That calls our perfon from our morning's reft?
Enter Capulet and Lady Capulet.

Cap. What should it be that they fo fhriek abroad?
La. Cap. The people in the ftreet cry Romeo,
Some Juliet, and fome Paris; and all run
With open out-cry tow'rd our monument.

Prince. What fear is this which ftartles in your ears? Watch. Sovereign, here lyes the County Paris flain, And Romeo dead, and Julie: (dead before)

Warm and new kill'd.

Prince. Search, feek, and know how this foul murther

comes.

Watch. Here is a Friar, and flaughter'd Romeo's man, With inftruments upon them, fit to open

Thefe dead mens tombs.

Cap. Oh heav'n! oh wife, look how our daughter bleeds!
This dagger hath mifta'en, for lo the fheath
Lyes empty on the back of Mountague,

The point mif-fheathed in my daughter's bofom.
La. Cap. Oh me, this fight of death is as a bell,
That warns my old age to a fepulchre.

Enter Mountague.

Prince. Come, Mountague, for thou art early up,
To fee thy fon and heir now early fallen.

Moun. Alas, my Liege, my wife is dead to-night,
Grief of my fon's exile hath stop'd her breath:
What further woe confpires against my age?
Prince. Look, and thou fhalt fee.

Moun. O thou untaught, what manners is in this,
To prefs before thy father to a grave?

Prince. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while, "Till we can clear thefe ambiguities,

And know their fpring, their head, their true defcent
And then will I be General of your woes,

And lead you ev'n to death. Mean time forbear,
And let mifchance be flave to patience.
Bring forth the parties of fufpicion.

Fri. I am the greateft, able to do leaft,
Yet most suspected, as the time and place

Do make against me, of this direful murther s
And here I ftand both to impeach and purge
My felf condemned, and my felf excus'd.

Prince. Then fay at once what thou dost know in this,
Fri. I will be brief, for my fhort date of breath
Is not fo long as is a tedious tale.

Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet;
And the there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife:
I married them; and their stol'n marriage-day
Was Tybalt's dooms-day, whofe untimely death
Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city,
For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin'd.
You to remove that fiege of grief from her,
Betroth'd, and would have married her perforce
To County Paris. Then comes fhe to me,
And, with wild looks, bid me devife fome means
To rid her from this fecond marriage,

Or in my cell there would the kill her felf.
Then gave I her (fo tutor'd by my art)
A fleeping potion, which fo took effect
As I intended, for it wrought on her

The form of death. Mean time I write 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 ftaid by accident, and yefternight
Return'd my letter back; then all alone,
At the prefixed hour of her awaking,
Came I to take her from her kindred's vault;
Meaning to keep her closely at my cell,
'Till I conveniently could fend to Romeo.
But when I came (fome minutes ere the time
Of her awaking) here untimely lay
The noble Paris, and true Romeo dead.
She wakes, and I intreat her to come forth,
And bear this work of heav'n with patience :
But then a noife did fcare me from the tomb,
And he too defp'rate would not go with me,

2

(But,

But, as it feems, did violence on her felfr
All this I know, and to the marriages Fudg
Her nurse is privy.: but if ought in this
Mifcarried by my faulty let my old life

Be facrific'd, fome hour before its time, d
Unto the rigour of feverest law

Prince. We fill have known thee for an holy man.
Where's Romeo's man? what can he fay to this?

Bal. I brought my master news of Juliet's death,
And then in poft he came from Mantua
To this fame place, to this fame monument.
This letter he early bid me give his father,
And threatned me with death, going to 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 ftrew his Lady's grave,
And bid me stand aloof, and fo I did ::

Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb,
And by and by my mafter drew on him,
And then I ran away to call the Watch..

Prince. This letter doth make good the Friar's words,
Their courfe 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 lye with Juliet.
Where be these enemies? Capulet Mountague!
See what a fcourge is laid upon your hate,

That heav'n finds means to kill your joys with love!
And I, for winking at your difcords too,>

Have loft a brace of kinfmen: all are punish'd!

Cap. O brother Mountague, give me thy hand,A NAŠĨ This is my daughter's jointure; for no more

Can I demand.

Moun. But I can give thee more,
For I will raife her ftatue in pure gold,
That while Verona by that name is known,

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There fhall no figure at that rate be fet,
As that of true and faithful Juliet.

Cap. As rich fhall Romeo by his lady lye ;
Poor facrifices of our enmity!

Prince. A gloomy peace this morning with it brings,
The fun for forrow will not fhew his head;

Go hence to have more talk of the things

Some fhall pardon'd, and

For never was a ftory of more woe,
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

punished.

[Exeunt omnes,