Romeo and Juliet

 

Romeo and Juliet

 

The two chief families in Verona were the Capulets and the Montagues, both very rich families. An old quarrel between these two families had grown to a great height, and they were such enemies that even their followers and servants could not meet without fierce words, which sometimes caused blood to run. The noisy quarrels from these accidental meetings often disturbed the happy quiet of Verona's streets.

Once old Lord Capulet gave a great supper, to which many fair ladies and noble lords were invited. All the beauties of Verona were present, and all comers were made welcome if they were not of the house of Montague.

At this feast of the Capulets, Rosaline, a lady loved by Romeo, son of the old Lord Montague, was present. Although it was dangerous for a Montague to be seen in this company, Benvolio, a friend of Romeo, persuaded the young lord to go to the feast in a mask, so that he might see his Rosaline.

Romeo was a faithful lover, who often could not sleep for thinking of Rosaline, and sometimes left the company of others just to be alone. But Rosaline showed little respect for him, and never returned his love, so Benvolio wished to cure his friend of this love by showing him some other ladies.

To this feast of the Capulets, therefore, young Romeo with Benvolio and their friend Mercutio went masked. They were welcomed by old Capulet himself who told them that there were plenty of ladies for them to dance with. They began dancing, and Romeo was suddenly struck by the great beauty of a young lady who danced there. She seemed to him to teach the lamps to burn more brightly, and her beauty showed by night like a rich jewel worn by a black man.¹ It was beauty too rich for use, too dear for earth. She was like a white bird among black ones, so richly did her beauty and perfections shine above all other ladies.

While he was speaking these words of praise he was overheard by Tybalt, a nephew of Lord Capulet, who knew him by his voice to be Romeo. This Tybalt, having a quick and angry temper, could not bear that a Montague should come under cover of a mask to make fun of them at their feast. He stormed in anger, and took out his sword ready to strike young Romeo dead. But his uncle, the old Lord Capulet, would not let him do any harm at that time, both because of respect for his guests and because Romeo had behaved like a gentleman. Tybalt, forced to be quiet unwillingly to control himself, declared that this dirty Montague should at another time pay dearly for his uninvited entrance.

When the dancing was finished, Romeo watched the place where the lady stood. Being masked, which could excuse a little the freedom he took, he went up to her and, gently taking her by the hand, called it a holy place which he did wrong to touch². He was a humble pilgrim, he said and would kiss it to repair the wrong.

"Good pilgrim," answered the lady, "saints have hands, which pilgrims may touch, but not kiss."

"Have not saints lips, and pilgrims too?" said Romeo.

"Yes," said the lady, "lips which they must use in prayer." They were busy with such pleasant talk when the lady was called away to her mother. When Romeo asked who her mother was, he discovered that the lady whose perfect beauty had so greatly pleased him was young Juliet, daughter and heir of the Lord Capulet, the great enemy of the Montagues, and that, unknowingly, he had given his heart to a member of that family. This troubled him, but it could not prevent him from loving her. Juliet, too, had little rest, when she found that the gentleman to whom she had been talking was Romeo and a Montague, for she had been suddenly struck with the same hasty and unthinking love for him as he had been for her. It seemed to her a wonderful birth of love that she should love her enemy, when, for family reasons alone, she ought to hate him.

At midnight, Romeo left the feast with his companions. But they soon missed him,³ for, unable to stay away from the house where he had left his heart, he climbed over a wall into a garden which was at the back of Juliet's house. He had not been here long, thinking of his new love, when Juliet appeared above at a window, through which her great beauty seemed to break like the light of the sun in the east.

The moon, which shone in the garden with a faint light, appeared to Romeo to be sick and pale with grief at the greater brightness of this new sun. And when Juliet rested her face upon her hand, he wished that he was a glove upon that hand so that he might touch her. She, all this time thinking herself to be alone, sighed deeply and exclaimed, "Ah me!"⁴

Romeo, delighted to hear her speak, said softly, and unheard by her, "0 speak again, bright angel, for you appear, like a messenger from heaven."

She, not knowing that Romeo was there, and full of the new love which that night had brought to her, called on him by name, "0 Romeo, Romeo!" Then she said, "Why are you called Romeo? Leave your father and refuse your name; or, if you will not, only be my promised love, and I will no longer be a Capulet."⁵

Romeo, having this encouragement, was eager to speak, but he wanted to hear more. The lady continued her talk of love with herself (as she thought), still reproaching Romeo for being Romeo and a Montague and wishing that he had some other name, for then he could be hers.

At this, Romeo could no longer prevent himself from speaking. As if her words had been addressed to him in person, he begged her to call him Love, or by any other name she liked, for he was no longer Romeo, if that name did not please her.

Juliet, frightened at hearing a man's voice in the garden, did not at first know who it was that, under the cover of night and darkness, had learnt her secret. But when he spoke again, although her ears had not yet heard a hundred words of his, she immediately knew him to be young Romeo. She reproached him for the danger into which he had put himself by climbing the garden wall, for, if any of her family found him there, they would kill him, because he was a Montague.

"Oh," said Romeo, "there is more danger in your eye than in twenty of their swords. If you only look with kindness on me, lady, I am safe from my enemies. It would be better that my life were ended by their hate than that I should live without your love."

"How did you come into this place," said Juliet, "and who guided you?"

"Love guided me," answered Romeo.  

Juliet blushed when she remembered how she had made known her love for Romeo, without meaning to do so. She would have taken back her words, but that was impossible. She would have kept her lover at a distance, as wise ladies do, so that their lovers may not think that they are won too easily. But, in her case, pretence was useless. Romeo had heard from her own tongue, when she did not know that he was near her, a confession of her love. So, with perfect honesty, she told him that what he had heard before was true. Calling him by the name of fair Montague (love can sweeten a sour name), she begged him not to think that her words showed that she did not treat love seriously, but rather that he must blame the night which had so strangely made known her thoughts to him.

Romeo was beginning to call the heavens to be his witness that he could never think so dishonourably about such an honoured lady, when she stopped him, begging him not to swear. Although she found great happiness in him, she said that she was not happy about what each of them had said that night. It was too unwise, too sudden. But, when he demanded that they should exchange more solemn promises of love, she said that she had given him hers before he asked for it. She would, however, take back again what she had then given so that she might have the pleasure of giving it again, for her kindness was as endless as the sea, and her love as deep.

Juliet was called away from this loving meeting by her nurse, who thought it was time for her to be in bed as it was nearly day. But she quickly returned and said that if his love indeed was honourable and he wished to marry her, she would send a messenger to him the next day to fix a time for their marriage. Then she would lay all her fortunes at his feet, and follow him as her lord through the world.

While they were arranging this, the nurse called her again and again. Juliet went in and returned, and went and returned again. She seemed as unwilling for her Romeo to leave her as he was to part from his Juliet; for the sweetest music to lovers is the sound of each other's tongue at night. At last, however, they parted, wishing each other sweet sleep and rest.

The day was now breaking. Romeo, whose mind was too full of thoughts of his love to let him sleep, instead of going home, made his way to a monastery nearby, to find Friar Lawrence. The good friar was already saying his morning prayers. Seeing Romeo out so early he guessed that the young man had not been to bed all night, but he thought wrongly that his love for Rosaline had kept him wake. So when Romeo told him of his new love for Juliet, and asked the friar's help to marry them that day, the holy man lifted up his hands and eyes in wonder at this sudden change in Romeo. He had known all about Romeo's love for Rosaline, and his many complaints of her coldness towards him; and now he said that young men's love lay not really in their hearts, but in their eyes.

Romeo replied that he had often blamed himself for thinking so much about Rosaline when she could not love him in return. But he said, that Juliet both loved and was beloved by him. The good friar thought that a marriage between young Juliet and Romeo might happily put an end to the long quarrel between the Capulets and the Montagues. Therefore, as he was a friend of both the families, and also as he greatly liked young Romeo, the old man agreed to join their hands in marriage.

So, when Juliet's messenger arrived, according to her promise, Romeo sent back a message with him, telling her to come quickly to Friar Lawrence's cell. Here, their hands were joined in holy marriage. The good friar prayed that the heavens would smile upon that act⁶, and that the union of this young Montague and young Capulet would end forever the old quarrel between their families.

When the ceremony was over, Juliet hurried home, where she waited impatiently for the coming of night when Romeo had promised to come and meet her in the garden, where they had met the night before. The time of waiting seemed to pass as slowly to her as the night before a great feast seems to an impatient child, who has got new clothes which it may not wear till the morning.

That same morning, Romeo's friends, Benvolio and Mercutio, were walking through the streets of Verona when they met a number of the Capulets with Tybalt among them. This was the same Tybalt who had wanted to fight with Romeo at old Lord Capulet's supper. Seeing Mercutio, he reproached him for being friendly with Romeo, a Montague. Mercutio, who had as much anger and youthful blood in him as Tybalt, replied fiercely to this. In spite of all Benvolio could do to prevent it, a quarrel was beginning, when Romeo himself happened to pass by. The angry Tybalt at once turned from Mercutio to Romeo, and called him a villain.

Romeo had no wish to quarrel with Tybalt, because he was a relation of Juliet, and much loved by her. Besides, this young Montague had never completely entered into the family quarrel, being by nature wise and gentle. So he tried to make peace with Tybalt, whom he greeted by calling him good. Capulet, as if he, though a Montague, had some secret pleasure in speaking that name. But Tybalt, who hated all Montagues above everything, would not listen to him, and drew his sword.

Mercutio, who did not know of Romeo's secret reason for wanting peace with Tybalt, thought his mildness was a kind of dishonourable weakness⁷, and, with many disrespectful words, he forced Tybalt to start a quarrel with him. So Tybalt and Mercutio fought. Romeo and Benvolio tried unsuccessfully to separate the fighters, but Mercutio received a death wound and fell.

When Mercutio was killed, Romeo kept his temper no longer. He called Tybalt a villain which was what Tybalt had called him. They fought till Tybalt was killed by Romeo.

The news of this quarrel quickly spread and brought a crowd of people to the place, among whom were the old lords Capulet and Montague with their wives. Soon afterwards, the Prince of Verona himself arrived. He was a relation of Mercutio, whom Tybalt had killed, and, as the peace of his government had often been disturbed by these quarrels, became determined to punish without mercy those who had done wrong.

Benvolio, who had seen the fight, was ordered by the prince to tell how it began. He did so, keeping as near to the truth as he could without doing harm to Romeo, and trying to excuse the part, which his friends had taken in it.

Lady Capulet, whose grief for the loss of Tybalt made her want nothing but revenge, begged the prince to see that justice was done to the murderer.⁸ She advised him to pay no attention to Benvolio who, being Romeo's friend and a Montague, naturally spoke in his favour. Thus she argued against her new son-in-law, but she did not yet know that he was her son-in-law and Juliet's husband.

On the other side was Lady Montague begging for her son's life. She said, that Romeo had done nothing for which he ought to be punished when he took the life of Tybalt, who himself had first killed Mercutio.

The prince, moved by the arguments of these women, and, after a careful examination of the facts, announced his decision. Romeo was ordered to leave Verona and never return to the city.

This was sad news for young Juliet, who had been a wife for only a few hours, and now, by this order, seemed to be separated from her husband forever! When the news reached her, she at first became very angry with Romeo for killing her dear cousin. She called him a beautiful but unjust king, a lamb with a wolf's nature, and other strange names. Such names only showed the struggle in her mind between her love and anger, but in the end love won, and the tears of grief that she wept because Romeo had killed her cousin turned to tears of joy because her husband, whom Tybalt had wanted to kill, still lived. Then came fresh tears of grief when she remembered that Romeo had been sent away from her. That punishment was more terrible to her than the death of many Tybalts.                             

Romeo, after the fight, had taken shelter in Friar Lawrence's cell where he was made acquainted with the prince's sentence which seemed to him much more terrible than death. It seemed to him that there was no world outside Verona's walls, no life out of the sight of Juliet. Heaven was there where Juliet lived, and anything else was pain or punishment or death. The good friar tried to comfort the young man in his grief, but Romeo would not listen to him. Like a madman, he tore his hair, and threw himself down on the ground, to take as he said, the measure of his grave.⁹

He was brought to his senses a little by a message from his dear lady. Then the friar began to reproach him for the unmanly weakness, which he had shown. He had killed Tybalt, he said, but did he also want to kill himself and his dear lady, who only lived for him? The noble form of man, he said, was only a shape of wax if it lacked the courage to keep it firm.¹⁰ The law had been kind to him, for, instead of death, it had only ordered him to be sent away from Verona. He had killed Tybalt, but Tybalt would have killed him; there was a sort of happiness in that. Juliet was alive and had become his wife; therefore, he ought to be most happy. But Romeo refused to listen. Then the friar told him to take care, for those who lost all hope died miserable.

When Romeo was a little calmer, the friar advised him to go that night and secretly say farewell to Juliet. Then he should go at once to Mantua where he should stay until the friar found a suitable time to publish his marriage,¹¹ which might be a joyful manner of making the two families friends again. He was sure that then the prince would forgive him, and he would return with twenty times more joy than he went away with grief.

Romeo, persuaded by the friar's wise advice, took this leave to go and see his lady, proposing to stay with her that night. He decided to make his journey alone to Mantua the following day. The good friar promised to send him letters there from time to time, telling him how things were at home.

Romeo passed that night with his dear wife, gaining entrance to her room from the garden in which he had heard her confession of love the night before. That would have been a night of joy and pleasure, but the delight of the lovers this night was saddened by the thought that they must soon part. The unwelcome daylight seemed to come too soon, and when Juliet heard the morning song of the lark, she tried to persuade herself that it was the nightingale, which sings by night. But it was indeed the lark, which sang, and it seemed to her a most unpleasant song.

Soon, the light of day in the east showed only too certainly that it was time for these lovers to part, and Romeo sadly said farewell to his dear wife, promising to write to her from Mantua every hour in the day. When he had climbed down from her window, as he stood below her on the ground, Juliet thought sadly that he seemed like one dead in the bottom of a grave. Romeo felt much the same; but now he was forced to leave, for it was death for him to be found inside the walls of Verona after daybreak.

This was only the beginning of the tragedy of this pair of unfortunate lovers. Romeo had not been away many days before the old Lord Capulet proposed a marriage for Juliet. The man he had chosen for her, never thinking that she was married already, was Count Paris, a brave, young, and noble gentleman, who would have been a very suitable husband for young Juliet, if she had never seen Romeo.

The frightened Juliet was in a state of sad confusion at her father's offer. At first she said that she was too young to marry; then, that the recent death of Tybalt had left her too weak to meet a husband with a face of joy, and that it would not be fitting for the Capulets to be having a marriage feast, when Tybalt's burial had only just taken place. She gave every reason she could think of against the marriage, except the true one, that she was married already.

Old Lord Capulet, however, was deaf to all her excuses¹², and sharply ordered her to get ready, for by the next Thursday she should be married to Paris. Having found her a husband, rich, young and noble, such as the proudest lady in Verona might joyfully accept, he could not bear that her false modesty, as he thought it, should put difficulties in the way of her own good fortune.¹³

Juliet now went to the friendly friar for advice. He asked her if she was brave enough to risk a dangerous remedy, to which she replied that she would go into the grave alive rather than marry Paris while her own dear husband was living. Then the friar told her to go home and appear merry, and say that she was willing to marry Paris, as her father wished. The next night, which was the night before the marriage, she must drink the dangerous liquid, which he then gave her. The effect of this would be that for forty-two hours after drinking it she would appear cold and lifeless. When the bridegroom came to fetch her in the morning, he would think her to be dead. Then she would be carried to the family tomb to be buried there. The friar said that if she could put off her woman's fears and agree to this terrible trial, in forty-two hours after swallowing the liquid she would be sure to awake, as from a dream. Before she awoke, he would let her husband know what they had done, and Romeo would come in the night, and take her away to Mantua. Love, and the fear of marrying Paris, gave young Juliet the strength to promise to do this terrible thing, and she left the friar, taking his medicine with her.

Going from the monastery, she met the young Count Paris, and, modestly pretending, promised to become his wife. This was joyful news to the Capulets. It seemed to put youth into the old man; and Juliet, who had greatly displeased him by her refusal of Paris, became his dearest child again, now that she promised to be obedient. Everybody in the house began busily to prepare for the coming marriage. A great amount of money was spent to provide such a feast as Verona had never seen before.

On the Wednesday night, Juliet drank the liquid. She had many doubts before she did so. She thought that the friar might have given her poison to avoid being blamed for marrying her to Romeo; then she remembered that he was always known to be a holy man. She feared that she might wake before the time that Romeo was to come for her, and that, in that terrible tomb where the dead Tybalt lay, she might be driven mad. Again, she thought of all the stories she had heard of spirits coming back to visit the places where their bodies lay. But then her love for Romeo, and her unwillingness to marry Paris returned; she made up her mind and bravely swallowing the liquid became unconscious.

When young Paris came early in the morning with music to awaken his lady, instead of a living Juliet, he found a lifeless body. What death to his hopes! What confusion there was then through the whole house! Poor Paris was full of grief for her whom death had robbed him of, even before their hands were joined in marriage. But it was still worse to hear the pitiful words of the old Lord and Lady Capulet. They had only this one poor loving child to rejoice and find comfort in cruel death had taken her from their sight, just as she was about to make a promising and advantageous marriage. Now everything that had been prepared for the marriage feast had to be used for a black funeral. Now, instead of a priest to marry her, a priest was needed, to bury her. She was carried to church indeed, not to increase the cheerful hopes of the living, but to swell the dreary numbers of the dead.^l4

Bad news always travels faster than good. Romeo, in Mantua, heard the sad story of his Juliet's death, before Friar Lawrence's messenger could arrive to tell him that this was not a real funeral, and that his dear lady lay in the tomb for a short while only, waiting for the time when Romeo would come to set her free from that cheerless place.

Just before, Romeo had been unusually joyful and happy. He had dreamt in the night that he was dead, and that his lady came and found him dead, and breathed such life with kisses into his lips that he lived again, and was a king! And now that a messenger came from Verona, he thought surely it was to tell him some good news of which his dream had been a sign. When he learnt that it was the opposite of this, and that it was his lady who was really dead, whom he could not bring back to life with his kisses, he ordered horses to be got ready, for he determined to visit Verona that night and see his lady in her tomb.

As evil is quick to enter into the thoughts of hopeless men Romeo remembered a poor apothecary¹⁵ whose shop in Mantua he had once passed. Seeing the man's beggarly appearance, and the empty boxes standing on dirty shelves, he had said at the time, "If a man needed poison, which by the law of Mantua it is death to sell, here lives a poor creature, who would sell it to him." He now remembered this and went to find the apothecary. He then told him what he wanted. The poor man put aside his doubts when Romeo offered him gold, and sold him a poison, which he said would quickly kill him if he swallowed it, even though he had the strength of twenty men.

With this poison he set out for Verona to see his dear lady in her tomb, intending, when he had satisfied his sight, to take the poison and be buried by her side. He reached Verona at midnight and found the churchyard, in the middle of which stood the ancient tomb of the Capulets. He had brought with him a lantern and some tools, and was just beginning to break open the door when he was interrupted by a voice calling him by the name of evil Montague and telling him to stop his unlawful business.

It was the young Count Paris, who had come to the tomb of Juliet at this strange time of night to spread flowers there, and to weep over, the grave of her who should have been his wife. He did not know why Romeo was there, but knowing him to be a Montague and, as he supposed, the enemy of all the Capulets, he judged that he had come by night to do some shameful act to the dead bodies. Therefore, in an angry voice, he told him to stop, and would have him arrested as a criminal, who, by the laws of Verona, must be put to death if he were found within the walls of the city.

Romeo begged Paris to leave him, and warned him, by the fate of Tybalt who lay buried there, not to make him angry and force him to kill him. But Paris would not listen to his warning and laid hands on him as a criminal. Romeo threw him off then they fought, and Paris fell.

Then Romeo, with the help of his lantern, saw, who it was that he had killed. He had learnt on his way from Mantua that Paris should have married Juliet. So, he took the dead youth by the hand, as if misfortune had made a companion of him¹⁶, and said that he would bury him in Juliet's grave, which he now opened.

There lay his lady, in perfect beauty, looking like one, whom death had no power to change. She lay as fresh as when she had fallen asleep after drinking the friar's liquid and near her lay Tybalt.

And now Romeo said his last farewell to his lady, kissed her lips and he swallowed the poison, which the apothecary had sold him. Its action was deadly and real, unlike that liquid which Juliet had drunk, the effect of which was now passing. She was soon to wake.

The friar, having learnt that the letters which he had sent to Mantua had, by some unlucky chance, never reached Romeo, came himself, with tools and a lantern, to set the lady free from her imprisonment, for the hour had come at which he had promised that she should awake. But he was surprised to find a light already burning in the Capulets' tomb, and to see swords and blood near it, and Romeo and Paris lying lifeless there.

Before he could imagine how these things had happened, Juliet woke out of her long sleep. Seeing the friar near her, she remembered where she was, and why she was there, and asked for Romeo.

The friar, hearing a noise, begged her to come out of that place of death and unnatural sleep, for a greater Power had ruined all their plans¹⁷. Then, being frightened by the noise of people coming, he ran away.

When Juliet saw the cup in her true-love's hand, she guessed that poison had been the cause of his death. She would have swallowed the remain if any had been left, and she kissed his lips to see if any poison was still upon them. Then, hearing the noise of people coming nearer, she quickly drew out a dagger, which she wore, and, striking herself with it, died, by her Romeo's side.

The guards had by this time come up to the place. A page belonging to Paris, who had seen the fight between his master and Romeo, had gone to give warning of it. The news spread among the citizens, who went up and down the streets of Verona exclaiming in confusion, "Paris! Romeo! Juliet!" The noise at last brought Lord Montague and Lord Capulet out of their beds, together with the prince, to find out the causes of it. The friar had been caught by some of the guards, coming from the churchyard, trembling and weeping in a suspicious manner. A great crowd had now assembled at the Capulets' tomb, and the friar was commanded by the prince to tell what he knew of these strange and terrible events.

There, in the presence of the old lords Montague and Capulet, he told the story of their children's unfortunate love, and the part he had taken in their marriage, in the hope that such a union would end the long quarrels between their families. He said that Juliet, there dead, was Romeo's faithful wife, and Romeo, there dead, was husband to Juliet. He told how, before he could find a suitable opportunity to make known their marriage, another marriage had been arranged for Juliet who, to avoid it, had swallowed the sleeping liquid as he had advised, so that everyone thought that she was dead. He said he had written to Romeo, telling him to come and take her from the tomb, when the effect of the liquid passed off, but, unfortunately, his letter had never reached Romeo. The friar could not continue the story further than this. He knew only that when he had come himself, to take Juliet from that place of death, he found Romeo and the Count Paris both dead.

The rest of the story was supplied by the page, who had seen Paris and Romeo fight, and by the servant who had come with Romeo from Mantua, to whom this faithful lover had given letters to be delivered to his father, if he died. These letters proved the truth of the friar's words. In them, Romeo confessed his marriage to Juliet and begged the forgiveness of his parents. He told how he had bought poison from the poor apothecary and how he intended to come to the tomb to die, and lie with Juliet. All these facts saved the friar from any suspicion that he might have had a part in these deaths.

Then the prince, turning to these old lords, Montague and Capulet, reproached them for their foolish quarrels. He showed them what a terrible punishment heaven had sent them; it had found a way, even through the love of their children, to punish their unnatural hate.

These old rivals, no longer enemies, now agreed to bury their long quarrels in their children's graves. Lord Capulet asked Lord Montague to give him his hand, and called him by the name of brother, as a sign that their families were now united. The Lord Montague said that he would give him more, for he would raise a statue of Juliet in pure gold, which should be the richest and most perfect figure in all Verona. Lord Capulet, in return, said that he would raise another statue, a statue to Romeo.

Thus, when it was too late, these poor old lords tried each to do better than the other in their new-found friendship. Yet, in past times, their anger and their quarrels had been so fierce that nothing but the terrible deaths of their children could stop the hates and jealousies of these two noble families.

 

HISTORICAL DATA

Although the Veronese speak about the story of unhappy lovers as a historical fact fixing the date of the tragedy as 1303, similar stories have been traced back as far as in the second-century Greek literature. In Italian literature the story was retold in the fifteenth century and .for the first time the names of Romeo and Juliet were mentioned. Then the story appeared in France and was translated into English verse. Shakespeare closely followed this version. The play was first performed in 1595.