Pet. Pretty too!- What say you, Soundpost?

3 Mus. 'Faith, I know not what to say. Pet. I cry you mercy! you are the singer: I will say for you. It is music with her silver sound, because such fellows as you have seldom gold for sounding :—

Then music, with her silver sound, With speedy help doth lend redress. [Exit singing. 1 Mus. What a pestilent knave is this same? 2 Mus. Hang him, Jack! Come, we'll in here; tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner.

ACT V..

[Exeunt.

SCENE 1.-Mantua.-A Street.

Enter ROMEO.

Rom. If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep,

My dreams presage some joyful news at hand:
My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne;
And, all this day, an unaccustom'd spirit
Lifts

me above the ground with cheerful
thoughts.

I dreamt my lady came and found me dead;
(Strange dream! that gives a dead man leave to
think.)

And breath'd such life with kisses in my lips,
That I reviv'd, and was an emperor.
Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess'd,
When but love's shadows are so rich in joy?

Enter BALTHAZAR.

News from Verona !-How now, Balthazai ?
Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar?
How doth my lady? Is my father well?
How fares my Juliet? That I ask again;
For nothing can be ill, if she be well.

Enter APOTHECARY.

Ap. Who calls so loud?

my

Rom. Come hither, man.-I see that thou art poor;

Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have
A dram of poison; such soon-speeding geer
As will disperse itself through all the veins,
That the life-weary taker may fall dead,

And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath

As violently, as hasty powder fir'd

Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb.

Ap. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law

Is death, to any he that utters them.

Rom. Art thou so bare, and full of wretch

Rom. I pay thy poverty, and not thy will Ap. Put this in any liquid thing you will. And drink it off; and, if you had the strength

ill;

Her body sleeps in Capel's monument,
And her immortal part with angels lives;
I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault,
And presently took post to tell it you:
O pardon me for bringing these ill news,
Since you did leave it for my office, Sir.

Rom. Is it even so? then I defy yon, stars!Thou know'st my lodging: get me ink aud paper,

And hire post-horses; I will hence to-night.

Bal. Pardon me, Sir, I will not leave you

thus:

Your looks are pale and wild, and do import
Some misadventure.

Rom. Tush, thou art deceiv'd;

Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do:
Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?
Bal. No, my good lord.

Rom. No matter: get thee gone, And hire those horses; I'll be with thee straight. [Exit BALTHAZAR. Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night. Let's see for means: O mischief, thou art swift

To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!
I do remember an apothecary,-
And hereabouts he dwells,-whom late I noted
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of simples; † meager were his looks,
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones:
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff'd, and other skins
Of ill-shap'd fishes; and about his shelves

John. Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho!
Enter Friar LAURENCE.
Lau. This same should be the voice of friar
John.-

Welcome from Mantua: What says Romeo?
Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.

John. Going to find a barefoot brother out,
One of our order to associate me,
Here in this city visiting the sick,
And finding him, the searchers of the town,
Suspecting that we both were in a house
Where the infectious pestilence did reign,
Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us
forth;

So that my speed to Mantua there was stay'd.

Lau. Who bare my letter then to Romeo? John. I could not send it, here it is

again,

• Stuf

Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,
So fearful were they of infection.

Lau. Unhappy fortune! by my brotherhood,
The letter was not nice, but full of charge,
Of dear import; and the neglecting it
May do much danger: Friar Johu, go hence;
Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight
Unto my cell.

John. Brother, I'll go and bring't thee. [Exit.
Lau. Now must I to the monument alone;
Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake;
She will beshrew me much, that Romeo
Hath had no notice of these accidents :
But I will write again to Mautua,
And keep her at my cell till Romeo come;
Poor living corse, clos'd in a dead man's tomb!
[Exit.
SCENE III-A Church-Yard; in it, a Mo-
nument belonging to the CAPULETS.

Enter PARIS, and his PAGE bearing Flowers and a Torch.

Par. Give me thy torch, boy: Hence and
stand aloof;-

Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.
Under you yew-trees lay thee all along,
Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground;
So shall no foot upon the church-yard 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.
Page. I am almost afraid to stand alone
Here in the church-yard; yet I will adventure.
[Retires.

Par. Sweet flower, with flowers I strew thy
bridal bed:

Sweet tomb, that in thy circuit dost contain
The perfect model of eternity;
Fair Juliet, that with angels dost remain,
Accept this latest favour at my hands;
That living honour'd thee, and, being dead,
With funeral praises do adorn thy tomb!

[The boy whistles. The boy gives warning, something doth approach.

What cursed foot wanders this way to-night,
To cross my obsequies, and true-love's rites?
What, with a torcli!-muthte me, night, a while.
[Retires.
Enter ROMEO and BALTHAZAR with a Torch,
Mattock, &c.

Rom. Give me that mattock, and the wrench-
ing 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 hence from her dead finger
A precious ring; a ring that I must use
In dear employmeut: therefore hence, be-
But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry [gone :-
In what I further shall intend to do,
By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,

[Retires.

Rom. Thou détestable maw, thou womb of

death

gue,

hither.

watch.

[Dies.

Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.
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 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 Monument.
How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry? which their keepers

call

A lightning before death: Oh! 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?
Oh! what more favour can I do to thee,

limbs :

The time and my intents are savage-wild;

More fierce, and more inexorable far, Than empty tigers, or the roaring sea.

twain,

To sunder his that was thine enemy? Forgive me, cousin!-Ah! dear Juliet, Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe

you.

And that the lean abhorred monster keeps

Take thou that:

Live and be prosperous, and farewell, good

fellow.

Bal. For all this same, I'll hide me here

about;

1. e. On a trivial or idle subject. tLe. Action of importance.

For fear of that, I will still stay with thee;
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again; bere, here will I remain
With worms that are thy chambermaids; O here

I refuse to do as thou conjurest me to do, i. e. depart. The allusion is to a louvre or turret full of window by means of which ancient halls, &c. are illuminated. Presence chamber.

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, cone, 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 apothe-
cary!

Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.

[Dies.

[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.
Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not

To make me die with a restorative.

Thy lips are warm!

[Kisses him.

i 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 die.

[Falls on ROMEO's Body, and dies. 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 church-yard:

Go, some of you, whoe'er you find, attach.
[Exeunt some.

Pitiful sight; here lies the county slain ;-
And Juliet bleeding; warm, and newly dead,
Who here bath 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 BALTHAZAR. 2 Watch. Here's Romeo's man, we found him in the church-yard.

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 church-yard 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 is mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom. La. Cap. O me! this sight of death is as a

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 an clear these ambiguities,

And know their spring, their head, their true descent;

And then will I be general of your woes,

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 sacrific'd some hour before his time,
Unto the rigour of severest law.

Prince. We still have known thee for a holy

man.

Where's Romeo's man? what can he say in this?

Bal. 1 brought my master news of Juliet's death;

And then in post he came from Mantua,

bear,

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 mur-
der:

And here I stand, both to impeach and purge Myself condemned and myself accus'd.

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

Fri. I 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 stolen-marriageday

Was Tybalt's doomsday, whose untimely death Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city;

For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin'd.
You-to remove that siege of grief from her,-
Betroth'd, and would have married her per-
force,

To county Paris :-Then comes she to me;
And, with wild looks, bid me devise some

But he which bore my letter, friar John,
Was staid by accident; and yesternight
Return'd my letter back: Then all alone,
At the prefixed hour of her waking,
Came 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 awakening,) 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.

• Seat.

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.

Prince. Give me the letter, I will look on

it.

Where is the county's page, that rais'd the watch ?

Sirrah, what made your master in this place? Page. He 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.

Prince. This 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 Ju-
liet.-

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.

Cap. O brother Montague, give me thy band:

This is my daughter's jointure, for no more
Can I demand.

Mon. But 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.

Cap. As rich shall Romeo by his lady lie;
Poor sacrifices of our enmity!
Prince. A 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 pun

ished: +

Bccount onitted.