Gorg'd 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 murther'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.—
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.

[Advances.

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;
Let them affright thee.-I beseech thee, youth,
Put not another sin upon my head,

a

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 commiseration,b

с

And apprehend thee for a felon here.

Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy.

[They fight.

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

[Exit Page.

[Dies.

Par. O, I am slain! [falls]-If thou be merciful,

Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.

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,
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 monument.

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
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?
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

a

a The following lines are here introduced in (C) and the folio. Malone has very rationally conjectured that they are interpolations of a compositor. The printer had, probably, some imperfectly erased notes of the poet on his copy. We give them as we find them :-

"Come, lie thou in my arms;

Here's to thy health, where'er thou tumblest in.

O true apothecary;

Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
Depart again."

The speech, as it stands in our text, occupies forty-seven lines. It extended only to twenty-three lines in the original copy.

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, 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.

[Dies.

Enter, at the other end of the Churchyard, Friar Laurence, with a lantern, crow, and spade.

Fri. Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night

Have

my old feet stumbled at graves!-Who's there?a 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.

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.

a Steevens, in the modern text, has wrested a line out of the first quarto :"Who is it that consorts, so late, the dead ?"

VOL. VII.

2 D

Fri. Stay then, I'll go alone:-Fear comes upon me; O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing.

a

Bal. As I did sleep under this yew-tree here, I dreamt my master and another fought,

And that my master slew him.

Fri.

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?

[Advances.

[Enters 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 and stirs.

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:
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;"

5

Come, go, good Juliet,-[Noise again] I dare no longer

stay.

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 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.

Thy lips are warm!

[Exit.

[Kisses him.

1 Watch. [Within.] Lead, boy:-Which way?

403

Jul. 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 [Falls on ROMEO's body, and dies.

die.

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:

[Exeunt some.

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;-

[Exeunt other Watchmen.

We see the ground whereon these woes do lie;
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 churchyard.

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 churchyard 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 streets cry-Romeo,