Romeo and Juliet (1917) Yale/Text/Act V
ACT FIFTH
Scene One
[Mantua. A Street]
Enter Romeo.
Rom. If I may trust the flattering truth 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 4
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, 8
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 Romeo's man, Balthasar.
News from Verona! How now, Balthasar? 12
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. 16
Bal. Then she is well, and nothing can be 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, 20
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 you, stars!
Thou know'st my lodging: get me ink and paper, 25
And hire post-horses; I will hence to-night.
Bal. I do beseech you, sir, have patience:
Your looks are pale and wild, and do import 28
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, 32
And hire those horses: I'll be with thee straight.
Exit Man.
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. 36
I do remember an apothecary,
And hereabouts he dwells, which late I noted
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of simples; meagre were his looks, 40
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 44
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses,
Were thinly scatter'd, to make up a show. 48
Noting this penury, to myself I said:
An if a man did need a poison now,
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him. 52
O! this same thought did but fore-run my need,
And this same needy man must sell it me.
As I remember, this should be the house:
Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut. 56
What, ho! apothecary!
Enter Apothecary.
Ap. Who calls so loud?
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 gear 60
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 64
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 wretchedness, 68
And fear'st to die? famine is in thy cheeks,
Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes,
Contempt and beggary hang upon thy back;
The world is not thy friend nor the world's law:
The world affords no law to make thee rich; 73
Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.
Ap. My poverty, but not my will, consents.
Rom. I pay thy poverty, and not thy will. 76
Ap. Put this in any liquid thing you will,
And drink it off; and, if you had the strength
Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight.
Rom. There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls, 80
Doing more murders in this loathsome world
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell:
I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none.
Farewell; buy food, and get thyself in flesh. 84
Come, cordial and not poison, go with me
To Juliet's grave, for there must I use thee.
Exeunt.
Scene Two
[Verona. Friar Laurence's Cell]
Enter Friar John.
Fri. J. Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho!
Enter Friar Laurence.
Fri. L. 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. 4
Fri. J. Going to find a bare-foot brother out,
One of our order, to associate me,
Here in this city visiting the sick,
And finding him, the searchers of the town, 8
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. 12
Fri. L. Who bare my letter then to Romeo?
Fri. J. I could not send it, here it is again,
Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,
So fearful were they of infection. 16
Fri. L. 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 John, go hence;
Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight 21
Unto my cell.
Fri. J. Brother, I'll go and bring it thee.
Exit.
Fri. L. Now must I to the monument alone;
Within these three hours will fair Juliet wake: 24
She will beshrew me much that Romeo
Hath had no notice of these accidents;
But I will write again to Mantua,
And keep her at my cell till Romeo come: 28
Poor living corse, clos'd in a dead man's tomb!
Exit.
Scene Three
[A Churchyard; in it a tomb belonging to the Capulets]
Enter Paris and his Page with flowers and sweet water.
Par. 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 thine ear close to the hollow ground: 4
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. 9
Page. [Aside.] I am almost afraid to stand alone
Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure.
Exit.
Par. Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew, 12
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 16
Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.
Whistle Boy.
The boy gives warning something doth approach.
What cursed foot wanders this way to-night,
To cross my obsequies and true love's rite? 20
What! with a torch?—muffle me, night, awhile.
[Retires.]
Enter Romeo and Balthasar his man, with a torch, a mattock, and a crow of iron.
Rom. 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. 24
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, 28
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 33
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. 36
The time and my intents are savage-wild,
More fierce and more inexorable far
Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.
Bal. I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you. 40
Rom. So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that:
Live, and be prosperous; and farewell, good fellow.
Bal. [Aside.] For all this same, I'll hide me here about:
His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. 44
[Retires.]
Rom. Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
Gorg'd with the dearest morsel of the earth,
Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
Opens the tomb.
And, in despite, I'll cram thee with more food!
Par. This is that banish'd haughty Montague, 49
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 52
To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him.—
[Comes forward.]
Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague,
Can vengeance be pursu'd further than death?
Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee: 56
Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.
Rom. I 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. 64
For I come hither arm'd against myself:
Stay not, be gone; live, and hereafter say
A madman's mercy bade thee run away.
Par. I do defy thy conjurations, 68
And apprehend thee for a felon here.
Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy!
They fight.
Page. O Lord! they fight: I will go call the watch.
[Exit.]
Par. [Falls.] O, I am slain!—If thou be merciful, 72
Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. [Dies.]
Rom. In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face:
Mercutio's kinsman, noble County Paris!
What said my man when my betossed soul 76
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, 80
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 85
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 88
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: 93
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. 96
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? 100
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 104
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 108
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! 112
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 117
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. 120
Falls.
Enter, [at the other end of the Churchyard,] Friar, with lantern, crow, and spade.
Fri. L. Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night
Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who's there?
Bal. Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well.
Fri. L. Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend, 124
What torch is yond, that vainly lends his light
To grubs and eyeless skulls? as I discern,
It burneth in the Capel's monument.
Bal. It doth so, holy sir; and there's my master, 128
One that you love.
Fri. L. Who is it?
Bal. Romeo.
Fri. L. How long hath he been there?
Bal. Full half an hour.
Fri. L. Go with me to the vault.
Bal. I dare not, sir.
My master knows not but I am gone hence; 132
And fearfully did menace me with death
If I did stay to look on his intents.
Fri. L. Stay then, I'll go alone. Fear comes upon me;
O! much I fear some ill unlucky thing. 136
Bal. As I did sleep under this yew-tree here,
I dreamt my master and another fought,
And that my master slew him.
Fri. L. [Advances.] Romeo!
Alack, alack, what blood is this which stains 140
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 145
Is guilty of this lamentable chance.
The lady stirs. Juliet rises.
Jul. O, comfortable friar! where is my lord?
I do remember well where I should be, 149
And there I am. Where is my Romeo?
[Noise within.]
Fri. L. I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest
Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep: 152
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 156
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.
Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.
Exit [Friar Laurence.]
What's here? a cup, clos'd in my true love's hand? 161
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; 164
Haply, some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make me die with a restorative. [Kisses him.]
Thy lips are warm!
First 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. 170
Falls [on Romeo's body and dies.]
Enter Boy and Watch.
Page. This is the place; there where the torch doth burn.
First Watch. The ground is bloody; search about the churchyard. 172
Go, some of you; whoe'er you find, attach.
[Exeunt some of the Watch.]
Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain,
And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead,
Who here hath lain these two days buried. 176
Go, tell the prince, run to the Capulets,
Raise up the Montagues, some others search:
[Exeunt others of the Watch.]
We see the ground whereon these woes do lie;
But the true ground of all these piteous woes
We cannot without circumstance descry. 181
Enter one with Romeo's man.
Sec. Watch. Here's Romeo's man; we found him in the churchyard.
First Watch. Hold him in safety, till the prince come hither.
Enter Friar and another Watchman.
Third Watch. Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs, and weeps; 184
We took this mattock and this spade from him,
As he was coming from this churchyard side.
First Watch. A great suspicion: stay the friar too. 187
Enter Prince with others.
Prince. What misadventure is so early up,
That calls our person from our morning's rest?
Enter Capulet and his Wife.
Cap. What should it be, that they so shriek abroad?
Lady Cap. The people in the street cry Romeo,
Some Juliet, and some Paris; and all run 192
With open outcry toward our monument.
Prince. What fear is this which startles in your ears?
First Watch. Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain;
And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before, 196
Warm and new kill'd.
Prince. Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.
First Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's man;
With instruments upon them, fit to open 200
These dead men's tombs.
Cap. O, heaven!—O wife! look how our daughter bleeds!
This dagger hath mista'en!—for, lo, his house
Is empty on the back of Montague— 204
And is mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom.
Lady Cap. O me! this sight of death is as a bell,
That warns my old age to a sepulchre.
Enter Montague.
Prince. Come, Montague: for thou art early up, 208
To see thy son and heir more early down.
Mon. Alas! 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? 212
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, 216
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, 220
And let mischance be slave to patience.
Bring forth the parties of suspicion.
Fri. L. I am the greatest, able to do least,
Yet most suspected, as the time and place 224
Doth make against me, of this direful murder;
And here I stand, both to impeach and purge
Myself condemned and myself excus'd.
Prince. Then say at once what thou dost know in this. 228
Fri. L. 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 marriage-day
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. 236
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, 241
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 244
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, 248
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, 252
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: 256
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, 260
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. 264
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, 268
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 to this?
Bal. I brought my master news of Juliet's death; 272
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, 276
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, 281
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; 184
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 288
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, 292
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 hand: 296
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, 300
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! 304
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 punished:
For never was a story of more woe 309
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. Exeunt omnes.
FINIS.
Footnotes to Act V
Scene One
1 flattering truth; cf. n.
3 bosom's lord: heart
11 shadows: phantoms
21 took post: started on a post-horse
28 import: indicate
39 weeds: garments
overwhelming: overhanging
40 simples: medicinal herbs
45 beggarly account, etc.; cf. n.
47 cakes of roses: solid perfume from rose-petals
52 caitiff: miserable
59 ducats: coins each worth not quite a dollar
60 gear: stuff
63 trunk: body
67 utters: gives out
Scene Two
6 associate: accompany
8 searchers: health officers
12 stay'd: stopped
18 charge: importance
21 crow: crowbar
25 beshrew: blame
Scene Three
Scene Three S. d. sweet: perfumed
3 all along: at full length
20 cross: thwart
21 muffle: hide
33 jealous: mistrustful
44 doubt: suspect
48 despite: defiance
53 apprehend: arrest
68 conjurations: earnest entreaties
74 peruse: survey
76 betossed: troubled
84 lantern: a windowed turret, as often over the center of large churches
86 presence: presence-chamber, great room of state
89 keepers: sick-nurses
90 lightning: exhilaration
108 Depart again; cf. n.
110 rest; cf. n.
115 dateless: everlasting
engrossing: monopolizing
121 speed: protector
122 stumbled; cf. n.
148 comfortable: affording comfort
162 timeless: untimely
165 Haply: perhaps
173 attach: arrest
180 ground: reason
203 house: scabbard
207 warns: summons
216 outrage: violent language
221 Cf. n.
222 of: under
226 purge: free from suspicion
247 as this: this
253 prefixed: previously fixed
255 closely: secretly
273 post: haste
305 glooming: dark