Romeo is young, passionate, and emotionally impulsive. He moves from one intense feeling to the next without pause: infatuated with Rosaline at dawn, desperately in love with Juliet by nightfall. His language shifts dramatically when he meets Juliet, abandoning the artificial Petrarchan clichés he used for Rosaline in favour of genuinely poetic expression.
He is capable of great tenderness but also of sudden violence, killing Tybalt in a rage he immediately regrets. His tragedy lies in acting on feeling without reflection: he buys poison within hours of hearing of Juliet's death, never pausing to verify the news.
Relationships
Son of: Lord and Lady Montague
Husband of: Juliet (secret marriage)
Friend of: Benvolio and Mercutio
Kills: Tybalt
Key Quote
Act V, Scene i
Juliet Capulet
Protagonist / Tragic heroine
Juliet begins the play as an obedient, sheltered thirteen-year-old who has "not dream'd of" marriage. Her transformation is the play's most dramatic character arc. Within days she defies her parents, secretly marries an enemy, and devises a plan requiring extraordinary courage: taking a potion that simulates death.
Unlike Romeo, Juliet is analytical even in passion. She questions Romeo's declarations, recognises the danger of haste, and makes deliberate choices. Her final act (stabbing herself with Romeo's dagger) is not impulsive but resolute.
Relationships
Daughter of: Lord and Lady Capulet
Wife of: Romeo (secret marriage)
Close to: the Nurse (surrogate mother)
Cousin of: Tybalt
Betrothed to: Paris (arranged)
Key Quote
Act II, Scene ii
Mercutio
Catalyst / Foil to Romeo
Romeo's closest friend and the play's most electrifying presence. Mercutio is witty, irreverent, and scornful of romantic love; his Queen Mab speech mocks the very idea of dreams and desire. He is not a Montague but chooses to fight on Romeo's behalf, unable to tolerate what he sees as Romeo's submission to Tybalt.
His death in Act III is the play's turning point: after Mercutio falls, comedy becomes tragedy, and reconciliation becomes impossible. His dying curse, "A plague o' both your houses," condemns both families equally.
Relationships
Friend of: Romeo and Benvolio
Kinsman of: Prince Escalus
Killed by: Tybalt
Key Quote
Act III, Scene i
Tybalt Capulet
Antagonist
Juliet's cousin and the embodiment of the feud's violence. Tybalt lives by the honour code absolutely; he fights not out of personal hatred but because the code demands it. He recognises Romeo's voice at the Capulet ball and is enraged not by anything Romeo does but by the insult of his presence.
Lord Capulet restrains him at the ball, but Tybalt's fury only delays. He is an excellent swordsman, kills Mercutio through Romeo's well-meaning interference, and is killed by Romeo in return. Tybalt represents what the feud produces: a young man whose entire identity is built on family hatred.
Relationships
Nephew of: Lord and Lady Capulet
Cousin of: Juliet
Kills: Mercutio
Killed by: Romeo
Key Quote
Act I, Scene i
Friar Lawrence
Mentor / Failed mediator
A Franciscan friar who serves as Romeo's confessor and confidant. Friar Lawrence agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet not primarily out of romantic sympathy but as a political strategy to end the feud, "to turn your households' rancour to pure love." He is intelligent and well-meaning but fatally overconfident in his ability to control events.
His plans grow increasingly desperate (from secret marriage to sleeping potion to faking death), and each depends on timing and communication that ultimately fail. He represents the tragedy of adults who try to fix problems caused by other adults, using young people as instruments.
Relationships
Confessor to: Romeo
Performs: the secret marriage
Ally of: the Nurse
Key Quote
Act II, Scene vi
The Nurse
Confidante / Betrayer
Juliet's closest companion, her surrogate mother in a household where Lady Capulet is emotionally distant. The Nurse is earthy, talkative, and genuinely loving. She facilitates the secret marriage and carries messages between the lovers.
But when the situation becomes dangerous after Romeo's banishment, the Nurse advises Juliet to forget Romeo and marry Paris instead, a pragmatic betrayal that destroys Juliet's trust completely. From this moment Juliet is alone, with no adult she can rely on. The Nurse represents the limits of affection without principle.
Relationships
Servant and surrogate mother to: Juliet
Go-between for: Romeo and Juliet
Ally of: Friar Lawrence
Key Quote
Act III, Scene v
Lord Capulet
Patriarch / Authoritarian
Juliet's father, initially presented as a reasonable man who tells Paris that Juliet is too young for marriage and that her consent matters. This moderation vanishes when Juliet refuses Paris: Capulet erupts into rage, threatening to disown her, calling her "disobedient wretch."
The reversal reveals that his earlier reasonableness was conditional on obedience. He represents patriarchal authority in Elizabethan society: a father's word is law, and a daughter's defiance is unthinkable.
Relationships
Father of: Juliet
Husband of: Lady Capulet
Arranges marriage to: Paris
Key Quote
Act III, Scene v
Lady Capulet
Distant mother
Juliet's biological mother, but emotionally distant. She married young herself and approaches Juliet's marriage to Paris as a practical arrangement, not a matter of feeling.
When Juliet begs her mother to delay the marriage, Lady Capulet responds coldly: "Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word. Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee." She lacks the Nurse's warmth and Friar Lawrence's willingness to help. Her emotional withdrawal at Juliet's moment of greatest need makes her complicit in the tragedy.
Relationships
Mother of: Juliet
Wife of: Lord Capulet
Key Quote
Act III, Scene v
Benvolio
Peacemaker
Romeo's cousin and the voice of reason among the younger characters. Benvolio consistently tries to avoid conflict ("I do but keep the peace"), and serves as a contrast to Tybalt's aggression and Mercutio's recklessness.
He gives honest accounts of the street brawls to Prince Escalus and tries to cheer Romeo out of his Rosaline depression. Benvolio disappears from the play after Act III, as if peace itself has no place once the tragedy is set in motion.
Relationships
Nephew of: Lord Montague
Cousin and friend of: Romeo
Friend of: Mercutio
Key Quote
Act I, Scene i
Paris
Rival suitor
A nobleman and kinsman of Prince Escalus, Paris is Capulet's chosen husband for Juliet. He is courteous, well-born, and genuinely seems to care for Juliet; he visits her tomb to mourn and fights Romeo to protect her honour.
Shakespeare presents him sympathetically, which makes the situation more tragic: Paris is not a villain but a decent man caught in a situation he does not understand. Juliet's rejection of him is not personal; it is a rejection of the entire system of arranged marriage.
Relationships
Kinsman of: Prince Escalus
Suitor to: Juliet
Killed by: Romeo
Key Quote
Act V, Scene iii
Prince Escalus
Authority figure
The ruler of Verona who attempts to impose order on the feuding families. He issues increasingly severe threats (from fines to death), but cannot prevent the violence. He represents civil authority's failure to control private hatred.
His final speech acknowledges that even he shares responsibility: "All are punished." The Prince frames the play's moral but cannot deliver the peace that only the lovers' deaths achieve.
Relationships
Ruler of: Verona
Kinsman of: Mercutio and Paris
Banishes: Romeo
Key Quote
Act V, Scene iii
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Killing that love which thou hast vow’d to cherish;
Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love,
Misshapen in the conduct of them both,130
Like powder in a skilless soldier’s flask,
Is set afire by thine own ignorance,
And thou dismember’d with thine own defence.
What, rouse thee, man. Thy Juliet is alive,
For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead.135
There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee,
But thou slew’st Tybalt; there art thou happy.
The law that threaten’d death becomes thy friend,
And turns it to exile; there art thou happy.
A pack of blessings light upon thy back;140
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But like a misshaped and sullen wench,
Thou putt’st up thy Fortune and thy love.
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
Go, get thee to thy love as was decreed,145
Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her.
But look thou stay not till the watch be set,
For then thou canst not pass to Mantua;
Where thou shalt live till we can find a time
To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends,150
Beg pardon of the Prince, and call thee back
With twenty hundred thousand times more joy
Than thou went’st forth in lamentation.
Go before, Nurse. Commend me to thy lady,
And bid her hasten all the house to bed,155
Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto.
Romeo is coming.
NURSE
O Lord, I could have stay’d here all the night
To hear good counsel. O, what learning is!
My lord, I’ll tell my lady you will come.160
ROMEO
Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide.
NURSE
Here sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir.
Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late.
[Exit.]
ROMEO
How well my comfort is reviv’d by this.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Go hence, good night, and here stands all your state:165
Either be gone before the watch be set,
Or by the break of day disguis’d from hence.
Sojourn in Mantua. I’ll find out your man,
And he shall signify from time to time
Every good hap to you that chances here.170
Give me thy hand; ’tis late; farewell; good night.
ROMEO
But that a joy past joy calls out on me,
It were a grief so brief to part with thee.
Farewell.
[Exeunt.]
Scene IV: A Room in Capulet’s House
Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet and Paris.
CAPULET
Things have fallen out, sir, so unluckily
That we have had no time to move our daughter.
Look you, she lov’d her kinsman Tybalt dearly,
And so did I. Well, we were born to die.
’Tis very late; she’ll not come down tonight.5
I promise you, but for your company,
I would have been abed an hour ago.
PARIS
These times of woe afford no tune to woo.
Madam, good night. Commend me to your daughter.
LADY CAPULET
I will, and know her mind early tomorrow;10
Tonight she’s mew’d up to her heaviness.
CAPULET
Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender
Of my child’s love. I think she will be rul’d
In all respects by me; nay more, I doubt it not.
Wife, go you to her ere you go to bed,15
Acquaint her here of my son Paris’ love,
And bid her, mark you me, on Wednesday next,
But, soft, what day is this?
PARIS
Monday, my lord.
CAPULET
Monday! Ha, ha! Well, Wednesday is too soon,20
A Thursday let it be; a Thursday, tell her,
She shall be married to this noble earl.
Will you be ready? Do you like this haste?
We’ll keep no great ado: a friend or two,
For, hark you, Tybalt being slain so late,25
It may be thought we held him carelessly,
Being our kinsman, if we revel much.
Therefore we’ll have some half a dozen friends,
And there an end. But what say you to Thursday?
PARIS
My lord, I would that Thursday were tomorrow.30
CAPULET
Well, get you gone. A Thursday be it then.
Go you to Juliet ere you go to bed,
Prepare her, wife, against this wedding day.
Farewell, my lord. Light to my chamber, ho!
Afore me, it is so very very late that we35
May call it early by and by. Good night.
[Exeunt.]
Scene V: An open Gallery to Juliet’s Chamber, overlooking the Garden
Enter Romeo and Juliet.
JULIET
Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day.
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierc’d the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree.
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.5
ROMEO
It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale. Look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east.
Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.10
I must be gone and live, or stay and die.
JULIET
Yond light is not daylight, I know it, I.
It is some meteor that the sun exhales
To be to thee this night a torchbearer
And light thee on thy way to Mantua.15
Therefore stay yet, thou need’st not to be gone.
ROMEO
Let me be ta’en, let me be put to death,
I am content, so thou wilt have it so.
I’ll say yon grey is not the morning’s eye,
’Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia’s brow.20
Nor that is not the lark whose notes do beat
The vaulty heaven so high above our heads.
I have more care to stay than will to go.
Come, death, and welcome. Juliet wills it so.
How is’t, my soul? Let’s talk. It is not day.25
JULIET
It is, it is! Hie hence, be gone, away.
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
Some say the lark makes sweet division;
This doth not so, for she divideth us.30
Some say the lark and loathed toad change eyes.
O, now I would they had chang’d voices too,
Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
Hunting thee hence with hunt’s-up to the day.
O now be gone, more light and light it grows.35
ROMEO
More light and light, more dark and dark our woes.
Enter Nurse.
NURSE
Madam.
JULIET
Nurse?
NURSE
Your lady mother is coming to your chamber.
The day is broke, be wary, look about.40
[Exit.]
JULIET
Then, window, let day in, and let life out.
ROMEO
Farewell, farewell, one kiss, and I’ll descend.
[Descends.]
JULIET
Art thou gone so? Love, lord, ay husband, friend,
I must hear from thee every day in the hour,
For in a minute there are many days.45
O, by this count I shall be much in years
Ere I again behold my Romeo.
ROMEO
Farewell!
I will omit no opportunity
That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.50
JULIET
O thinkest thou we shall ever meet again?
ROMEO
I doubt it not, and all these woes shall serve
For sweet discourses in our time to come.
JULIET
O God! I have an ill-divining soul!
Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low,55
As one dead in the bottom of a tomb.
Either my eyesight fails, or thou look’st pale.
ROMEO
And trust me, love, in my eye so do you.
Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu, adieu.
[Exit below.]
JULIET
O Fortune, Fortune! All men call thee fickle,60
If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him
That is renown’d for faith? Be fickle, Fortune;
For then, I hope thou wilt not keep him long
But send him back.
LADY CAPULET
[Within.] Ho, daughter, are you up?
JULIET
Who is’t that calls? Is it my lady mother?65
Is she not down so late, or up so early?
What unaccustom’d cause procures her hither?
Enter Lady Capulet.
LADY CAPULET
Why, how now, Juliet?
JULIET
Madam, I am not well.
LADY CAPULET
Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?70
What, wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears?
And if thou couldst, thou couldst not make him live.
Therefore have done: some grief shows much of love,
But much of grief shows still some want of wit.
JULIET
Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss.75
LADY CAPULET
So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend
Which you weep for.
JULIET
Feeling so the loss,
I cannot choose but ever weep the friend.
LADY CAPULET
Well, girl, thou weep’st not so much for his death80
As that the villain lives which slaughter’d him.
JULIET
What villain, madam?
LADY CAPULET
That same villain Romeo.
JULIET
Villain and he be many miles asunder.
God pardon him. I do, with all my heart.85
And yet no man like he doth grieve my heart.
LADY CAPULET
That is because the traitor murderer lives.
JULIET
Ay madam, from the reach of these my hands.
Would none but I might venge my cousin’s death.
LADY CAPULET
We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not.90
Then weep no more. I’ll send to one in Mantua,
Where that same banish’d runagate doth live,
Shall give him such an unaccustom’d dram
That he shall soon keep Tybalt company:
And then I hope thou wilt be satisfied.95
JULIET
Indeed I never shall be satisfied
With Romeo till I behold him (dead),
Is my poor heart so for a kinsman vex’d.
Madam, if you could find out but a man
To bear a poison, I would temper it,100
That Romeo should upon receipt thereof,
Soon sleep in quiet. O, how my heart abhors
To hear him nam’d, and cannot come to him,
To wreak the love I bore my cousin
Upon his body that hath slaughter’d him.105
LADY CAPULET
Find thou the means, and I’ll find such a man.
But now I’ll tell thee joyful tidings, girl.
JULIET
And joy comes well in such a needy time.
What are they, I beseech your ladyship?
LADY CAPULET
Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child;110
One who to put thee from thy heaviness,
Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy,
That thou expects not, nor I look’d not for.
JULIET
Madam, in happy time, what day is that?
LADY CAPULET
Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn115
The gallant, young, and noble gentleman,
The County Paris, at Saint Peter’s Church,
Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.
JULIET
Now by Saint Peter’s Church, and Peter too,
He shall not make me there a joyful bride.120
I wonder at this haste, that I must wed
Ere he that should be husband comes to woo.
I pray you tell my lord and father, madam,
I will not marry yet; and when I do, I swear
It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate,125
Rather than Paris. These are news indeed.
LADY CAPULET
Here comes your father, tell him so yourself,
And see how he will take it at your hands.
Enter Capulet and Nurse.
CAPULET
When the sun sets, the air doth drizzle dew;
But for the sunset of my brother’s son130
It rains downright.
How now? A conduit, girl? What, still in tears?
Evermore showering? In one little body
Thou counterfeits a bark, a sea, a wind.
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,135
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood, the winds, thy sighs,
Who raging with thy tears and they with them,
Without a sudden calm will overset
Thy tempest-tossed body. How now, wife?140
Have you deliver’d to her our decree?
LADY CAPULET
Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives you thanks.
I would the fool were married to her grave.
CAPULET
Soft. Take me with you, take me with you, wife.
How, will she none? Doth she not give us thanks?145
Is she not proud? Doth she not count her blest,
Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom?
JULIET
Not proud you have, but thankful that you have.
Proud can I never be of what I hate;150
But thankful even for hate that is meant love.
CAPULET
How now, how now, chopp’d logic? What is this?
Proud, and, I thank you, and I thank you not;
And yet not proud. Mistress minion you,
Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,155
But fettle your fine joints ’gainst Thursday next
To go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.
Out, you green-sickness carrion! Out, you baggage!
You tallow-face!160
LADY CAPULET
Fie, fie! What, are you mad?
JULIET
Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
Hear me with patience but to speak a word.
CAPULET
Hang thee young baggage, disobedient wretch!
I tell thee what: get thee to church a Thursday,165
Or never after look me in the face.
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me.
My fingers itch. Wife, we scarce thought us blest
That God had lent us but this only child;
But now I see this one is one too much,170
And that we have a curse in having her.
Out on her, hilding.
NURSE
God in heaven bless her.
You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so.
CAPULET
And why, my lady wisdom? Hold your tongue,175
Good prudence; smatter with your gossips, go.
NURSE
I speak no treason.
CAPULET
O God ye good-en!
NURSE
May not one speak?
CAPULET
Peace, you mumbling fool!180
Utter your gravity o’er a gossip’s bowl,
For here we need it not.
LADY CAPULET
You are too hot.
CAPULET
God’s bread, it makes me mad!
Day, night, hour, ride, time, work, play,185
Alone, in company, still my care hath been
To have her match’d, and having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,
Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly allied,
Stuff’d, as they say, with honourable parts,190
Proportion’d as one’s thought would wish a man,
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune’s tender,
To answer, ‘I’ll not wed, I cannot love,
I am too young, I pray you pardon me.’195
But, and you will not wed, I’ll pardon you.
Graze where you will, you shall not house with me.
Look to’t, think on’t, I do not use to jest.
Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise.
And you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend;200
And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,
For by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.
Trust to’t, bethink you, I’ll not be forsworn.
[Exit.]
JULIET
Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,205
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O sweet my mother, cast me not away,
Delay this marriage for a month, a week,
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.210
LADY CAPULET
Talk not to me, for I’ll not speak a word.
Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee.
[Exit.]
JULIET
O God! O Nurse, how shall this be prevented?
My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven.
How shall that faith return again to earth,215
Unless that husband send it me from heaven
By leaving earth? Comfort me, counsel me.
Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems
Upon so soft a subject as myself.
What say’st thou? Hast thou not a word of joy?220
Some comfort, Nurse.
NURSE
Faith, here it is.
Romeo is banished; and all the world to nothing
That he dares ne’er come back to challenge you.
Or if he do, it needs must be by stealth.225
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the County.
O, he’s a lovely gentleman.
Romeo’s a dishclout to him. An eagle, madam,
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye230
As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first: or if it did not,
Your first is dead, or ’twere as good he were,
As living here and you no use of him.235
JULIET
Speakest thou from thy heart?
NURSE
And from my soul too,
Or else beshrew them both.
JULIET
Amen.
NURSE
What?240
JULIET
Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.
Go in, and tell my lady I am gone,
Having displeas’d my father, to Lawrence’ cell,
To make confession and to be absolv’d.
NURSE
Marry, I will; and this is wisely done.245
[Exit.]
JULIET
Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!
Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,
Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
Which she hath prais’d him with above compare
So many thousand times? Go, counsellor.250
Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.
I’ll to the Friar to know his remedy.
If all else fail, myself have power to die.
[Exit.]
Act IV
Scene I: Friar Lawrence’s Cell
Enter Friar Lawrence and Paris.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
On Thursday, sir? The time is very short.
PARIS
My father Capulet will have it so;
And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
You say you do not know the lady’s mind.
Uneven is the course; I like it not.5
PARIS
Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death,
And therefore have I little talk’d of love;
For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
That she do give her sorrow so much sway;10
And in his wisdom, hastes our marriage,
To stop the inundation of her tears,
Which, too much minded by herself alone,
May be put from her by society.
Now do you know the reason of this haste.15
FRIAR LAWRENCE
[Aside.] I would I knew not why it should be slow’d.
Look, sir, here comes the lady toward my cell.
Enter Juliet.
PARIS
Happily met, my lady and my wife!
JULIET
That may be, sir, when I may be a wife.
PARIS
That may be, must be, love, on Thursday next.
JULIET
What must be shall be.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
That’s a certain text.20
PARIS
Come you to make confession to this father?
JULIET
To answer that, I should confess to you.
PARIS
Do not deny to him that you love me.
JULIET
I will confess to you that I love him.
PARIS
So will ye, I am sure, that you love me.25
JULIET
If I do so, it will be of more price,
Being spoke behind your back than to your face.
PARIS
Poor soul, thy face is much abus’d with tears.
JULIET
The tears have got small victory by that;
For it was bad enough before their spite.30
PARIS
Thou wrong’st it more than tears with that report.
JULIET
That is no slander, sir, which is a truth,
And what I spake, I spake it to my face.
PARIS
Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander’d it.
JULIET
It may be so, for it is not mine own.35
Are you at leisure, holy father, now,
Or shall I come to you at evening mass?
FRIAR LAWRENCE
My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now.
My lord, we must entreat the time alone.
PARIS
God shield I should disturb devotion!40
Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse ye,
Till then, adieu; and keep this holy kiss.
[Exit.]
JULIET
O shut the door, and when thou hast done so,
Come weep with me, past hope, past cure, past help!
FRIAR LAWRENCE
O Juliet, I already know thy grief;45
It strains me past the compass of my wits.
I hear thou must, and nothing may prorogue it,
On Thursday next be married to this County.
JULIET
Tell me not, Friar, that thou hear’st of this,
Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it.50
If in thy wisdom, thou canst give no help,
Do thou but call my resolution wise,
And with this knife I’ll help it presently.
God join’d my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands;
And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo’s seal’d,55
Shall be the label to another deed,
Or my true heart with treacherous revolt
Turn to another, this shall slay them both.
Therefore, out of thy long-experienc’d time,
Give me some present counsel, or behold60
’Twixt my extremes and me this bloody knife
Shall play the empire, arbitrating that
Which the commission of thy years and art
Could to no issue of true honour bring.
Be not so long to speak. I long to die,65
If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Hold, daughter. I do spy a kind of hope,
Which craves as desperate an execution
As that is desperate which we would prevent.
If, rather than to marry County Paris70
Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,
Then is it likely thou wilt undertake
A thing like death to chide away this shame,
That cop’st with death himself to scape from it.
And if thou dar’st, I’ll give thee remedy.75
JULIET
O, bid me leap, rather than marry Paris,
From off the battlements of yonder tower,
Or walk in thievish ways, or bid me lurk
Where serpents are. Chain me with roaring bears;
Or hide me nightly in a charnel-house,80
O’er-cover’d quite with dead men’s rattling bones,
With reeky shanks and yellow chapless skulls.
Or bid me go into a new-made grave,
And hide me with a dead man in his shroud;
Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble,85
And I will do it without fear or doubt,
To live an unstain’d wife to my sweet love.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Hold then. Go home, be merry, give consent
To marry Paris. Wednesday is tomorrow;
Tomorrow night look that thou lie alone,90
Let not thy Nurse lie with thee in thy chamber.
Take thou this vial, being then in bed,
And this distilled liquor drink thou off,
When presently through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humour; for no pulse95
Shall keep his native progress, but surcease.
No warmth, no breath shall testify thou livest,
The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade
To paly ashes; thy eyes’ windows fall,
Like death when he shuts up the day of life.100
Each part depriv’d of supple government,
Shall stiff and stark and cold appear like death.
And in this borrow’d likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two and forty hours,
And then awake as from a pleasant sleep.105
Now when the bridegroom in the morning comes
To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead.
Then as the manner of our country is,
In thy best robes, uncover’d, on the bier,
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault110
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the meantime, against thou shalt awake,
Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift,
And hither shall he come, and he and I
Will watch thy waking, and that very night115
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua.
And this shall free thee from this present shame,
If no inconstant toy nor womanish fear
Abate thy valour in the acting it.
JULIET
Give me, give me! O tell not me of fear!120
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Hold; get you gone, be strong and prosperous
In this resolve. I’ll send a friar with speed
To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.
JULIET
Love give me strength, and strength shall help afford.
Farewell, dear father.125
[Exeunt.]
Scene II: Hall in Capulet’s House
Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet, Nurse and Servants.
CAPULET
So many guests invite as here are writ.
[Exit first Servant.]
Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.
SECOND SERVANT
You shall have none ill, sir; for I’ll try if they can lick their
fingers.
CAPULET
How canst thou try them so?
SECOND SERVANT
Marry, sir, ’tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers;5
therefore he that cannot lick his fingers goes not with me.
CAPULET
Go, begone.
[Exit second Servant.]
We shall be much unfurnish’d for this time.
What, is my daughter gone to Friar Lawrence?
NURSE
Ay, forsooth.
CAPULET
Well, he may chance to do some good on her.
A peevish self-will’d harlotry it is.10
Enter Juliet.
NURSE
See where she comes from shrift with merry look.
CAPULET
How now, my headstrong. Where have you been gadding?
JULIET
Where I have learnt me to repent the sin
Of disobedient opposition
To you and your behests; and am enjoin’d15
By holy Lawrence to fall prostrate here,
To beg your pardon. Pardon, I beseech you.
Henceforward I am ever rul’d by you.
CAPULET
Send for the County, go tell him of this.
I’ll have this knot knit up tomorrow morning.20
JULIET
I met the youthful lord at Lawrence’ cell,
And gave him what becomed love I might,
Not stepping o’er the bounds of modesty.
CAPULET
Why, I am glad on’t. This is well. Stand up.
This is as’t should be. Let me see the County.25
Ay, marry. Go, I say, and fetch him hither.
Now afore God, this reverend holy Friar,
All our whole city is much bound to him.
JULIET
Nurse, will you go with me into my closet,
To help me sort such needful ornaments30
As you think fit to furnish me tomorrow?
LADY CAPULET
No, not till Thursday. There is time enough.
CAPULET
Go, Nurse, go with her. We’ll to church tomorrow.
[Exeunt Juliet and Nurse.]
LADY CAPULET
We shall be short in our provision,
’Tis now near night.35
CAPULET
Tush, I will stir about,
And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife.
Go thou to Juliet, help to deck up her.
I’ll not to bed tonight, let me alone.
I’ll play the housewife for this once. What, ho!40
They are all forth: well, I will walk myself
To County Paris, to prepare him up
Against tomorrow. My heart is wondrous light
Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim’d.
[Exeunt.]
Scene III: Juliet’s Chamber
Enter Juliet and Nurse.
JULIET
Ay, those attires are best. But, gentle Nurse,
I pray thee leave me to myself tonight;
For I have need of many orisons
To move the heavens to smile upon my state,
Which, well thou know’st, is cross and full of sin.5
Enter Lady Capulet.
LADY CAPULET
What, are you busy, ho? Need you my help?
JULIET
No, madam; we have cull’d such necessaries
As are behoveful for our state tomorrow.
So please you, let me now be left alone,
And let the nurse this night sit up with you,10
For I am sure you have your hands full all
In this so sudden business.
LADY CAPULET
Good night.
Get thee to bed and rest, for thou hast need.
[Exeunt Lady Capulet and Nurse.]
JULIET
Farewell. God knows when we shall meet again.15
I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins
That almost freezes up the heat of life.
I’ll call them back again to comfort me.
Nurse! What should she do here?
My dismal scene I needs must act alone.20
Come, vial.
What if this mixture do not work at all?
Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?
No, No! This shall forbid it. Lie thou there.
[Laying down her dagger.]
What if it be a poison, which the Friar
Subtly hath minister’d to have me dead,
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour’d,
Because he married me before to Romeo?
I fear it is. And yet methinks it should not,
For he hath still been tried a holy man.
How if, when I am laid into the tomb,
I wake before the time that Romeo
Come to redeem me? There’s a fearful point!
Shall I not then be stifled in the vault,
To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,
And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?
Or, if I live, is it not very like,
The horrible conceit of death and night,
Together with the terror of the place,
As in a vault, an ancient receptacle,
Where for this many hundred years the bones
Of all my buried ancestors are pack’d,
Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say,
At some hours in the night spirits resort,
Alack, alack, is it not like that I,
So early waking, what with loathsome smells,
And shrieks like mandrakes torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad.
O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,
Environed with all these hideous fears,
And madly play with my forefathers’ joints?
And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud?
And, in this rage, with some great kinsman’s bone,
As with a club, dash out my desperate brains?
O look, methinks I see my cousin’s ghost
Seeking out Romeo that did spit his body
Upon a rapier’s point. Stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, here’s drink! I drink to thee.
[Throws herself on the bed.]
Scene IV: Hall in Capulet’s House
Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse.
LADY CAPULET
Hold, take these keys and fetch more spices, Nurse.
NURSE
They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.
Enter Capulet.
CAPULET
Come, stir, stir, stir! The second cock hath crow’d,
The curfew bell hath rung, ’tis three o’clock.
Look to the bak’d meats, good Angelica;5
Spare not for cost.
NURSE
Go, you cot-quean, go,
Get you to bed; faith, you’ll be sick tomorrow
For this night’s watching.
CAPULET
No, not a whit. What! I have watch’d ere now10
All night for lesser cause, and ne’er been sick.
LADY CAPULET
Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt in your time;
But I will watch you from such watching now.
[Exeunt Lady Capulet and Nurse.]
CAPULET
A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood!
Enter Servants, with spits, logs and baskets.
Now, fellow, what’s there?
FIRST SERVANT
Things for the cook, sir; but I know not what.15
CAPULET
Make haste, make haste.
[Exit First Servant.]
Sirrah, fetch drier logs.
Call Peter, he will show thee where they are.
SECOND SERVANT
I have a head, sir, that will find out logs
And never trouble Peter for the matter.
[Exit.]
CAPULET
Mass and well said; a merry whoreson, ha.
Thou shalt be loggerhead. Good faith, ’tis day.20
The County will be here with music straight,
For so he said he would. I hear him near.
[Play music.]
Nurse! Wife! What, ho! What, Nurse, I say!
Re-enter Nurse.
Go waken Juliet, go and trim her up.
I’ll go and chat with Paris. Hie, make haste,
Make haste; the bridegroom he is come already.
Make haste I say.
[Exeunt.]
Scene V: Juliet’s Chamber; Juliet on the bed
Enter Nurse.
NURSE
Mistress! What, mistress! Juliet! Fast, I warrant her, she.
Why, lamb, why, lady, fie, you slug-abed!
Why, love, I say! Madam! Sweetheart! Why, bride!
What, not a word? You take your pennyworths now.
Sleep for a week; for the next night, I warrant,5
The County Paris hath set up his rest
That you shall rest but little. God forgive me!
Marry and amen. How sound is she asleep!
I needs must wake her. Madam, madam, madam!
Ay, let the County take you in your bed,10
He’ll fright you up, i’faith. Will it not be?
What, dress’d, and in your clothes, and down again?
I must needs wake you. Lady! Lady! Lady!
Alas, alas! Help, help! My lady’s dead!
O, well-a-day that ever I was born.15
Some aqua vitae, ho! My lord! My lady!
Enter Lady Capulet.
LADY CAPULET
What noise is here?
NURSE
O lamentable day!
LADY CAPULET
What is the matter?
NURSE
Look, look! O heavy day!20
LADY CAPULET
O me, O me! My child, my only life.
Revive, look up, or I will die with thee.
Help, help! Call help.
Enter Capulet.
CAPULET
For shame, bring Juliet forth, her lord is come.
NURSE
She’s dead, deceas’d, she’s dead; alack the day!25
LADY CAPULET
Alack the day, she’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead!
CAPULET
Ha! Let me see her. Out alas! She’s cold,
Her blood is settled and her joints are stiff.
Life and these lips have long been separated.
Death lies on her like an untimely frost30
Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.
NURSE
O lamentable day!
LADY CAPULET
O woful time!
CAPULET
Death, that hath ta’en her hence to make me wail,
Ties up my tongue and will not let me speak.35
Enter Friar Lawrence and Paris with Musicians.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Come, is the bride ready to go to church?
CAPULET
Ready to go, but never to return.
O son, the night before thy wedding day
Hath death lain with thy bride. There she lies,
Flower as she was, deflowered by him.40
Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir;
My daughter he hath wedded. I will die
And leave him all; life, living, all is death’s.
PARIS
Have I thought long to see this morning’s face,
And doth it give me such a sight as this?45
LADY CAPULET
Accurs’d, unhappy, wretched, hateful day.
Most miserable hour that e’er time saw
In lasting labour of his pilgrimage.
But one, poor one, one poor and loving child,
But one thing to rejoice and solace in,50
And cruel death hath catch’d it from my sight.
NURSE
O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day.
Most lamentable day, most woeful day
That ever, ever, I did yet behold!
O day, O day, O day, O hateful day.55
Never was seen so black a day as this.
O woeful day, O woeful day.
PARIS
Beguil’d, divorced, wronged, spited, slain.
Most detestable death, by thee beguil’d,
By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown.60
O love! O life! Not life, but love in death!
CAPULET
Despis’d, distressed, hated, martyr’d, kill’d.
Uncomfortable time, why cam’st thou now
To murder, murder our solemnity?
O child! O child! My soul, and not my child,65
Dead art thou. Alack, my child is dead,
And with my child my joys are buried.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Peace, ho, for shame. Confusion’s cure lives not
In these confusions. Heaven and yourself
Had part in this fair maid, now heaven hath all,70
And all the better is it for the maid.
Your part in her you could not keep from death,
But heaven keeps his part in eternal life.
The most you sought was her promotion,
For ’twas your heaven she should be advanc’d,75
And weep ye now, seeing she is advanc’d
Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
O, in this love, you love your child so ill
That you run mad, seeing that she is well.
She’s not well married that lives married long,80
But she’s best married that dies married young.
Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary
On this fair corse, and, as the custom is,
And in her best array bear her to church;
For though fond nature bids us all lament,85
Yet nature’s tears are reason’s merriment.
CAPULET
All things that we ordained festival
Turn from their office to black funeral:
Our instruments to melancholy bells,
Our wedding cheer to a sad burial feast;90
Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change;
Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse,
And all things change them to the contrary.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Sir, go you in, and, madam, go with him,
And go, Sir Paris, everyone prepare95
To follow this fair corse unto her grave.
The heavens do lower upon you for some ill;
Move them no more by crossing their high will.
[Exeunt Capulet, Lady Capulet, Paris and Friar.]
FIRST MUSICIAN
Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone.
NURSE
Honest good fellows, ah, put up, put up,100
For well you know this is a pitiful case.
FIRST MUSICIAN
Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended.
[Exit Nurse.]
Enter Peter.
PETER
Musicians, O, musicians, ‘Heart’s ease,’ ‘Heart’s ease’, O, and you
will have me live, play ‘Heart’s ease.’
FIRST MUSICIAN
Why ‘Heart’s ease’?105
PETER
O musicians, because my heart itself plays ‘My heart is full’. O play
me some merry dump to comfort me.
FIRST MUSICIAN
Not a dump we, ’tis no time to play now.
PETER
You will not then?
FIRST MUSICIAN
No.110
PETER
I will then give it you soundly.
FIRST MUSICIAN
What will you give us?
PETER
No money, on my faith, but the gleek! I will give you the minstrel.
FIRST MUSICIAN
Then will I give you the serving-creature.
PETER
Then will I lay the serving-creature’s dagger on your pate. I will115
carry no crotchets. I’ll re you, I’ll fa you. Do you note me?
FIRST MUSICIAN
And you re us and fa us, you note us.
SECOND MUSICIAN
Pray you put up your dagger, and put out your wit.
PETER
Then have at you with my wit. I will dry-beat you with an iron wit, and
put up my iron dagger. Answer me like men.120
‘When griping griefs the heart doth wound,
And doleful dumps the mind oppress,
Then music with her silver sound’,
Why ‘silver sound’? Why ‘music with her silver sound’? What say you,
Simon Catling?125
FIRST MUSICIAN
Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound.
PETER
Prates. What say you, Hugh Rebeck?
SECOND MUSICIAN
I say ‘silver sound’ because musicians sound for silver.
PETER
Prates too! What say you, James Soundpost?
THIRD MUSICIAN
Faith, I know not what to say.130
PETER
O, I cry you mercy, you are the singer. I will say for you. It is
‘music with her silver sound’ because musicians have no gold for
sounding.
‘Then music with her silver sound
With speedy help doth lend redress.’135
[Exit.]
FIRST MUSICIAN
What a pestilent knave is this same!
SECOND MUSICIAN
Hang him, Jack. Come, we’ll in here, tarry for the mourners, and stay
dinner.
[Exeunt.]
Act V
Scene I: Mantua. A Street
Enter Romeo.
ROMEO
If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep,
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.
My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne;
And all this day an unaccustom’d spirit
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.5
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead,
Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave to think!
And breath’d such life with kisses in my lips,
That I reviv’d, and was an emperor.
Ah me, how sweet is love itself possess’d,10
When but love’s shadows are so rich in joy.
Enter Balthasar.
News from Verona! How now, Balthasar?
Dost thou not bring me letters from the Friar?
How doth my lady? Is my father well?
How fares my Juliet? That I ask again;
For nothing can be ill if she be well.
BALTHASAR
Then she is well, and nothing can be ill.
Her body sleeps in Capel’s monument,
And her immortal part with angels lives.
I saw her laid low in her kindred’s vault,15
And presently took post to tell it you.
O pardon me for bringing these ill news,
Since you did leave it for my office, sir.
ROMEO
Is it even so? Then I defy you, stars!
Thou know’st my lodging. Get me ink and paper,20
And hire post-horses. I will hence tonight.
BALTHASAR
I do beseech you sir, have patience.
Your looks are pale and wild, and do import
Some misadventure.
ROMEO
Tush, thou art deceiv’d.25
Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do.
Hast thou no letters to me from the Friar?
BALTHASAR
No, my good lord.
ROMEO
No matter. Get thee gone,
And hire those horses. I’ll be with thee straight.30
[Exit Balthasar.]
Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight.
Let’s see for means. O mischief thou art swift
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men.
I do remember an apothecary,
And hereabouts he dwells, which late I noted
In tatter’d weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Culling of simples, meagre were his looks,
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones;
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff’d, and other skins
Of ill-shaped fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,
Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses
Were thinly scatter’d, to make up a show.
Noting this penury, to myself I said,
And if a man did need a poison now,
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.
O, this same thought did but forerun my need,
And this same needy man must sell it me.
As I remember, this should be the house.
Being holiday, the beggar’s shop is shut.
What, ho! Apothecary!
Enter Apothecary.
APOTHECARY
Who calls so loud?
ROMEO
Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor.
Hold, there is forty ducats. Let me have
A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear
As will disperse itself through all the veins,35
That the life-weary taker may fall dead,
And that the trunk may be discharg’d of breath
As violently as hasty powder fir’d
Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb.
APOTHECARY
Such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua’s law40
Is death to any he that utters them.
ROMEO
Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness,
And fear’st to die? Famine is in thy cheeks,
Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes,
Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back.45
The world is not thy friend, nor the world’s law;
The world affords no law to make thee rich;
Then be not poor, but break it and take this.
APOTHECARY
My poverty, but not my will consents.
ROMEO
I pay thy poverty, and not thy will.50
APOTHECARY
Put this in any liquid thing you will
And drink it off; and, if you had the strength
Of twenty men, it would despatch you straight.
ROMEO
There is thy gold, worse poison to men’s souls,
Doing more murder in this loathsome world55
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.
I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none.
Farewell, buy food, and get thyself in flesh.
Come, cordial and not poison, go with me
To Juliet’s grave, for there must I use thee.60
[Exeunt.]
Scene II: Friar Lawrence’s Cell
Enter Friar John.
FRIAR JOHN
Holy Franciscan Friar! Brother, ho!
Enter Friar Lawrence.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
This same should be the voice of Friar John.
Welcome from Mantua. What says Romeo?
Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter.
FRIAR JOHN
Going to find a barefoot brother out,5
One of our order, to associate me,
Here in this city visiting the sick,
And finding him, the searchers of the town,
Suspecting that we both were in a house
Where the infectious pestilence did reign,10
Seal’d up the doors, and would not let us forth,
So that my speed to Mantua there was stay’d.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Who bare my letter then to Romeo?
FRIAR JOHN
I could not send it (here it is again),
Nor get a messenger to bring it thee,15
So fearful were they of infection.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Unhappy fortune! By my brotherhood,
The letter was not nice, but full of charge,
Of dear import, and the neglecting it
May do much danger. Friar John, go hence,20
Get me an iron crow and bring it straight
Unto my cell.
FRIAR JOHN
Brother, I’ll go and bring it thee.
[Exit.]
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Now must I to the monument alone.
Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake.25
She will beshrew me much that Romeo
Hath had no notice of these accidents;
But I will write again to Mantua,
And keep her at my cell till Romeo come.
Poor living corse, clos’d in a dead man’s tomb.30
[Exit.]
Scene III: A churchyard; in it a Monument 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 tree lay thee all along,
Holding thy ear close to the hollow ground;
So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread,5
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.10
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.15
[The 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.
[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 aloof20
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 use25
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.30
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.35
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.
[Retires]
ROMEO
Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,
Gorg’d with the dearest morsel of the earth,40
Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,
[Breaking open the door of the monument.]
And in despite, I’ll cram thee with more food.
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 villainous shame45
To the dead bodies. I will apprehend him.
[Advances.]
Stop thy unhallow’d 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,50
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,55
A madman’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.60
[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.65
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.70
A grave? O no, a lantern, slaught’red 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.
[Laying Paris in the monument.]
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 chambermaids. 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 Lawrence, with a
lantern, crow, and spade.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Saint Francis be my speed. How oft tonight75
Have my old feet stumbled at graves? Who’s there?
Who is it that consorts, so late, the dead?
BALTHASAR
Here’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Bliss be upon you. Tell me, good my friend,
What torch is yond that vainly lends his light80
To grubs and eyeless skulls? As I discern,
It burneth in the Capels’ monument.
BALTHASAR
It doth so, holy sir, and there’s my master,
One that you love.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Who is it?85
BALTHASAR
Romeo.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
How long hath he been there?
BALTHASAR
Full half an hour.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
Go with me to the vault.
BALTHASAR
I dare not, sir;90
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 LAWRENCE
Stay then, I’ll go alone. Fear comes upon me.
O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing.95
BALTHASAR
As I did sleep under this yew tree here,
I dreamt my master and another fought,
And that my master slew him.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
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 monument.]
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 and stirs.]
JULIET
O comfortable Friar, where is my lord?
I do remember well where I should be,100
And there I am. Where is my Romeo?
[Noise within.]
FRIAR LAWRENCE
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.105
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. I dare no longer stay.110
JULIET
Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.
[Exit Friar Lawrence.]
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
[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 rest, and let me die.
[Falls on Romeo’s body and dies.]
Enter Watch with the Page of Paris.
PAGE
This is the place. There, where the torch doth burn.
FIRST WATCH
The ground is bloody. Search about the churchyard.
Go, some of you, whoe’er you find attach.115
[Exeunt some of the Watch.]
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.
[Exeunt others of the Watch.]
We see the ground whereon these woes do lie,
But the true ground of all these piteous woes
We cannot without circumstance descry.
Re-enter some of the Watch with Balthasar.
SECOND WATCH
Here’s Romeo’s man. We found him in the churchyard.
FIRST WATCH
Hold him in safety till the Prince come hither.
Re-enter others of the Watch with Friar Lawrence.
THIRD WATCH. 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
A great suspicion. Stay the Friar too.
Enter the Prince and Attendants.
PRINCE
What misadventure is so early up,
That calls our person from our morning’s rest?120
Enter Capulet, Lady Capulet and others.
CAPULET
What should it be that they so shriek abroad?
LADY CAPULET
O the people in the street cry Romeo,
Some Juliet, and some Paris, and all run
With open outcry toward our monument.
PRINCE
What fear is this which startles in our ears?125
FIRST WATCH
Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain,
And Romeo dead, and Juliet, dead before,
Warm and new kill’d.
PRINCE
Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.
FIRST WATCH
Here is a Friar, and slaughter’d Romeo’s man,130
With instruments upon them fit to open
These dead men’s tombs.
CAPULET
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,135
And it mis-sheathed in my daughter’s bosom.
LADY CAPULET
O me! This sight of death is as a bell
That warns my old age to a sepulchre.
Enter Montague and others.
PRINCE
Come, Montague, for thou art early up,
To see thy son and heir more early down.140
MONTAGUE
Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight.
Grief of my son’s exile hath stopp’d her breath.
What further woe conspires against mine age?
PRINCE
Look, and thou shalt see.
MONTAGUE
O thou untaught! What manners is in this,145
To press before thy father to a grave?
PRINCE
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,150
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, able to do least,
Yet most suspected, as the time and place155
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 say at once what thou dost know in this.
FRIAR LAWRENCE
I will be brief, for my short date of breath160
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 death165
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,170
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 effect175
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.180
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,185
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.190
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.195
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.200
PRINCE
We still have known thee for a holy man.
Where’s Romeo’s man? What can he say to this?
BALTHASAR
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.205
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 on it.
Where is the County’s Page that rais’d the watch?210
Sirrah, what made your master in this place?
PAGE
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,215
And then I ran away to call the watch.
PRINCE
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 therewithal220
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,225
Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punish’d.
CAPULET
O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more
Can I demand.
MONTAGUE
But I can give thee more,230
For I will raise her statue in pure gold,
That whiles Verona by that name is known,
There shall no figure at such rate be set
As that of true and faithful Juliet.
CAPULET
As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie,235
Poor sacrifices of our enmity.
PRINCE
A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun for sorrow will not show his head.
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.
Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished,240
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
[Exeunt.]
Romeo Montague
Protagonist / Tragic hero
Romeo is young, passionate, and emotionally impulsive. He moves from one intense feeling to the next without pause: infatuated with Rosaline at dawn, desperately in love with Juliet by nightfall. His language shifts dramatically when he meets Juliet, abandoning the artificial Petrarchan clichés he used for Rosaline in favour of genuinely poetic expression.
He is capable of great tenderness but also of sudden violence, killing Tybalt in a rage he immediately regrets. His tragedy lies in acting on feeling without reflection: he buys poison within hours of hearing of Juliet's death, never pausing to verify the news.
Relationships
Son of: Lord and Lady Montague
Husband of: Juliet (secret marriage)
Friend of: Benvolio and Mercutio
Kills: Tybalt
Key Quote
Act V, Scene i
Juliet Capulet
Protagonist / Tragic heroine
Juliet begins the play as an obedient, sheltered thirteen-year-old who has "not dream'd of" marriage. Her transformation is the play's most dramatic character arc. Within days she defies her parents, secretly marries an enemy, and devises a plan requiring extraordinary courage: taking a potion that simulates death.
Unlike Romeo, Juliet is analytical even in passion. She questions Romeo's declarations, recognises the danger of haste, and makes deliberate choices. Her final act (stabbing herself with Romeo's dagger) is not impulsive but resolute.
Relationships
Daughter of: Lord and Lady Capulet
Wife of: Romeo (secret marriage)
Close to: the Nurse (surrogate mother)
Cousin of: Tybalt
Betrothed to: Paris (arranged)
Key Quote
Act II, Scene ii
Mercutio
Catalyst / Foil to Romeo
Romeo's closest friend and the play's most electrifying presence. Mercutio is witty, irreverent, and scornful of romantic love; his Queen Mab speech mocks the very idea of dreams and desire. He is not a Montague but chooses to fight on Romeo's behalf, unable to tolerate what he sees as Romeo's submission to Tybalt.
His death in Act III is the play's turning point: after Mercutio falls, comedy becomes tragedy, and reconciliation becomes impossible. His dying curse, "A plague o' both your houses," condemns both families equally.
Relationships
Friend of: Romeo and Benvolio
Kinsman of: Prince Escalus
Killed by: Tybalt
Key Quote
Act III, Scene i
Tybalt Capulet
Antagonist
Juliet's cousin and the embodiment of the feud's violence. Tybalt lives by the honour code absolutely; he fights not out of personal hatred but because the code demands it. He recognises Romeo's voice at the Capulet ball and is enraged not by anything Romeo does but by the insult of his presence.
Lord Capulet restrains him at the ball, but Tybalt's fury only delays. He is an excellent swordsman, kills Mercutio through Romeo's well-meaning interference, and is killed by Romeo in return. Tybalt represents what the feud produces: a young man whose entire identity is built on family hatred.
Relationships
Nephew of: Lord and Lady Capulet
Cousin of: Juliet
Kills: Mercutio
Killed by: Romeo
Key Quote
Act I, Scene i
Friar Lawrence
Mentor / Failed mediator
A Franciscan friar who serves as Romeo's confessor and confidant. Friar Lawrence agrees to marry Romeo and Juliet not primarily out of romantic sympathy but as a political strategy to end the feud, "to turn your households' rancour to pure love." He is intelligent and well-meaning but fatally overconfident in his ability to control events.
His plans grow increasingly desperate (from secret marriage to sleeping potion to faking death), and each depends on timing and communication that ultimately fail. He represents the tragedy of adults who try to fix problems caused by other adults, using young people as instruments.
Relationships
Confessor to: Romeo
Performs: the secret marriage
Ally of: the Nurse
Key Quote
Act II, Scene vi
The Nurse
Confidante / Betrayer
Juliet's closest companion, her surrogate mother in a household where Lady Capulet is emotionally distant. The Nurse is earthy, talkative, and genuinely loving. She facilitates the secret marriage and carries messages between the lovers.
But when the situation becomes dangerous after Romeo's banishment, the Nurse advises Juliet to forget Romeo and marry Paris instead, a pragmatic betrayal that destroys Juliet's trust completely. From this moment Juliet is alone, with no adult she can rely on. The Nurse represents the limits of affection without principle.
Relationships
Servant and surrogate mother to: Juliet
Go-between for: Romeo and Juliet
Ally of: Friar Lawrence
Key Quote
Act III, Scene v
Lord Capulet
Patriarch / Authoritarian
Juliet's father, initially presented as a reasonable man who tells Paris that Juliet is too young for marriage and that her consent matters. This moderation vanishes when Juliet refuses Paris: Capulet erupts into rage, threatening to disown her, calling her "disobedient wretch."
The reversal reveals that his earlier reasonableness was conditional on obedience. He represents patriarchal authority in Elizabethan society: a father's word is law, and a daughter's defiance is unthinkable.
Relationships
Father of: Juliet
Husband of: Lady Capulet
Arranges marriage to: Paris
Key Quote
Act III, Scene v
Lady Capulet
Distant mother
Juliet's biological mother, but emotionally distant. She married young herself and approaches Juliet's marriage to Paris as a practical arrangement, not a matter of feeling.
When Juliet begs her mother to delay the marriage, Lady Capulet responds coldly: "Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word. Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee." She lacks the Nurse's warmth and Friar Lawrence's willingness to help. Her emotional withdrawal at Juliet's moment of greatest need makes her complicit in the tragedy.
Relationships
Mother of: Juliet
Wife of: Lord Capulet
Key Quote
Act III, Scene v
Benvolio
Peacemaker
Romeo's cousin and the voice of reason among the younger characters. Benvolio consistently tries to avoid conflict ("I do but keep the peace"), and serves as a contrast to Tybalt's aggression and Mercutio's recklessness.
He gives honest accounts of the street brawls to Prince Escalus and tries to cheer Romeo out of his Rosaline depression. Benvolio disappears from the play after Act III, as if peace itself has no place once the tragedy is set in motion.
Relationships
Nephew of: Lord Montague
Cousin and friend of: Romeo
Friend of: Mercutio
Key Quote
Act I, Scene i
Paris
Rival suitor
A nobleman and kinsman of Prince Escalus, Paris is Capulet's chosen husband for Juliet. He is courteous, well-born, and genuinely seems to care for Juliet; he visits her tomb to mourn and fights Romeo to protect her honour.
Shakespeare presents him sympathetically, which makes the situation more tragic: Paris is not a villain but a decent man caught in a situation he does not understand. Juliet's rejection of him is not personal; it is a rejection of the entire system of arranged marriage.
Relationships
Kinsman of: Prince Escalus
Suitor to: Juliet
Killed by: Romeo
Key Quote
Act V, Scene iii
Prince Escalus
Authority figure
The ruler of Verona who attempts to impose order on the feuding families. He issues increasingly severe threats (from fines to death), but cannot prevent the violence. He represents civil authority's failure to control private hatred.
His final speech acknowledges that even he shares responsibility: "All are punished." The Prince frames the play's moral but cannot deliver the peace that only the lovers' deaths achieve.
Relationships
Ruler of: Verona
Kinsman of: Mercutio and Paris
Banishes: Romeo
Key Quote
Act V, Scene iii
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