And steeped in blood! Ah, what an unkind hour [JULIET wakes, and stirs. Jul. 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. 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; Stay not to question, for the watch is coming; [Exit. Haply, some poison yet doth hang on them, 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: 1 Thus the quarto of 1599. That of 1597 reads: Go, some of you, whoe'er you find, attach. [Exeunt some. Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain; We see the ground whereon these woes do lie; 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, 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, Prince. Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes. 1 Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughtered 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 And is missheathed in my daughter's bosom.1 Enter MONTAGUE and others. Prince. Come, Montague; for thou art early up, 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 stopped 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 can clear these ambiguities, And know their spring, their head, their true descent; And lead you even to death. Mean time forbear, Bring forth the parties of suspicion. Fri. I am the greatest, able to do least, Yet most suspected, as the time and place 1 The words, "for lo! his house is empty on the back of Montague," are to be considered parenthetical. It appears that the dagger was anciently worn behind the back. 2 After this line, the quarto of 1597 adds:— "And young Benvolio is deceased too." Doth make against me, of this direful murder; Prince. Then say at once what thou dost know in this. Fri. I will be brief, for my short date of breath Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet; Or in my cell there would she kill herself. The form of death; meantime I writ to Romeo, But (as it seems) did violence on herself. Prince. We still have known thee for a holy man. Where's Romeo's man? what can he say in this? Bal. 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 bade 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 bade 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.- That Heaven finds means to kill your joys with love! Have lost a brace of kinsmen';-all are punished. 1 Mercutio and Paris. Mercutio is expressly called the prince's kinsman in Act iii. Sc. 4; and that Paris was also the prince's kinsman, may be inferred from the following passages:-Capulet, speaking of the count, in the fourth act, describes him as "a gentleman of princely parentage; " and after he is killed, Romeo sayɛ:— 66 Let me peruse this face; Mercutio's kinsman, noble county Paris." |