Romeo and Juliet
ACT V SCENE III | A churchyard; in it a tomb belonging to the Capulets. | |
[Enter PARIS, and his Page bearing flowers and a torch] | ||
PARIS | 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 |
Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure. | ||
[Retires] | ||
PARIS | Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew,– | |
O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones;– | ||
Which with sweet water nightly I will dew, | ||
Or, wanting that, with tears distill’d by moans: | ||
The obsequies that I for thee will keep | ||
Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep. | ||
[The Page whistles] | ||
The boy gives warning something doth approach. | ||
What cursed foot wanders this way to-night, | ||
To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite? | 20 | |
What with a torch! muffle me, night, awhile. | ||
[Retires] | ||
[ Enter ROMEO and BALTHASAR, with a torch, mattock, etc. ] | ||
ROMEO | 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 thence from her dead finger | 30 | |
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 churchyard with thy limbs: | ||
The time and my intents are savage-wild, | ||
More fierce and more inexorable far | ||
Than empty tigers or the roaring sea. | ||
BALTHASAR | I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you. | 40 |
ROMEO | So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that: | |
Live, and be prosperous: and farewell, good fellow. | ||
BALTHASAR | [Aside] For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout: | |
His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. | ||
[Retires] | ||
ROMEO | Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death, | |
Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth, | ||
Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open, | ||
And, in despite, I’ll cram thee with more food! | ||
[Opens the tomb] | ||
PARIS | This is that banish’d haughty Montague, | |
That murder’d my love’s cousin, with which grief, | 50 | |
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. | ||
ROMEO | 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. | ||
PARIS | I do defy thy conjurations, | |
And apprehend thee for a felon here. | ||
ROMEO | Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy! | 70 |
[They fight] | ||
PAGE | O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch. | |
[Exit] | ||
PARIS | O, I am slain! | |
[Falls] | ||
If thou be merciful, | ||
Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. | ||
[Dies] | ||
ROMEO | 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? | 80 | |
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 | ||
A lightning before death: O, how may I | 90 | |
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 favour can I do to thee, | ||
Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain | ||
To sunder his that was thine enemy? | 100 | |
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; O, here | ||
Will I set up my everlasting rest, | 110 | |
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, 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] | ||
O true apothecary! | ||
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. | 120 | |
[Dies] | ||
[ Enter, at the other end of the churchyard, FRIAR LAURENCE, with a lantern, crow, and spade ] | ||
FRIAR LAURENCE | Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night | |
Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who’s there? | ||
BALTHASAR | Here’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well. | |
FRIAR LAURENCE | Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend, | |
What torch is yond, that vainly lends his light | ||
To grubs and eyeless skulls? as I discern, | ||
It burneth in the Capel’s monument. | ||
BALTHASAR | It doth so, holy sir; and there’s my master, | |
One that you love. | ||
FRIAR LAURENCE | Who is it? | |
BALTHASAR | Romeo. | |
FRIAR LAURENCE | How long hath he been there? | |
BALTHASAR | Full half an hour. | 130 |
FRIAR LAURENCE | Go with me to the vault. | |
BALTHASAR | 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. | ||
FRIAR LAURENCE | Stay, then; I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me: | |
O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing. | ||
BALTHASAR | As I did sleep under this yew-tree here, | |
I dreamt my master and another fought, | ||
And that my master slew him. | ||
FRIAR LAURENCE | Romeo! | |
[Advances] | ||
Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains | 140 | |
The stony entrance of this sepulchre? | ||
What mean these masterless and gory swords | ||
To lie discolour’d by this place of peace? | ||
[Enters the tomb] | ||
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] | ||
JULIET | O comfortable friar! where is my lord? | |
I do remember well where I should be, | ||
And there I am. Where is my Romeo? | 150 | |
[Noise within] | ||
FRIAR LAURENCE | 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. | ||
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. | ||
JULIET | Go, get thee hence, for I will not away. | |
[Exit FRIAR LAURENCE] | ||
What’s here? a cup, closed in my true love’s hand? | ||
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end: | ||
O churl! 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 die with a restorative. | ||
[Kisses him] | ||
Thy lips are warm. | ||
First Watchman | [Within] Lead, boy: which way? | |
JULIET | Yea, noise? then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger! | |
[Snatching ROMEO’s dagger] | ||
This is thy sheath; | ||
[Stabs herself] | ||
there rust, and let me die. | ||
[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 Watchman | The ground is bloody; search about the churchyard: | 171 |
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. | 180 | |
[Re-enter some of the Watch, with BALTHASAR] | ||
Second Watchman | Here’s Romeo’s man; we found him in the churchyard. | |
First Watchman | Hold him in safety, till the prince come hither. | |
[Re-enter others of the Watch, with FRIAR LAURENCE] | ||
Third Watchman | Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs and weeps: | |
We took this mattock and this spade from him, | ||
As he was coming from this churchyard side. | ||
First Watchman | 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] | ||
CAPULET | What should it be, that they so shriek abroad? | |
LADY CAPULET | The people in the street cry Romeo, | 190 |
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 Watchman | 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 Watchman | Here is a friar, and slaughter’d Romeo’s man; | 200 |
With instruments upon them, fit to open | ||
These dead men’s tombs. | ||
CAPULET | 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! | ||
LADY CAPULET | 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. | ||
MONTAGUE | Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night; | |
Grief of my son’s exile hath stopp’d her breath: | 210 | |
What further woe conspires against mine age? | ||
PRINCE | Look, and thou shalt see. | |
MONTAGUE | 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 forbear, | ||
And let mischance be slave to patience. | 220 | |
Bring forth the parties of suspicion. | ||
FRIAR LAURENCE | I am the greatest, able to do least, | |
Yet most suspected, as the time and place | ||
Doth make against me of this direful murder; | ||
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. | |
FRIAR LAURENCE | 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; | 230 | |
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 | ||
Banish’d the new-made bridegroom from the city, | ||
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 | ||
To County Paris: then comes she to me, | ||
And, with wild looks, bid me devise some mean | ||
To rid her from this second marriage, | 240 | |
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, | ||
Was stay’d by accident, and yesternight | 250 | |
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: | 260 | |
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 rigour of severest law. | ||
PRINCE | We still have known thee for a holy man. | |
Where’s Romeo’s man? what can he say in this? | 270 | |
BALTHASAR | I brought my master news of Juliet’s death; | |
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, | ||
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? | 279 | |
PAGE | 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! Montague! | 290 | |
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. | ||
CAPULET | O brother Montague, give me thy hand: | |
This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more | ||
Can I demand. | ||
MONTAGUE | But I can give thee more: | |
For I will raise her statue in pure gold; | ||
That while Verona by that name is known, | ||
There shall no figure at such rate be set | 300 | |
As that of true and faithful Juliet. | ||
CAPULET | 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; | ||
Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished: | ||
For never was a story of more woe | ||
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. | ||
[Exeunt] |
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