Than empty tigers, or the roaring sea. Bal. I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you. Rom. So shalt thou show me friendship.-Take thou that : Live, and be prosperous; and farewell, good fellow. Bal. For all this same, I'll hide me hereabout; His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. [Retires Rom. Thou détestable maw, thou womb of death, Gorg'd with the dearest morsel of the earth, Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open, [Breaking open the door of the Monumeni And, in despite, I'll cram thee with more food! And here is come to do some villanous shame To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him.- [Advances Obey, and go with me, for thou must die. Rom. I must, indeed; and therefore came I hither.- By urging me to fury :-O, be gone! Stay not, be gone ;-live, and hereafter say— And do attach thee as 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. O, I am slain! [Falls.]—If thou be merciful, Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. [Dies Rom. In faith, I will :-Let me peruse this face ; Mercutio's kinsman, noble county Paris :- One writ with me in sour misfortune's book! [Laying PARIS in the Monument. 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 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 abhorred monster keeps Thee here in dark to be his paramour ? For fear of that, I will still 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 [Dies. Enter, at the other end of the Churchyard, Friar LAURENCE, with a lantern, crow, and spade. Fri. Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night [] A presence means a public room, which is at times the presence-chamber of the sovereign M. MASON. Have my old feet stumbled at graves ?-Who's there? Bal. Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well To grubs and eyeless sculls? as I discern, It burneth in the Capels' monument. Bal. It doth so, holy sir; and there's my master, One that you love. Fri. Who is it? Fri. How long hath he been there? Bal. Full half an hour. Fri. Go with me to the vault. Bal. 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. Fri. Stay then, I'll go alone :-Fear comes upon me ; O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing. Bal. As I did sleep under this yew-tree here, I dreamt my master and another fought, Fri. Romeo ? Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains [Advances. [Enters the Monument. [JULIET wakes and stirs. And there I am :-Where is my Romeo? [Noise within. [2] This accident was reckoned ominous. So in King Henry VI. part 3: "For many men that stumble at the threshold, Again, in Richard III. Hastings, going to execution, says; STEEVENS. "Three times to-day my footcloth horse did stumble." [3] This is one of the touches of nature that would have escaped the hand of any painter less attentive to it than Shakespeare. What happens to a person while he is under the manifest influence of fear, will seem to him, when he is recovered from it, like a dream. Homer, Book 8th, represents Rhesus dying fast asleep, and as it were beholding his enemy in a dream plunging a sword into his bosom. Eustathius and Dacier both applaud this image as very natural; for a man in such a condition, says Mr. Pope, awakes no further than to see confusedly what environs him, and to think it not a reality but a vision. STEEVENS. 1 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; And Paris too; come, I'll dispose of thee Stay not to question, for the watch is coming; Come, go, good Juliet,-[Noise again.] I dare stay no longer. [Exit. Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.- Thy lips are warm! [Kisses him. 1 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 [Falls on ROMEO's body, and dies. die. Page. This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn. 1 Watch. The ground is bloody; Search about the churchyard: [Exe. some. Go, some of you, whoe'er you find, attach. [Exe. other Watchmen We see the ground whereon these woes do lie; Enter some of the Watch, with BALTHASAR. 2 Watch. Here's Romeo's man, we found him in the 1 Watch. Hold him in safety, till the prince come hither We took this mattock and this spade from him, 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, Warm and new kill'd. [comes Prince. Search, seek, and know how this foul murder 1 Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's man ; With instruments upon them, fit to open These dead men's tombs. [bleeds! And is mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom. 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 stopp'd 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, |