Paris had already been received by the Capulets, as the intended husband of their daughter: and, they had delayed the union, only on account of Juliet's tender age. However, her excessive grief, during Romeo's banishment, being attributed to the death of her kinsman, Tybalt, it was then determined, that her nuptials, with the count, should immediately take place. In vain, Juliet implores her parents to allow her a short respite. They remain inexorable. In this difficulty she flies for counsel to the Friar, who had previously married her to Romeo. He, at last, devises, that she shall take a strong soporific, with which he presents her, and which, during forty two hours will give her the semblance of being dead; thus enabling Romeo, who is to be informed of the stratagem, to bear her off, in the night, from the tomb of the Capulets. Juliet, the eve of the intended marriage, swallows the drug, and is thrown into a deep lethargy, that gives her a corse-like appearance. Her relations, the next morning, inter her, in the vault of their ancestors, on an open bier, according to the custom of Italy. But, by a cruel destiny, instead of Romeo receiving in time the Friar's letter, it miscarries, and he learns from his servant, Balthazar, whom he had sent to Verona for news, the death of his bride. In his despair, he determines to destroy himself on the grave of his beloved :

<< Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night.
Let's see for means :- O, mischief, thou are swift
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!
I do remember an apothecary,

And hereabouts he dwells,
,-whom late I noted
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows
Culling of simples; meager 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-shap'd 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
An 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 must be the house :-
What, ho! apothecary.

Come hither, man. I see thou art poor;
Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have
A dram of poison; such soon-speeding geer
As will disperse itself through all the veins,
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. -
There is thy gold; worse poison to men's souls,
Doing more murders in this loathsome world,
Than these poor compounds, that thou may'st not sell :
I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me wone.
Farewell; buy food, and get thyself in flesh. >>

The design represents the poor apothecary's shop, in Mantua; and the moment when Romeo gives him the gold, in exchange for the poison.

SERIES II.

This design represents the Church-Yard where lies the tomb of the Capulets: Count Paris, with his page bearing a torch, is come for the purpose of strewing flowers over the grave of his intended bride :

<< Give me thy torch, boy: Hence, and stand aloof; Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.

Sweet flower, with flowers I strew thy bridal bed:
Sweet tomb, that in thy circuit dost contain

The perfect model of eternity;

Fair Juliet, that with angels dost remain,
Accept this latest favour at my hands;
That living honour'd thee, and, being dead,
With funeral praises do adorn thy tomb!

(The page whistles.)
The boy gives warning, something doth approach.
What cursed foot wanders this way to-night
To cross my obsequies, and true-love's rites?
What, with a torch! - Muffle me, night, a while. »
(Retires.)

Romeo advances, followed by Balthazar, from whom he takes a mattock and a wrenching iron; as also the light and giving his servant a letter for his father, he dismisses him, with strong injunctions not to offer any interruption, whatever he may hear or see. His object, he adds, is to take a ring from Juliet's finger. He then apostrophizes the monument, previous to breaking it open.

<< Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death, Gorg'd with the dearest morsel of the earth,

PL. 10.

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,
Heap not another sin upon my head,

By urging me to fury: O, be gone!

By heaven, I love thee better than myself;
For I come hither arm'd against myself:

Stay not, be gone: live, and hereafter say -
A madman's mercy bade thee run away.
PARIS. I do defy thy conjurations,