Sung thee asleep, his loving breast thy pillow;
Many a matter hath he told to thee,

Meet and agreeing with thine infancy:

In that respect, then, like a loving child,

Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring,
Because kind nature doth require it so:

Friends should associate friends in grief and woe.
Bid him farewell; commit him to the grave;
Do him that kindness, and take leave of him.

Boy. O grandsire, grandsire! even with all my heart
Would I were dead, so you did live again.-
O lord! I cannot speak to him for weeping;
My tears will choke me if I ope my mouth.

Enter Attendants, with AARON.

Roman. You sad Andronici, have done with woes : Give sentence on this execrable wretch,

That hath been breeder of these dire events.

Luc. Set him breast-deep in earth, and famish him; There let him stand, and rave, and cry for food:

If any one relieves, or pities him,

For the offence he dies. This is our doom:

Some stay to see him fasten'd in the earth.

Aar. O! why should wrath be mute, and fury dumb? I am no baby, I, that with base prayers

I should repent the evils I have done.
Ten thousand worse than ever yet I did
Would I perform, if I might have my will:
If one good deed in all my life I did,

I do repent it from my very soul.

Luc. Some loving friends convey the emperor hence,

And give him burial in his father's grave.
My father and Lavinia shall forthwith.

Be closed in our household's monument.

As for that heinous tiger, Tamora,

No funeral rite, nor man in mournful weeds,

No mournful bell shall ring her burial;

But throw her forth to beasts and birds of prey :
Her life was beast-like, and devoid of pity;

And, being so, shall have like want of pity.
See justice done on Aaron, that damn'd Moor,
By whom our heavy haps had their beginning:
Then, afterwards, to order well the state,
That like events may ne'er it ruinate.

[Exeunt.

ROMEO AND JULIET.

EDITED BY

J. PAYNE COLLIER.

ESCALUS, Prince of Verona.

PARIS, a young Nobleman, Kinsman to the Prince.

MONTAGUE,

CAPULET,

}

The Heads of two hostile Houses.

Uncle to Capulet.

ROMEO, Son to Montague.

MERCUTIO, Kinsman to the Prince, and Friend to Romeo.

BENVOLIO, Nephew to Montague, and Friend to Romeo.

TYBALT, Nephew to Lady Capulet.

LAURENCE, a Franciscan friar.

FRIAR JOHN, of the same Order.

BALTHASAR, Servant to Romeo.

Citizens of Verona; male and female Relations to both Houses;

Maskers, Guards, Watchmen, and Attendants.

SCENE, during the greater Part of the Play, in Verona: once, in Mantua.

This tragedy had been published in 4to. in 1597, 1599, and 1609, before it appeared in the folio of 1623: it was again printed in 4to. in 1637. It was preceded by no list of persons until Rowe supplied one in 1709. There was an English play upon the story earlier than 1562.

ROMEO AND JULIET.

PROLOGUE.

CHORUS.

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows

Do, with their death, bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
(Which, but their children's end, nought could remove)
Is now the two-hours' traffic of our stage;

The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss our toil shall strive to mend.

ACT I.

SCENE I-A Public Place in Verona.

Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, both armed with sword and buckler.

Sam. Gregory, on my word, we 'll not carry coals.