Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare, David Mann

• Publisher: Pulp the Classics
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781843443681
• Topic: Littérature
• Subtopic: Classiques

Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou.... Oh wait, he's hanging around in the garden again. Will young Romeo and his Juliet ever be able to express their raging hormones? Or will their feuding families make this romance blossom into a poisoned flower? Either way, both their houses are totally plagued!

ACT V, SCENE III

Verona. A churchyard; in it a tomb belonging
to the Capulets.

Enter PARIS and his Page with flowers and sweet water.

PARIS

Give me thy torch, boy. Hence and stand aloof.

Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.

Under yond yew trees lay thee all along,

Holding thy ear close to the hollow ground;

So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread,

Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,

But thou shalt hear it. Whistle then to me

As signal that thou hear’st something approach.

Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee. Go.

PAGE

I am almost afraid to stand alone

Here in the churchyard. Yet I will adventure.

[Retires. Paris strews the tomb with flowers.]

PARIS

Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew.

O woe, thy canopy is dust and stones

Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,

Or wanting that, with tears distill’d by moans.

The obsequies that I for thee will keep

Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.

[Page whistles.]

The boy gives warning something doth approach.

What cursed foot wanders this way tonight,

To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite?

What, with a torch? Muffle me, night, awhile.

[Paris retires.]

Enter ROMEO, and BALTHASAR with a torch, a mattock,
and a crow of iron.

ROMEO

Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron.

Hold, take this letter. Early in the morning

See thou deliver it to my lord and father.

Give me the light. Upon thy life I charge thee,

Whate’er thou hear’st or seest, stand all aloof

And do not interrupt me in my course.

Why I descend into this bed of death

Is partly to behold my lady’s face

But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger

A precious ring, a ring that I must use

In dear employment. Therefore hence, be gone.

But if thou jealous dost return to pry

In what I farther shall intend to do,

By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,

And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs.

The time and my intents are savage-wild,

More fierce and more inexorable far

Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.

BALTHASAR

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

ROMEO

So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that.

Live, and be prosperous, and farewell, good fellow.

BALTHASAR

For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout.

His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.

[Balthasar retires.]

ROMEO

Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death

Gorg’d with the dearest morsel of the earth,

Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,

And in despite I’ll cram thee with more food.

[Romeo opens the tomb.]

PARIS

This is that banish’d haughty Montague

That murder’d my love’s cousin – with which grief

It is supposed the fair creature died –

And here is come to do some villanous shame

To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him.

Stop thy unhallowed toil, vile Montague.

Can vengeance be pursu’d further than death?

Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee.

Obey, and go with me, for thou must die.

ROMEO

I must indeed, and therefore came I hither.

Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man.

Fly hence and leave me. Think upon these gone.

Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,

But not another sin upon my head

By urging me to fury. O be gone.

By heaven I love thee better than myself,

For I come hither arm’d against myself.

Stay not, be gone, live, and hereafter say

A mad man’s mercy bid thee run away.

PARIS

I do defy thy conjuration

And apprehend thee for a felon here.

ROMEO

Wilt thou provoke me? Then have at thee, boy!

[They fight.]

PAGE

O Lord, they fight! I will go call the Watch.

[Exit Page.]

PARIS

O, I am slain! If thou be merciful,

Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. [Paris dies.]

ROMEO

In faith I will. Let me peruse this face.

Mercutio’s kinsman, noble County Paris!

What said my man when my betossed soul

Did not attend him, as we rode? I think

He told me Paris should have married Juliet.

Said he not so? Or did I dream it so?

Or am I mad, hearing him talk of...