A Churchyard, in it a Monument belonging to the Capulets.
 Enter PARIS and his PAGE, with flowers and sweet water.

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 hear'st something approach.
	Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee; go.

Page	[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 distilled by moans.
	The obsequies that I for thee will keep
	Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.
											[PAGE whistles.
	The boy gives warning something doth approach.
	What cursd foot wanders this way tonight
	To cross my obsequies and true love's rite?
	What, with a torch? Muffle me, night, awhile.
											[PARIS 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,
	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.

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

Romeo	So shalt thou show me friendship.
							[Giving money.] 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,
	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.

Paris	This is that banished haughty Montague
	That murdered my love's cousin - with which grief
	It is supposd the fair creature died-
	And here is come to do some villainous shame
	To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him.
	[Advancing and drawing.]
	Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague!
	Can vengeance be pursued further than death?
	Condemnd 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 armed 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	O Lord, they fight! I will go call the Watch.
											[Exit.
Paris	[Falls.] O, I am slain! 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 betossd 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, slaughtered 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 interred.
											[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 sucked the honey of thy breath
	Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.
	Thou art not conquered; beauty's ensign yet
	Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
	And death's pale flag is not advancd 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 abhorrd 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, unsavoury guide,
	Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
	The dashing rocks thy seasick weary bark!
	Here's to my love!
											[Drinks.
							O true apothecary,
	Thy drugs are quick! Thus with a kiss I die.
											[Kisses Juliet and dies.

           Enter FRIAR LAURENCE with lantern, crow, and spade.

Friar
Laurence	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
Laurence	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
Laurence					Who is it?

Balthasar									Romeo.

Friar
Laurence	How long hath he been there?

Balthasar									Full half an hour.

Friar
Laurence	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
Laurence	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
Laurence									Romeo!
	Alack, alack, what blood is this which stains
	The stony entrance of this sepulchre?
	What mean these masterless and gory swords
	To lie discoloured by this place of peace?
											[Enters the tomb.
	Romeo! O, pale! Who else? What, Paris too?
	And steeped in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour
	Is guilty of this lamentable chance!
	The lady stirs.
											[JULIET wakes.
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
Laurence	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; I dare no longer stay.

Juliet	Go, 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 me die with a restorative.
											[Kisses him.
	Thy lips are warm.

1st Watchman	[Within.] Lead, boy. Which way?

Juliet	Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief.
		[Snatching Romeo's dagger.] O happy dagger.
	This is thy sheath.
											[Stabs herself.
						There rust, and let me die.
											[Falls across ROMEO.

                     Enter Paris's PAGE and WATCHMEN.

Page	This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn.

1st Watchman	The ground is bloody; search about the churchyard.
	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 this two days burid.
	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.

                Re-enter several WATCHMEN with BALTHASAR.

2nd Watchman	Here's Romeo's man. We found him in the churchyard.

1st Watchman	Hold him in safety till the prince come hither.

               Re-enter other WATCHMEN with FRIAR LAURENCE.

3rd Watchman	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's side.

1st Watchman	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 rest?

                Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and SERVANTS.

Capulet	What should it be that is so shrieked abroad?

Lady Capulet	O, 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?

1st Watchman	Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain,
	And Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before,
	Warm and new killed.

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

1st Watchman	Here is a friar, and slaughtered Romeo's man,
	With instruments upon them fit to open
	These dead men's tombs.

Capulet	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 missheathd in my daughter's bosom.

Lady Capulet	O me! This sight of death is as a bell
	That warns my old age to a sepulchre.

                       Enter MONTAGUE and SERVANTS.

Prince	Come, Montague, for thou art early up
	To see thy son and heir more early down.

Montague	Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight;
	Grief of my son's exile hath stopped her breath.
	What further woe conspires against mine age?

Prince	Look, and thou shalt see.

Montague	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 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.

Friar
Laurence	I 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 condemnd and myself excused.

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

Friar
Laurence	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 stol'n marriage day
	Was Tybalt's doomsday, whose untimely death
	Banished the new-made bridegroom from this city;
	For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.
	You, to remove that siege of grief from her,
	Betrothed 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 tutored 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 borrowed grave,
	Being the time the potion's force should cease.
	But he which bore my letter, Friar John,
	Was stayed by accident, and yesternight
	Returned my letter back. Then all alone
	At the prefixd 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 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.
	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.

Prince	We still have known thee for a holy man.
	Where's Romeo's man? What can he say to this?

Balthasar	I 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 threatened 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 raised 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 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 punished.

Capulet	O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
	This is my daughter's jointure, for no more
	Can I demand.

Montague						But I can give thee more,
	For I will raise her statue in pure gold,
	That whiles Verona by that name is known,
	There shall no figure at such rate be set
	As that of true and faithful Juliet.

Capulet	As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's 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 pardoned, and some punishd;
	For never was a story of more woe
	Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
											[Exeunt.
