Pet. 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.
1 Mus. What a pestilent knave is this same! 2 Mus. Hang him, Jack! Come, we'll in here: tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner. [Exeunt.
SCENE I.-Mantua. A Street.
FI may trust the flattering truth 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 spiri
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.
I dreamt, my lady came and found me dead;
(Strange dream! that gives a dead man leave to
think,)
And breathed such life with kisses in my lips,
That I revived, and was an emperor.
Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess'd,
When but love's shadows are so rich in joy!
News from Verona !-How now, Balthasar?
Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar?
How doth my lady
Is my father well?
How doth my lady Juliet? That I ask again;
For nothing can be ill, if she be well.
Bal. Then she is well, and nothing can be ill.
Her body sleeps in Capels' monument,
And her immortal part with angels lives.
I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault,
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.
Rom. Is it even so? then I defy you, stars!Thou know'st my lodging: get me ink and paper,
And hire post-horses; I will hence to-night.
Bal. I do beseech you, sir, have patience.
Your looks are pale and wild, and do import
Some misadventure.
Tush, thou art deceived;
Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do:
Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?
Bal. No, my good lord.
No matter: get thee gone,
And hire those horses; I'll be with thee straight.
[Exit BALTHASAR. Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night. 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-
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 fore-run 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!
Rom. Come hither, man.—I see that thou art
Hold, there is forty ducats; let me have
A dram of poison; such soon-speeding gear
As will disperse itself through all the veins,
That the life-weary taker may fall dead;
And that the trunk may be discharged of breath
As violently as hasty powder fired
Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb.
Ap. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law
Is death to any he that utters them.
Rom. Art thou so bare, and full of wretched.
And fear'st to die? famine is in thy cheeks,
Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes,
Contempt and beggary hang upon thy back,
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.
Ap. My poverty, but not my will, consents.
Rom. I pray thy poverty, and not thy will.
Ap. Put this in any liquid thing you will,
And drink it off; and, if you had the strength
Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight.
Rom. There is thy gold; worse poison to
men's souls,
Doing more murder in this loathsome world, 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.
SCENE II.-Friar Laurence's Cell.
John. Holy Franciscan friar! brother, ho!
Enter FRIAR LAURENCE.
Lau. 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.
John. Going to find a bare-foot brother out,
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,
Seal'd up the doors, and would not let us forth;
So that my speed to Mantua there was stay'd.
Lau. Who bare my letter then to Romeo?
John. I could not send it,-here it is again,—
Nor get a messenger to bring it thee;
So fearful were they of infection.
Lau. 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; Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight Unto my cell.
John. Brother, I'll go and bring it thee. [Exit.
Lau. Now must I to the monument alone;
Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake.
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, closed in a dead man's tomb!
SCENE III.-A Churchyard; in it, a
Monument belonging to the Capulets.
Enter PARIS, and his Page bearing flowers and a torch. Par. Give me thy torch, boy: hence, and stand aloof :
Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.
Under yon yew-trees lay thee all along,
Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground;
So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread
(Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves).
But thou shalt hear it: whistle then to me,
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