace me with death, Raise up the Montagnes: some others search : If I did stay to look on his intents. We see the ground whereon these woes do lie; Fri. L. Stay, then ; I'll go alone. Fear But the true ground of all these piteous woes comes upon me: We cannot without circumstance descry. 181 0, much I fear some ill unlucky thing. Re-enter some of the Watch, with BALTHASAR. Bal. As I did sleep under this yew-tree Sec. Watch. Here's Romeo's man ; wo here, found him in the churchyard. I dreamt my master and another fought, First Watch. Hold him in safety, till the And that my master slew him. Romeo! Fri, L. prince come hither. [ Advances. Re-enter others of the Watch, with FRIAR Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains LAURENCE. The stony entrance of this sepulchre ? Third Watch. Here is a friar, that tremWhat mean these masterless and gory swords bles, sighs and weeps : To lie discolor'd by this place of peace ? We took this mattock and this spade from him, (Enters the tomb. As he was coming from this churchyard side. Romeo! O, pale! Who else? what, Paris too? First Watch. A great suspicion : stay the And steep'd in blood ? Ah, what an unkind friar too. hour Enter the PRINCE and Attendants. Prince. What misadventure is so early up, [Juliet wakes. Jul. O comfortable friar! where is my That calls our person from our morning's rest? lord ? Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and others. I do remember well where I should be, Cap. What should it be, that they so sbriek And there I am. Where is my Roineo ? 150 abroad ? 190 (Noise within. La. Cap. The people in the street cry Fri. L. I hear some noise. Lady, come Romeo, from that nest Some Juliet, and some Paris ; and all run, Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep : With open outcry toward our monument. A greater power than we can contradict Prince. What fear is this which startles in Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away. our ears ? Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead ; First Watch. Sovereign, here lies the And Paris too. Come, I'll dispose of thee County Paris slain ; Among a sisterhood of holy nuns : And Romeo dead ; and Juliet, dead before, Stay not to question, for the watch is coming; Warm and new kill'd. Come, go, good Juliet (Noise again), I dare Prince. Search, seek, and know how this no longer stay. foul murder comes. Jul Go, get thee hence, for I will not First Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughaway. [Exit Fri. L. 160 ter'd Romeo's man ; What's here ? a cup, closed in my true love's With instruments upon them, fit to open 200 hand? These dead men's tombs. Paison, I see hath been his timeless end: Cap. O heavens! O wife, look how our charl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop daughter bleeds ! To help me after? I will kiss thy lips; This dagger hath mista'en-for, lo, his house Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, Is empty on the back of Montague,To make me die with a restorative. And it mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom ! (Kisses him. La, Cap. O me! this sight of death 18 ag Thy lips are warm. [way? a bell, First Watch. (Withinl Lead, bov: which That warns my old age to a sepulchra, 281 Enter MONTAGUE and others. 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. 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 220 And let mischance be slave to patience. Bring forth the parties of suspicion. 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 Is not so long as is a tedious tale. 230 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 per force To County Paris : then comes she to me, And, with wild looks, bid me devise some mean To rid her from this second marriage, 241 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, TUI 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. 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 it. Where is the county's page, that raised the watch ? Sirrah, what made your master in this place? Prince. 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 ; 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! Monta 291 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. Obrother 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, 309 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 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 pardon'd, and some punished: For never was a story of more woe 309 Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. (Exeunt gue ! lie; King Richard II. appeared in quarto in 1597. In 1608 a third edition was published "with now Additions of the Parliament Scene and the deposing of king Richard," that is to say, with the added lines 151318 in Aet IV., Sc. 1. It is probable that ihese lines were written as pait of the original play, but relating as they did to the deposition of a king, had been omitted for fear of giving oflenco at a time e ben the Pope and Catholic princes were exboring ber subjects to dethrone Elizabeth. The date of the play is not ascertained, but it has been assigned, with an appearance of probability, to the year 1393 or 1594. Whether it preceded or followed Richard 11I. is a question in dispute.it by the inferior scenes which contain most rhymed verse; the dramatist exhibits, as in Romeo and alte, mastery over blank verse, but is not yet free from the tendency to fall back into rhyme. Upon the whole Richard II. bears closer atlinity to King John than to any other of Shakespeare's plays. Marlowe's genius, however, still exercises an intluence over Shakespeare's imaginalol #bile he was fashioning his Richarı II. Having in Richard III. (if it preceded the present play, brought the civil wars of England to an is ue and an end, Shakespeare turned back to the reign of the earlier Richard, whose deposition led the way to the disputed succession and the sobiicis of half a century later. The interest of the play centres in two com cted things the personal contrast between the falling and the rising kings, and the political action of each; the misputerniment of the one inviting and almost justifying the usurpation of the other. Richard, bouch possessed of a certain regal charm and power of attaching tender natures to himself, is deticient in all that is sterling and real in inanhood. He is self-indulgent, has much superficial sensitiveDess, loves to contemplate in a romantic way whatever is pathetic or passionate in li e, poreesses a kind of rhetorical imagination, and has abundant command of delicate and gleaming words. His vil is perveless, he is incapable of consistency of feeling, incapable of strenuous action. Bolingbroke, on the other hand, who pushes Richard from his throne, is a man framed for such maierial success as waits on personal ambition. His is a resolute gaze which sees his object far off, and he has persistency and energy of will to carry him forward without faltering. Mis sai ulties are strong and well-knit; he is not cruel, but shrinks from no deed that is needful to his purpose because the deed is cruel. There is no finer contrast in Shakespeare's historical plays than that beWsen the figures of the formidable king of deeds and the romantic king of hectic feelings and bril liant words, LORD Ross, Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, two Gardeners, Keeper, Messenger, ACT I. SCENE I. London. KING RICHARD's palace. Enter KinG RICHARD, JOHN OF GAUNT, with other Nobles and Attendants. K. Rich. Old John of Gaunt, time-honor'd Lancaster, Hast thou, according to thy oath and band, Brought hither Henry Hereford thy bold son, Here to make good the boisterous late appeal, Which then our leisure would not let us hear, Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mow bray? Gaunt. I have, my liege. K. Rich. Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him, If he appeal the duke on ancient malice; Or worthily, as a good subject should, 10 On some blown ground of treachery in him ? Gaunt. As near as I could sift him on that argument, On some apparent danger seen in him Aim'd at your highness, no inveterate malice. K. Rich. Then call them to our presence ; face to face, And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear The accuger and the accused freely speak : Higli-stomach'd are they both, and full of ire, In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire. Enter BOLINGBROKE and MOWBRAY, Boling. Many years of happy days befal 20 My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege ! Mow. Each day still better other's happi ness ; Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap, Add an immortal title to your crown ! K. Rich. We thank you both : yet one but flatters us, As well appeareth by the cause you come; Namely, to appeal each other of high treason. Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mow bray? Boling. First, heaven be the record to my speech! 30 In the devotion of a subject's love, Tendering the precious safety of my prince, And free from other misbegotten hate, Come I appellant to this princely presence. Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee, And mark my greeting well ; frr what I speak My body shall make good upon this earth, Or my divine soul answer it in heaven. Thou art a traitor and a miscreant, Too good to be so and too bad to live, 40 Since the more fair and crystal is the sky, The uglier seem the clouds that in i Once more, the more to aggravate the note, With a foul traitor's name stuff i thy throat ; And wish, so please my sovereign, ere I move, What my tongue speaks my right drawn sword may prove. Moro. Let not my cold words here accuse 'Tis not the trial of a woman's war, curbs me From giving reins and spurs to my free speech ; Which else would post until it had return'd These terms of treason doubled down his throat. Setting aside his high blood's royalty. And let him be no kinsman to my liege, I do defy him, and I spit at him; Call him a slanderous coward and a villain : Which to maintain I would allow him odds, And meet him, were I tied to run afoot Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps, Or any other ground inhabitable, Where ever Englishman durst set his foot. Mean time let this defend my loyalty, By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie. Boling. Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage, Disclaiming here the kindred of the king, 70 And lay aside my high blood's royalty, Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to ex cept. If guilty dread have left thee so much strength As to take up mine honor's pawn, then stoop : By that and all the rites of knighthood else, Will I make good against thee, arm to arm, What I have spoke, or thou canst worse devise. Mow. I take it up; and by that sword I swear Which gently laid my knighthood on my shoulder, I'll answer thee in any fair degree, 80 Or chivalrous design of knightly trial : And when I mount, alive may I not light, If I be traitor or unjustly fight! K. Rich. What doth our cousin lay to Mow. bray's charge ? It must be great that can inherit us So much as of a thought of ill in him. Boling. Look, what I speak, my life shal prove it true; That Mowbray hath received eight thousand nobles (diers In name of lendings for your highness' sol The which he hath detain'd for lewd employ ments, Like a false traitor and injurious villain. 9 Besides I say and will in battle prove, Or here or elsewhere to the furthest verge That ever was survey'd by English eye, That all the treasons for these eighteen years Complotted and contrived in this land Fetch from false Mowbray their first bead an spring. Further I say and further will maintain Upon his bad life to make all this good, That he did plot the Duke of Gloucester death, 10 1 my zeal : Saggest his soon-believing adversaries, of blood : soars! Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thon to this ? Mox. 0, let my sovereign turn away his face 110 And bid his ears a little while be deaf, T! I have told this slander of his blood, How God and good men hate so foul a liar. K. Rich. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and ears : Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir, As he is but my father's brother's son, Now, by my sceptre's awe, I make a vow, Such neighbor nearness to our sacred blood Saould nothing privilege him, nor partialize The unstooping firmness of my upright soul : He is our subject, Mowbray ; so art thou : Free speech and fearless I to thee allow. Norc. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart, Through the false passage of thy throat, thou liest. Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais Disbursed I duly to his highness' soldiers ; The other part reserved I by consent, For tbat my sovereign liege was in my debt Cpon remainder of a dear account, 130 Since last I went to France to fetch his queen: Now swallow down that lie. For Gloucester's death, I slew him pot; but to my own disgrace Neglected my sworn duty in that case. For you, my noble Lord of Lancaster, The honorable father to my foe, One did I lay an ambush for your life, A trepass that doth vex my grieved soul, But ere I last received the sacrament I did confess it, and exactly begg'd 140 Your grace's pardon, and I hope I had it. This is my fanlt: as for the rest appeal'd, It issues from the rancor of a villain, A recreant and most degenerate traitor : Which in myself I boldly will defend ; And interchangeably hurl down my gage Pjon this overweening traitor's foot, To prove myself a loyal gentleman Eren in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom. lo haste whereof, most heartily I pray 150 Your highness to assign our trial day. K. Rirh. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be ruled by me; Let's purge this choler without letting blood : This we prescribe, though no physician ; Deep rralice makes too deep incision ; Forget, forgive ; conclude and be agreed ; Otur doctors say this is no month to bleed. Good uncle, let this end where it begun ; We'll calm the Duke of Norfolk, you your son. Gaunt. To be a make-peace shall become my age : 160 Throw down, my son, the Duke of Norfolk's gage. K. Rich. And, Norfolk, throw down his. Gaunt. When, Harry, when ? Obedience bids I should not bid again. K. Rich. Norfolk, thiow down, we bid ; there is no boot. Mow. Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot. My life thou shalt command, but not my shame : The one my duty owes ; but my fair name, Despite of death that lives upon my grave, To dark dishonor's use thou shalt not have. I am disgraced, impeach'd and baffled here, Pierced to the soul with slauder's venom'd spear, 171 The which no balm can cure but his heart blood Which breathed this poison. K. Rich. Rage must be withstood : Give me his gage : lions make leopards tame. Mow. Yea, but not change his spots : tako but my shame, And I resign my gage. My dear dear lord, The purest treasure mortal times afford Is spotless reputation : that away, Men are but gilded loam or painted clay. A jewel in a ten-times-barr’d-up chest 180 Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast. Mine honor is my life ; both grow in one ; Take honor from me, and my life is done : Then, dear my liege, mine honor let me try ; In that I live and for that will I die. K. Rich. Cousin, throw up your gage ; do „you begin. Boling. 0, God defend my soul from such deep sin ! Shall I seem crest-fall'n in my father's signt? Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height Before this out-dared dastard ? tonglie 190 Shall wound my honor with such feeble wrong, Or sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear The slavish motive of recanting fear, And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace, Where shame dotli harbor, even in Mowbray's face, [Erit Gaunt. K. Rich. We were not born to sue, but to command ; Which since we cannot do to make you friends, Be ready, as your lives shall answer it, At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day : 199 There shall your swords and lances arbitrate The swelling difference of your settled hate : Since we can not atone you, we shall see Justice design the victor's chivalry. Lord marshal, command our officers at arms Be ready to direct these home alarms. [Exeunt, Ere my |