Romeo and Juliet — Act 5, Scene 1in modern English, side by side

Mantua. A Street · Romeo, Balthasar, Apothecary

Romeo is in exile in Mantua, cut off from Verona and waiting for word from Friar Lawrence. He doesn't know that Juliet has taken the Friar's sleeping potion and is only pretending to be dead — and the letter explaining the plan has never reached him.

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Enter Romeo

Romeo

If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep,

My dreams presage some joyful news at hand.

If I can trust the flattering promises of sleep, my dreams predict that joyful news is on its way.

My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne;

And all this day an unaccustom’d spirit

Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.5

Love, the lord of my heart, sits lightly on his throne, and all day long an unfamiliar spirit has been lifting me off the ground with cheerful thoughts.

I dreamt my lady came and found me dead,—

Strange dream, that gives a dead man leave to think!—

And breath’d such life with kisses in my lips,

That I reviv’d, and was an emperor.

I dreamed my lady came and found me dead — a strange dream, that lets a dead man think! — and she breathed such life into my lips with kisses that I revived and became an emperor.

Ah me, how sweet is love itself possess’d,10

When but love’s shadows are so rich in joy.

Ah, how sweet must love itself be when I actually have it, if just the shadows of love are this rich with joy.

Enter Balthasar

Romeo

News from Verona!

How now, Balthasar?

What is it, Balthasar?

Dost thou not bring me letters from the Friar?

Aren't you bringing me letters from the Friar?

How doth my lady?

How is my lady?

Is my father well?

How fares my Juliet?15

How is my Juliet?

That I ask again;15

For nothing can be ill if she be well.

I'll ask that one again — because nothing can be wrong if she is well.

Balthasar

Then she is well, and nothing can be ill.

Then she is well, and nothing is wrong.

Her body sleeps in Capel’s monument,

And her immortal part with angels lives.

Her body sleeps in the Capulets' monument, and her immortal soul lives with the angels.

I saw her laid low in her kindred’s vault,20

And presently took post to tell it you.

I saw her laid to rest in her family's vault and immediately rode here to tell you.

O pardon me for bringing these ill news,

Since you did leave it for my office, sir.

Oh, forgive me for bringing this terrible news — but you yourself gave me the job of reporting to you, sir.

Romeo

Is it even so?

Is it really true?

Then I defy you, stars!

Thou know’st my lodging.25

You know where I'm staying.

Get me ink and paper,25

And hire post-horses.

Get me ink and paper, and hire post-horses.

I will hence tonight.

I'm leaving here tonight.

Balthasar

I do beseech you sir, have patience.

I beg you, sir, be patient.

Your looks are pale and wild, and do import

Some misadventure.

You look pale and wild — like a man about to do something reckless.

Romeo

Tush, thou art deceiv’d.30

Nonsense — you're mistaken.

Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do.

Leave me, and do what I told you to do.

Hast thou no letters to me from the Friar?

You have no letters for me from the Friar?

Balthasar

No, my good lord.

Romeo

No matter.

It doesn't matter.

Get thee gone,

And hire those horses.35

Get going, and hire those horses.

I’ll be with thee straight.35

I'll be with you right away.

_Exit Balthasar._

Romeo

Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee tonight.

Well, Juliet, I will lie with you tonight.

Let’s see for means.

Now — how to do it.

O mischief thou art swift

To enter in the thoughts of desperate men.

Oh, how quickly mischief slips into the thoughts of desperate men!

I do remember an apothecary,—

And hereabouts he dwells,—which late I noted40

In tatter’d weeds, with overwhelming brows,

Culling of simples,

I remember an apothecary — he lives somewhere around here — whom I noticed recently in ragged clothes, with heavy, overhanging brows, sorting through medicinal herbs.

meagre were his looks,

Sharp misery had worn him to the bones;

He looked starved; grinding misery had worn him down to the bone.

And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,

An alligator stuff’d, and other skins45

Of ill-shaped fishes; and about his shelves

A beggarly account of empty boxes,

Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds,

Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses

Were thinly scatter’d, to make up a show.50

In his shabby shop hung a tortoise shell, a stuffed alligator, and other skins of ugly fishes; and along his shelves a pathetic collection of empty boxes, green clay pots, animal bladders, musty seeds, leftover bits of twine, and stale pressed rose petals lay thinly scattered, just to make the place look stocked.

Noting this penury, to myself I said,

And if a man did need a poison now,

Whose sale is present death in Mantua,

Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him.

Seeing that poverty, I said to myself: if a man ever needed poison — even though selling it in Mantua means instant death — here lives one miserable wretch who would sell it to him.

O, this same thought did but forerun my need,55

And this same needy man must sell it me.

Oh, that thought ran ahead of my need, and now this same needy man must sell it to me.

As I remember, this should be the house.

Being holiday, the beggar’s shop is shut.

It's a holiday, so the beggar's shop is shut.

What, ho! Apothecary!

Hey there! Apothecary!

Enter Apothecary

Apothecary

Who calls so loud?60

Who's calling so loudly?

Romeo

Come hither, man.

Come here, man.

I see that thou art poor.

I can see you're poor.

Hold, there is forty ducats.

Look — here are forty ducats.

Let me have

A dram of poison, such soon-speeding gear

As will disperse itself through all the veins,

That the life-weary taker may fall dead,65

And that the trunk may be discharg’d of breath

As violently as hasty powder fir’d

Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb.

Give me a dose of poison, fast-working stuff that will spread itself through every vein, so that the life-weary drinker drops dead, and the breath is driven out of his body as violently as ignited gunpowder bursts from the barrel of a deadly cannon.

Apothecary

Such mortal drugs I have, but Mantua’s law

Is death to any he that utters them.70

I have deadly drugs like that, but Mantua's law is death for any man who sells them.

Romeo

Art thou so bare and full of wretchedness,

And fear’st to die?

You're this bare, this soaked in misery, and you're still afraid to die?

Famine is in thy cheeks,

Need and oppression starveth in thine eyes,

Contempt and beggary hangs upon thy back.

Famine is in your cheeks; need and hardship are starving in your eyes; contempt and beggary hang off your back.

The world is not thy friend, nor the world’s law;75

The world is not your friend, and neither is the world's law.

The world affords no law to make thee rich;

The world offers no law that will make you rich

Then be not poor, but break it and take this.

— so don't stay poor. Break the law, and take this money.

Apothecary

My poverty, but not my will consents.

My poverty consents, but my will does not.

Romeo

I pay thy poverty, and not thy will.

I'm paying your poverty, not your will.

Apothecary

Put this in any liquid thing you will80

And drink it off;

Put this in any liquid you like and drink it down.

and, if you had the strength

Of twenty men, it would despatch you straight.

Even if you had the strength of twenty men, it would finish you instantly.

Romeo

There is thy gold, worse poison to men’s souls,

Doing more murder in this loathsome world

Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.85

There's your gold — a worse poison to men's souls, committing more murders in this loathsome world than these poor mixtures you're forbidden to sell.

I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none.

It's I who am selling you poison; you've sold me none.

Farewell, buy food, and get thyself in flesh.

Farewell. Buy food, and put some flesh on your bones.

Come, cordial and not poison, go with me

To Juliet’s grave, for there must I use thee.

Come, medicine — not poison — come with me to Juliet's grave, because that's where I must use you.

_Exeunt._

Famous lines in this scene

“Is it even so? Then I defy you, stars!” line 24

Hearing that Juliet is dead, Romeo declares war on fate itself. The Prologue called the lovers “star-cross’d” — doomed by destiny — and here Romeo shakes his fist at that destiny by choosing to die beside her. The irony is that his act of defiance carries out exactly what the stars had planned.

“O mischief thou art swift / To enter in the thoughts of desperate men.” line 37

Romeo notices how fast destructive ideas occur to people in despair — within seconds of deciding to die, he has already thought of the poison-seller. The line is almost a self-diagnosis: he recognizes the plan forming in his mind as “mischief,” yet follows it anyway, showing how completely grief has overridden his judgment.

“My poverty, but not my will consents.” line 78

The starving Apothecary agrees to sell the illegal poison while insisting his conscience objects — only his desperation says yes. Romeo’s reply, “I pay thy poverty, and not thy will,” completes one of the play’s sharpest exchanges about money: need forces the poor into acts they know are wrong, and the rich pay to look away.

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