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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 hearāst 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 distillād 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 loveās 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,
Whateāer thou hearāst 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 ladyās 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, Iāll hide me hereabout.
His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.
[Balthasar retires.]
ROMEO
Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death
Gorgād with the dearest morsel of the earth,
Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
And in despite Iāll cram thee with more food.
[Romeo opens the tomb.]
PARIS
This is that banishād haughty Montague
That murderād my loveās cousin ā with which grief
It is supposed the fair creature died ā
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 pursuād 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 armād against myself.
Stay not, be gone, live, and hereafter say
A mad manās 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.
Mercutioās 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...
