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Romeo and Juliet: Act V, Scene 3

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Romeo and Juliet
Act V, Scene 3

A churchyard; before a tomb belonging to the Capulets.

Songs from the Plays of Shakespeare

From: Songs from the Plays of Shakespeare

Ballantyne, Hanson and Co.; Paul Woodroffe; P. A. Sanderson; Gloria Cardew; 1899

  1. Enter Paris and his Page with flowers and sweet water and a
  2. torch.

Paris

1 - 9
  1. Give me thy torch, boy. Hence, and stand aloof.
  2. Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.
  3. Under yond yew trees lay thee all along,
  4. Holding thy ear close to the hollow ground,
  5. So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread,
  6. Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,
  7. But thou shalt hear it. Whistle then to me
  8. As signal that thou hearest something approach.
  9. Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go.

Page to Paris

10 - 11
  1. Aside.
  2. I am almost afraid to stand alone
  3. Here in the churchyard, yet I will adventure.
  1. Retires. Paris strews the tomb with flowers.

Paris

12 - 21
  1. Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew—
  2. O woe, thy canopy is dust and stones!—
  3. Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,
  4. Or wanting that, with tears distill’d by moans.
  5. The obsequies that I for thee will keep
  6. Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.
  7. Whistle Boy.
  8. The boy gives warning, something doth approach.
  9. What cursed foot wanders this way tonight,
  10. To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite?
  11. What, with a torch? Muffle me, night, a while.
  1. Retires.
  1. Enter Romeo and Balthasar with a torch, a mattock, and a
  2. crow of iron.

Romeo

22 - 39
  1. Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron.
  2. Hold, take this letter; early in the morning
  3. See thou deliver it to my lord and father.
  4. Give me the light. Upon thy life I charge thee,
  5. What e’er thou hearest or seest, stand all aloof,
  6. And do not interrupt me in my course.
  7. Why I descend into this bed of death
  8. Is partly to behold my lady’s face,
  9. But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger
  10. A precious ring—a ring that I must use
  11. In dear employment—therefore hence be gone.
  12. But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry
  13. In what I farther shall intend to do,
  14. By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,
  15. And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs.
  16. The time and my intents are savage-wild,
  17. More fierce and more inexorable far
  18. Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.

Balthasar

40
  1. I will be gone, sir, and not trouble ye.

Romeo

41 - 42
  1. So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that;
  2. Live and be prosperous, and farewell, good fellow.

Balthasar

43 - 44
  1. Aside.
  2. For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout,
  3. His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.
  1. Retires.

Romeo

45 - 48
  1. Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
  2. Gorg’d with the dearest morsel of the earth,
  3. Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
  4. And in despite I’ll cram thee with more food.
  1. Romeo begins to open the tomb.

Paris

49 - 57
  1. This is that banish’d haughty Montague,
  2. That murd’red my love’s cousin, with which grief
  3. It is supposed the fair creature died,
  4. And here is come to do some villainous shame
  5. To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him.
  6. Steps forth.
  7. Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague!
  8. Can vengeance be pursued further than death?
  9. Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee.
  10. Obey and go with me, for thou must die.

Romeo

58 - 67
  1. I must indeed, and therefore came I hither.
  2. Good gentle youth, tempt not a desp’rate man.
  3. Fly hence and leave me, think upon these gone,
  4. Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,
  5. Put not another sin upon my head,
  6. By urging me to fury: O, be gone!
  7. By heaven, I love thee better than myself,
  8. For I come hither arm’d against myself.
  9. Stay not, be gone; live, and hereafter say
  10. A madman’s mercy bid thee run away.

Paris

68 - 69
  1. I do defy thy conjuration,
  2. And apprehend thee for a felon here.

Romeo

70
  1. Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!
  1. They fight.

Page to Paris

71
  1. O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch.
  1. Exit.

Paris

72 - 74
  1. O, I am slain!
  2. Falls.
  3.                If thou be merciful,
  4. Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.
  1. Dies.

Romeo

75 - 122
  1. In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face.
  2. Mercutio’s kinsman, noble County Paris!
  3. What said my man, when my betossed soul
  4. Did not attend him as we rode? I think
  5. He told me Paris should have married Juliet.
  6. Said he not so? Or did I dream it so?
  7. Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet,
  8. To think it was so? O, give me thy hand,
  9. One writ with me in sour misfortune’s book!
  10. I’ll bury thee in a triumphant grave.
  11. A grave? O no, a lantern, slaught’red youth;
  12. For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
  13. This vault a feasting presence full of light.
  14. Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr’d.
  15. Laying Paris in the tomb.
  16. How oft when men are at the point of death
  17. Have they been merry, which their keepers call
  18. A lightning before death! O how may I
  19. Call this a lightning? O my love, my wife,
  20. Death, that hath suck’d the honey of thy breath,
  21. Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
  22. Thou art not conquer’d, beauty’s ensign yet
  23. Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
  24. And death’s pale flag is not advanced there.
  25. Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
  26. O, what more favor can I do to thee,
  27. Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
  28. To sunder his that was thine enemy?
  29. Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,
  30. Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe
  31. That unsubstantial Death is amorous,
  32. And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
  33. Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
  34. For fear of that, I still will stay with thee,
  35. And never from this palace of dim night
  36. Depart again. Here, here will I remain
  37. With worms that are thy chambermaids; O, here
  38. Will I set up my everlasting rest,
  39. And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
  40. From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
  41. Arms, take your last embrace! And, lips, O you
  42. The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
  43. A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
  44. Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavory guide!
  45. Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
  46. The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
  47. Here’s to my love!
  48. Drinks.
  49.                    O true apothecary!
  50. Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
  1. Dies.
  1. Enter Friar Lawrence with lantern, crow, and spade.

Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief.

Joseph Wright, circa 1790

Friar Lawrence

123 - 124
  1. Saint Francis be my speed! How oft tonight
  2. Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who’s there?

Balthasar

125
  1. Here’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well.

Friar Lawrence

126 - 129
  1. Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend,
  2. What torch is yond, that vainly lends his light
  3. To grubs and eyeless skulls? As I discern,
  4. It burneth in the Capels’ monument.

Balthasar

130 - 131
  1. It doth so, holy sir, and there’s my master,
  2. One that you love.

Friar Lawrence

132
  1.                    Who is it?

Balthasar

133
  1.            Romeo.

Friar Lawrence

134
  1. How long hath he been there?

Balthasar

135
  1.                              Full half an hour.

Friar Lawrence

136
  1. Go with me to the vault.

Balthasar

137 - 140
  1.                          I dare not, sir.
  2. My master knows not but I am gone hence,
  3. And fearfully did menace me with death
  4. If I did stay to look on his intents.

Friar Lawrence

141 - 142
  1. Stay then, I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me.
  2. O, much I fear some ill unthrifty thing.

Balthasar

143 - 145
  1. As I did sleep under this yew tree here,
  2. I dreamt my master and another fought,
  3. And that my master slew him.
  1. Exit.

Friar Lawrence

146 - 154
  1.                              Romeo!
  2. Friar stoops and looks on the blood and weapons.
  3. Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains
  4. The stony entrance of this sepulchre?
  5. What mean these masterless and gory swords
  6. To lie discolor’d by this place of peace?
  7. Enters the tomb.
  8. Romeo, O, pale! Who else? What, Paris too?
  9. And steep’d in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour
  10. Is guilty of this lamentable chance!
  11. The lady stirs.
  1. Juliet rises.

Juliet

155 - 157
  1. O comfortable friar! Where is my lord?
  2. I do remember well where I should be,
  3. And there I am. Where is my Romeo?
  1. Noise within.

Friar Lawrence

158 - 167
  1. I hear some noise, lady. Come from that nest
  2. Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep.
  3. A greater power than we can contradict
  4. Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.
  5. Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead;
  6. And Paris too. Come, I’ll dispose of thee
  7. Among a sisterhood of holy nuns.
  8. Stay not to question, for the watch is coming.
  9. Come go, good Juliet,
  10. Noise again.
  11.                       I dare no longer stay.
  1. Exit.

Juliet

168 - 175
  1. Go get thee hence, for I will not away.
  2. What’s here? A cup clos’d in my true love’s hand?
  3. Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end.
  4. O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop
  5. To help me after? I will kiss thy lips,
  6. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
  7. To make me die with a restorative.
  8. Thy lips are warm.

First Watchman

176
  1. Within.
  2.                    Lead, boy, which way?

Juliet

177 - 179
  1. Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger,
  2. Taking Romeo’s dagger.
  3. This is thy sheath;
  4. Stabs herself.
  5.                     there rust, and let me die.
  1. Falls on Romeo’s body and dies.
  1. Enter Paris’ Page and Watch.
Costume design for Capulet

Costume design for Capulet

Percy Anderson, circa 1900

Page to Paris

180
  1. This is the place, there where the torch doth burn.

First Watchman

181 - 190
  1. The ground is bloody, search about the churchyard.
  2. Go, some of you, whoe’er you find attach.
  3. Exeunt some.
  4. Pitiful sight! Here lies the County slain,
  5. And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead,
  6. Who here hath lain this two days buried.
  7. Go tell the Prince, run to the Capulets,
  8. Raise up the Montagues; some others search.
  9. Exeunt others.
  10. We see the ground whereon these woes do lie,
  11. But the true ground of all these piteous woes
  12. We cannot without circumstance descry.
  1. Enter some of the Watch with Romeo’s man, Balthasar.

Second Watchman

191
  1. Here’s Romeo’s man, we found him in the churchyard.

First Watchman

192
  1. Hold him in safety till the Prince come hither.
  1. Enter Friar Lawrence and another Watchman.

Third Watchman

193 - 195
  1. Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs, and weeps.
  2. We took this mattock and this spade from him,
  3. As he was coming from this churchyard’s side.

First Watchman

196
  1. A great suspicion. Stay the friar too.
  1. Enter the Prince and Attendants.

Prince

197 - 198
  1. What misadventure is so early up,
  2. That calls our person from our morning rest?
  1. Enter Capels (Capulet, Lady Capulet, and others).

Capulet

199
  1. What should it be that is so shrik’d abroad?

Lady Capulet

200 - 202
  1. O, the people in the street cry “Romeo,”
  2. Some “Juliet,” and some “Paris,” and all run
  3. With open outcry toward our monument.

Prince

203
  1. What fear is this which startles in your ears?

First Watchman

204 - 206
  1. Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain,
  2. And Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before,
  3. Warm and new kill’d.

Prince

207
  1. Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.

First Watchman

208 - 210
  1. Here is a friar, and slaughter’d Romeo’s man,
  2. With instruments upon them, fit to open
  3. These dead men’s tombs.

Capulet

211 - 214
  1. O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!
  2. This dagger hath mista’en, for lo his house
  3. Is empty on the back of Montague,
  4. And it mis-sheathed in my daughter’s bosom!

Lady Capulet

215 - 216
  1. O me, this sight of death is as a bell
  2. That warns my old age to a sepulchre.
  1. Enter Montague and others.

Prince

217 - 218
  1. Come, Montague, for thou art early up
  2. To see thy son and heir now early down.

Montague

219 - 221
  1. Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight;
  2. Grief of my son’s exile hath stopp’d her breath.
  3. What further woe conspires against mine age?

Prince

222
  1. Look and thou shalt see.

Montague

223 - 224
  1. O thou untaught! What manners is in this,
  2. To press before thy father to a grave?

Prince

225 - 231
  1. Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while,
  2. Till we can clear these ambiguities,
  3. And know their spring, their head, their true descent,
  4. And then will I be general of your woes,
  5. And lead you even to death. Mean time forbear,
  6. And let mischance be slave to patience.
  7. Bring forth the parties of suspicion.

Friar Lawrence

232 - 236
  1. I am the greatest, able to do least,
  2. Yet most suspected, as the time and place
  3. Doth make against me, of this direful murder;
  4. And here I stand both to impeach and purge
  5. Myself condemned and myself excus’d.

Prince

237
  1. Then say at once what thou dost know in this.

Friar Lawrence

238 - 278
  1. I will be brief, for my short date of breath
  2. Is not so long as is a tedious tale.
  3. Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet,
  4. And she, there dead, that Romeo’s faithful wife.
  5. I married them, and their stol’n marriage-day
  6. Was Tybalt’s dooms-day, whose untimely death
  7. Banish’d the new-made bridegroom from this city,
  8. For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin’d.
  9. You, to remove that siege of grief from her,
  10. Betroth’d and would have married her perforce
  11. To County Paris. Then comes she to me,
  12. And with wild looks bid me devise some mean
  13. To rid her from this second marriage,
  14. Or in my cell there would she kill herself.
  15. Then gave I her (so tutor’d by my art)
  16. A sleeping potion, which so took effect
  17. As I intended, for it wrought on her
  18. The form of death. Mean time I writ to Romeo,
  19. That he should hither come as this dire night
  20. To help to take her from her borrowed grave,
  21. Being the time the potion’s force should cease.
  22. But he which bore my letter, Friar John,
  23. Was stayed by accident, and yesternight
  24. Return’d my letter back. Then all alone,
  25. At the prefixed hour of her waking,
  26. Came I to take her from her kindred’s vault,
  27. Meaning to keep her closely at my cell,
  28. Till I conveniently could send to Romeo.
  29. But when I came, some minute ere the time
  30. Of her awakening, here untimely lay
  31. The noble Paris and true Romeo dead.
  32. She wakes, and I entreated her come forth
  33. And bear this work of heaven with patience.
  34. But then a noise did scare me from the tomb,
  35. And she, too desperate, would not go with me,
  36. But as it seems, did violence on herself.
  37. All this I know, and to the marriage
  38. Her nurse is privy; and if aught in this
  39. Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
  40. Be sacrific’d some hour before his time,
  41. Unto the rigor of severest law.

Byam Shaw, 1901

Prince

279 - 280
  1. We still have known thee for a holy man.
  2. Where’s Romeo’s man? What can he say to this?

Balthasar

281 - 286
  1. I brought my master news of Juliet’s death,
  2. And then in post he came from Mantua
  3. To this same place, to this same monument.
  4. This letter he early bid me give his father,
  5. And threat’ned me with death, going in the vault,
  6. If I departed not and left him there.

Prince

287 - 289
  1. Give me the letter, I will look on it.
  2. Where is the County’s page that rais’d the watch?
  3. Sirrah, what made your master in this place?

Page to Paris

290 - 294
  1. He came with flowers to strew his lady’s grave,
  2. And bid me stand aloof, and so I did.
  3. Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb,
  4. And by and by my master drew on him,
  5. And then I ran away to call the watch.

Prince

295 - 304
  1. This letter doth make good the friar’s words,
  2. Their course of love, the tidings of her death;
  3. And here he writes that he did buy a poison
  4. Of a poor pothecary, and therewithal
  5. Came to this vault, to die and lie with Juliet.
  6. Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
  7. See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
  8. That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
  9. And I for winking at your discords too
  10. Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punish’d.

Capulet

305 - 307
  1. O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
  2. This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more
  3. Can I demand.

Montague

308 - 312
  1.               But I can give thee more,
  2. For I will raise her statue in pure gold,
  3. That whiles Verona by that name is known,
  4. There shall no figure at such rate be set
  5. As that of true and faithful Juliet.

Capulet

313 - 314
  1. As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie,
  2. Poor sacrifices of our enmity!

Prince

315 - 320
  1. A glooming peace this morning with it brings,
  2. The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.
  3. Go hence to have more talk of these sad things;
  4. Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished:
  5. For never was a story of more woe
  6. Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
  1. Exeunt omnes.
finis
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