ACT 5
[Enter ROMEO]
ROMEO
If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep,
If I can trust my dreams to tell the truth,
My dreams presage some joyful news at hand:
Well then, my dreams predict some happy news.
My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne;
The love I feel weighs lightly on my heart;
And all this day an unaccustomed spirit
And through the day I felt a special feeling
Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.
That lifts my spirits up with cheerful thoughts.
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead--
I dreamt my lady came and found me dead –
Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave to think!--
How strange a dream when someone dead can think! –
And breathed such life with kisses in my lips,
And, with a kiss upon my lips, she breathed
That I revived, and was an emperor.
Enough life to revive me as an emperor.
Ah me! How sweet is love itself possessed,
Oh my! How sweet it is to be in love
When but love's shadows are so rich in joy!
When just the memories bring so much joy!
[Enter BALTHASAR, booted]
News from Verona!--How now, Balthasar!
Here comes news from Verona! Hi, Balthasar!
Dost thou not bring me letters from the friar?
Have you not brought me letters from the friar?
How doth my lady? Is my father well?
How is my lady? Is my father well?
How fares my Juliet? That I ask again;
How is my Juliet? I’ll ask again,
For nothing can be ill, if she be well.
For nothing can be wrong if she is well.
BALTHASAR
Then she is well, and nothing can be ill:
Then she is well, and nothing can be wrong:
Her body sleeps in Capel's monument,
Her body’s in the crypt of Capulet’s
And her immortal part with angels lives.
And her eternal soul is now in heaven.
I saw her laid low in her kindred's vault,
I saw her laid out in the family vault,
And presently took post to tell it you:
And straight away I came to tell you this:
O, pardon me for bringing these ill news,
Oh, please forgive me, bearing such bad news,
Since you did leave it for my office, sir.
But you instructed me to do so, sir.
ROMEO
Is it even so? Then I defy you, stars!
Can it be true? Then I defy you, fate!
Thou know'st my lodging: get me ink and paper,
You know where I live; bring me ink and paper,
And hire post-horses; I will hence to-night.
And rent some horses, I will go tonight.
BALTHASAR
I do beseech you, sir, have patience:
Please sir, I beg of you, you must stay patient:
Your looks are pale and wild, and do import
Your face is pale and wild, and does suggest
Some misadventure.
That something will go wrong.
ROMEO
Tush, thou art deceived:
Well, you’re deceived:
Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do.
Leave me, and go and do the thing I told you.
Hast thou no letters to me from the friar?
Don’t you have letters for me from the friar?
BALTHASAR
No, my good lord.
No, my good lord.
ROMEO
No matter: get thee gone,
Well never mind: get going,
And hire those horses; I'll be with thee straight.
And hire those horses, I’ll come right away.
[Exit BALTHASAR]
Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night.
Well, Juliet, I’ll lie with you tonight.
Let's see for means: O mischief, thou art swift
Let’s think of how: Oh, mischief, you’re so quick
To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!
To permeate the thoughts of desperate men!
I do remember an apothecary,--
There is a herbal doctor, I recall –
And hereabouts he dwells,--which late I noted
And he lives close to here – and I observed
In tattered weeds, with overwhelming brows,
Him dressed in tatty clothes, with bushy eyebrows,
Culling of simples; meagre were his looks,
Sorting through herbs. He looked like he was poor,
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones:
And misery had left him lean and gaunt.
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
And in his meagre shop, a tortoise hung;
An alligator stuffed, and other skins
An alligator, stuffed; and other skins
Of ill-shaped fishes; and about his shelves
Of strange shaped fishes; and upon his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
A paltry, shabby row of empty boxes,
Green earthen pots, bladders and musty seeds,
Unfired pots, bladders and musty seeds,
Remnants of packthread and old cakes of roses,
Remains of thread and rose leaves caked together,
Were thinly scattered, to make up a show.
Scattered about to make up the display.
Noting this penury, to myself I said
Noting his poverty, I told myself,
'An if a man did need a poison now,
“If anyone had need to buy some poison –
Whose sale is present death in Mantua,
Which, laws in Mantua state execution –
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.'
Here lives a wretched soul who’d sell you it.”
O, this same thought did but forerun my need;
This thought occurred before I needed it;
And this same needy man must sell it me.
And now this needy man must sell me it.
As I remember, this should be the house.
As I recall, I think this is the house.
Being holiday, the beggar's shop is shut.
As it’s a holiday, he’s shut his shop.
What, ho! Apothecary!
Hello there! Herbal doctor!
[Enter Apothecary]
APOTHECARY
Who calls so loud?
Who is shouting?
ROMEO
Come hither, man. I see that thou art poor:
Come outside, man. I see that you are poor:
Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have
Hold out your hands, here’s forty gold coins; now give me
A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear
A vial of poison, that will quickly spread
As will disperse itself through all the veins
Itself through each and every single vein
That the life-weary taker may fall dead
To make the taker, tired of life, fall dead
And that the trunk may be discharged of breath
And make his body cease to breathe a breath
As violently as hasty powder fired
As violently as gunpowder is fired
Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's womb.
Out from a cannon, causing rapid death.
APOTHECARY
Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua's law
I have such drugs; except the law in Mantua
Is death to any he that utters them.
Means I’ll be put to death for selling them.
ROMEO
Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness,
How come you’re poor and lead a wretched life,
And fear'st to die? Famine is in thy cheeks,
But still you’re scared to die? Your face is gaunt,
Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes,
And both your eyes are filled with desperation,
Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back;
And anger and self-pity wears you down.
The world is not thy friend nor the world's law;
The world is not your friend, nor is the law;
The world affords no law to make thee rich;
The world has made no laws to make you rich;
Then be not poor, but break it, and take this.
So don’t be poor, and break the law, and take this.
APOTHECARY
My poverty, but not my will, consents.
My poverty, but not my morals, makes me.
ROMEO
I pay thy poverty, and not thy will.
I’ll pay you for your poverty, not morals.
APOTHECARY
Put this in any liquid thing you will,
Put this in any liquid that you choose,
And drink it off; and, if you had the strength
Then drink it all; and if you had the strength
Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight.
Of twenty men, it still would kill you straight away.
ROMEO
There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls,
There is your gold, a worse corrupter of men
Doing more murders in this loathsome world,
That kills more people in this wretched world
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.
Than these poor potions that you cannot sell.
I sell thee poison; thou hast sold me none.
I’ve sold you poison; you’ve not sold me none.
Farewell: buy food, and get thyself in flesh.
Goodbye; buy food, and then you’ll put some weight on.
Come, cordial and not poison, go with me
Come, medicine, not poison, we’ll both go
To Juliet's grave; for there must I use thee.
To Juliet’s grave; there through my veins you’ll flow.
[Exeunt]
