PARIS Give me thy torch, boy. Hence, an...

PARIS Give 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 thy 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 hearest something approach.

Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go.

PAGE TO PARIS [Aside.]

I am almost afraid to stand alone

Here in the churchyard, yet I will adventure.

[Retires. Paris strews the tomb with flowers.[

PARIS Sweet 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.

[Whistle Boy.]

The boy gives warning, something doth approach.

What cursed foot wanders this way tonight,

To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite?

What, with a torch? Muffle me, night, a while.

[Retires.]

[Enter Romeo and Balthasar with a torch, a mattock, and a crow of iron.]

ROMEO Give 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,

What e’er thou hearest 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 farther 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.

BALTHASAR I will be gone, sir, and not trouble ye.

ROMEO So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that;

Live and be prosperous, and farewell, good fellow.

BALTHASAR [Aside.]

For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout,

His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.

[Retires.]

ROMEO Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,

Gorg’d 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.

[Romeo begins to open the tomb.]

PARIS This is that banish’d haughty Montague,

That murd’red 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.

[Steps forth.]

Stop thy unhallowed 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.

ROMEO I must indeed, and therefore came I hither.

Good gentle youth, tempt not a desp’rate 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 bid thee run away.

PARIS I do defy thy conjuration,

And apprehend thee for a felon here.

ROMEO Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!

[They fight.]

PAGE TO PARIS O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch.

[Exit.]

PARIS O, I am slain!

[Falls.]

If thou be merciful,

Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.

[Dies.]

ROMEO 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, slaught’red 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 favor 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 chambermaids; 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, unsavory 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 Friar Lawrence with lantern, crow, and spade.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE Saint Francis be my speed! How oft tonight

Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who’s there?

BALTHASAR Here’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well.

FRIAR LAWRENCE Bliss 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 Capels’ monument.

BALTHASAR It doth so, holy sir, and there’s my master,

One that you love.

FRIAR LAWRENCE Who is it?

BALTHASAR Romeo.

FRIAR LAWRENCE How long hath he been there?

BALTHASAR Full half an hour.

FRIAR LAWRENCE Go with me to the vault.

BALTHASAR 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.

FRIAR LAWRENCE Stay then, I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me.

O, much I fear some ill unthrifty thing.

BALTHASAR As I did sleep under this yew tree here,

I dreamt my master and another fought,

And that my master slew him.

FRIAR LAWRENCE Romeo!

[Friar stoops and looks on the blood and weapons.]

Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains

The stony entrance of this sepulchre?

What mean these masterless and gory swords

To lie discolor’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 rises.]

JULIET 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.]

FRIAR LAWRENCE 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 no longer stay.

[Exit.]

JULIET 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, 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 me die with a restorative.

Thy lips are warm.

(FIRST WATCHMAN Within.

Lead, boy, which way?)

JULIET Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger,

[Taking Romeo’s dagger.]

This is thy sheath;

[Stabs herself.]

there rust, and let me die.

[Falls on Romeo’s body and dies.]

Romeo and Juliet on Project Gutenberg