ARKCODEX
Act V, Scene 3
1A churchyard; in it a tomb belonging to the Capulets.
2Enter Paris, and his Page bearing flowers and a torch.
3ParisGive me thy torch, boy: hence, and stand aloof:
Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.
Under yond yew-trees lay thee all along,
Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground;
So shall no foot upon the churchyard 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.
4PageAside. I am almost afraid to stand alone
Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure. Retires.
5ParisSweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew—
O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones;—
Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,
Or, wanting that, with tears distill’d by moans:
The obsequies that I for thee will keep
Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep. The Page whistles.
The boy gives warning something doth approach.
What cursed foot wanders this way to-night,
To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite?
What, with a torch! muffle me, night, awhile. Retires.
6Enter Romeo and Balthasar, with a torch, mattock, etc.
7RomeoGive 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
And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs:
The time and my intents are savage-wild,
More fierce and more inexorable far
Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.
8BalthasarI will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.
9RomeoSo shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that:
Live, and be prosperous: and farewell, good fellow.
10BalthasarAside. For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout:
His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. Retires.
11RomeoThou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth,
Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
And, in despite, I’ll cram thee with more food! Opens the tomb.
12ParisThis 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 villainous shame
To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him. Comes forward.
Stop thy unhallow’d toil, vile Montague!
Can vengeance be pursued further than death?
Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee:
Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.
13RomeoI 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,
Put 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.
14ParisI do defy thy conjurations,
And apprehend thee for a felon here.
15RomeoWilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy! They fight.
16PageO Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch. Exit.
17ParisO, I am slain! Falls. If thou be merciful,
Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. Dies.
18RomeoIn 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 tomb.
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 still will 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 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 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.
19Enter, at the other end of the churchyard, Friar Laurence, with a lantern, crow, and spade.
20Friar LaurenceSaint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night
Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who’s there?
21BalthasarHere’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well.
22Friar LaurenceBliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend,
What torch is yond, that vainly lends his light
To grubs and eyeless skulls? as I discern,
It burneth in the Capel’s monument.
23BalthasarIt doth so, holy sir; and there’s my master,
One that you love.
24Friar LaurenceWho is it?
25BalthasarRomeo.
26Friar LaurenceHow long hath he been there?
27BalthasarFull half an hour.
28Friar LaurenceGo with me to the vault.
29BalthasarI 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.
30Friar LaurenceStay, then; I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me:
O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing.
31BalthasarAs I did sleep under this yew-tree here,
I dreamt my master and another fought,
And that my master slew him.
32Friar LaurenceRomeo! 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 tomb.
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.
33JulietO comfortable friar! where is my lord?
I do remember well where I should be,
And there I am. Where is my Romeo? Noise within.
34Friar LaurenceI 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 no longer stay.
35JulietGo, get thee hence, for I will not away. Exit Friar Laurence.
What’s here? a cup, closed in my true love’s hand?
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end:
O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips;
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make die with a restorative. Kisses him.
Thy lips are warm.
36First WatchmanWithin. Lead, boy: which way?
37JulietYea, 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.
38Enter Watch, with the Page of Paris.
39PageThis is the place; there, where the torch doth burn.
40First WatchmanThe ground is bloody; search about the churchyard:
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:
We see the ground whereon these woes do lie;
But the true ground of all these piteous woes
We cannot without circumstance descry.
41Reenter some of the Watch, with Balthasar.
42Second WatchmanHere’s Romeo’s man; we found him in the churchyard.
43First WatchmanHold him in safety, till the prince come hither.
44Reenter others of the Watch, with Friar Laurence.
45Third WatchmanHere 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.
46First WatchmanA great suspicion: stay the friar too.
47Enter the Prince and Attendants.
48PrinceWhat misadventure is so early up,
That calls our person from our morning’s rest?
49Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, and others.
50CapuletWhat should it be, that they so shriek abroad?
51Lady CapuletThe people in the street cry Romeo,
Some Juliet, and some Paris; and all run,
With open outcry, toward our monument.
52PrinceWhat fear is this which startles in our ears?
53First WatchmanSovereign, here lies the County Paris slain;
And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before,
Warm and new kill’d.
54PrinceSearch, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.
55First WatchmanHere is a friar, and slaughter’d Romeo’s man;
With instruments upon them, fit to open
These dead men’s tombs.
56CapuletO 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!
57Lady CapuletO me! this sight of death is as a bell,
That warns my old age to a sepulchre.
58Enter Montague and others.
59PrinceCome, Montague; for thou art early up,
To see thy son and heir more early down.
60MontagueAlas, 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?
61PrinceLook, and thou shalt see.
62MontagueO thou untaught! what manners is in this,
To press before thy father to a grave?
63PrinceSeal 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: meantime forbear,
And let mischance be slave to patience.
Bring forth the parties of suspicion.
64Friar LaurenceI 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 purge
Myself condemned and myself excused.
65PrinceThen say at once what thou dost know in this.
66Friar LaurenceI 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 stol’n 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 pined.
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 mean
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 stay’d 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 conveniently could send to Romeo:
But when I came, some 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 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 sacrificed, some hour before his time,
Unto the rigour of severest law.
67PrinceWe still have known thee for a holy man.
Where’s Romeo’s man? what can he say in this?
68BalthasarI 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.
69PrinceGive 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?
70PageHe 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.
71PrinceThis 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.
72CapuletO brother Montague, give me thy hand:
This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more
Can I demand.
73MontagueBut 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.
74CapuletAs rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie;
Poor sacrifices of our enmity!
75PrinceA glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show 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.