Tomb Scene Variations in "Romeo and Juliet"

Learn how David Garrick changed Shakespeare. Scholar Denise A. Walen, curator of Folger exhibition, Here is a Play Fitted, looks at Garrick's 1754 adaptation of "Romeo and Juliet" in which the young lovers get to speak to each other one more time before their tragic death, an idea that Baz Luhrman later adapted for his 1996 film. With actors Michael Goldsmith and Kate DeBuys.

Several years ago my wife and I saw "Romeo and Juliet" at the Goodman Theater in Chicago.  It starred Phoebe Cates, and was set in the Little Italy neighborhood  in the 1930s.  

If I recall the tomb scene correctly, Romeo had taken the poison, and was dying, when Juliet awakened.  For a moment, he saw her awaken with all the unimaginable emotions on his face - surprise, joy and horror.  He had only that moment before he died.  In her own confusion and devastation, Juliet shot herself.

Baz Luhrman's 1996 re-interpretation of this tomb scene works for me.  The dying Romeo and the astounded Juliet have a few last words together, which makes for a tragic yet tender ending.  

David Garrick and George Anne Bellamy, as "Romeo and Juliet," painting by Benjamin Wilson

Denise Walen points out: There is definitely something wrong with this picture.  If David Garrick actually had the two lovers position themselves like this and carried on relatively animatedly, I wouldn't have liked it.  It would've diluted the tragic denouement of the scene.  

Here is how William Shakespeare wrote it:

ROMEO

O my love! my wife!
Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death's pale flag is not advanced there.
Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?
O, what more favour can I do to thee,
Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain
To sunder his that was thine enemy?
Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,
Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe
That unsubstantial death is amorous,
And that the lean abhorred monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?
For fear of that, I still will stay with thee;
And never from this palace of dim night
Depart again: here, here will I remain
With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here
Will I set up my everlasting rest,
And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!
Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you
The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss
A dateless bargain to engrossing death!
Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on
The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!
Here's to my love!

[Drinks]

O true apothecary!
Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. 

[Dies]

[ Enter, at the other end of the churchyard, FRIAR LAURENCE, with a lantern, crow, and spade ]

FRIAR LAURENCE 

Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night
Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who's there?

BALTHASAR

Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well.

FRIAR LAURENCE

Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend,
What torch is yond, that vainly lends his light
To grubs and eyeless skulls? as I discern,
It burneth in the Capel's monument.

BALTHASAR 

It doth so, holy sir; and there's my master,
One that you love.

FRIAR LAURENCE 

Who is it?

BALTHASAR 

Romeo.

FRIAR LAURENCE 

How long hath he been there?

BALTHASAR 

Full half an hour. 

FRIAR LAURENCE 

Go with me to the vault.

BALTHASAR 

I dare not, sir
My master knows not but I am gone hence;
And fearfully did menace me with death,
If I did stay to look on his intents.

FRIAR LAURENCE 

Stay, then; I'll go alone. Fear comes upon me:
O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing.

BALTHASAR 

As I did sleep under this yew-tree here,
I dreamt my master and another fought,
And that my master slew him.

FRIAR LAURENCE 

Romeo!

[Advances]

Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains
The stony entrance of this sepulchre?
What mean these masterless and gory swords
To lie discolour'd by this place of peace?
[Enters the tomb]
Romeo! O, pale! Who else? what, Paris too?
And steep'd in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour
Is guilty of this lamentable chance!
The lady stirs.

[JULIET wakes]

JULIET

O comfortable friar! where is my lord?
I do remember well where I should be,
And there I am. Where is my Romeo? 

[Noise within]

FRIAR LAURENCE

I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest
Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep:
A greater power than we can contradict
Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.
Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead;
And Paris too. Come, I'll dispose of thee
Among a sisterhood of holy nuns:
Stay not to question, for the watch is coming;
Come, go, good Juliet,

[Noise again]

I dare no longer stay.

JULIET

Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.

[Exit FRIAR LAURENCE]

What's here? a cup, closed in my true love's hand?
Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end:
O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop
To help me after? I will kiss thy lips;
Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,
To make die with a restorative. 

[Kisses him] 

Thy lips are warm.

FIRST WATCHMAN 

[Within] 

Lead, boy: which way?

JULIET

Yea, noise? then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! 

[Snatching ROMEO's dagger] 

This is thy sheath; 

[Stabs herself] 

there rust, and let me die. 

[Falls on ROMEO's body, and dies]

Reference:  Romeo and Juliet.

In reading these lines, I see, once again, the extraordinary complexity and frenzy of the tomb scene.  Friar Laurence was the engineer, and it was all going horribly wrong.  He thought to save Juliet at least, but even this he couldn't pull off.  

Some day, if I ever get the chance to stage this play myself, I will have had the benefit of Garrick's, Luhrman's, the Goodman Theater's adaptations, plus scores more, at my disposal.