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No Fear Translations of Shakespeare’s plays (along with audio!) and other classic works
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Shall I believe
That unsubstantial death is amorous
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
Romeo speaks these lines in Act 5, Scene 3 upon seeing Juliet when he enters her tomb, believing her to be dead. In saying that he wonders if “death” has stolen Juliet to be its lover, he is unknowingly echoing Capulet’s personification of Death in Act 4, Scene 3.
O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death.
Romeo speaks these words as he prepares to drink poison to commit suicide in Juliet’s tomb in Act 5, Scene 3. He prepares to kiss Juliet with his “doors of breath” (his lips), which will soon after be closed by death.
(kisses JULIET, takes out the poison)
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide.
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy seasick, weary bark.
Here’s to my love! (drinks the poison) O true apothecary,
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. (ROMEO dies)
These are Romeo’s final words in the play. As he drinks the poison that will kill him in Act 5, Scene 3, he embraces it as a guide that will take him out of the misery that the world has become since his beloved Juliet was taken from him. Read more about this quote in Quotes by Symbol: Poison (the fourth quote).
I will kiss thy lips.
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make me die with a restorative.
(kisses ROMEO )
Thy lips are warm. . . .
O happy dagger,
This is thy sheath. There rust and let me die.
(stabs herself with ROMEO ’s dagger and dies)
As Act 5, Scene 3 continues, we now come to Juliet’s last words, which she speaks upon awakening to find Romeo dead in her tomb. First, she kisses him in the hope that the poison on his lips will kill her as well. When that doesn’t happen, she immediately and without hesitation grabs his dagger and stabs herself. Read more about this quote in Quotes by Character: Juliet (the ninth quote).
O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more
Can I demand.
After the bodies of Romeo and Juliet are found and their tragedy is explained to the assembled parties at the gravesite, Capulet offers his hand to Montague and says that Montague’s friendship will serve in place of the dowry he would have received had his daughter lived. With these words and this gesture, the senseless and destructive feud between the Capulets and the Montagues is brought to an end. However, it should be noted that immediately after this reconciliation, Montague and Capulet get competitive in their boasting about which one of them can be the most ostentatious in their mourning for their dead children. One interpretation of this is that old habits can be hard to break.
A glooming peace this morning with it brings.
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things.
Some shall be pardoned, and some punishèd.
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
This is the closing speech of the play, made by Prince Escalus after Capulet and Montague have pledged to end the feud that brought about the deaths of Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, Tybalt, Paris, and Lady Montague. He aptly points out that it is a “glooming” (meaning sorrowful) peace rather than a happy one. He then goes on to admonish the family members to continue to think about the terrible events that have occurred in what he describes as the most painful story of all time.
