Fri. I hear fome noife! Lady, come from that neft Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep; A greater power than we can contradict, Hath thwarted our intents; come, come away; Thy hufband in thy bofom there lyes dead, And Paris too, Come, I'll difpofe of thee Among a filterhood of holy nuns:

Stay not to queftion, for the watch is coming.
Come go, good Juliet ; I dare no longer ftay. [Exit.
Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.
What's here? a cup closed in my true love's hand?
Poifon I fee hath been his timeless end.

Oh churl, drink all, and leave no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kifs thy lips;
Haply fome poifon yet doth hang on them,
To make me die with a restorative.

Thy lips are warm.

Enter Boy and Watch.

Watch. Lead, boy, which way?

Jul. Yea, noise ?

Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger!

[Finding a dagger. This is thy fheath, there ruft and let me die..

[Kills berfelf. Boy. This is the place; there where the torch doth burn.

Watch. The ground is bloody. Search about the church-yard;

Go fome of you, whomere you find attach.
Pitiful fight! here lyes the County fláin,
And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead,
Who here hath lain these two days buried.
Go tell the Prince, run to the Capulets,
Raife up the Montagues; fome others foarch

We fee the ground whereon thefe woes do ly:
But the true ground of all these piteous woes
We cannot without circumstance defcryph

Enter fome of the Watch with BALTHASAR,

2 Watch. Here's Romeo's man, we found him in the church-yard.

2

I Watch. Hold him in fafety, till the Prince comes hither.

Enter another Watchman, with Friar LAWRENCE.

3

Watch. Here is a friar that trembles, fighs,
and weeps:

We took this mattock and this fpade from him,
As he was coming from this church-yard fide.
1 Watch. A great fufpicion: ftay the friar too.
Enter the Prince and Attendants.

Prince. What mifadventure is fo early up,
That calls our perfon from our morning's reft?
Enter CAPULET and Lady CAPULET.

Cap. What fhould it be that they fo fhriek abroad? La. Cap. The people in the ftreet cry, Romeo; Some, Juliet; and fome, Paris; and all run With open out-cry toward our monument.

Pri. What fear is this which startles in your ears? Wat. Sovereign, here lyes the County Paris flain, And Romeo dead, and Juliet (dead before) Warm and new killed.

Prince. Search, feek, and know, how this foul murder comes.

Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughtered Romeo's With inftruments upon them, fit to open [man, Thefe dead men's tombs.

Cap. Oh, Heaven! Oh, wife! look how our daughter bleeds!

This dagger hath mistaken; for lo, the sheath
Lyes empty on the back of Montague,

The point misfheathed in my daughter's bofom.
La. Cap. Oh me, this fight of death is as a bell,
That warns my old age to a fepulchre.

Enter MONTAGUE.

Prince. Come, Montague, for thou art early up, To fee thy fon and heir now early down.

Mon. Alas, my Liege, my wife is dead to-night; Grief of my fon's exile hath ftopped her breath: What further woe confpires against my age?

Prince. Look, and thou fhalt fee.

Mon. Oh, thou untaught! what manners is in To prefs before thy father to a grave?

[this, Prince. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while, Till we can clear thefe ambiguities,

And know their fpring, their head, their true de
And then will I be general of your woes, [fcent;
And lead you even to death. Mean time forbear,
And let mifchance be flave to patience.
Bring forth the parties of fufpicion.

Fri. I am the greatest, able to do least,
Yet most fufpected; as the time and place
Doth make against me, of this direful murder;
And here I ftand both to impeach and purge
Myself condemned, and myself excufed.

Prince. Then fay at once what thou dost know in this.

Fri. I will be brief, for my short date of breath Is not fo long as is a tedious tale.

Romeo there dead, was husband to that Juliet;
And fhe there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife:
I married them; and their ftolen marriage-day-

Was Tybalt's doomsday, whofe untimely death
Banished the new-made bridegroom from this city;
For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.
You to remove that fiege of grief from her,
Betrothed and would have married her perforce !
To County Paris. Then comes the to me,
And with wild looks bid me devife fome means
To rid her from this fecond marriage,
Or in my cell there would fhe kill herself.
Then gave I her (fo tutored by my art)
A fleeping potion, which fo took effect
As I intended; for it wrought on her

The form of death. Mean time I writ to Romeo,
That he fhould hither come as this dire night,
To help to take her from her borrowed grave;
Being the time the potion's force fhould ceafe..
But he which bore my letter, Friar John,
Was ftaid by accident; and yesternight
Returned my letter back; then all alone,
At the prefixed hour of her awaking,
Came I to take her from her kindred's vault;
Meaning to keep her closely at my cell,
'Till I conveniently could fend to Romeo.
But when I came, (fome 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:
But then a noife did fcar me from the tomb,
And fhe, too defperate, would not go with me;
But as it feems did violence on herself.
All this I know, and to the marriage
Her nurfe is privy: but if aught in this
Mifcarried by my fault, let my old life
Be facrificed, fome hour before the time,
Unto the rigour of fevereft law.

Prince. We still have known thee for an holy man. Where's Romeo's man? what can he fay to this?

Batth. I brought my mafter news of Juliet's death, And then in post he came from Mantua

To this fame place to this fame monument.
This letter he early bid me give his father,
And threatened me with death, going to the vault,
If I departed hot, 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?
Page. He came with flowers to ftrew his Lady's
And bid me ftand 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.

[grave,

[words, Prince. This letter doth make good the friar's Their courfe 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 ly with Juliet. Where be thefe enemies? Capulet! Montague! See what a fcourge is laid upon your hate, That Heaven finds means to kill your joys with love! And I, for winking at your discords too,

Have loft a brace of kinfmen: all are punished! 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 raife her ftatue in pure gold;
That while Verona by that name is known,
There fhall no figure at that rate be set,
As that of true and faithful Juliet.

Cap. As rich fhall Romeo's by his Lady ly:
Poor facrifices of our enmity!