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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!

Enter Apothecary.

Who calls so loud?

Ap.
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 geer
As will disperse itself through all the veins,
That the life-weary taker may.fall dead;
And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath
As violently, as hasty powder fir'd
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.

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,
Upon 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.
Rom. 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 loathsome world,
Than these poor compounds, that thou may'st not sell:
1 sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none.
Farewell; buy food, and get thyself in flesh.
Come, cordial, and not poison; go with me
To Juliet's grave, for there must I use thee.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Friar Laurence's Cell.
Enter Friar JOHN.
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?
Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.

John. 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, Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us forth; So that my speed to Mantua there was stay'd. 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, 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, clos'd 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.
Page. I am almost afraid to stand alone
Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure.

(Retires.)

Par. Sweet flower, with flowers I strew thy bri-
dal 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, awhile. (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:

But, chiefly, to take thence from her dead finger
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,
The time and my intents are savage-wild;
And strew this hungry church-yard with thy limbs :
More fierce, and more inexorable far,
Than empty tigers, or the roaring sea.

Bal. I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you. Rom. 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
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 murder'd my love's cousin ;-with which grief,
It is supposed, the fair creature died,-
And here is come to do some villanous, shame
To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him.-
(Advances.)

Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague;
Can vengeance be pursu'd 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:
Let them affright thee.-I beseech thee, youth,
Heap 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 do attach thee as a felon here.

Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee,
boy,
They fight.)
Pag. O lord! they fight: I will go call the watch.
Par. O, I am slain! (Falls.)-If thou be mer-
[Exit.
ciful,

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,
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 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 chamber-maids ; O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest;
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh.-Eyes, look your
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.

[last!

(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? 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,
What torch is yond', that vainly lends his light
good my friend,
To grubs and eyeless skulls? as I discern,
It burneth in the Capels' monument.

Bal. It doth so, holy sir; and there's my master,
One that you love.
Who is it?

Fri.

Bal.

Romeo.

Full half an hour.

Fri. How long hath he been there?

Bal.

Fri. 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.

[me :

Fri. Stay, then, I'll go alone :-Fear comes upon

Аст V.

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.
Romeo!

Fri.
Advances.)
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! 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;
Come, go, good Juliet,-(Noise again.) I dare stay
no longer.
[Exit.

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 leave no friendly drop,
To help me after ?-I will kiss thy lips:
Haply, some poison yet doth hang on them,
T's make me die with a restorative. [Kisses him.
Thy lips are warm!

I Watch. (Within.) Lead, boy :-Which way? 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 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.

1 Watch. The ground is bloody: Search about the churchyard:

Go, some of you; whoe'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 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.
[hither.
1 Watch. Hold him in safety, till the prince come
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?

Some-Juliet, and soine-Paris; and all run,
La. Cap. The people in the street cry---Romeo,

SCENE S.

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

Cap. O, heavens!-O, wife! look how our daugh.

ter bleeds!

This dagger hath mista'en,-for, lo! his house
Is empty on the back of Montague,-

And is 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 to-night; 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: Mean time forbear,
And let mischance be slave to patience.-
Bring forth the parties of suspicion.

Fri. 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
Myself condemned and myself excas'd.
Prince. Then say at once what thou dost know
in this.

purge

Fri. 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,
And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife:
I married them; and their stolen marriage-day
Was Tybalt's dooms-day, whose untimely death
Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city;
For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin'd.
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 means
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,
Was staid 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 conviently could send to Romeo:
But, when I came (some minute ere the time
Of her awakening,) 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 sacrific'd, some hour before his time,
Unto the rigour of severest law.

371

[man.

Prince. We still have known thee for a holy
Where's Romeo's man? what can he say in this?
Bal. 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 threaten'd 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 rais'd the watch?—
Sirrah, what made your master in this place?

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 !-
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,
There shall no figure at such rate be set,
As that of true and faithful Juliet.

Cap. As rich shall Romeo by his lady lie;
[brings;
Poor sacrifices of our enmity!
Prince. A glooming peace this morning with it
The sun, for sorrow, will not shew 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

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed]

P. 549, Notes 1. 18. Have a conceit left them. &c.] This quotation is also found in the Preface to Dryden's Fables: "Just John Littlewit in Bartholomew Fair, who had a conceit (as he tells you) left him in his misery; a miserable conceit." STEEVENS.

PROLOGUE.

P. 549, c. 1, l. 16. This prologue, after the first copy was published in 1597, received several alterations, both in respect of correctness and versification. In the folio it is omitted.-The play was originally performed by the Right Hon. the Lord of Hunsdon his servants.

In the first of king James I. was made an act of parliament for some restraint or limitation of noblement in the protection of players, or of players under their sanction. STEEVENS.

Under the word PROLOGUE, in the copy of 1599, is printed Chorus, which I suppose meant only that the prologue was to be spoken by the same person who personated the chorus at the end of the first act.

The original prologue, in the quarto of 1599, stands thus:

"Two household frends, alike in dignitie,

"In faire Verona, where we lay our scene, "From civill broyles broke into enmitie,

"Whose civill warre makes civill handes uncleane. "From forth the fatal loynes of these two foes

"A paire of starre-crost lovers tooke their life; "Whose misadventures, piteous overthrowes,

"(Through the continuing of their fathers' strife, "And death-markt passage of their parents' rage,) "Is now the two howres traffique of our stage. "The which, if you with patient eares attend, "What here we want, wee'll studie to amend." MALONE.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

Id. 1 21.we'll not carry coals.] A phrase formerly used to signify the bearing injuries. Id. c. 2, l. 15. poor John.] is hake, dried, and salted.

Id. 1. 16. -here comes two of the house of the Montagues] It should be observed, that the partizans of the Montague family wore a token in their hats, in order to distinguish them from their enemies, the Capulets. Hence, throughout this play, they are known at a distance.

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weapons.

Id. c. 2, l. 38. " to the same." MALONE. ld. l. 63. to his will! i. e. that the blind god should yet be able to direct his arrows at those whom he wishes to hit, that he should wound whomever he wills, or desires to wound. P. 551, c. 1, l. 1. Why, such is love's transgression.] Such is the consequence of unskilful and mistaken kindness.

Id. l. 17. Tell me in sadness,] that is, gravely, or seriously. Id. 1. 30. And in strong proof, &c.] As this play was written in the reign of queen Elizabeth, I cannot help regarding these speeches of Romeo as an oblique compliment to her majesty, who was not liable to be displeased at hearing her chastity praised after she was suspected to have lost it, or her beauty commended in the 67th year of her age, though she never possessed any when she was young. Her declaration, that she would continue unmarried, increases the probability of the present supposition. STEEVENS.

Id. l. 48.-wisely too fair, &c.] There is in her too much sanctimonious wisdom united with beauty, which induces her to continue chaste with the hopes of attaining heavenly bliss.

Id. 1. 51. To call hers, exquisite, in question more:] More into talk; to make her unparalleled beauty more the subject of thought and conversation.

Id. l. 52. These happy masks, &c.] i. e. the masks worn by female spectators of the play. Id. 1. 57. What doth her beauty serve,] i. e. what end does it answer.

SCENE II.

Id 1. 78. She is the hopeful lady of my earth:] This is a Gallicism: Fille de terre is the French phrase for an heiress.

Id. c 2, 1. 2. My will to her consent is but a part;]

To, in this instance, signifies in comparison with, in proportion to.

Id. 1. 15. Inherit at my house;] To inherit, in the language of Shakspeare's age, is to possess. Id. 1. 42. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.] The plantain leaf is a blood-stauncher, and was formerly applied to green wounds. Id. l. 75.crush a cup of wine] This cant

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