Give me some present counsel, or behold,

'Twixt my extremes and me, this bloody dagger Shall play the umpire.

Lau. (c.) 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 Paris,
Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself,
Then it is likely thou wilt undertake

A thing like death to free thee from this marriage.
Jul. (r. c.) O, bid me leap, rather than marry
Paris,

From off the battlements of yonder tower;
Or chain me to some steepy mountain's top,
Where roaring bears and savage lions roam :
Or shut me nightly in a charnel-house,
O'er cover'd quite with dead men's rattling bones,
With reeky shanks, and yellow chapless sculls;
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 hath made me tremble,
And I will do it, without fear or doubt,

To live an unstain'd wife to my sweet love.

Lau. (c.) Hold, Juliet ;--hie thee home; get thee to bed ;—

Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber;—
And, when thou art alone, take thou this phial,
And this distill'd liquor drink thou off;

When presently, through all thy veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humor;

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!
And in this borrow'd likeness of shrunk death
Thou shalt continue two-and-forty hours;
And then awake, as from a pleasant sleep.—
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, uncovered, on the bier,
Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault,
Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie.—
In the mean time, 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 night
Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua:
If no inconstant toy, nor womanish fear,
Abate thy valor in the acting this.

Jul. Give me, O, give me!—tell me not of fear.
[Gives her the Phial.
Lau. Hold;—get you gone; be strong and pros-
perous

In this resolve; I'll send a friar with speed

To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord.

Jul. Love, give me strength; and strength shall help afford.

Farewell, dear father.

[Exeunt Friar R. —

-JULIET L.

SCENE II.-A Room in Capulet's House.

Enter Capulet L., meeting Lady Capulet and
Nurse R.

Cap. (l.) What, is my daughter gone to Friar
Laurence?

Nurse. (c.) Ay, forsooth.

Cap. Well, he may chance to do some good on her! A peevish self-will'd harlotry it is.

Nurse. See, where she comes from shrift.

Enter Juliet L.

Cap. (c.) How now, my headstrong! where have you been gadding?

Jul. (l. c.) Where I have learn'd me to repent the sin

Of disobedient opposition

To you, and your behests; and am enjoin'd
By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here,

Behests-commands.

And beg your pardon ! ( Kneels. )—Pardon, I beseech you!

Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.

Cap. Send for the County; go, tell him of this!
I'll have this knot knit up to-morrow morning.
Jul. (Rises.) I met the youthful lord at Laurence'
cell;

And gave him what becoming love I might,
Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.
Cap. This is as 't should be!

Now, afore heaven, this reverend holy friar,
All our whole city is much bound to him.
Jul. Nurse, will you go with me into my closet,
To help me sort such needful ornaments

[Crosses to R.

As you think fit to furnish me to-morrow? L. Cap. (R. C.) No, not till Thursday; there is time enough.

Cap. (L. c.) Go, Nurse, go with her :—we 'll to church to-morrow.

[Exeunt Juliet and Nurse R.

Go thou to Juliet, help her to deck up:

I'll not to bed; but walk myself to Paris,
To appoint him 'gainst to-morrow.

light,

My heart's

Since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed. [Exeunt Capulet L., and LADY CAPULET R.

Jul. (Sitting on a chair in front of her bed.) Ay, those attires are best ;—but, gentle Nurse,

I pray thee, leave me to myself to-night,

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.

Enter Lady Capulet R.

L. Cap. What, are you busy? Do you need my

help?

Jul. (Rising.) No, madam; we have cull'd such

necessaries

As are behoveful for our state to-morrow;

So please you, let me now be left alone,
And let the Nurse this night sit up with you;
For I am sure, you have your hands full all,
In this so sudden business.

L. Cap. Then, good night!

Get thee to bed, and rest; for thou hast need. [jul. follows Lady Capulet to R., and embraces her.—Exeunt Lady Capulet and Nurse R.

Jul. (r.) Farewell!—Heaven knows when we shall meet again.—

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? (R. C.)
My dis:nal scene I needs must act alone.

[Sits, and takes out the phial.

Come, phial,--
What if this mixture do not work at all!
Shall I of force be married to the count?

No, no ;—this shall forbid it—(Draws a dagger. )— lie thou there. (c.)

What, if it be a poison which the Friar
Subtly hath minister'd, to have me dead;
Lest in this marriage he should be dishonor'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?

Or if I live, is it not very like,

The horrible conceit of death and night,
Together with the terror of the place,—

Behoveful-needful.

As in a vault; an ancient receptacle,

Where, for these many hundred years, the bones
Of all my buried ancestors are pack'd,

Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,
Lies fest'ring in his shrowd; where, as they say,
At some hours in the night spirits resort ;—
Or, 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 shrowd?
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:-Stay, Tybalt, stay!
Romeo, I come; this do I drink to thee.—

[Drinks the contents of the Phial. O, potent draught, thou hast chilled me to the heart!

My head turns round;—my senses fail me.—
O, Romeo! Romeo!—

[Staggers back, and throws herself on the bed.

1

SCENE IV.A Room in Capulet's House.

Enter Lady Capulet and Nurse R.

L. Cap. (R. C.) Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, Nurse.

Nurse. They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.

Enter Capulet L.

Cap. (l. c.) Come, stir, stir, stir! the second cock
hath crow'd,

The curfew bell hath rung, 'tis three o'clock :—
Look to the baked meats, good Angelica!
Spare not for cost.

Nurse. Go, go, you cot-quean, go;

Get you to bed; 'faith, you'll be sick to-morrow For this night's watching.

[Exit L.

Cap. No, not a whit: what! I have watch'd, ere

now,