Enter an Officer.
Off. Edmund is dead, my lord.
Alb.

That's but a trifle here. -
You lords and noble friends, know our intent.
What comfort to this great decay may come
Shall be applied : for us, we will resign,
During the life of this old majesty,
To him our absolute power :-you to your rights;

[To EDGAR and KENT.
With boot, and such addition as your honours
Have more than merited. All friends shall taste
The wages of their virtue, and all foes
The cup of their deservings.-O, see, see!

Lear. And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no, life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!-
Pray you, undo this button :-thank you, sir. -
Do you see this? Look on her,--look,-her lips,-
Look there, look there!-

[He dies. Edg.

He faints!—My lord, my lord ! Kent. Break, heart; I pr’ythee, break! Edg.

Look up, my lord.
Kent. Vex not his ghost: 0, let him pass! he hates him
That would upon the rack of this rough world
Stretch him out longer.
Edg.

He is gone indeed.
Kent. The wonder is he hath endur'd so long :
He but usurp'd his life.

Alb. Bear them from hence.--Our present business
Is general woe.-Friends of my soul, you twain

[To Kent and EDGAR. Rule in this realm, and the gor'd state sustain.

Kent. I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;
My master calls me, -I must not say no.

Alb. The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much nor live so long.

[Exeunt, with a dead march.

ROMEO AND JULIET.

ESCALUS, Prince of Verona.
PARIS, a Young Nobleman, Kinsman to the Prince.
MONTAGUE, ) Heads of two Houses at variance with each
CAPULET, S other.
An Old Man, 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.
FRIAR LAWRENCE, a Franciscan.
FRIAR JOHN, of the same Order.
BALTHASAR, Servant to ROMEO.
SAMPSON, Servants to CAPULET.
GREGORY, S
PETER, Servant to JULIET's Nurse.
ABRAHAM, Servant to MONTAGUE.
An Apothecary.
Three Musicians.
Chorus.
Page to PARIS; another Page.
An Officer.

LADY MONTAGUE, Wife to MONTAGUE.
LADY CAPULET, Wife to CAPULET.
JULIET, Daughter to CAPULET.
Nurse to JULIET.

Citizens of Verona; several Men and Women, relations

to both Houses; Maskers, Guards, Watchmen, and Attendants.

SCENE,-During the greater part of the Play in VERONA;

once, in the Fifth Act, at MANTUA.

ROMEO AND JULIET.

PROLOGUE. 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 naught 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.
Enter SAMPSON and GREGORY, armed with swords

and bucklers.
Sam. Gregory, o'my word, we'll not carry coals.
Gre. No, for then we should be colliers.
Sam. I mean, an we be in choler we'll draw.
Gre. Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o' the collar.
Sam. I strike quickly, being moved.
Gre. But thou art not quickly moved to strike.
Sam. A dog of the house of Montague moves me.
Gre. To move is to stir; and to be valiant is to stand :
therefore, if thou art moved, thou runn'st away.

Sam. A dog of that house shall move me to stand: I will take the wall of any man or maid of Montague's.