The deaths of Romeo & Juliet

[In this final scene, Romeo, believing Juliet dead, comes to her tomb. Juliet, however, is only drugged, not dead. The tragedy unfurls as the two lovers take their own lives.] 
 
A churchyard; in it a tomb belonging to the Capulets.
 
Enter Paris, and his Page bearing flowers and a torch
 
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 thine 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
[Aside] I am almost afraid to stand alone
Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure.                         Retires
 
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.                       The Page whistles
The boy gives warning something doth approach.
What cursed foot wanders this way to-night,
To cross my obsequies and true love’s rite?
What with a torch! muffle me, night, awhile.                                    Retires
 
Enter Romeo and Balthasar, with a torch, mattock, & c
 
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 further 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 you.
 
Romeo
So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that:
Live, and be prosperous: and farewell, good fellow.
 
Balthasar
[Aside] For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout:
His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt.                                             Retires
 
Romeo
Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
Gorged 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!                                 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.                                         Comes forward
Stop thy unhallow’d toil, vile Montague!
Can vengeance be pursued 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,
Put 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 madman’s mercy bade thee run away.
 
Paris
I do defy thy conjurations,
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
 
Paris
O, I am slain!                                                                                       Falls
If thou be merciful,
Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.                                                    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 Juliet,
To think it was so? O, give me thy hand,
One writ with me in sour misfortune’s book!
I’ll bury thee in a triumphant grave;
A grave? O no! a lantern, slaughter’d youth,
For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes
This vault a feasting presence full of light.
Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr’d.                                              Paris in the tomb
How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry! which their keepers call
A lightning before death: O, how may I
Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife!
Death, that hath suck’d the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
Thou art not conquer’d; beauty’s ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death’s pale flag is not advanced there.
Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
O, what more favour can I do to thee,
Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
To sunder his that was thine enemy?
Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,
Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe
That unsubstantial death is amorous,
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
For fear of that, I still will stay with thee;
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again: here, here will I remain
With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
Here’s to my love!                                                                              Drinks
O true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.                                        Dies
 
Enter, at the other end of the churchyard, Friar Laurence, with a lantern, crow, and spade
 
Friar Laurence
Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night
Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who’s there?
 
Balthasar
Here’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well.
 
Friar Laurence
Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend,
What torch is yond, that vainly lends his light
To grubs and eyeless skulls? as I discern,
It burneth in the Capel’s monument.
 
Balthasar
It doth so, holy sir; and there’s my master,
One that you love.
 
Friar Laurence
Who is it?  
 
Balthasar
Romeo.
 
Friar Laurence
How long hath he been there?
 
Balthasar
Full half an hour.
 
Friar Laurence
Go with me to the vault.
 
Balthasar
I dare not, sir
My master knows not but I am gone hence;
And fearfully did menace me with death,
If I did stay to look on his intents.
 
Friar Laurence
Stay, then; I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me:
O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing.
 
Balthasar
As I did sleep under this yew-tree here,
I dreamt my master and another fought,
And that my master slew him.
 
Friar Laurence
Romeo!                                                                                   Advances
Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains
The stony entrance of this sepulchre?
What mean these masterless and gory swords
To lie discolour’d by this place of peace?                              Enters the tomb
Romeo! O, pale! Who else? what, Paris too?
And steep’d in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour
Is guilty of this lamentable chance!
The lady stirs.                                                                          Juliet wakes
 
Juliet
O comfortable friar! where is my lord?
I do remember well where I should be,
And there I am. Where is my Romeo?                                   Noise within
 
Friar Laurence
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 again
I dare no longer stay.
 
Juliet
Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.                                 Exit Friar Laurence
What’s here? a cup, closed in my true love’s hand?
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end:
O churl! drunk 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 die with a restorative.                                              Kisses him
Thy lips are warm.
 
First Watchman
[Within] Lead, boy: which way?
 
Juliet
Yea, noise? then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger!
Snatching Romeo’s dagger
This is thy sheath;                                                                   Stabs herself
there rust, and let me die.
 
[Falls on Romeo’s body, and dies.]