Romeo and Juliet: Act 5, Scene 3
Enter PARIS and his PAGE
[bearing flowers, perfumed water,
and a torch].
PARIS
1. aloof: at a distance.
1 Give me thy torch, boy: hence, and stand aloof.
2. Yet: i.e., on second thought.
2 Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.
3. all along: flat.
3 Under yond yew trees lay thee all along,
4 Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground;
5-7. So shall no foot ... But thou shalt hear it: i.e. That way—being that the churchyard soil is so loose from all the graves dug there—you will hear the lightest footstep.
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 hear'st something approach.
9 Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go.
PAGE [Aside.]
10. stand: stay.
11. adventure: take the chance.
11. adventure: take the chance.
10 I am almost afraid to stand alone
11 Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure.
[Goes to the back of the stage.]
PARIS
12. Sweet flower: i.e., Juliet.
12 Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew,—
13 O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones;—
14. sweet water: perfumed water. dew: sprinkle.
15. wanting: lacking.
16. obsequies: rites for the dead. keep: always perform.
17. strew: scatter flowers over.
15. wanting: lacking.
16. obsequies: rites for the dead. keep: always perform.
17. strew: scatter flowers over.
14 Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,
15 Or, wanting that, with tears distill'd by moans.
16 The obsequies that I for thee will keep
17 Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.
Whistle Boy.
18 The boy gives warning something doth approach.
19 What cursed foot wanders this way tonight,
20. cross: interrupt, interfere with.
20 To cross my obsequies and true love's rite?
21. muffle: conceal.
mattock
mattock 21 What, with a torch! muffle me, night, awhile.
[Hides.]
Enter Romeo and [BALTHASAR,
with a torch, a mattock, and a crowbar].
ROMEO
22. the wrenching iron: i.e., the crowbar.
"the wrenching iron"
"the wrenching iron" 22 Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron.
[Takes the tools.]
23 Hold, take this letter; early in the morning
24 See thou deliver it to my lord and father.
[Gives a letter and takes the torch.]
25 Give me the light. Upon thy life, I charge thee,
26. stand all aloof: stay far away.
26 Whate'er thou hear'st or seest, stand all aloof,
27 And do not interrupt me in my course.
28 Why I descend into this bed of death,
29 Is partly to behold my lady's face;
30-31. to take ... A precious ring: Romeo is probably lying so that Balthasar won't suspect that he intends suicide.
30 But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger
31 A precious ring — a ring that I must use
32. dear employment: urgent business.
32 In dear employment — therefore hence, be gone.
33. jealous: suspicious.
33 But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry
34 In what I further shall intend to do,
35 By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint
36 And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs:
37 The time and my intents are savage-wild,
38 More fierce and more inexorable far
39. empty: hungry.
39 Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.
BALTHASAR
40 I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.
ROMEO
41 So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that:
[Gives him money.]
42 Live, and be prosperous: and farewell, good fellow.
BALTHASAR [Aside.]
43. For all this same: i.e., despite everything he has just said. 44. fear: am anxious about. doubt: suspect.
43 For all this same, I'll hide me hereabout:
44 His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.
[Hides where he can see Romeo.]
ROMEO
45. maw the mouth, jaws, and guts of a voracious animal. womb: belly. 46. the dearest morsel of the earth i.e., Juliet.
45 Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
46 Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth,
47 Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
48. in despite to spite [you]. more food i.e., Romeo himself.
48 And, in despite, I'll cram thee with more food!
[Opens the tomb.]
PARIS
49 This is that banish'd haughty Montague,
50 That murder'd my love's cousin, with which grief,
51 It is supposed, the fair creature died;
52 And here is come to do some villanous shame
53 To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him.
[Comes forward.]
54 Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague!
55 Can vengeance be pursued further than death?
56 Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee:
57 Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.
ROMEO
58 I must indeed; and therefore came I hither.
59 Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man;
60. these gone: i.e., all the dead in this churchyard.
60 Fly hence, and leave me. Think upon these gone;
61 Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,
62 Put not another sin upon my head,
63 By urging me to fury. O, be gone!
64 By heaven, I love thee better than myself;
65. arm'd against myself: i.e., prepared to kill myself.
65 For I come hither arm'd against myself.
66 Stay not, be gone; live, and hereafter say,
67 A madman's mercy bade thee run away.
PARIS
68. thy conjuration: i.e., the appeal that you have just made.
68 I do defy thy conjuration,
69 And apprehend thee for a felon here.
ROMEO
70 Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy!
[They fight.]
PAGE
71 O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch.
[Exit.]
PARIS
72 O, I am slain! [Falls.] If thou be merciful,
73 Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.
[Dies.]
ROMEO
74. peruse: carefully examine.
74 In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face.
75 Mercutio's kinsman, noble County Paris!
76 What said my man, when my betossed soul
77. attend him: pay attention to him.
77 Did not attend him as we rode? I think
78. should have: was to have.
78 He told me Paris should have married Juliet:
79 Said he not so? or did I dream it so?
80 Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet,
81 To think it was so? O, give me thy hand,
82 One writ with me in sour misfortune's book!
83. triumphant: magnificent.
84. lantern: cupola.
84. lantern: cupola.
83 I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave;
84 A grave? O no! a lantern, slaughter'd youth,
85 For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
86. feasting presence: festive royal chamber for receiving guests. 87. Death . . . interr'd: Romeo is speaking of himself as the "dead man" who inters Death [the body of Paris].
86 This vault a feasting presence full of light.
87 Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd.
[Laying PARIS in the tomb.]
88 How oft when men are at the point of death
89. keepers: nurses, attendants.
89 Have they been merry! which their keepers call
90 A lightning before death: O, how may I
91 Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife!
92 Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,
93 Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
94. ensign: banner.
94 Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet
95 Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
96. advanced: raised.
96 And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
97. sheet: shroud.
97 Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
98 O, what more favor can I do to thee,
99. cut thy youth in twain: cut your youth in two.
99 Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
100. To sunder his: to cut off his [i.e., Romeo's youth].
100 To sunder his that was thine enemy?
101 Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,
102 Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe
103 That unsubstantial death is amorous,
104 And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
105 Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
106. still: forever.
110. set up my everlasting rest: i.e., commit myself to rest [with Juliet] forever. When a player in a card game "set up his rest," he bet all he had—including his "rest," his reserve—on one play. .
110. set up my everlasting rest: i.e., commit myself to rest [with Juliet] forever. When a player in a card game "set up his rest," he bet all he had—including his "rest," his reserve—on one play. .
106 For fear of that, I still will stay with thee;
107 And never from this palace of dim night
108 Depart again. Here, here will I remain
109 With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here
110 Will I set up my everlasting rest,
111 And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
112 From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
113 Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
114 The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
115. dateless bargain: everlasting contract. engrossing: monopolizing, all-consuming.
115 A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
[Kisses Juliet, then speaks to the container
of poison.]
116. conduct: guide.
116 Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
117 Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
118. dashing rocks: rocks which will dash the ship to pieces. thy sea-sick weary bark: your ship which is sick of voyaging. In Romeo's metaphor, he is the "bark," and the poison is the pilot which will guide him to death.
118 The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
119 Here's to my love!
[Drinks.]
119 O true apothecary!
120 Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
[Dies.]
lanthorn: lantern.
crow: crowbar.
crow: crowbar.
Enter FRIAR [LAURENCE] with a lanthorn,
crow, and spade.
FRIAR LAURENCE
121. Saint Francis be my speed: Saint Francis help me. Friar Laurence is a Franciscan, the order founded by Saint Francis of Assisi (1181 - 1226).
121 Saint Francis be my speed! how oft tonight
122 Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who's there?
BALTHASAR
123 Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well.
FRIAR LAURENCE
124 Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend,
125 What torch is yond, that vainly lends his light
126 To grubs and eyeless skulls? as I discern,
127. the Capel's monument.: the funeral vault of the Capulets.
127 It burneth in the Capel's monument.
BALTHASAR
128 It doth so, holy sir; and there's my master,
129 One that you love.
FRIAR LAURENCE
129 Who is it?
BALTHASAR
129 Romeo.
FRIAR LAURENCE
130 How long hath he been there?
BALTHASAR
130 Full half an hour.
FRIAR LAURENCE
131 Go with me to the vault.
BALTHASAR
131 I dare not, sir
132 My master knows not but I am gone hence;
133 And fearfully did menace me with death,
134 If I did stay to look on his intents.
FRIAR LAURENCE
135 Stay, then; I'll go alone. Fear comes upon me:
136. unthrifty: unfortunate.
136 O, much I fear some ill unthrifty thing.
BALTHASAR
137 As I did sleep under this yew-tree here,
138 I dreamt my master and another fought,
139 And that my master slew him.
FRIAR LAURENCE
139 Romeo!
[Advances to the tomb.]
140 Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains
141 The stony entrance of this sepulchre?
142-143. What mean these masterless and gory / To lie discolour'd by this place of peace?: what does it mean that these swords, without their owners and covered with gore, lie stained [with blood] next to this place of peace?
142 What mean these masterless and gory swords
143 To lie discolour'd by this place of peace?
[Enters the tomb.]
144 Romeo! O, pale! Who else? what, Paris too?
145. unkind: unnatural, cruel.
146. lamentable chance: i.e., cruel turn of fortune.
146. lamentable chance: i.e., cruel turn of fortune.
145 And steep'd in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour
146 Is guilty of this lamentable chance!
147 The lady stirs.
[JULIET wakes.]
JULIET
148. comfortable: comforting.
148 O comfortable friar, where is my lord?
149 I do remember well where I should be,
150 And there I am. Where is my Romeo?
[Noise offstage.]
FRIAR LAURENCE
151 I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest
152 Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep.
153 A greater power than we can contradict
154 Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.
155. in thy bosom: Romeo died upon a kiss, and his body still lies against Juliet's. 156. dispose of thee: provide sanctuary for you.
155 Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead;
156 And Paris too. Come, I'll dispose of thee
157 Among a sisterhood of holy nuns:
158. Stay not to question: don't wait to ask questions.
158 Stay not to question, for the watch is coming;
159 Come, go, good Juliet,
[Noise again.]
I dare no longer stay.
Exit [FRIAR LAURENCE].
JULIET
160 Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.
161 What's here? a cup, closed in my true love's hand?
162. timeless: (1) untimely; (2) eternal.
162 Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end:
163. churl: miser, selfish person.
163 O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop
164. after: come after, follow.
164 To help me after? I will kiss thy lips;
165. Haply: perhaps.
165 Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
166. die with a restorative: die by means of a medicine that restores health. She calls the poison "a restorative" because it will restore her to Romeo. Romeo expressed the same idea when he spoke of the poison as "cordial and not poison."
166 To make me die with a restorative.
[Kisses him.]
167 Thy lips are warm.
First Watch [Within]
168 Lead, boy: which way?
JULIET
169 Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger!
[Snatching Romeo's dagger.]
170. This: i.e., her breast.
170 This is thy sheath;
[Stabs herself.]
170 there rust, and let me die.
[Falls on Romeo's body, and dies.]
Enter [Paris'] BOY and WATCH.
PAGE
171 This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn.
First Watch
172 The ground is bloody; search about the churchyard:
173. attach: take into custody.
173 Go, some of you, whoe'er you find attach.
[Exeunt some.]
174 Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain,
175 And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead,
176 Who here hath lain these two days buried.
177 Go, tell the prince; run to the Capulets;
178 Raise up the Montagues; some others search.
[Exeunt others.]
179-180. ground . . . ground: earth . . . basis, reason.
179 We see the ground whereon these woes do lie;
180 But the true ground of all these piteous woes
181. circumstance: details. descry: detect.
181 We cannot without circumstance descry.
Enter [some of the Watch, with] Romeo's man
[BALTHASAR].
Second Watch
182 Here's Romeo's man; we found him in the churchyard.
First Watch
183. in safety: securely.
183 Hold him in safety, till the prince come hither.
Enter FRIAR [LAURENCE] and another
WATCHMAN.
Third Watch
184 Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs and weeps:
185 We took this mattock and this spade from him,
186 As he was coming from this churchyard side.
First Watch
187. stay: keep in custody.
187 A great suspicion: stay the friar too.
Enter the PRINCE [and ATTENDANTS].
PRINCE
188 What misadventure is so early up,
189 That calls our person from our morning's rest?
Enter Capels [CAPULET, LADY CAPULET].
CAPULET
190 What should it be, that they so shriek abroad?
LADY CAPULET
191 The people in the street cry "Romeo,"
192 Some "Juliet," and some "Paris"; and all run,
193 With open outcry toward our monument.
PRINCE
194 What fear is this which startles in our ears?
First Watch
195 Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain;
196 And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before,
197 Warm and new kill'd.
PRINCE
198 Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.
First Watch
199 Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's man;
200 With instruments upon them, fit to open
201 These dead men's tombs.
CAPULET
202 O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!
203. hath mista'en: has mistaken, has taken the wrong path. his house: i.e., its scabbard. 204. on the back of Montague: Romeo must have carried his dagger in a scabbard attached to a baldrick, as a quiver of arrows is carried.
203 This dagger hath mista'en—for, lo, his house
204 Is empty on the back of Montague,—
205 And it mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom!
LADY CAPULET
206 O me! this sight of death is as a bell,
207 That warns my old age to a sepulcher.
Enter MONTAGUE.
PRINCE
208-209. early . . . early: early in the morning . . . early in Romeo's life.
208 Come, Montague; for thou art early up,
209 To see thy son and heir more early down.
MONTAGUE
210 Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight;
211 Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath:
212 What further woe conspires against mine age?
PRINCE
213 Look, and thou shalt see.
MONTAGUE
214. O thou untaught!: O you rude person!
215. press before: crowd in front of.
215. press before: crowd in front of.
214 O thou untaught! what manners is in this?
215 To press before thy father to a grave?
PRINCE
216. the mouth of outrage: the outcry of impassioned grief.
216 Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while,
217 Till we can clear these ambiguities,
218. their spring, their head, their true descent: i.e., their source.
219-220. And . . . death: And then I will be your leader in expressing your woe, and continue to lead you even to the time of our death.
222. the parties of suspicion: i.e., the suspects.
219-220. And . . . death: And then I will be your leader in expressing your woe, and continue to lead you even to the time of our death.
222. the parties of suspicion: i.e., the suspects.
218 And know their spring, their head, their true descent;
219 And then will I be general of your woes,
220 And lead you even to death: meantime forbear,
221 And let mischance be slave to patience.
222 Bring forth the parties of suspicion.
FRIAR LAURENCE
223-225.. I am the greatest . . . murder: i.e., I am the one under the greatest suspicion, and least able to excuse myself, because the time and place [where I was found] testify against me in this terrible murder.
226-227. both to impeach and purge / Myself condemned and myself excused: i.e., both to charge myself with what I am guilty of, and to purge my guilt [by confessing my mistakes] for those faults that may be excused.
226-227. both to impeach and purge / Myself condemned and myself excused: i.e., both to charge myself with what I am guilty of, and to purge my guilt [by confessing my mistakes] for those faults that may be excused.
223 I am the greatest, able to do least,
224 Yet most suspected, as the time and place
225 Doth make against me of this direful murder;
226 And here I stand, both to impeach and purge
227 Myself condemned and myself excused.
PRINCE
228 Then say at once what thou dost know in this.
FRIAR LAURENCE
229. my short date of breath: the brief time I have left to live.
229 I will be brief, for my short date of breath
230 Is not so long as is a tedious tale.
231 Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet;
232 And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife.
233. stol'n: stolen, secret.
233 I married them; and their stol'n marriage-day
234 Was Tybalt's doomsday, whose untimely death
235 Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from the city,
236. pined: wept, and wasted away.
236 For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.
237. siege of grief: storm of grief, assault of grief.
237 You, to remove that siege of grief from her,
238. perforce: by necessity; i.e., against her will.
238 Betroth'd and would have married her perforce
239 To County Paris: then comes she to me,
240. mean: means.
240 And, with wild looks, bid me devise some mean
241 To rid her from this second marriage,
242 Or in my cell there would she kill herself.
243. so tutor'd by my art: guided by my expertise [in medicine].
243 Then gave I her, so tutor'd by my art,
244 A sleeping potion; which so took effect
245 As I intended, for it wrought on her
246 The form of death: meantime I writ to Romeo,
247. as this: this very same.
247 That he should hither come as this dire night,
248 To help to take her from her borrow'd grave,
249 Being the time the potion's force should cease.
250 But he which bore my letter, Friar John,
251 Was stay'd by accident, and yesternight
252 Return'd my letter back. Then all alone
253 At the prefixed hour of her waking,
254 Came I to take her from her kindred's vault;
255. closely: secretly.
255 Meaning to keep her closely at my cell,
256 Till I conveniently could send to Romeo:
257 But when I came, some minute ere the time
258 Of her awaking, here untimely lay
259 The noble Paris and true Romeo dead.
260 She wakes; and I entreated her come forth,
261 And bear this work of heaven with patience:
262 But then a noise did scare me from the tomb;
263 And she, too desperate, would not go with me,
264 But, as it seems, did violence on herself.
265 All this I know; and to the marriage
266 Her nurse is privy: and, if aught in this
267 Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
268 Be sacrificed, some hour before his time,
269 Unto the rigour of severest law.
PRINCE
270 We still have known thee for a holy man.
271 Where's Romeo's man? what can he say in this?
BALTHASAR
272 I brought my master news of Juliet's death;
273. post: great haste.
273 And then in post he came from Mantua
274 To this same place, to this same monument.
275 This letter he early bid me give his father,
276 And threatened me with death, going in the vault,
277 If I departed not and left him there.
PRINCE
278 Give me the letter; I will look on it.
279 Where is the county's page, that raised the watch?
280. what made your master in this place?: what was your master doing in this place?
280 Sirrah, what made your master in this place?
PAGE
281 He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave;
282 And bid me stand aloof, and so I did:
283 Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb;
284 And by and by my master drew on him;
285 And then I ran away to call the watch.
PRINCE
286 This letter doth make good the friar's words,
287 Their course of love, the tidings of her death:
288 And here he writes that he did buy a poison
289 Of a poor 'pothecary, and therewithal
290 Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet.
291 Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
292 See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
293.
kill your joys: (1) turn your joys to sorrows; (2) kill your children. with love: by means of love. 294. winking at: shutting my eyes to.
295. brace: pair [Mercutio and Paris].
295. brace: pair [Mercutio and Paris].
293 That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
294 And I for winking at your discords too
295 Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish'd.
CAPULET
296 O brother Montague, give me thy hand:
297. This: i.e., the handshake. jointure: marriage portion.
297 This is my daughter's jointure, for no more
298 Can I demand.
MONTAGUE
298 But I can give thee more,
299. ray: array, have made.
299 For I will ray her statue in pure gold;
300 That while Verona by that name is known,
301. rate: value.
301 There shall no figure at such rate be set
302 As that of true and faithful Juliet.
CAPULET
303 As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's lie;
304 Poor sacrifices of our enmity!
PRINCE
305 A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
306 The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head
307 Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
308 Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
309 For never was a story of more woe
310 Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
[Exeunt.]
