ACT V. SCENE I. Paris had already been received by the Capulets, as the intended husband of their daughter: and, they had delayed the union, only on account of Juliet's tender age. However, her excessive grief, during Romeo's banishment, being attributed to the death of her kinsman, Tybalt, it was then determined, that her nuptials, with the count, should immediately take place. In vain, Juliet implores her parents to allow her a short respite. They remain inexorable. In this difficulty she flies for counsel to the Friar, who had previously married her to Romeo. He, at last, devises, that she shall take a strong soporific, with which he presents her, and which, during forty two hours will give her the semblance of being dead; thus enabling Romeo, who is to be informed of the stratagem, to bear her off, in the night, from the tomb of the Capulets. Juliet, the eve of the intended marriage, swallows the drug, and is thrown into a deep lethargy, that gives her a corse-like appearance. Her relations, the next morning, inter her, in the vault of their ancestors, on an open bier, according to the custom of Italy. But, by a cruel destiny, instead of Romeo receiving in time the Friar's letter, it miscarries, and he learns from his servant, Balthazar, whom he had sent to Verona for news, the death of his bride. In his despair, he determines to destroy himself on the grave of his beloved : << Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night. And hereabouts he dwells, Come hither, man. I see thou art poor; Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb. - The design represents the poor apothecary's shop, in Mantua; and the moment when Romeo gives him the gold, in exchange for the poison. SERIES II. ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT V. SCENE 3. This design represents the Church-Yard where lies the tomb of the Capulets: Count Paris, with his page bearing a torch, is come for the purpose of strewing flowers over the grave of his intended bride : << Give me thy torch, boy: Hence, and stand aloof; Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. Sweet flower, with flowers I strew thy bridal bed: The perfect model of eternity; Fair Juliet, that with angels dost remain, (The page whistles.) Romeo advances, followed by Balthazar, from whom he takes a mattock and a wrenching iron; as also the light and giving his servant a letter for his father, he dismisses him, with strong injunctions not to offer any interruption, whatever he may hear or see. His object, he adds, is to take a ring from Juliet's finger. He then apostrophizes the monument, previous to breaking it open. << Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death, Gorg'd with the dearest morsel of the earth, PL. 10. Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague; ROMEO. I must indeed, and therefore came I hither. - By urging me to fury: O, be gone! By heaven, I love thee better than myself; Stay not, be gone: live, and hereafter say - |