Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end :- I Watch. Within.] Lead, boy:-Which way? Jul. Yea, noise then I'll be brief.-O happy dagger! [Snatching Romeo's dagger. This is thy sheath; [Stabs herself.] there rust, and let me die. [Falls on Romeo's body, and dies. Enter Watch, with the Page of Paris. Page. This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn. 1 Watch. The ground is bloody: Search about the churchyard: Go, some of you, who e'er you find, attach. [Exeunt some. Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain ;— And Juliet bleeding; warm, and newly dead, Who here hath lain these two days buried.Go, tell the prince,-run to the Capulets,-. Raise up the Montagues, some others search;[Exeunt other Watchmen. We see the ground whereon these woes do lie; But the true ground of all these piteous woes, We cannot without circumstance descry. Enter some of the Watch, with Balthasar. 2 Watch. Here's Romeo's man, we found him in the churchyard. 1 Watch. Hold him in safety, till the prince come hither. Enter another Watchman, with Friar LAURENCE 3 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. 1 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? Enter CAPULET, Lady CAPULET, and Others. Cap. What should it be, that they so shriek abroad? La. Cap. The people in the street cry-Ro meo, Some-Juliet, and some-Paris; and all run, With open outcry, toward our monument. Prince. What fear is this, which startles in our cars? 1 Watch. Sovereign, here lies the county Paris slain ; And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before, Prince. Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes. 1 Watch. Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Re- With instruments upon them, fit to open Cap. O, heavens!-O wife! look how our This dagger hath mista'en,-for, lo! his house 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. Mon. Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night; Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath: What further woe conspires against mine age? Prince. Look, and thou shalt see. Mon. O thou untaught! what manners is in this, 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 then will I be general of your woes, Fri. I am the greatest, able to do least, Prince. Then say at once what thou dost know in this. Fri. I will be brief, for my short date of breath 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 stolen marriage-day Was Tybalt's dooms-day, whose untimely death Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this city; For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin'd. Being the time the potion's force should cease. Prince. We still have known thee for a holy man. Where's Romeo's man? what can he say in this? Bal. I brought my master news of Juliet's death; And then in post he came from Mantua, 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? 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: Their course of love, the tidings of her death: And I, for winking at your discords too, Mon. But I can give thee more: Cap. As rich shall Romeo by his lady lie; 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: For never was a story of more woe, Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. [Exeunt. HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. CLAUDIUS, king of Denmark. PERSONS OF THE DRAMA. FRANCISCO, a soldier. HAMLET, Son to the former, and nephew to the REYNALDO, servant to Polonius. present king. POLONIUS, lord chamberlain. A Captain. An Ambassador. Ghost of Hamlet's father. FORTINBRAS, prince of Norway. GERTRUDE, queen of Denmark, and mother Hamlet. OPHELIA, daughter of Polonius. Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Gravediggers, Sailors, Messengers, and other At tendants. SCENE,-Elsinore. ACT I Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus. Hor. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night? Ber. I have seen nothing. Mar. Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy; And will not let belief take hold of him, Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us : Therefore I have entreated him, along With us to watch the minutes of this night; That, if again this apparition come, He may approve our eyes, and speak to it. Hor. Tush! tush! 'twill not appear. Ber. Sit down awhile; And let us once again assail your ears, Hor. Well, sit we down, And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. When yon same star, that's westward from the pole, Had made his course to illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself, The bell then beating one, Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again! Enter Ghost. Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead. Mar. Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio. Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio. Hor. Most like:-it harrows me with fear, and wonder. Ber. It would be spoke to. Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form Mar. It is offended. Ber. See! it stalks away. Hor. Stay; speak: speak I charge thee, Is not this something more than fantasy? Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, (For so this side of our known world esteem'd him,) Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compáct, Well ratified by law and heraldry, Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same co-mart, Of this post-haste and romage in the land, Ber. I think, it be no other, but even so: Well may it sort, that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch; so like the king That was, and is, the question of these wars. Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Re-enter Ghost. But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again! If there be any good thing to be done, If thou art privy to thy country's fate, Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan ? Hor. Do, if it will not stand. Ber. 'Tis here! Hor. 'Tis here! And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time. Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this inorning know, Where we shall find him most convenient. In equal scale weighing delight and dole,Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd [Exit Ghost. Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone With this affair along:-For all, our thanks. Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, We do it wrong, being so majestical, crew. Hor. And then it started, like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. Í have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day; and, at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine: and of the truth herein This present object made probation. Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes, Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long: Holding a weak supposal of our worth; |