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

[They fight, Paris falls. Page. Oh Lord, they fight! I will go call the Watch.

Par. Oh, I am flain; if thou be merciful, Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.

[Dies. Rom. In faith, I will : let me peruse this faceMercutio's kinsman ! Noble Comté Paris ! What said my man, when my betoffed 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 fo ? Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet, To think it was fo? Oh give me thy hand, One writ with me in four misfortune's book, I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave. A grave ? O, no; a lanthorn, flaughter'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 :

[Leying 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.0, how may I Call this a lightning !-Oh my love, my wife! Death, that hath fuckt 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 paie flag is not advanced there. Tybalt, -ly'st thou there in thy bloody sheet? Oh, what more favour can I do to thee, Than with that hand, that cut thy youth in twain, To sunder his, that was thy enemy? Forgive me, coufin.-Ah dear Juliet, Why art thou yet fo 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

And never from this palace of dim night (16)
Depart again.: Here, here will I remain,
With worms that are thy chamber-maids ; oh here
Will I fet up my everlasting rest;
And shake the yoke of inaufpicious stars
From this world-weary'd fesh. Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace ! and lips, oh
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kils
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Come, bitter conduct! come unsav'ry guide!
Thou desp'rate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks my sea-sick, weary, bark :
Here's to my love! oh, true apothecary !

[Drinks the poison. Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. [Diese

you

(16) And never from this Palace of dim Night

Depart again. (Come, lie thou in my Arms;
Here's to thy Health. O true Apothecary !

Thy Drugs are quick)] Mr. Pope's, and some other of the worfer Editions, acknowledge absurdly the Lines which I have put into Parenthesis here ; and which I have expunged from the Text, for this Reason : Romeo is made to confess the Effect of the Poison, before ever he has tasted it. I suppose, it hardly was so savoury that the Patient should chose to make two Draughts of it. And, eight Lines after these, we find him taking the Poiton in his Hands. and making an Apostropbe to it; inviting it to perform its Office at once; and then, and not till then, does he clap it to his Lips, or can with any Probability speak of its instant Force and Effects.' Befides, Shakespeare would hardly have made Romeo drink to the Healib of his dead Mistress. Tho' the first Quarto in 1599, and the two old Folio's acknowledge this absurd Stuff, I find it left out in several latter Quarto Impreff ons. I ought to take notice, that tho' Mr. Pope bas thought fit to ftick to the old Copies in this Addition, yet he is no fair Transcriber; for he has sunk upon us an Hemistich of most profound Absurdity, which possesses all those Copies.

-Come, lie tbou in my Arms ;
Here's to tby Health, where-e'er chou tumbleft in.
O true Apoi becary ! &c.

2

Enter

Enter Friar Lawrence with lanthorn, crow, and spade.

Fri. St. Francis be my speed! how oft to-night Have my old feet stumbled at graves ? who's there?

Enter Balthafar.

Bal. Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well.

Fri. Bliss he 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 Capulets' monument.

Balth. It doth so, holy Sir,
And there's my master, one you dearly love.

Fri. Who is it?
Balth. Romeo.
Fri. How long haih he been there?
Balth. Full half an hour.
Fri. Go with me to the vault.

Balth. 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 fome ill unlucky thing.

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

my

master New him.
Fri. Romeo !
Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains
'The itony entrance of this fepulchre ?
What mean these masterless and goary swords,
To lie discolour'd by this place of peace ?
Romeo! oh pale! who else? what Paris too ?
And steep'd in blood ? ah, what an unkind hour
Is guilty of this lamentable chance ?
The lady ftirs.
Jul. ( awaking.] Oh comfortable Friar, where is my

Lord ?
I do remember well, where I fhould be;

And

And there I am ; but where is Romeo ?

Fri. I hear fome noise! 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 husband in thy bosom there lies dead, And Paris too- Come, I'll dispose of thee Among a fifterhood of holy Nuns : Stay not to question, for the Watch is coming. Come, go, good Juliet ; I dare no longer stay. [Exité

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 fee, hath been his timeless end. Oh 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.

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 sheath, there rust and let me die.

[Kills herself. Boy. This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn. Watch. The ground is bloody. Search about the

church-yard;
Go, some of you, whom e'er you find, attach.
Pitiful sight! here lies the Comtè 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.

Enter

Enter fome of the Watch, with Balthasar. 2 Watch. Here's Romeo's man, we found him in the church-yard.

I Watch. Hold him in safety, '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 spade from him, As he was coming from this church-yard fide.

1 Watch. A great suspicion : ftay the Friar too.

Enter the Prince, and Attendants.

Prince. What misadventure is so early up, That calls our person from our morning's reft ?

Enter Capulet and Lady Capulet. Cap. What should it be, that they so shriek abroad?

La. Cap. The people in the street cry, Romeo ; Some, Juliet ; and fome, Paris; and all run With open out-cry tow’rd our monument.

Prince. What fear is this, which startles in your ears?

Watch. Sovereign, here lies the Comté Paris slain, And Romeo dead, and Juliet (dead before) Warm and new kill'd.

Prince. Search, seek, and know, how this foul murder

Watch. Here is a Friar, and laughter'd Romeo's man, With instruments upon them, fit to open These dead men's tombs.

Cap.Oh,heav'n!oh,wife!look how our daughter bleeds! This dagger hath mifta'en ; for, lo! the sheath Lies empty on the back of Montague, The point mis-sheathed 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

comes.