And Paris too.

Come, I'll dispose of thee Among a sisterhood of holy nuns : Stay not to question, for the watch is coming; Come, go, good Juliet [Noise again], I dare no longer stay.

159 Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away. [Exit Fri. L. What's here? a cup, closed in my true love's hand?

Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end:
O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips;
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make me die with a restorative. [Kisses him.
Thy lips are warm.

First 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. 170 [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.

First Watch. The ground is bloody; search about the churchyard:

Go, some of you, whoe'er you find attach.
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:
We see the ground whereon these woes do lie;
But the true ground of all these piteous woes 180
We cannot without circumstance descry.

Third 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. First 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 190 La. Cap. The people in the street cry Romeo, Some Juliet, and some Paris; and all run, With open outcry, toward our monument. Prince. What fear is this which startles in

abroad?

our ears?

First Watch. Sovereign, here lies the County
Paris slain;

And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before,
Warm and new kill'd.

219

And then will I be general of your woes,
And lead you even to death: meantime forbear,
And let mischance be slave to patience.
Bring forth the parties of suspicion.

Fri. L. I am the greatest, able to do least,
Yet most suspected, as the time and place
Doth make against me, of this direful murder;
And here I stand, both to impeach and purge
Myself condemned and myself excused.

Prince. Then say at once what thou dost know in this.

Fri. L. I will be brief, for my short date of breath

230

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 stol'n marriage-day
Was Tybalt's dooms-day, whose untimely death
Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from this
city,

239

For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.
You, to remove that siege of grief from her,
Betroth'd and would have married her perforce
To County Paris: then comes she to me,
And, with wild looks, bid me devise some mean
To rid her from this second marriage,
Or in my cell there would she kill herself.
Then gave I her, so tutor'd by my art,
A sleeping potion; which so took effect
As I intended, for it wrought on her
The form of death: meantime I writ to Romeo,
That he should hither come as this dire night,
To help to take her from her borrow'd grave,
Being the time the potion's force should cease.
But he which bore my letter, Friar John,
Was stay'd by accident, and yesternight
Return'd my letter back. Then all alone
At the prefixed hour of her waking,
Came I to take her from her kindred's vault;

250

Meaning to keep her closely at my cell,
Till I conveniently could send to Romeo:
But when I came, some minute ere the time
Of her awaking, here untimely lay
The noble Paris and true Romeo dead.
She wakes; and I entreated her come forth, 260
And bear this work of heaven with patience:
But then a noise did scare me from the tomb;
And she, too desperate, would not go with me,
But, as it seems, did violence on herself.
All this I know; and to the marriage
Her nurse is privy: and, if aught in this
Miscarried by my fault, let my old life
Be sacrificed, some hour before his time,
Unto the rigour of severest law.

270

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
To this same place, to this same monument.
This letter he early bid me give his father,
And threaten'd me with death, going in the
vault,

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 raised the watch?

Sirrah, what made your master in this place? 280 Page. He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave;

And bid me stand aloof, and so I did:

Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb;
And by and by my master drew on him;
And then I ran away to call the watch.
Prince. This letter doth make good the friar's
words,

Their course of love, the tidings of her death:
And here he writes that he did buy a poison
Of a poor 'pothecary, and therewithal
Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet. 200
Where be these enemies? Capulet! Monta-
gue!

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 punish'd.
Cap. O brother Montague, give me thy hand:
This is my daughter's jointure, for no more
Can I demand.

300

Mon. But I can give thee more: For I will raise her statue in pure gold; That while Verona by that name is known, There shall no figure at such rate be set As that of true and faithful Juliet. Cap. As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's 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. 310

I am glad you're well.

Poet. Good day, sir.
Pain.
Poet. I have not seen you long: how goes the
world?

Pain. It wears, sir, as it grows.
Poet.

Ay, that's well known:
But what particular rarity? what strange,
Which manifold record not matches? See,
Magic of bounty! all these spirits thy power
Hath conjured to attend. I know the merchant.
Pain. I know them both; th' other's a jeweller.
Mer. O, 'tis a worthy lord.
Jew.
Nay, that's most fix'd.
Mer. A most incomparable man, breathed, as
it were,

To an untirable and continuate goodness:
He passes.

Few. I have a jewel here

10

Mer. O, pray, let's see't: for the Lord Timon, sir?

Few. If he will touch the estimate: but, for that

Poet. [Reciting to himself] 'When we for recompense have praised the vile, It stains the glory in that happy verse Which aptly sings the good.'

Mer.

'Tis a good form. [Looking at the jewel. Jew. And rich: here is a water, look ye. Pain. You are rapt, sir, in some work, some dedication

To the great lord.
Poet.
A thing slipp'd idly from me. 20
Our poesy is as a gum, which oozes
From whence 'tis nourish'd: the fire i' the flint
Shows not till it be struck; our gentle flame
Provokes itself and like the current flies

Each bound it chafes. What have you there?

CAPHIS,

PHILOTUS,

TITUS,

servants to Timon's creditors.

LUCIUS,

HORTENSIUS,

And others,

A Page. A Fool. Three Strangers.
PHRYNIA,
TIMANDRA, mistresses to Alcibiades.

Cupid and Amazons in the mask.

Other Lords, Senators, Officers, Soldiers, Banditti, and Attendants.

SCENE: Athens, and the neighbouring woods.

Pain. A picture, sir. When comes your book forth?

Poet. Upon the heels of my presentment, sir. Let's see your piece. Pain.

'Tis a good picce.

Poet. So 'tis: this comes off well and excellent. Pain. Indifferent.

Pain. 'Tis conceived to scope. This throne, this Fortune, and this hill, methinks, With one man beckon'd from the rest below, Bowing his head against the steepy mount To climb his happiness, would be well express'd In our condition.

Poet. All those which were his fellows but of late, Some better than his value, on the moment Follow his strides, his lobbies fill with tendance, Rain sacrificial whisperings in his ear,

Nay, sir, but hear me on.

Make sacred even his stirrup, and through him Drink the free air.

Pain.

Ay, marry, what of these?

79

Poet. When Fortune in her shift and change of mood

Spurns down her late beloved, all his dependants
Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top
Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down,
Not one accompanying his declining foot."
Pain. 'Tis common:

A thousand moral paintings I can show
That shall demonstrate these quick blows
Fortune's

More pregnantly than words. Yet you do well
To show Lord Timon that mean eyes have seen
The foot above the head.

90

of

Enter an old Athenian. Old Ath. Lord Timon, hear me speak. Tim. Freely, good father. 110 Old Ath. Thou hast a servant named Lucilius. Tim. I have so: what of him?

Old Ath. Most noble Timon, call the man before thee.

Tim. Attends he here, or no? Lucilius!
Lue. Here, at your lordship's service.
Old Ath. This fellow here, Lord Timon, this
thy creature,

By night frequents my house. I am a man
That from my first have been inclined to thrift;
And my estate deserves an heir more raised
Than one which holds a trencher.

Tim.

Well; what further? roo Old Ath. One only daughter have I, no kin else,

On whom I may confer what I have got:
The maid is fair, o' the youngest for a bride,
And I have bred her at my dearest cost
In qualities of the best. This man of thine
Attempts her love: I prithee, noble lord,
Join with me to forbid him her resort;
Myself have spoke in vain.

Tim.
The man is honest.
Old Ath. Therefore he will be, Timon:
His honesty rewards him in itself;
It must not bear my daughter.
Tim.

130

Does she love him?

Old Ath. She is young and apt:
Our own precedent passions do instruct us
What levity's in youth.

Tim. To Lucilius] Love you the maid?
Luc. Ay, my good lord, and she accepts of it.
Old Ath. If in her marriage my consent be
missing.

I call the gods to witness, I will choose
Mine heir from forth the beggars of the world,
And dispossess her all.

140

Tim. How shall she be endow'd, If she be mated with an equal husband? Old Ath. Three talents on the present; in future, all.

Tim. This gentleman of mine hath served me long:

To build his fortune I will strain a little,
For 'tis a bond in men. Give him thy daughter:
What you bestow, in him I'll counterpoise,
And make him weigh with her.

Old Ath.
Most noble lord,
Pawn me to this your honour, she is his.
Tim. My hand to thee; mine honour on my
promise.

Luc. Humbly I thank your lordship: never

The painting is almost the natural man;

Tim. Pray, entertain them; give them guide [Exeunt some Attendants. You must needs dine with me: go not you hence Till I have thank'd you: when dinner's done,

Tim. Whither art going?

brains.

190

Enter ALCIBIADES, with the rest.

So, so, there!

Tim. That's a deed thou 'lt die for.

Apem. Right, if doing nothing be death by

the law.

Tim. How likest thou this picture, Apemantus?

Apem. The best, for the innocence.

Tim. Wrought he not well that painted it? 200 Apem. He wrought better that made the painter; and yet he's but a filthy piece of work. Pain. You're a dog.

Apem. Thy mother's of my generation: what's she, if I be a dog?

Tim. Wilt dine with me, Apemantus?
Apem. No; I eat not lords.

Tim. An thou shouldst, thou 'ldst anger ladies. Apem. O, they eat lords; so they come by great bellies.

210

Tim. That's a lascivious apprehension. Apem. So thou apprehendest it: take it for thy labour.