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Romeo and Juliet (Folio 1, 1623)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Roger Apfelbaum
Not Peer Reviewed
76
The Tragedie of Romeo and Iuliet.
Thy drugs are quicke. Thus with a kisse I die.
Enter Frier with Lanthorne, Crow, and Spade.
Fri. St. Francis be my speed, how oft to night
2980Haue my old feet stumbled at graues? Who's there?
Man. Here's one, a Friend, & one that knowes you well.
Fri. Blisse be vpon you. Tell me good my Friend
What Torch is yond that vainely lends his light
To grubs, and eyelesse Sculles? As I discerne,
2985It burneth in the Capels Monument.
Man. It doth so holy sir,
And there's my Master, one that you loue.
Fri. Who is it?
Man. Romeo.
2990Fri. How long hath he bin there?
Man. Full halfe an houre.
Fri. Go with me to the Vault.
Man. I dare not Sir.
My Master knowes not but I am gone hence,
2995And fearefully did menace me with death,
If I did stay to looke on his entents.
Fri. Stay, then Ile go alone, feares comes vpon me.
O much I feare some ill vnluckie thing.
Man. As I did sleepe vnder this young tree here,
3000I dreamt my maister and another fought,
And that my Maister slew him.
Fri. Romeo.
Alacke, alacke, what blood is this which staines
The stony entrance of this Sepulcher?
3005What meane these Masterlesse, and goarie Swords
To lie discolour'd by this place of peace?
Romeo, oh pale: who else? what Paris too?
And steept in blood? Ah what an vn knd houre
Is guiltie of this lamentable chance?
3010The Lady stirs.
Iul. O comfortable Frier, where's my Lord?
I do remember well where I should be:
And there I am, where is my Romeo?
Fri. I heare some noyse Lady, come from that nest
3015Of death, contagion, and vnnaturall sleepe,
A greater power then we can contradict
Hath thwarted our entents, come, come away,
Thy husband in thy bosome there lies dead:
And Paris too: come Ile dispose of thee,
3020Among a Sisterhood of holy Nunnes:
Stay not to question, for the watch is comming.
Come, go good Iuliet, I dare no longer stay.
Exit.
Iul. Go get thee hence, for I will notuaway,
What's here? A cup clos'd in my true lo:es hand?
3025Poyson I see hath bin his timelesse end
O churle, drinke all? and left no friendly drop,
To helpe me after, I will kisse thy lips,
Happlie some poyson yet doth hang on them,
To make me die wth a restoratiue.
3030Thy lips are warme.
Enter Boy and Watch.
Watch. Lead Boy, which way?
Iul. Yea noise?
Then ile be briefe. O happy Dagger.
3035'Tis in thy sheath, there rust and let me die.
Kils herselfe.
Boy. This is the place,
There where the Torch doth burne
Watch. The ground is bloody,
Search about the Churchyard.
3040Go some of you, who ere you find attach.
Pittifull sight, here lies the Countie slaine,
And Iuliett bleeding, warme and newly dead
Who here hath laine these two dayes buried.
Go tell the Prince, runne to the Capulets,
3045Raise vp the Mountagues, some others search,
We see the ground whereon these woes do lye,
But the true ground of all these piteous woes,
We cannot without circumstance descry.
Enter Romeo's man.
3050Watch. Here's Romeo'r man,
We found him in the Churchyard.
Con. Hold him in safety, till the Prince come hither.
Enter Frier, and another Watchman.
3. Wat. Here is a Frier that trembles, sighes, and weepes
3055We tooke this Mattocke and this Spade from him,
As he was comming from this Church-yard side.
Con. A great suspition, stay the Frier too.
Enter the Prince.
Prin. What misaduenture is so earely vp,
3060That calls our person from our mornings rest?

Enter Capulet and his Wife.
Cap. What should it be that they so shrike abroad?
Wife. O the people in the streete crie Romeo.
Some Iuliet, and some Paris, and all runne
3065With open outcry toward out Monument.
Pri. What feare is this which startles in your eares?
Wat. Soueraigne, here lies the Countie Paris slaine,
And Romeo dead, and Iuliet dead before,
Warme and new kil'd.
3070Prin. Search,
Seeke, and know how, this foule murder comes.
Wat. Here is a Frier, and Slaughter'd Romeos man,
With Instruments vpon them fit to open
These dead mens Tombes.
3075Cap. O heauen!
O wife looke how our Daughter bleedes!
This Dagger hath mistaine, for loe his house
Is empty on the backe of Mountague,
And is misheathed in my Daughters bosome.
3080Wife. O me, this sight of death, is as a Bell
That warnes my old age to a Sepulcher.
Enter Mountague.
Pri. Come Mountague, for thou art early vp
To see thy Sonne and Heire, now early downe.
3085Moun. Alas my liege, my wife is dead to night,
Griefe of my Sonnes exile hath stopt her breath:
What further woe conspires against my age?
Prin. Looke: and thou shalt see.
Moun. O thou vntaught, what manners in is this,
3090To presse before thy Father to a graue?
Prin. Seale vp the mouth of outrage for a while,
Till we can cleare these ambiguities,
And know their spring, their head, their true descent,
And then will I be generall of your woes,
3095And lead you euen to death? meane time forbeare,
And let mischance be slaue to patience,
Bring forth the parties of suspition.
Fri. I am the greatest, able to doe least,
Yet most suspected as the time and place
3100Doth make against me of this direfull murther:
And heere I stand both to impeach and purge
My selfe condemned, and my selfe excus'd.
Prin. Then say at once, what thou dost know in this?
Fri. I will be briefe, for my short date of breath
3105Is not so long as is a tedious tale.
Romeo there dead, was husband to that Iuliet,
And she there dead, that's Romeos faithfull wife:
I