Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd. 8

[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 9? 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 chamber-maids; O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest;

ว

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,

8 by a dead man interr'd.] Romeo being now determined to put an end to his life, considers himself as already dead,

9

O, how may I

Call this a lightning?] Romeo had, just before, been in high spirits, a symptom, which he observes, was sometimes called a lightning before death: but how, says he, (for no situation can exempt Shakspeare's characters from the vice of punning) can I term this sad and gloomy prospect a lightning?

A dateless bargain to engrossing death! 1

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? 3-Who's there? Who is it that consorts, so late, the dead? 4

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,

I dare not, sir:

Fri. Go with me to the vault.
Bal.

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.

Fear comes upon me;

Fri. Stay then, I'll alone: go O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing.

1—

A dateless bargain to engrossing death!] Engrossing seems

to be used here in its clerical sense.

2 Come, bitter conduct,] Conduct for conductor.

Have my old feet stumbled at graves?] This accident was reckoned ominous.

+ Who is it, &c.] To consort, is to keep company with.

5

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

Romeo? [Advances.

Fri.
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.

5 I dreamt my master and another fought,] This is one of the touches of nature that would have escaped the hand of any painter less attentive to it than Shakspeare. 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.

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 [Snatching ROMEO's Dagger. This is thy sheath; [stabs herself.] there rust, and let

dagger!

me 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:

Go, some of you, who e'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.

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 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.

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

comes.

1 Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's

man;

With instruments upon them, fit to open

These dead men's tombs.

Cap. O, heavens! — O, wife! look how our daughter

bleeds!

This dagger hath mista'en,- for, lo! his house

Is empty on the back of Montague,

And it mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom."

• This dagger hath mista’en,—for, lo! his house

Is empty on the back of Montague,·

And it mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom.] Shakspeare quaintly