ROMEO AND JULIET

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PROLOGUE

CHORUS : Two households both alike in dignity,

In fair Verona where we lay our scene
From ancient grudge, break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean:
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
A pair of star crossed lovers take their life:
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows,
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.

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SCENE 1
A street

(ENTER SAMPSON and GREGORY of the house of Capulet,in conversation.)

GREGORY :Here come two of the house of Montague.

(ENTER two other servingmen, ABRAHAM and BALTHAZAR)

SAMPSON :I will bite my thumb at them, which is disgrace to them if they bear it.

(He bites his thumb)

ABRAHAM : Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON :I do bite my thumb, sir.

ABRAHAM : Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?

SAMPSON : [to GREGORY] Is the law of our side if I say ay?

GREGORY: No.

SAMPSON : No sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir.

ABRAHAM : You lie.

SAMPSON : Draw if you be men.

(They FIGHT. ENTER BENVOLIO)

BENVOLIO: Part, fools. Put up your swords, you know not what you do.

(ENTER TYBALT)

TYBALT : [To BENVOLIO] What, are you drawn amongst these heartless hinds? Turn here
Benvolio, look upon your death.

BENVOLIO : I do but keep the peace.

TYBALT : What, drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word

as I hate hell, all Montagues, and you!

(They FIGHT)

(ENTER three or four CITIZENS who attempt to BREAK UP the men)

(ENTER old CAPULET, and LADY CAPULET)

CAPULET: What noise is this? Give me my long sword, ho! Old Montague has come!

(ENTER old MONTAGUE and LADY MONTAGUE opposite)

MONTAGUE: [Spying CAPULET] that villain Capulet: [to LADY MONTAGUE who holds him
back] don’t hold me! Let me go!

LADY MONTAGUE: You will not stir one foot to seek a foe. (The couples remain either side of
the stage, the women holding their husbands back either by force, argument or childish with-
holding of weapons).
(The SERVANTS, BENVOLIO and TYBALT remain in combat with the CITIZENS, centre stage)

(ENTER PRINCE ESCALUS)

PRINCE : What ho, you men, you beasts

Throw your mistempered weapons to the ground.
(The stage falls still)
Three civil brawls bred of an airy word,
5 by thee, old Capulet, and Montague,
Have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets.
If ever you disturb our streets again,
Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace
On pain of death, all men depart.

(EXIT all)
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Scene 2
Outside of MONTAGUE’s house

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(Enter BENVOLIO and ROMEO)

BENVOLIO: Good morning, cousin.

ROMEO: Is the day so young?

Ay me, sad hours seem long.

BENVOLIO: What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours?

ROMEO: Not having that which, having, makes them short.

BENVOLIO: In love?

ROMEO: Out.

BENVOLIO: Of love?

ROMEO: Out of her favor where I am in love.

BENVOLIO: Alas.

(Enter of Wounded people)

ROMEO: [seeing the destruction of the fight]
Hey! What fray was going on here?
But don’t say it, for I have heard it all

BEVOLIO: Tell me, in sadness, who is that you love?

ROMEO: In sadness, cousin, I do love a woman.

BENVOLIO: So I was nearly correct when I say you loved someone.

ROMEO: A right good markman! And she’s fair I love.

BENVOLIO: I have hit the mark then..

ROMEO: Well in that hit you still miss; she’ll not be hit
With Cupid’s arrow…

BENVOLIO: (giving it up) Then my advice is, forget about her.

ROMEO: O, teach me how I should forget to think.

BENVOLIO: By giving liberty unto your eyes, check those other women.

ROMEO: Farewell, you cannot teach me to forget.

(EXIT BENVOLIO and ROMEO)

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SCENE 3
Outside The House of Capulet

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(CAPULET and PARIS in conversation)

CAPULET: It’s not so hard I think. For old men like us to keep the peace

PARIS: Of honorable reckoning are you both, and pity ’tis you lived at odds so long. But now
my lord what say you to me?

CAPULET : My child is yet a stranger in the world,

She has not seen the change for fourteen years.
PARIS : Younger than she are happy mothers made.

CAPULET : And too soon marred are those so early made.

[taking him close – offering an alternative]
Such delight among fresh female buds shall you this night
Inherit at my house. Come, lets go

(EXIT CAPULET and PARIS)

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(ENTER LADY CAPULET and NURSE)

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LADY CAPULET : Nurse, call up Juliet please

NURSE : Yes madam, Juliet! Juliet!

(ENTER JULIET)

JULIET: Hey, who calls?

NURSE: Your mother.

JULIET: Mother, I am here, what is your will?

LADY CAPULET: Tell me, daughter Juliet,

How stands your disposition to be married?

JULIET: It is an honor that I dream not of.

LADY CAPULET: Well, think of marriage now.

The valiant Paris seeks you for his love.
This night you shall behold him at our feast.

NURSE: Madam, the guests are here.

LADY CAPULET: We follow you.

NURSE: Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days.

(EXIT NURSE and LADY CAPULET)

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SCENE 4
A street

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(ENTER ROMEO, BENVOLIO, MERCUTIO and REVELLERS)

MERCUTIO: No, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance.

ROMEO: I don’t want to. You have dancing shoes. With nimble soles, I have a soul of lead.

BENVOLIO: Come, knock and enter.

ROMEO: But, it’s not right to go!

MERCUTIO: Why? Why do you ask?

ROMEO: I dreamed a dream tonight.

MERCUTIO: And so did I.

ROMEO: And what was yours?

MERCUTIO: That dreamers often lie

BENVOLIO: [hurrying them along] Dinner is done, and we shall be home late.

ROMEO I fear too early: for my mind misgives

Some consequence yet hanging in the stars
Shall bitterly begin his fearful date
With this night’s revels.

(EXIT all)

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SCENE 5
Capulet’s House

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SERVANT: the mouresca!!

(all dancing)
(The room is crowded, the people dance and drink. ROMEO and JULIET wind up dancing
together before PARIS spins her away. ROMEO stands downstage awestruck and following her
movements. He stops a passing servant.)

ROMEO: What is that Lady?

SERVANT: I don’t know, sir.

ROMEO: O she do teach the torch's to burn bright. Did my heart love till now? I swear it, my
eyes. For I never see true beauty till this night.

[He moves to follow her]

ROMEO: [Taking JULIET by the hand]

If I must profane with my unworthy hand. This is my shrine, the gentle fine is this: To smooth
that rough touch with a tender kiss.

JULIET: Good pilgrim, you do wrong to your hand too much,

Which mannerly devotion shows in this? For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss.

ROMEO: Do saints have lips, and holy palmers too?

JULIET: Yes, lips that they must use in prayer.

ROMEO: O then, dear saint, let our lips do what our hands do!
They pray.

(THEY KISS)

JULIET: You kiss by the book.

NURSE: Madam, your mother wants a word with you.

(EXIT JULIET)

ROMEO: Who is her mother?

NURSE: Her mother is the lady of the house.

(EXIT NURSE)

ROMEO: [Staring after her] Is she a Capulet?

BENVOLIO: [Catching ROMEO by the arm] Let’s get out of here; the sport is at the best.

ROMEO: Yes, so I fear; the more is my unrest.

CAPULET: [Addressing the entire room]

I thank you all; I thank you honest gentlemen, goodnight.
By my fay, it waxes late.

(The REVELLERS begin to disperse.)

(ENTER JULIET and NURSE)

JULIET: Come here, Nurse. What is that young gentleman?

NURSE: His name is Romeo, and a Montague,

The only son of your great enemy.

JULIET: My only love sprung from my only hate.

Too early seen unknown, and known too late.

(EXIT all)
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SCENE 6
Outside the walls of
the House of Capulet

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(ROMEO hides.)

(ENTER BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO)

BENVOLIO: Romeo! My cousin, Romeo! Romeo! He ran this way and leapt this orchard wall.
[giving up]Come, blind is his love, and best befits the dark.

MERCUTIO: If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark.

BENVOLIO: Go then, for it is in vain. Try to find him here and you will not find him.
(EXIT MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO)

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SCENE 7
Capulet’s Orchard

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(ROMEO hides)

ROMEO: He jests at scars that never felt a wound.

But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet is the sun!
It is my lady, O, it is my love!
O that she knew she were!

(JULIET appears at her balcony)

JULIET: Oh my!

ROMEO: She speaks. O, speak again bright angel!

JULIET: O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny your father and refuse your name. Or, if you will not, be but sworn my love, and i’ll no
longer be a Capulet.

ROMEO: Shall I hear more, or shall I speak?

JULIET: It is but your name that is my enemy; you are yourself, though not a Montague. O, be
some other name. What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell
as sweet. So would Romeo would not be called Romeo? Romeo, that is your name, and for that
name, which is no part of you, I will take you all myself.

ROMEO: [emerging from his hiding place]

I take you at your word. Call me but love, and henceforth I never will be Romeo.

JULIET: [shocked] Are you not a Montague? Where did you came from, tell me and where?

ROMEO: With love’s light wings did I over perch these walls.

JULIET: If any of my kinsmen find you here they will murder you.

ROMEO: I have the night’s cloak to hide me from their eyes,

And but you love me, then let them find me here. My life were better ended by their hate than
death prolonged, wanting of your love.

JULIET: Do you love me? O gentle Romeo,

If you love me, pronounce it faithfully.
ROMEO: Lady by yonder blessed moon I vow.

JULIET: O, do not swear by the moon,

ROMEO: What shall I swear by?

JULIET: Do not swear at all. Or if you do, you will-

NURSE: (calling from within) Madam!

JULIET: Coming good nurse!

Three words good Romeo, and goodnight indeed.
If that’s your bent of love, be honorable,
If you purpose marriage, send me a word tomorrow,
And all my fortunes at your foot I’ll lay,
And follow you my lord throughout the world.

NURSE: Madam!

JULIET: By and by, I come! (Turns to Romeo) Tomorrow I will send.

ROMEO: So thrive my soul

JULIET: A thousand times good night.

(They kiss)

(EXIT JULIET)

ROMEO: Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books,

But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.

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SCENE 8
Friar Lawrence’s
Cell

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(FRIAR LAWRENCE in his cell)

(ENTER ROMEO)
ROMEO: Good morning father!

FRIAR LAWRENCE: [startled] Benedicite!

Our Romeo has not been in bed tonight.
God pardons sin, are you with Rosaline?

ROMEO: With Rosaline, my ghostly father? No.

I have forgot that name, and that name is gone.

FRIAR LAWRENCE: That’s my good son; but be plain, where have you been then?

ROMEO: Then plainly know my heart’s dear love is set. On the fair daughter of rich Capulet.
We met, we wooed, and we exchange of vow, I’ll tell you as we pass; but this I pray. That you
will consent to marry us today.

FRIAR LAWRENCE: Holy Saint Francis!

ROMEO: I pray that you will not chide me..

FRIAR LAWRENCE: Come, in one respect I’ll be your assistant; for this alliance may so happy
to prove turning your households’ rancor to pure love.

(EXIT both)

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SCENE 9
A street

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(ENTER MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO)

MERCUTIO: Where the devil should this Romeo be?

Did he came home last night?

BENVOLIO: Not to his father’s. I spoke with him.

ENTER ROMEO and the two turn their backs on him

ROMEO Good morning to you two. What counterfeit did I give you?

MERCUTIO: The slip, sir, the slip.

ROMEO: Pardon, good Mercutio; but my business was great.

MERCUTIO: [Noting Romeo’s good mood]
Why, are you feeling better now than groaning for love?

[ENTER NURSE]

MERCUTIO: God you all good den, fair gentlewoman.

NURSE: Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I may find the young Romeo?

ROMEO: I can tell you; I am the youngest of that name.

NURSE: If you are him, sir, I desire some confidence with you.

ROMEO: [to MERCUTIO] I will follow you

MERCUTIO: farewell old lady

(EXIT MERCUTIO and BENVOLIO)

NURSE: First let me tell you, if you should lead her in a fool’s paradise, as they say, it were a
very gross kind of behavior, truly it were an ill thing-

ROMEO: I protest–
Bid her to come to shrift this afternoon, and there she will be at Friar Lawrence’s cell to be
shrived and married.

NURSE: She will be there.

(EXIT both)

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SCENE 10
Capulet’s house.

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JULIET awaits her nurse

(ENTER NURSE)

JULIET: O honey nurse, what is the news?

NURSE: I am weary, give me a break.

JULIET: Come, I pray to you, speak.

NURSE: Do you not see that I am out of breath?

JULIET: How are you out of breath when you can breathe? To say to me that you are out of
breath? Is your news good, or bad? Answer me.

NURSE: [Giving in] Your love says like an honest gentleman. Where is your mother?

JULIET: Where is my mother? How odd! Come on, What does Romeo say?

NURSE: That you will hence to Friar Lawrence’ cell. There stays a husband to make you a wife!

(EXIT JULIET and NURSE separately)

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SCENE 11
Friar Lawrence cell

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(ROMEO waits with FRIAR LAWRENCE in a single spotlight. JULIET ENTERS with NURSE by
her side. JULIET joins ROMEO, they join hands and gaze into each other’s eyes.)

FRIAR LAWRENCE: Heavens, smile upon this holy act. Do not chide us with sorrow.
(They kiss.)

(EXIT all)

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SCENE 12
A street

Curtain open
(ENTER BENVOLIO and MERCUTIO)

BENVOLIO: I ask you, good Mercutio, let’s go home

MERCUTIO: By my heel, I don’t care..

(ENTER TYBALT and others)

TYBALT: Gentlemen, good day: a word with one of you.

MERCUTIO: And but one word with one of us? Couple it with something; make it a word and a
blow.

TYBALT: You shall find me apt enough to that, sir.

Mercutio, are you friends with Romeo?

MERCUTIO: Friends? What, does that make us minstrels?

(ENTER ROMEO now secretly married and therefore related to the Capulets.)

TYBALT: Well, peace be with you, sir, here comes my man.

Romeo! The love I bear you can afford
No better term than this: you are a villain.

ROMEO: Tybalt, the reason that I have to love you. It does much excuse such a greeting: villain
I am not.

TYBALT: Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries you did to me.

ROMEO: I do protest I never injured you, good Capulet, which name I tender as dearly as mine
own, be satisfied.

MERCUTIO: O calm, dishonorable, vile submission!

[He draws] Tybalt, you rat catcher, will you walk?

TYBALT: What do you want with me?!!

MERCUTIO : Good King of Cats, nothing but one of your nine lives.

TYBALT: I am for you. [He draws]

ROMEO: Calm down Mercutio!

(They fight. MERCUTIO is the better swordsman,

TYBALT is struggling to keep up.)

ROMEO: Tybalt! Mercutio! The Prince has already said that we should not fight. Stop, Tybalt!
Good Mercutio!

(TYBALT under ROMEO’s arm wounds MERCUTIO)

BENVOLIO: Are you hurt?

MERCUTIO: Hey, Hey, it’s a scratch, a scratch. It is enough.

ROMEO: Courage my friend, It doesn’t hurt that bad.

MERCUTIO ’: Then I will serve. Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find me a grave man. A
plague on both your houses. A plague on both your houses.

(MERCUTIO dies)

BENVOLIO: Here comes Tybalt.

ROMEO: Alive, in triumph, and has killed Mercutio.

Tybalt! Tybalt, Mercutio’s soul is but a little way above our heads, staying for me to keep him
company. Either you, or I, or both, must go with him.

TYBALT: You wretched boy, you will be with him!

(They FIGHT. ROMEO kills TYBALT)

BENVOLIO: Romeo, get out of here! Get out of here! The prince will punish you to death..
Hence, get out!

ROMEO: O, I am fortune’s fool.

(EXIT ROMEO. ENTER PRINCE, MONTAGUE,

CAPULET, their wives and others.)

PRINCE: Where are the vile beginners of this fray?

BENVOLIO: There lies the man, slain by young Romeo that murdered our kinsman, brave
Mercutio.

LADY CAPULET: Tybalt, my cousin, O my brother’s child!

O, the blood is spilled of my dear kinsman. Prince, as it is true for blood of ours, shed blood of
Montague.

BENVOLIO: Romeo spoke him fair. Tybalt, deaf to peace, stabs at Mercutio’s breast. Romeo,
he cries aloud and rushes; underneath whose arm Tybalt hit the life of stout Mercutio.

LADY CAPULET: He is a kinsman to the Montague. Affection makes him false. He is lying! I
beg for justice, which you, Prince, must give. Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live.
PRINCE: For that offence, immediately we do exile him hence. Let Romeo hence in haste, else,
when he is found, that hour will be his last.

(EXIT all)

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SCENE 13
Juliet’s bedroom

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(JULIET awaits news from her nurse)

JULIET: Come, gentle night, give me my Romeo.

O, I have bought the mansion of a love
But not yet possessed it, and though I am sold,
Not yet enjoyed. So tedious is this day

(ENTER THE NURSE)

JULIET: Nurse, what is the news?

NURSE: We are undone, lady, we are undone.

Alack the day, he’s gone, he’s killed, and he’s dead.

JULIET: What kind of devil are you, that you torment me?
Has Romeo killed himself?

NURSE: Tybalt is gone, and Romeo is banished.

Romeo killed him, he is banished.

JULIET: O God! Did Romeo’s hand shed Tybalt’s blood?

O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face!
Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave?
O that deceit should dwell in such a gorgeous palace!

NURSE: Will you speak well of him that killed your cousin?

JULIET: Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?

Tybalt is dead and Romeo – banished.
That ‘banished’, that one word ‘banished’
Has slain ten thousand Tybalt’s.
O find him, give this ring to my true knight
And tell him to come to take his last farewell.
(EXIT NURSE)

(EXIT JULIET)

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SCENE 14
Friar Lawrence’ Cell

Curtain open
(FRIAR LAWRENCE and ROMEO)

FRIAR LAWRENCE: Affliction is enamored of your parts And you are wedded to calamity.

ROMEO: [Grief stricken]

Banishment! Be merciful, say ‘death’. For exile has more terror in his look, much more than
death. Do not say ‘banishment’.

FRIAR LAWRENCE: This is dear mercy and you cease it not.

ROMEO: It is torture and not mercy. Heaven is where Juliet lives, and every unworthy thing,live
here in heaven and may look on her, but I can no longer.

(KNOCKING)

FRIAR LAWRENCE: Good Romeo, hide yourself

(More knocking)

FRIAR LAWRENCE: Who knocks so hard? What’s your will?

NURSE: I come from Lady Juliet.

FRIAR LAWRENCE: Welcome then.

(ENTER NURSE)

ROMEO: Where is she? And how is she doing? And does my concealed lady say to our
cancelled love?

NURSE: O, she says nothing, sir, but weeps and weeps.

But here, sir, a ring the she asked me to give you.
Oh you, make haste, for it grows very late.
(EXIT NURSE)

ROMEO: How well my comfort is revived by this

.
FRIAR LAWRENCE: 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.
Give me your hand. It is late. Farewell. Good night.

ROMEO : Farewell.

(EXIT ROMEO)

(EXIT FRIAR LAWRENCE)

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SCENE 15
Capulet’s House

Curtain open
(PARIS and CAPULET in discussion)

PARIS: These times of grief afford no time to woo.

Madam goodnight. Commend me to your daughter.

CAPULET : Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender

Of my child’s love. I think she will be ruled
In all respects by me, I doubt it not.
Tell her that you will marry her on Thursday
She shall be married to this noble earl.

(EXIT both)

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SCENE 16
Juliet’s Bedroom

Curtain open
(ROMEO and JULIET together
BIRDSONG)
JULIET: Will you be gone? It is not yet near day.
It was the nightingale and not the lark.

ROMEO: It was the lark, the herald of the morning.

I must be gone and live, or stay and die.

JULIET: This light is not daylight, I know it, you don’t have to go yet.

ROMEO: Let me be taken, let me be put to death.

I have more care to stay than will to go.
Come death, and welcome. Juliet wills it so.
How is it my soul? Let’s talk. It is not day.

JULIET: It is, it is. Hence, be gone, away.

O, now be gone, lighter and light it grows.

(ENTER NURSE hurriedly)

NURSE: Madam! Your Lady mother is coming to your chamber.

JULIET: Then, window, let day in and let life out.

ROMEO: Farewell, farewell. One kiss and I’ll descend.

JULIET: Will you go? Love, lord, my husband, friend.

O, I will wish to meet you again?

ROMEO: I doubt it not.

(ROMEO moves to leave and does not hear the following)

JULIET: O God, I have an ill-divining soul!

I think I see now, that I am cursed so low, just like a dead in the bottom of a tomb.

ROMEO: [Turning] Adieu, adieu.

(ENTER LADY CAPULET)

LADY CAPULET: Why? What happened Juliet?

JULIET: Madam, I am not well

LADY CAPULET: Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?

Well, well, you have a careful father, child;
One who will put you away from heaviness?
He has sorted out a sudden day of joy.

JULIET: Madam, in happy time. What day is that?

LADY CAPULET: Marry, my child, early next Thursday morning

The gallant Paris shall happily make you a joyful bride.

JULIET : He shall not make me a joyful bride!

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,
Rather than Paris.

LADY CAPULET : [shocked]

Tell him so yourself,
And see how he will take it at your hands.

(ENTER CAPULET)

LADY CAPULET: Sir, she doesn’t want to be married, she gives you thanks.
I would the fool were married to her grave.

CAPULET: How? She doesn’t want to? Is she not proud? Does she not count her blessings,
unworthy as she is, that we have wrought
a worthy gentleman to be her bridegroom? Go with Paris to Saint Peter’s Church, or I will drag
you on a hurdle thither. Out, you baggage!

JULIET: Hear me out, please!

CAPULET: Hang you, young baggage, disobedient wretch!

Speak not, reply not, and do not answer me.

(EXIT CAPULET)

JULIET: O, sweet my mother, do not cast me 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.

(EXIT LADY CAPULET without looking at JULIET)

JULIET: Alas, alas, that heaven should practice stratagems

Upon so soft a subject as myself. What do you say?

NURSE: Romeo is banished, and all the world to nothing.

I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first; or, if it did not,
Your first is dead, or as good he were.

JULIET: [Pause]
Go in, and tell my lady I am gone,
Having displeased my father, to Lawrence’ cell,
To make confession and to be absolved.

NURSE: Marry, I will, and wisely done.

(EXIT NURSE)

JULIET: Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend,

I’ll talk to the Friar, to know his remedy.
If all else fail, myself have the power to die.

(EXIT JULIET)

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SCENE 17
Friar Lawrence’ Cell

Curtain open
(PARIS and FRIAR LAWRENCE in conversation)

PARIS: …Now do you know the reason of this haste

FRIAR LAWRENCE: [to himself] I would I know not why it should be slowed.
Look sir, here comes the lady towards 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, and love, on Thursday next.

JULIET: What must be shall be.

FRIAR LAWRENCE: That’s a certain text.

PARIS: Come you to make confession to this father?

JULIET: To answer that, I should confess to you.

[to FRIAR LAWRENCE] Are you open today, Holy Father?

FRIAR LAWRENCE: My leisure serves me, my pensive daughter.

My lord, we must entreat the time alone.

PARIS: Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you.

Till then, adieu, and keep this holy kiss.

(They kiss. EXIT PARIS)

JULIET: O shut the door,

God joined my heart and Romeo’s, our hands;
Give me some present counsel, I long to die
If what you speak, speak not of remedy.

FRIAR LAWRENCE: I do spy a kind of hope.

If, you don’t want to marry County Paris,
You have the strength of will to slay yourself,
Then it is likely, that you will undertake
A thing like death to chide away this shame.

JULIET: I will do it without fear or doubt.

To live an unstained wife to my sweet love.

FRIAR LAWRENCE: Hold then. Go home, be merry, and give consent to marry Paris.
Do not let the nurse lie with you in your chamber.
You will this vial, being in bed,
And this distilling liquor you will drink it off;
When presently through all your veins shall die
No pulse, no warmth.
The roses in your lips and cheeks shall fade
And in this, you will borrow death and its likeness
You shall continue to be dead for 42 hours
And then you will awake as from pleasant sleep.
You shall be borne to that same ancient vault
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.
In the meantime, before you awake,
I will send Romeo my letters know our drift
And he shall come.

JULIET: Love, give me strength and strength shall help afford.

Farewell, dear father!

(EXIT JULIET)

(EXIT FRIAR LAWRENCE)

Curtain close

Scene 18
Juliet's bedroom

Curtain open
(LADY CAPULET and NURSE preparing JULIET for her
Wedding day)

JULIET: Gentle Nurse,

I pray you, leave me to myself tonight.

LADY CAPULET: Good night.

Get to your bed, and rest, for you need it.

(EXIT LADY CAPULET and NURSE)

JULIET: Farewell. God knows when we shall meet again.

What if this mixture do not work at all?
Shall I be married then tomorrow morning?
No, no, this shall forbid it.
[She lays down a knife]
Romeo, I come! This I do drink to you.

(She drinks and lies down as if sleeping. Lighting suggests

the passage of night and the break of morning.)

Curtain close
BY MORNING

Curtain open
(ENTER NURSE )

NURSE: ah who tries to rouse JULIET? (Thinking her dead.) Oh Juliet oh my dear Juliet (she
cry) oh GOD oh GOD what happen to you now my dear JULIET (she ran out from the room)

(EXIT NURSE.)
Curtain close

SCENE 19
Friar Lawrence’ Cell

Curtain open
[this can be played in a single downstage spot to
quicken the pace]

(FRIAR LAWRENCE in his cell)

(ENTER FRIAR JOHN holding a letter)

FRIAR JOHN: I could not send it, nor get a messenger to bring it thee.
Here it is again -

FRIAR LAWRENCE : O unhappy fortune.

The letter was of dear import and the neglecting of it will do much danger.
Now must I to the monument alone.

(EXIT both separately)

(They burry Juliet)

(All is crying)

Curtain close

SCENE 20
Mantua

Curtain open
(ROMEO awaits news from Verona)

(ENTER BALTHAZAR)

ROMEO: News from Verona! Hey now Balthazar,

Do you not bring me letters from the Friar?
How is my lady? For nothing can be ill if she is well.

BALTHAZAR: Then she is well and nothing can be ill.

Her body sleeps in Capel’s monument.

ROMEO: [PAUSE]
Is it even so? Then I defy you, stars!
I will hence tonight.

BALTHAZAR: Please, hear me sir, have patience.

ROMEO: You are deceived. Did you receive letters from the Friar?

BALTHAZAR: No my good lord.

ROMEO: Get out. I’ll be with you straight.

(EXIT BALTHAZAR)

ROMEO: Juliet, I will lie with you tonight.

(Crossing the stage and banging on a door)
Apothecary!
Come hurry. I see that you are poor.
Here, there is forty ducats. Let me have a dram of poison.

APOTHECARY: I have such mortal drugs, but by Mantua’s law ss that if he utters them will be
put to death. My poverty, but not my will, consents.

ROMEO: I pay your poverty and not your will.

(EXIT both)

Curtain close

SCENE 21
Capel’s Monument

Curtain open
(The tomb is eerie and dark, a place of death and ghosts. It
is terrifying. JULIET lies as though dead.)

(ENTER
ROMEO)

ROMEO: O my love, my wife,

Death that has sucked the honey of your breath
It has no power yet upon your beauty. You are not conquered. Beauty’s ensign yet is crimson in
your lips and in your cheeks, and death’s pale flag has not advanced.
Dear Juliet, why are you so fair? O here will I set up my everlasting rest.
Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! And lips,
Seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing Death!

[He kisses her]

ROMEO: Here’s to my love [he drinks] O true apothecary,

Your drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.

(ROMEO falls. JULIET rises.)

JULIET: [seeing Romeo] Romeo!

What’s here closed in my true love’s hand?
Poison, I see, he has been his timeless end.
O churl! Drunk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss your lips.
Haply some poison yet it does hang on them.

[She kisses him]

(Movement is heard outside the tomb)

JULIET: Yea noise? O happy dagger.

This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die.

(SHE TOOK ROMEO'S KNIFE)

,(She stabs herself and falls)

(ENTER FRIAR LAWRENCE)

FRIAR LAWRENCE: Juliet!

Oh what did I done

(He regards the scene with horror and stumbles out). (EXIT FRIAR LAWRENCE. )
(Lighting suggests the passage of time).
(ENTER FRIAR LAWRENCE and PRINCE)

PRINCE: What misadventure is so early up?

That calls our person from our morning rest?

(ENTER CAPULET and LADY CAPULET)

CAPULET: What should it be, that is so shrieked abroad?

LADY CAPULET: O the people in the street cry ‘Romeo’
And some ‘Juliet’…

(They stare at the scene.)

(ENTER MONTAGUE.)

FRIAR LAWRENCE: (kneels and prays beside the bodies.)

MONTAGUE : Alas, my liege, my wife is dead tonight.

Grief of my son’s exile has stopped her breath.
What further woe conspires against mine age?

[He sees ROMEO and JULIET and falls silent]

Curtain close

SCENE 22
Outside of the Capel's monument

Curtain open

PRINCE: 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 punished.

CAPULET: O brother Montague, give me your hand.

MONTAGUE: 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,

Poor sacrifices of our enmity.

PRINCE: For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

(Exit of Prince)

(Exit of all)

(MONTAGUE and CAPULET shakes hand together while exit)

CHORUS :The weather was cold, a love that lasted until death, it was not accepted, but Romeo
and Juliet let their true love be felt even though they were on opposite sides of their world.

It seemed like a punishment to the two families who exercised their pride but it also became a
bridge so that the two families could get along in the end and Romeo and Juliet could feel their
eternal love.

Eternal love was like as diamond, also diamond can only shattered like Romeo and Juliet had
even their death they were in each other and death also can set them apart.

Curtain close

THE END