of the cock and ere the rosy fingers of the dawn light up the bridal chamber, else death would be his portion.

Juliet importunes him to stay, and says:

"Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day;
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree;
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale."

Romeo replies:

"It was the lark, the herald of the morn,
No nightingale; look, love, what envious streaks
Do lace the severing clouds in yonder East;
Night's candles are burnt, and jocund day,
Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops;
I must be gone and live, or stay and die!"

Juliet further implores him to stay:

"Yon light is not daylight, I know it;
It is some meteor that the sun exhales;
To be to thee this night a torch bearer,
And light thee on thy way to Mantua;
Therefore stay yet, thou need'st not be gone."

Romeo willingly consents:

"Let me be taken, let me be put to death;
I am content so thou wilt have it so;
I'll say yon gray is not the morning's eye,
'Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia's brow!

Nor that it is not the lark, whose notes do beat
The vaulty heaven so high above our heads;
I have more care to stay than will to go;-
Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so-
How is it, my soul? Let's talk, it is not day!”

Juliet alarmed exclaims:

"It is, it is, hie hence, begone away;
It is the lark that sings so out of tune,
Straining harsh discords and unpleasing sharps.
Some say the lark makes sweet division;
This doth not so, for she divideth us;
Some say, the lark and lothed toad change eyes;
O, now I would they had changed voices too;
Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray,
Hunting thee hence with hunts up to the day.
O, now begone; more light and light it grows."

Romeo descends the ladder, saying his last words to the beautiful Juliet:

66

And trust me, love, in mine eye so do you,
Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu! Adieu!"

After the banishment of Romeo, old Capulet and his wife insisted that Juliet marry young Paris, a kinsman of Prince Escalus, and sorrows unnumbered crowded on the new-made secret bride.

To escape marriage with Paris, Juliet consulted Friar Laurence, who gives her a drug to be taken the night before the prearranged marriage, that will dull all life and the body remain as dead for forty-two hours. This scheme of the Friar works.

out favorably until Juliet is laid away with her ancestors in the grand tomb of the Capulets.

But Romeo hears of the whole trouble and hurries back from banishment, dashing his way through all impediments until he kills Paris, grieving at midnight by the grave of Juliet.

Then, tearing his way into the tomb of Juliet throws himself upon the gorgeous bier and exclaims:

"Oh, my love! my wife!

Death that hath sucked the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty;
Thou art not conquered; beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson on thy lips, and in thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced there;
Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
O, what more favor can I do thee,

Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain,
To sunder his that was thine enemy!
Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,
Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe
That unsubstantial death is amorous;
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
For fear of that I will still stay with thee;
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again; here, here will I remain

With worms that are thy chambermaids; O, here Will I set up my everlasting rest;

And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this world-wearied flesh; eyes, look your last!

Arms, take your last embrace! and lips, O, you,

The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Come, bitter conductor, come, unsavory guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now and at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick, weary bark!
Here's to my love! (Drinks poison.) O, true

apothecary!

Thy drugs are quick; thus with a kiss I die!"

Friar Laurence and Balthazar with dark lantern, at this moment approach the tomb to extricate and save Juliet from the sleeping drug. She awakes with the noise in the tomb and views the deadly situation.

The Friar implores her to come, depart at once, as the night watch approach. She says:

"Go, get thee hence, for I will not away;
What's here? a cup close in my true love's hand;
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end;
O churl! drink all; and leave me 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.

Thy lips are warm!

Yea, noise? Then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! (Snatches Romeo's dagger.)

This is thy sheath, there rust and let me die!" (Stabs herself through the heart.)

The Prince, Capulet and Montague family soon discover all, and Friar Laurence tells the true story, punishment follows, and the two contending

houses of Verona clasp hands over the ruin they have wrought, while the Prince exclaims:

"For, never was a story of more woe,
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo!"

The drop curtain was rung down and up three times, and the storm of applause that greeted Shakspere and Taylor, as the representatives of Romeo and Juliet, was never equaled before at the Blackfriars.

The Queen called William and Jo to the royal box and by her own firm hand presented a signet ring to Romeo and a lace handkerchief to Juliet!

"What fates impose, that men must needs abide; It boots not to resist both wind and tide!"