The Complete Works of William Shakespeare In Plain and Simple English (Translated) (1024 page)

O comfortable friar! where is my lord?-- I do remember well where I should be, And there I am:--where is my Romeo?

(Noise from within.)

Friar Lawrence

I hear some noise.  Come on, Juliet.  Our plan is all messed up.  Your husband is dead, so is Pairs.  I’ll hide you in a convent with some nuns.  Hurry, someone is coming.  Let’s go.  (Noise from within.)  I can’t stay any longer.

I hear some noise.--Lady, come from that nest Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep: A greater power than we can contradict Hath thwarted our intents:--come, come away! Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead; And Paris too:--come, I'll dispose of thee Among a sisterhood of holy nuns: Stay not to question, for the watch is coming. Come, go, good Juliet [noise within],--I dare no longer stay.

Juliet

Go, then.  I’m not leaving.

Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.--

(Exit Friar Lawrence.)

What’s this?  My true love has a cup in his hand.  Poisonous drink, I think has taken his life.  There is none left for me.  I will kiss your lips and pray some poison remains to help me die.

What's here? a cup, clos'd in my true love's hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end:-- O churl! drink all, and left no friendly drop To help me after?--I will kiss thy lips; Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, To make me die with a restorative.

(Kisses him.)

Thy lips are warm!

First Watch

Lead the way, boy.

[Within.] Lead, boy:--which way?

Juliet

I hear another noise.  I must hurry.  Oh good, Romeo’s dagger!

Yea, noise?--Then I'll be brief.--O happy dagger!

(Snatching Romeo’s dagger.)

This is the place where knives go.  (Stabs herself.)  Now, let me die.

This is thy sheath [stabs herself]; there rest, and let me die.

(Falls on Romeo’s body and dies.)

(Enter Watch, with the Paris’s Page.)

Page

This is the place.  See the burning torch.

This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn.

First Watch

The ground is bloody.  Search the churchyard.  Go and if you find someone attack.

The ground is bloody; search about the churchyard: Go, some of you, whoe'er you find attach.

(Exit some of the Watch.)

What a pitiful sight!  Here is the count, murdered.  Here is Juliet, bleeding, but she was supposed to be dead.  She was buried two days ago.  Go tell the Prince.  Run to the Capulets and get the Montagues.  

Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain;-- And Juliet bleeding; warm, and newly dead, Who here hath lain this two days buried.-- Go, tell the prince;--run to the Capulets,-- Raise up the Montagues,--some others search:--

(Exit others of the Watch.)

We are in the sight of some terrible, unexplainable happenings.  

We see the ground whereon these woes do lie; But the true ground of all these piteous woes We cannot without circumstance descry.

(Enter some of the watch with Balthasar.)

Second Watch

Here’s Romeo’s man.  We found him in the churchyard.

Here's Romeo's man; we found him in the churchyard.

First Watch

Hold him until the Prince gets here.

Hold him in safety till the prince come hither.

(Enter others of the Watch with Friar Lawrence.)

Third Watch

Here is a friar, trembling and weeping.  We took this axe and shovel from him.  He was coming from the graveyard.

Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs, and weeps: We took this mattock and this spade from him As he was coming from this churchyard side.

First Watch

That is very odd.  We better keep him, too.

A great suspicion: stay the friar too.

(Enter the Prince and Attendants.)

Prince

What is going on that you feel the need to wake us up so early?

What misadventure is so early up, That calls our person from our morning's rest?

(Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, and others.)

Capulet

What is the problem?  Why are they crying out?

What should it be, that they so shriek abroad?

Lady Capulet

People in the street cry Romeo, and some cry Juliet.  Some are crying Paris, and all of them are running towards our monument.

The people in the street cry Romeo, Some Juliet, and some Paris; and all run, With open outcry, toward our monument.

Prince

What is everyone crying about?

What fear is this which startles in our ears?

First Watch

Sir, here lies the body of Count Paris.  He has been murdered.  Romeo is dead, too.  So is Juliet, although she was thought to be dead, appears to have just been killed.

Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain; And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before, Warm and new kill'd.

Prince

Search and find out how these murders happened.

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

First Watch

Here is a friar with tools to open a tomb and Romeo’s man.

Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's man, With instruments upon them fit to open These dead men's tombs.

Capulet

Oh, heaven!  Oh, wife, look at our daughter’s blood.  The knife of the Montague is in our daughter’s chest.

O heaven!--O wife, look how our daughter bleeds! This dagger hath mista'en,--for, lo, his house Is empty on the back of Montague,-- And it mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom!

Lady Capulet

Oh me!  The sight of all this death is like a bell reminding me that my time is coming soon.

O me! this sight of death is as a bell That warns my old age to a sepulchre.

(Enter Montague.)

Montague

Sir, my wife died tonight.  She died from grief because of my son’s exile.  What else must I endure?

Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night; Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath: What further woe conspires against mine age?

Prince

Look and you will see.

Look, and thou shalt see.

Montague

Oh, you selfish boy.  How could you not wait?  Fathers are supposed to die before their sons.

O thou untaught! what manners is in this, To press before thy father to a grave?

Prince

Everyone be quiet and do not make any allegations until we know what happened and how it started.  Then, I will let you express your pain.  Meanwhile, let’s be patient.  Bring in the suspects.

Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while, Till we can clear these ambiguities, And know their spring, their head, their true descent; And then will I be general of your woes, And lead you even to death: meantime forbear, And let mischance be slave to patience.-- Bring forth the parties of suspicion.

Friar Lawrence

I am the greatest at fault, but I could do the least.  I know you suspect me of murder, but I am not guilty, and I am not innocent.

I am the greatest, able to do least, Yet most suspected, as the time and place Doth make against me, of this direful murder; And here I stand, both to impeach and purge Myself condemned and myself excus'd.

Prince

Then tell us what you know.

Then say at once what thou dost know in this.

Friar Lawrence

I will be brief, because I think I will not live long enough to tell a boring story.  Romeo was Juliet’s husband.  And she was trying to be faithful to Romeo.  I married them on the day Romeo killed Tybalt, which caused him to be exiled.  So, Juliet wept for Romeo, and to keep her from killing herself I gave her a sleeping potion.  The potion made her look dead.  Then, I wrote to Romeo for him to come and claim her from the tomb when she awoke, but he never got my letter.  So, I came to retrieve her and found Paris and Romeo, both dead.  When she awoke I tried to get her to come with me, but she would not leave.  I got scared and left, but she stayed to take her own life.  Her nurse knows the truth.  If, this is my fault let me be sacrificed and held accountable under the severest penalty of the law.

I will be brief, for my short date of breath Is not so long as is a tedious tale. Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet; And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife: I married them; and their stol'n marriage day Was Tybalt's doomsday, whose untimely death Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city; For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin'd. You, to remove that siege of grief from her, Betroth'd, and would have married her perforce, To County Paris:--then comes she to me, And with wild looks, bid me devise some means To rid her from this second marriage, Or in my cell there would she kill herself. Then gave I her, so tutored by my art, A sleeping potion; which so took effect As I intended, for it wrought on her The form of death: meantime I writ to Romeo That he should hither come as this dire night, To help to take her from her borrow'd grave, Being the time the potion's force should cease. But he which bore my letter, Friar John, Was stay'd by accident; and yesternight Return'd my letter back. Then all alone At the prefixed hour of her waking Came I to take her from her kindred's vault; Meaning to keep her closely at my cell Till I conveniently could send to Romeo: But when I came,--some minute ere the time Of her awaking,--here untimely lay The noble Paris and true Romeo dead. She wakes; and I entreated her come forth And bear this work of heaven with patience: But then a noise did scare me from the tomb; And she, too desperate, would not go with me, But, as it seems, did violence on herself. All this I know; and to the marriage Her nurse is privy: and if ought in this Miscarried by my fault, let my old life Be sacrific'd, some hour before his time, Unto the rigour of severest law.

Prince

We have always known you to be holy.  Where’s Romeo’s man?  What does he have to say about all of this?

We still have known thee for a holy man.-- Where's Romeo's man? what can he say in this?

Balthasar

I told Romeo the news of Juliet’s death.  Then, he came from Mantua to this place.  He gave me this letter to give to his father and threatened me with death, if I did not leave.  I just went over there by that tree.

I brought my master news of Juliet's death; And then in post he came from Mantua To this same place, to this same monument. This letter he early bid me give his father; And threaten'd me with death, going in the vault, If I departed not, and left him there.

Prince

Give me the letter.  I will look at it.  Where is the boy that got the Watch?  Sir, why was your master here?

Give me the letter,--I will look on it.-- Where is the county's page that rais'd the watch?-- Sirrah, what made your master in this place?

Boy

He came with flowers to place on his lady’s grave.  He made me stay back.  Then, someone came with a light and started to open the tomb.  My master drew on him.  So, I ran to get the Watch.

He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave; And bid me stand aloof, and so I did: Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb; And by-and-by my master drew on him; And then I ran away to call the watch.

Prince

This letter confirms the Friar’s story.  It describes their love and the news of her death.  He writes that he bought poison to come here to die and be with Juliet forever.  Where are Capulet and Montague?  See what happens to people who bear hatred towards one another.  Since I did not do anything about it, I have lost loved ones, too.

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

Capulet

Oh, brother Montague, give me your hand.  For my daughter and your son, I can ask you for nothing.

O brother Montague, give me thy hand: This is my daughter's jointure, for no more Can I demand.

Montague

But, I can give you something.  I will raise a statue for her in pure gold in remembrance of her goodness for all of Verona to see.

But I can give thee more: For I will raise her statue in pure gold; That while Verona by that name is known, There shall no figure at such rate be set As that of true and faithful Juliet.

Capulet

Then, I will make a statue of Romeo to lie beside Juliet.  They were poor sacrifices of our hatred.