William Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet

ACT IV. 8. Scene III. A churchyard; in it a Monument belonging to the Capulets.

[Enter Paris, and his Page bearing flowers and a torch.]

Paris.
Give me thy torch, boy: hence, and stand aloof;--
Yet put it out, for I would not be seen.
Under yond yew tree lay thee all along,
Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground;
So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread,--
Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,--
But thou shalt hear it: whistle then to me,
As signal that thou hear'st something approach.
Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go.

Page.
[Aside.] I am almost afraid to stand alone
Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure.

[Retires.]

Paris.
Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew:
  O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones!
Which with sweet water nightly I will dew;
  Or, wanting that, with tears distill'd by moans:
The obsequies that I for thee will keep,
Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep.

[The Page whistles.]

The boy gives warning something doth approach.
What cursed foot wanders this way to-night,
To cross my obsequies and true love's rite?
What, with a torch! muffle me, night, awhile.

[Retires.]

[Enter Romeo and Balthasar with a torch, mattock, &c.]

Romeo.
Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron.
Hold, take this letter; early in the morning
See thou deliver it to my lord and father.
Give me the light; upon thy life I charge thee,
Whate'er thou hear'st or seest, stand all aloof
And do not interrupt me in my course.
Why I descend into this bed of death
Is partly to behold my lady's face,
But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger
A precious ring,--a ring that I must use
In dear employment: therefore hence, be gone:--
But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry
In what I further shall intend to do,
By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint,
And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs:
The time and my intents are savage-wild;
More fierce and more inexorable far
Than empty tigers or the roaring sea.

Balthasar.
I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you.