Than empty tigers, or the roaring sea.

Bal. I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.

Rom. So shalt thou show 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 Monumeni

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 dy'd,-

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. Page. O lord, they fight: I will go call the watch. [Exit. 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 marry'd 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 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, come, unsavoury guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashings 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

[] A presence means a public room, which is at times the presence-chamber of the sovereign

M. MASON.

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.

Fri. How long hath he been there?

Bal. Full half an hour.

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.

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

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.3

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.

[2] This accident was reckoned ominous. So in King Henry VI. part 3:

"For many men that stumble at the threshold,
Are well foretold that danger lurks within."

Again, in Richard III. Hastings, going to execution, says;

STEEVENS.

"Three times to-day my footcloth horse did stumble." [3] This is one of the touches of nature that would have escaped the hand of any painter less attentive to it than Shakespeare. What happens to a person while he is under the manifest influence of fear, will seem to him, when he is recovered from it, like a dream. Homer, Book 8th, represents Rhesus dying fast asleep, and as it were beholding his enemy in a dream plunging a sword into his bosom. Eustathius and Dacier both applaud this image as very natural; for a man in such a condition, says Mr. Pope, awakes no further than to see confusedly what environs him, and to think it not a reality but a vision. STEEVENS.

1

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,
To make me die with a restorative.

Thy lips are warm!

[Kisses him.

1 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 [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

churchyard:

[Exe. 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 ;-

[Exe. 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 Wat. 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 street cry-Romeo, Some-Juliet, and some-Paris; and all run, With open outcry, 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.

[comes Prince. Search, seek, and know how this foul murder 1 Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's man ; With instruments upon them, fit to open

These dead men's tombs.

[bleeds!
Cap. O, heavens !--O, wife! look how our daughter
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,